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Article: Killing them with tap shoes: violent performance in The Cotton Club. (1984 movie)
- Article from:
- Journal of Popular Film & Television
- Article date:
- January 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Violent Performance in The Cotton Club
After a visit to the Cotton Club in the 1920s, actor Jimmy Durante named one of the Harlem speakeasy's chief appeals: "It isn't necessary to mix with colored people if you don't feel like it. You have your own party and keep to yourself. But it's worth seeing. How they step!" (Haskins 37).(1) The infamous Harlem nightspot was a watering hole for the "glitterati" in the 1920s; it was staffed entirely by African American entertainers and waitpeople. The combination of the black performers at the Cotton Club - Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Lena Horne, among others - and the white gangsters who frequented it (including Dutch ...