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TAP!The Greatest Tap Stars and Their
Stories:1900 - 1955
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The latest edition of this wonderful book is a paperback published by DaCapo Press. (The William Morrow hardcover edition is out of print but available through libraries using inter-library loan.)
Rusty can also be contacted for ordering the book. The paperback has been revised and updated. (She also has an instructional video for the Shim Sham Shimmy and accompanying music cassette.)
Rusty Frank has written a book whose chapters are organized in chronological sections from 1900 to 1955 as shown in the book's table of contents. Each of the chapters in the different sections is devoted to a tap personality. The chapter structure has an introductory section setting the context for the featured artist followed by an interview session with the performer.
The tone of the book is decidedly upbeat. The interviewees shared their enthusiasm for performing regaling the author with detailed stories of their interactions with other artists and the adaptations they made to keep their careers viable. Other readings about the performance environment and race relations for the same time period help to give weight to offhand statements about the need for a dance partner because of "the two-colored rule." {This rule required black artists in the early part of the century to perform in pairs because it was believed that blacks were not smart enough to perform solo. Juba and Bojangles were early exceptions.}
Each performer mentions working in films as their career developed. This created for me a desire to see those films I hadn't heard of previously. Fortunately, Ms. Frank has included extensive appendices covering tap books, tap films and tap performers and teams for the period she has covered. The book's reference section alone is worth the cost of the book. There are also many, many photographs from the artists' collections included in the book. This book belongs on the bookshelf of any serious tap dance enthusiast.
Rusty Frank is also working on a documentary using the same interview format that was used in the book. Twenty six interviews have been taped and she is currently looking for donations to complete editing and production. Specifically, she's looking for editing facilities in the Los Angeles, CA area. The video format is Beta SP. Here is a short description of the project from the May/Jun 1992 ITA Newsletter:
"In May 1990 I began working on a documentary film version of "Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories" having discovered the Los Angeles-based film maker Arthur Dong (an Academy Award nominee and film maker of the nationally broadcast PBS special "Forbidden City, USA.") For over a year, we have been working together to develop the project. In July 1991 an award of $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Media Arts Program was made to the documentary. This is the first time NEA has given monies under that program for a documentary focusing on a group of individuals: normally it funds only single personality profile pieces. However, in this case, it made an exception stating the documentary project was a perfect combination of film maker, author and subject. Carrying this perfect combination further, Gregory Hines, who wrote the foreward to "Tap!..." has agreed to be the host and narrator of the documentary."
Any donations to the project are tax-deductible. (Contact information is above.)