Bob CollinsHere’s your daily dose of sweetness, courtesy of colleague Brad Althoff.
Alice Barker was a chorus line dancer during the Harlem Renaissance of the the 1930s and 40s. She danced at clubs such as The Apollo, Cotton Club, and Zanzibar Club, with legends including Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
Although she danced in numerous movies, commercials and TV shows, she had never seen any of them, and all of her photographs and memorabilia have been lost over the years.
With the help of Mark Cantor of http://jazz-on-film.com we finally got our hands on three “Soundies” Alice appeared in, and were able to show them to her for the very first time. She had never seen herself in motion in her life!
Alice is 102 now.
Update 4:48 p.m. – More from the Washington Post.
