Metropolitan news. (Chicago, Ill.) 1935-19??, 1935-06-11
Dancing Feet Bring Owners
Money, Corns and Blisters

boy, before becoming q producer,
and later a dance instructor. Percy
Venable also began his career as a
| dancer.
Reed and Bryant
Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant
toured the nation under the billing
of Reed and Bryant, dance team.
Reed, after winding up on athletics,
first tourned the country as dane
ing mate with "Cutout". Then he
Joined the Whitman Sisters, which
produced Jeni LeGon. There he met
Willie Bryant. The boys remained
together for seven years. Went to
New York. Bryant became ill and
Reed returned to Chicago. Willie
Bryant formed an orchestra and
you know the rest. Reed became a
producer of cafe and stage revues.
1t was Leonard Reed who brought
forth the greatest set of dancing
girls in the modern dance era :.
The Reedettes.
Katherine Perry, the wife of
Earl Hines the orchestra leader,
teamed with her former husband
under the name of PERRY and Per-
ry." She danced, sang and played
the violin in the act.
The greatest dancing teams of
today are; The Four Blazes, Three
Rhythm Kings, Pete, Peaches and
Duke; Three Browns; Midnight
Shoppers; Billy and Charles; Rut-
ledge and Williams; The Berry
Brothers; Lighting Flashes; Three
Sans; and Dink, Blink and Dink.
A love affair which culminat-
ed into marriage. broke up one
of the best dancing acts in the
worldthe Berry Brothers, cyclon-
, ic whirlwind dancers. The pub
recalls the two youths in "Rhap-
sody in Black" which starded
Ethel Waters. The Berry Broth
ers, James and Mas were the
Jesse Owens of the stage. Those
Those lads were the fastest in
dance circles. Young Mas court
ed Valaida Snow, backstage at the
Carrick theater during the Chi
cago run of Rhapsody in Black"
Mas and wife formed a team.
James then taught his younger
brother, Warren, Mas routine,
and a new Berry Brothers team
was viewed by the public.
The Four Blazes are the great
est opening act in the country.
They have an original style OF
dancing. Pete, Peaches and Duke
are the classiest dance trio. The
three Midnight Steppers are the
gratest fash acrobatic trio in
America. They are to open at the
Palladium theater in London.
The Nichoas Brothers are in
class by themselves when it comes
to dancing. .Neneth and Leroy
are CLEVER iuverle hoofsry also.
I boone a great dafcT Am. l.
Three Sans, Three bf6wn Spots
and other dance acts o. this type
are coming good mones with their
educated dogs. Billy and Charles
another classy fash act will some
day be on the top ledge. Danny
and Eddie remain in big time vou-
deville. If ever the team of Dink,
Blink and Dink reach New York,
mark my words, they will be-
come one Of the greatest dance SEN
sations ever to hit Broadway.
These boys have plenty Of rhythm.
They are appearing in a cafe re-
yue in Kansas City at the present.
Buck and Bubbles
Buck and Bubbles are another
team that grew up on the stage.
Buck was just nine years old
when the met in Louisville in
1917 in a bowling alley. Flo Zieg-
field grabbed them off and they
have been topnotchers in vaude-
vile ever since. Their act is clas-
sic 1t was the dancing feet Of
Jeni Leon that gave her motion
picture contract for thousand
dollars a week.
Avon Long struck upon an
original style Of strut dancing and
won a longtime contract at the
Cotton Club and was later at the
Grand Terrace cafe. His Brown
Boy" an original idea on the old
strut is a classic Stepin Fetchit,
the film comedian, danced his way
into screen stardom He toured
first in a team with Ed Lee and
later as a single. 1t was while
he was playing at a theater IN
Los Angeles that Fox was cast
ing for sepia for a role in
play. Stepin won the part. Dancing
feet have played tremendous
part in all performers lives. They
must do little SHIN sham SHIN
my or something in the tinales.
!Shimmy-She- Wabble
Gilda Gray saw a group OF Sc
plans doing the Shimmy-She- Wab-
BILE back in the old days and
she became the Skinny queen"
of the nation Her style OF dan
cling the shimmy was in truth
just an improvement on the old
hootchi-kootchi dancers that our
great grandfathers used to get