Cora LaRedd singing and dancing in the number ‘Jig Time’ with Noble Sissle’s Orchestra in the 1933 film That’s the Spirit.
She caught my eye because she has a really strong style, and she has darker skin, which is unusual in these films of black American women tap dancers of the period.
Here‘s an interesting photo story about African American women tap dancers.
You can read a bit about her in Constance Valis Hill’s book Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History on google books.
LaRedd, Cora Singer and dancer. Raised on Broome Street; Broadway musical star (late 1920s-early 1930s); appeared in Messing Around with music by James P.Johnson at New York’s Hudson Theater (1929) and Hamtree Harrington and Albert Hunter in Changer Your Luck (1930); in her heyday, known for splashing her money around; led band in New York at one point; toured Europe several times; when her star fell, returned to Newark, playing Golden Inn and other clubs; according to Herald News reviewer (1939), “fell into Dodger’s and had everyone in stitches with her funny exchanges… a real trooper”; deceased.
Joe Gregory: “In our eyes, she was a star.”
Wesley Clark: “She had a beautiful body; she danced like a man. She was tough – a top dancer to come out of Newark.”
Bill Roberts: “She was very much a black woman who lavished her money on younger men. That’s what took her down.”
Jonah Jones (The World of Swing): “We [Jimmie Lunceford’s band] had a chance to come to New York [from Buffalo] and try out for a job, but we missed it because a girl called Cora LaRedd (primarily a vocalist) had a band they liked better.”
– Swing City: Newark Nightlife, 1925-50
By Barbara J. Kukl
If you’re looking for more information about LaRedd, you could try looking in French newspapers and magazines and film reels in the 20s and 30s. Maybe see if you can pin down her French tour(s) first with some browsing of visas and things.
LaRedd was a Cotton Club dancer, and there’s a reference to her in Duke Ellington and His World, By A. H. Lawrenc placing her in a production called It’s the Blackberries on 29 Sep 1929.
A couple of sources credit her with the first release of the song ‘Truckin’ (eg Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll, By Nick Tosche:
“Truckin'”, written by Ted Koehler (author of “Stormy Monday”) and Rube Bloom (author of “Fools Rush In”), was one of the most successful songs of 1935. A dance song full of whimsical sexual implications, it was introduced by Cora LaRedd in the twenty-sixth edition of the Cotton Club Parade at the Cotton Club in New York City, and was immediately recorded by many artists.”
I haven’t time for any more research, but if you’re curious, these tidbits should be enough to get you searching for playbills, magazine articles, reviews and footage from the period.
Loooooooove this! Look at her amazing, powerful, athletic, shiny legs – and the sleeves on that blouse just emphasize more of her joy and awesomeness. And that voice! Bravo, Dogpossum, you’ve found me a new hero. :)