The Four Step Brothers, who were billed as “eight feet of rhythm,” appeared annually for ten years at Radio City Music Hall and were the Halle’s first black act. The group was formed around 1925, when Maceo Anderson and two other dancers persuaded agents at the Cotton Club to allow them to perform there with Duke Ellington. They remained with the club for four years and in the 1930s added the first dancer. By then the dancers were Rufus “Flash” McDonald, Prince Spencer, Al Williams and Anderson. The group also performed at the Roxy and with Frank Sinatra at the Paramount. They later toured on the Keith-Orpheum circuit, as well as on black circuits, and many times were the first blacks to perform in theaters. Their act included singing, acrobatics, comedy, and vernacular dance as well as traditional tap. Each dancer tried to another’s dance steps. Their trademark was an escalation of speed and complexity. Until they disbanded in the 1960s, the group played at the top nightclubs, and theaters around the world and danced for the queen of England and for Japanese leader Hirohito. They also starred in numerous films, including Here Comes the Girls and Johnny Comes Marching Home, and on television shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show and in Bob Hope specials. On July 14,1988, the dance quartet was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, under a new category called live theater. They had become one of the most celebrated and enduring tap acts in the nation, and their act was one of the most imitated in show business. They also helped break the color barrier in entertainment. The last surviving member of the group, tap dancer and exuberant clown Maceo Anderson, died July 4, 2001.
Source: Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History
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