Panama

When did you decide to start auditioning for dance performances (simultaneous)?$$(Simultaneous) Oh, when I saw the ad for Spanish girls in the newspapers, in one of the newspapers. I don't know if it was the Amsterdam [New York Amsterdam News] or which one. But there was an ad for colored, for Spanish girls.$$Now, when you were working these other businesses, were you still dancing?$$Whenever I went out, I would show off a little bit.$$What kind of places did you go to?$$Different nightclubs.$$I thought maybe you might mention some of them, maybe some of them that don't exist anymore.$$Any ones, I bet you it wouldn't be existing now.$$Excellent.$$I think one was--I wish I had known you were going to ask me this. I know somebody that would have been able to tell me that.$$Who knows all the clubs?$$Yeah.$$Okay. Well, you know, I'm not going to press you if you don't remember exactly the name. I just wondered if you could think of any.$$I worked at the Lenox Lounge [New York, New York] for a while. And there was another place I worked on 7th Avenue [Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard]. I can't remember the name of it, where you went down the steps. I worked there for quite a while dancing. I remember the man that owned it. His name was Boodlum [ph.].$$Boodlum?$$(Laughter) Yeah.$$So, tell us about answering the advertisement for the Spanish chorus girls. Where was that audition held (simultaneous)?$$(Simultaneous) It was downtown at the Cotton Club [New York, New York].$$Okay.$$And I went down there, and it was a lineup of Spanish, beautiful Spanish women. But they couldn't swing, not then anyhow. The Cotton Club girls were all present. They were all present, and they put us in a line. And the first thing they asked for was the time step, which I knew. And I worked it. And then one of the girls--I saw one of the girls in the line that belonged--that worked there, motioned for me to come in the back, and I did. And they said, "Do you want to work here?" And I said, "Yeah." And they said, "We'll teach you the routines." And they did. I remember all the girls that taught me, too.$$Do you remember any of their names?$$Yes, I do.$$Will you tell us a couple?$$There were two sisters, oh, I remembered them up until now.$$Up until I just asked you.$$McCormack. Dolly McCormack and Pearl McCormack.$$And did they teach you--$$And Dot Dash [Dorothy Dash], she was married to Ed Smalls who owned Small's Paradise [New York, New York].$$Yes.$$She's the one that took me and really taught me the routines.$$And did they teach you the routines there at the Cotton Club?$$Yeah.$$How did that work?$$It worked fine.$$How much time did you spend learning?$$Every afternoon I'd go and work out with them; they took a lot of time with me. They were very kind to me.$$And how long after you started training with them did you start performing with them?$$Not too long afterwards, because I was hired.$$That same day?$$Yeah. And I remember the first time I danced I was in the lineup. All the old Cotton Club girls, they knew I was just starting with them. And they'd holler, "Smile, smile." And I won't even tell you what else they would call me. And they said, "You got to smile. And turn." They were telling me the steps while I was performing. And while we were performing, all the showgirls--you know, they had ponies and they had showgirls. The showgirls were the tall statuesque beautiful women. They would be parading while we were dancing. The ones who danced were called ponies. And that's what I was, because I'm short. But all the girls were so beautiful--tall and statuesque. They would pose, walk, and perform. That's all they did, they didn't dance at all. I'll never forget that.$$And when you were performing at the Cotton Club, what street was it on?$$It was downtown, I think on 40-something Street [48th Street] and Broadway.$$Because now we're at the Cotton Club, but we're on 12th Avenue I think and 125th Street--$$Right, right.$$--just to make the distinction.$$Right, it was a big difference.$$And what kind of bands--do you remember any of the bands?$$Andy Kirk for one, and Don Redman. Cab [Cab Calloway] didn't work--I never worked with Cab there. But I remember Andy Kirk and Don Redman.$$What was your schedule like?$$Well, I, I, I had a son [William Monroe (ph.)], so I couldn't, I didn't hang out. I used to just go to work, and after work I'd take a cab home because I knew he'd be up waiting for me.$When Geri [HistoryMaker Geraldine Rhodes Kennedy] started the group [Silver Belles], you know I wanted to be in it. Because they--she had all the great dancers, people that I really always used to look up to as far as their ability. So I was so proud to be invited. And I danced as much for her, with her group, than I did before, because we made all the big spots.