Five Film Clips Of The "Black Bottom" Jazz Dance (with selected comments)

StephendelRoser, Jun 14, 2017

The dance craze of 1926-7, supposedly based on the movements of a cow stuck in deep mud! Silent film accompanied by a contemporary recording of the tune. How comic it is that this is danced by white people posing as upper-class! And how comic is the man's white make-up. Is this a fashion of the times, or due to Mr Pilcer's having a red complexion, which the film of the time would have rendered as almost black? And what does it tell us that this might have mattered? / La danse à la mode de 1926-7, accompagnée par en enregistrement contemporaine de la musique.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update: Nov. 28, 2021

This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series on the Black Bottom, the title of a number of African American originated Jazz dances and songs that were very popular beginning aroun 1926.

This post showcases various 1920s film clips and later reenacment performances of the Black Bottom. Selected comments from four of the YouTube discussion threads for these film clips and videos are also included in this pancocojams post. 

Update: Nov. 28, 2021. I've added a 1929 film clip of Fredi Washington, an African American woman, and some other African American women doing  "Jazz dances". I think some of Fredi Washington's moves might be considered the Black Bottom, but I'm not sure about that.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/11/streetswingcom-excerpt-about-1919-1920s.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I presents general information about the Black Bottom dances and songs from various online sources.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/11/black-bottom-1926-and-black-bottom-dance.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post presents lyrics to three 1920s versions of the Black Bottom song. YouTube videos for two of these versions are also included in that post. 

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers and choreographers of  Black Bottom songs and dances. Thanks to all those who are featured in these clips and videos. Thanks also to all those who are are quoted in this post. Also, thanks to the publishers of these film clips/videos on YouTube.

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SELECTED FILM CLIPS/VIDEOS
These film clips/videos are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

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SHOWCASE FILM CLIP #1
[embedded above]
-snip-
Here' are some comments from this video's discussion thread:
1. Hebneh, 2013
"Judy Garland sings this in the lengthy show business montage in "A Star Is Born".

I note one lyric change (to be less objectionable in the 1950s): Judy sings "Old fellows with lumbago, and young fellows, away they go..." Here, it's "Old fellows with lumbago, and high yellows, away they go..."

"High yellows" were black women who had light complexions, to the point that they might be able to "pass for white", as the saying was in those days."
-snip-
Here's a link to that brief Judy Garland clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dBlmQA7-Ac&ab_channel=Ohujapaksu  

The lyrics that are mentioned in this comment are found in Part III of this pancocojams series.

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2. . sunnydayzie 1, 2016
"The song references the black bottom of mud in the Swanee River and claims that Blacks have created a dance to imitate the shimmering ooze.  While there are references deemed offensive today "high yellows" and such, Ma Rainey poked fun at this song and dance when she sang her own version "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".  She spun the race thing also, by referencing "Jew baby prances" in her version.  And so it was, in the world of music in the 1920's!  Rainey's version went:   "Now I'm gonna show y'all my black bottom; They stay to see that dance  Wait until you see me do my big black bottom; I'll put you in a trance" "

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3.UkuleleOgee, 2020 
"Very Interesting film clip of an early era. The white makeup of the male dancer was probably a technical  and/or an artistic consideration. Makeup was used, necessary in early black and white film/TV. The male dance was a comic presentation  "Long Hair'. Burlesque, stage performers used makeup to make comic/dramatic expressions more visible. Howard Lanin and His Orch. was one of the best "White" Jazz bands through the 1920s."
-snip-
The quotation marks around the word "White" may have been used because Howard Lanin was Jewish. Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Lanin for information about American band leader Howard Lanin (July 15, 1897 – April 26, 1991) .

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SHOWCASE FILM CLIP #2: The Black Bottom

Wax Whirler, March 29, 2007 

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SHOWCASE FILM CLIP #3: The Black Bottom 1942

Vintage Swing Dance, Jun 2, 2015

From the movie: ROXIE HART  1942

Not exactly a classic Black Bottom but a lot of fun.
-snip-
Here are some comments from that YouTube video's discussion thread:

1. cmn94cba, 2019
"Why is it so hard to find Afroamerican people dancing to Black Bottom?"

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Reply
2. Salim Majied, 2019
"It is hard. Being that African Americans Invented the dance."

