a little early. Ah, we didn't see you. Well, I did what I usually do. I just thought I'd go and observe
a little bit. Ah. Yeah. I noticed that you were calling that dance that you were doing what,
the Buck Rogers? Yeah, the Buck Rogers. Well, I'll tell you something. That looks suspiciously like
the mashed potato to me. The mashed potato? Yeah, the mashed potato. That's what James Brown done. Right.
So you see, things are not as new sometimes as they appear to be. As a matter of fact, if you just think
about it a little bit, and I think it'll be demonstrated too, the mashed potato has some moves that
look just a little bit like some of the things that were done in the Charleston. You gotta be kidding.
You know, if we just go back a little bit,
Because dance is the kind of thing that fuses, and it connects years and centuries. We start with something
like a cakewalk. And then we have a thing that's called tap now. But it was a buck dance then. And you
know what buck dance was. You know? No, what was it? Well, you know, a whole bunch of people got out
in the yard, and they didn't have too much grass, see. And they were out there in the dirt.
Barefooted, couldn't get too many shoes back then, you see. And they just sort of did what they thought
the Irish were doing in their little jigs, see. And it was bucks dancing, big black bucks.
Like the slaves. Yeah, just a little bit like that. And then they had a thing that they called the buck
and wing, okay. And later on, you see out of all of that,
the bucking wing, buck dancing. Then we got a thing called the black bottom. Now, the black bottom was
the kind of a dance that it was really kind of sexy. And you just sort of touched your butt just a little
bit. See? No wonder it's called the black bottom. Yeah. And then there was a dance called the mess around.
Y'all know what that is.
Kind of like what the guys do now. Yeah, the mess around. And then the Foxtrot. Now the Foxtrot was
kind of smooth, you know. And out of that, they got, did a thing called the Charleston. The Charleston
replaced all of them. And it was given credit for everything, for people becoming drug addicts
and alcoholics, you know, leaving home. See? And, um,
There's another thing that I saw you kind of doing. It kind of reminded me of a dance they call snake
hips. The teal? Yeah. See, snake hips, right? And then snake hips, and then you had the slow grind.
What I'd like for you to do is just sort of go back in time with me. Go back to a time when these dances
Oh, yeah.
to Carmel Speakeasy and I am RC the MC. I'd like for everyone to sit back and relax and let me bring
you the first act of the evening. I have 10 high stepping toe tapping performers. Ladies and gentlemen,
let's give a warm and welcome applause for the 10 Hudson dancers.
Thank you. Thank you. The other day I was thinking of a dance that they used to do way back called the
Baltimore. No, I think you mean the buzz. No, I mean the Baltimore. I think you mean the buzz. Maybe
they might call it the Baltimore buzz. You think so? Yeah, that's it. The Baltimore buzz. Can you do
it? I can't do it. Can you do it? I'm not going to try. But maybe the next
A group of performers can. Yeah. Let's give it to them. Yeah, let's give it to the Baltimore Buzz. All right.
like the Charleston, and what my mother used to call the jitterbug. Yeah. As a matter of fact, it was
the Charleston, some of it. And that dance that somewhat resembled the jitterbug was the Lindy Hop,
the forerunner of the jitterbug. And actually, the jitterbug came out of the Irish jig too. You know,
the Irish brought quite a bit here, didn't they?
They had something to do with the Charleston. They had something to do with tap and the jitterbug,
the Lindy. So that what you were watching was a mixture of several dances, the Lindy hop, the Charleston,
and what came later to be called jitterbug. It was during that time too, the 20s, when speakeasies
were at their height, right? I mean, you know, people drinking that bad gin and whatever else they could
get. And dance was really the big thing. Well, the Cotton Club was the club that really put dance where
it is today and where it was back then, along with the music of Duke Ellington,
and some of the baddest tappers in the history of the world. You know, tap dancing was really a big
dance at one time. You had dances such as Honey Cole, and some of you know these names, Bunny Briggs
and Baby Lawrence, you know, not to mention Bo Jangles, but all of you know that name, right? But see,
Fred Astaire sort of took over, and we didn't know too much about some of these other people. Now,
in the 30s, we still get the Charleston, and we get this dance. You saw a little bit of it, the shimmy.
There was a whole lot of shaking going on in the shimmy. You get the Camel Walk truck. How many of you
remember the truck?
Yeah, that's it, yeah. See, I want to be out there on 18 now. Yeah. You got, that was a dance called
the Big Apple, which was like the forerunner of some of the lion dances that we have now, except that
was done in a circle, right? It was a forerunner of like the Trunk-A-Doo. Remember the Trunk-A-Doo of
the Madison? I'll tell you what, why don't we take a look at some of this and see what it was like back then.
Yeah.
Thank you. Yeah, let's give it to them. Yeah, that was nice. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the
Cotton Club. And this evening, we have some performers, eight beautiful women. And they have a show
for you this evening. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the Simpson Steppers.
You.
Ladies and gentlemen, we hope that you're enjoying yourself very much, because we have a very nice show
and store for you. And now, let's give a great big round of applause to the Hudson Dancers!
What good is melody? What good is music? If it ain't possessing something sweet? It ain't the melody.
It ain't the music. There's something else that makes that tune complete.
Oh, yeah, that was nice. That was real nice. And for the next group of performers, we have the Sarah
Lee Glitters. Let's give it to them, everybody.