$$Which ones?$$We worked Atlantic City [New Jersey] on the boardwalk with the Sister Sledge, and we were the only black female group ever to work on that boardwalk at that time. So we got a lot of, we were well-known; we became well-known. And we did a lot of benefits. When I say benefits, we used to work at a lot of senior citizen centers to try to keep the people, the elderly people, interested in doing something. Geri said that people were just sitting around waiting to die, and if they saw that we had so much fun dancing and doing things, they might wake up and do something to keep themselves, you know, motivated. That's how we got started.$$And do you think that that happened?$$Oh, it certainly did. It certainly did. I didn't know that I would become one of the ones waiting to die. At the time that we joined, none of us even thought about it. We were having so much fun just being with each other. But I think we did a lot of good, because a lot of people said, "If they're that old and they're up there dancing, we can do it too, you know." And I heard a couple of groups got started after seeing us.$$Really?$$Uh-huh.$$Perhaps at one of the senior centers?$$Yeah.$$That's excellent. So you would agree with Geri that dancing prolongs a person's life?$$Yes.$$Activity of any kind, but I just am focused on dancing.$$Well, it was fun because dancing is fun. If you like it, it's fun, and you show it. And if you show them all the energy that you have, then they'll want to do something, too. At least they'll give up sitting around waiting, thinking they can't do anything.$$Why do you think that people reach a certain age and think that they can't do anything?$$Because there's nothing out there for elderly people to do. There's nothing. Now they're opening up a lot of rehab places, but at one time there was no place for them to go. You can't, you can't hang out. There's no--where are you going to go? You need money for anything that you do. And after they retire, they don't have that kind of money. So, consequently, they just sit around and wait 'til they're taken. That's about all--

Now why did you decide to, to open the League of Construction Workers?$$The league? Because as I tell you before, trying to--not transfer--the unions had A Local, B Local. B Local was the fabrication shop where all the black people could work in there. But in the other high rise buildings and all that, black people couldn't work. And the A Local black people wasn't in the A Local. And the union was member of the American Federation of Labor. And that was a discriminatory union also, right. So this is where it's all starting. And then the Congress of Industrial Organizations which was founded by John L. Lewis, and then later on the CIO merged with the AF of L CIO [American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)]. But the Congress of Industrial Organizations started from discrimination in the AF of L, see.$$Now what did you do? And, and you fought them as well. The AF of L.$$Yeah I fought the AF of L, I had to. Well like Michael Quill and them, they belongs to a union, which was all black. And they was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. So have to break a lot of barriers, man, lot of barriers. It take time to sit down to remember like if you were to get me when I was sixty, would I remember all that (laughter) (simultaneous).$$(Simultaneous) You're doing a great job, you're doing a great job.$Well when you think about like the '60s [1960s] and working with Adam Clayton Powell [Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.] and the Kennedys, and of all of those things you've done, which are you most proud of?$$Well what can I tell you, I'm proud of all of them, man. I'm proud of everything that I have done. As I said to you before, probably the reason why I lived to be ninety-seven, I am wide open with everybody. I don't have no enemies that I know of. To say you don't have a enemy, you're gonna have enemy, I don't care what you do in life. But I am an open person. I like everybody, I don't care who the guy is, could be a junkie. 'Cause I never know when the junkie can help me cross the street. The same one that I don't like is the one gonna help me, right. So I have an open mind. And my life with the human race, I don't care whether you're white or you're black. To me everybody's the same. You was made by the same creator just like he put all different types of plant in the woods, different birds, different animals. And all of 'em seem together except the human being. We make discrimination against each other. So that's it.