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Reply
3. D W, 2020
"@cmn94cba : Because the deeply entrenched racism in the US meant that Black Americans were far less likely to be filmed -- they weren't stars in Hollywood, and their daily lives were considered less worthy of documenting."

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Reply
4. theshevirgo, 2021
"Right I just watched the Netflix movie was curious as to the dance and can’t find a single one with black folks and then all the clips of white folks doing it shows different dances"
-snip-
"The Netflix movie" that is referenced in this comment is probably Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Here's a link to a trailer of that movie:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ord7gP151vk&ab_channel=Netflix

I found this 2018 YouTube video that featured a Black couple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_iA57YoEoI&ab_channel=CBC "How to Dance the Black Bottom". However, most of the commenters panned that video, writing that the dance the dancers performed wasn't the Black Bottom.

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SHOWCASE FILM CLIP # The Real "Black Bottom" Dance (1927)

British Pathé, Apr 13, 2014

Miss Mildred Melrose, a well known dancer at the Piccadilly Cabaret demonstrates the "real" Black Bottom dance. 

Mildred wears a fringed outfit comprising very short shorts and a little bikini top.  She does some wild dancing, shaking her money maker and every other part of her body. The dance incorporates pointing her fingers, kicking her legs from side to side, patting her own bottom and generally enjoying herself.  "Now we know just where the Charleston challenger steps spring from!" reads an intertitle. 

Was originally an item in Eve's Film Review issue number 301.

Note: good nutty, flapper, Charleston, 1920s chick dancing footage.  Could be Muriel Melrose.

Costume designed by Dolly Tree
-snip-
Here's a comment from that film clip's discussion thread:

Mondial, 2016
"The Dirty Dancing of the 1920s"

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SHOWCASE FILM CLIP #5:  The Black Bottom 1956 (Sheree North)

Vintage Swing Dance, 

From the movie: THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE  1956

Sheree North and the chorus do a great job of bringing us back to the "Roaring Twenty's". Good stuff.
-snip-
Here are some comments from this film clip's YouTube discussion thread:
1. john alt, 2019
"STILL NOT AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL 1920'S BLACK BOTTON DANCE BY MILDRED MELROSE."

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Reply
2. Double Ghod, 2019
"I saw the Melrose version and didn't think much of it. Possibly because there was no sound....also, it seemed like a completely different number than the one above"

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3. Steve Little, 2020
"There's a bit of the Charleston in there and a few invented moves but this is mostly original Black Bottom moves! The choreographer did his homework."

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4. Morgan Lowe, 2021
"Black Bottom means the mud at the bottom of the river. They made different versions on this dance all around the world. So there's a few different versions as to where it came from. But this one seems more likely."

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5. Kamala Mi Dun Talk Wright, 2021
"MA Rainey the original Black Bottom Queen. They always stealing ish."

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UPDATE: 1920's Jazz Dance 1929 (Duke Ellington)

Vintage Swing Dance, March 16, 2016

From the short:  BLACK AND TAN  1929

This is a two part number. Leading off is Fredi Washington who was an actress with some dance experience. It has been said of Fredi Washington that for the sake of her career she could of and should of been willing to pass for white. To her credit she refused to do so. The second part of this number beginning at about the 1:20 mark is a classic example of a so called "Jungle Dance". These demeaning but energetic dances were hugely popular with the white patrons of the Cotton Club and other Harlem night spots in the 1920's.
-snip-
Would someone please identify the names of the Jazz dances Fredi Washington is doing? Is the movement around .41 when she puts her hand on her hip part of the Black Bottom?

Here are some comments from this video's discussion thread (Numbers added for referencing purposes only)

1.rose eunoia, 2018
"Wait why the girl pass out?"

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Reply
2. Vintage Swing Dance, 2018
"She was supposed to be very sick and she died at the end of the short."

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Reply
3. Vintage Swing Dance, 2020
"No, in fact "Fredi" Washington lived to age 90."
-snip-
The question that Vintage Swing Dance responded to doesn't appear to be in that discussion thread any longer, but one can guess that the question was something like "Was this scene real?" 

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Reply
4. Richard Wesley, 2021
"@Vintage Swing Dance  Ms. Washington was about 25 years old when she performed in this short."

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This concludes Part II of this three part pancocojams series.

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