Buster Brown Story To Buster with love By Kurt Albert and Klaus Bleis

“Got a stack of magazines about this high I can’t read them and you know why I gotta go tap dancing tonight.”

Buster Brown died at Columbus he left for the tap community. St. Peter’s was filled with old and new Presbyterian Hospital in on Buster really loved dancing, especially friends who loved this man. May 7th 2002, ten days before his 89th tap dancing. And through him, the whole birthday. As Heather told us, he went natu- Swing Era came back to life. His swing rally and had a smile on his face. That smile came from deep inside and he really lived it. Baltimore stands for his loving and happy personality He would go out dancing and partying that we all connect with Buster. At the ser- whenever he could, even when he got old. James Richard “Buster” Brown was vice at St. Peters Church where many great That was his life. And he could sing any born on May 17th 1913 in the Brown tap and jazz artists had their service, Jimmy tune that you could think of, and many family’s house on 414 Hamburg Street in Slyde said: “Buster didn’t leave, he left more. Everybody remembers him scatting Baltimore, Maryland. He was the sixth of something for us”. And got the arrangements of “Fascinating Rhythm” eight children. to the heart of it: When he got into the tap and “Just You” during his tap classes, and The last of his sisters, Ruth Jackson, a business and closer to the circles of tap always ending the classes with “Ballin’ the sweet lady of 86 years and with Buster’s masters, everybody would eventually say Jack”. And he was definitely a “Ladies kindness and positive charisma, told us a some not so nice things about other Man”. One time in Freiburg, asked on stage little about their family life. collegues. But there was one guy who why he got into showbusiness, he looked Ruth: Well, my mother said that when would never do that. That was Buster as we around to the chorus line behind him he was born he was such a little fat boy. And all knew him. A friendly, positive, suppor- saying, “I think it was the girls”. And they then my aunt said: “He’s just like a little ting man who always had a good word for loved him, too. But not only them, every- Buster.” James Richard Brown. But we called the others. And as Gregory said that’s what body did. The auditorium at the service at him Buster. And he kept that name. The mother Mary Brown was born in Brown Sisters (laughs). Alice, Essie and Alberta). They had a six years 1879 as Mary Ella Otho in Calwed County, That was life years ago. We just loved old that could really dance. His name was Maryland. Around 1900 she married dancing. My sisters used to go out Friday Pops Whitman. And that got me interested. I Buster’s father William Brown who worked night to go to dance. They never had any pro- used to see his show, go home, and tear up my as an oyster shucker in Baltimore. The blem getting dancers ’cause guys were laid for basement, trying to do what he was doing. father died young in 1919 when Buster was them. And when the USO times came, they (Albert “Pops” Whitman, 1921 – 1951, son only six years old. So the large Brown always would go to the USO and dance with of Alice Whitman of the , family was mostly brought up by his the soldiers and try to entertain them. And toured till 1932 with the Whitman Sisters mother and he was the only male surroun- then they would invite them home and feed Show, and then teamed up with ded by seven sisters. It were Isabel, Mary, them. There were so nice young men. My Louie Williams of the Four Harmony Kings to Lilian, Grace, Sadie, Buster, Ruth and mother always liked to do that ’cause she was build the famous tap and acrobat act Pops Mildred. The family’s income came mostly hoping that wherever my brother was that the and Louie) from the mothers housekeeping for white people would do things like that to him. families and later all the children had to And Buster liked Charleston. In the support the household by taking jobs after twenties, we had Charleston going around. High School – Autumn Follies school. And we both could do the Charleston. We and The Three Aces Ruth: My mother raised us all by her- practiced doing the Charleston, yeah. self practically. And we worked, all of us Years ago, they had carnivals on the Buster went to Frederick Douglass worked all the time, all seven of us. I worked street. And they had the band up on a High School in Baltimore on Calhoun and every day after school and took home my waggon. And the lady came around, said: Baker Street. It was the same school where salary and gave it to my mummy. Buster did “Miss Brown, do you know that Buster is up many later famous musicians and dancers that, too, as long as he was at home. And then there on the thing doing the Charleston up on went through. he was sending money home when he could. the waggon. We were about 14, 15 years old Buster: Noble Sissle, , And, see, in those days neighbor fami- then. And at that time the Charleston was a Derby Wilson, all those guys were alumni of lies looked after each other. We were just like rage. And I used to like to do it too. I used to Douglass High School. I’m so very proud of one big family. People watched over and made do it all the time. We just liked to dance, the that. sure you didn’t make anything wrong. They whole family. Ruth: See, at that times schools were would tell your mother or they could spank All his life Buster stayed in contact segregated. We only had one school for us. you too. And you go home and get another with his family which always supported him Everybody went there. Buster played basket- spanking. and always was proud of him being a dancer. ball, and the team he played on was called We belong to the same church as when Ruth: We had a big house, on Christ- “The Ramblin’ Horsemen”. And we had a we were babies. And I am the last one in the mas time everybody went home. You know, wonderful music teacher, Mr. Lowell Wilson church. We were Methodists ... Unified Christmas was a big day for us. And when (Eubie Blake’s music teacher). He was a lovely Methodist Church. We all went there as Buster came home, bigger. When Buster came music teacher. He brought everything out of babies. We were all christianized there, every- home, everybody: “Buster’s home, Buster’s you, you know what I mean. body. Buster went to Sunday School every sun- home”. We always looked forward to him. He got friends with his classmate day. And at that time we spent most of the When he came home, we were very happy John Orange, and together with John as his day sundays in church. And these people loved around there. first teacher they learned dancing on the to sing. And in the summertime sunday school Conrad: We called him “the Celebrity” street and in the Brown house’s basement had a picknick down there near the water. Or of the family. He was the celebrity. by exchanging steps with the other kids. we went on the boat. All day long. And we Coming up during the jazz age Buster Here he got one of his biggest influences in danced all day long. We had a band, and we naturally got interested in showbusiness. jazz dance by the later famous Earl were dancing. All the kids were dancing. Then The whole family went, whenever they “Snakehips” Tucker who was an older we would go back to the table to get food for could, to the shows that came through neighbor kid (see Buster’s snakehip moves the band fellows. So they could keep playing town. in Brenda Bufalino’s documentation “Great for us. That was nice. Buster: I started to dance when I star- Feats Of Feet”). The musicality and love for dancing ted to walk. See, all of my family were Ruth: The first act that he had were the was also brought into the family by the dancers, not professionally … We did have a Brown Brothers. Yeah, first it were the two of father William Brown and their uncle. lot of fun home. I had a large family. Seven them. There’s a friend of his from Baltimore. Ruth: My mother had three brothers. sisters, my mother, my daddy, and we were His name was John Orange, and John was One died young, the other one came up to just enjoying our life. My cousin used to come just like a brother. New York and did what Buster did. He was a and play the guitar. (Ruth: His name was Buster: And that’s how I got into show- musician, he played the piano. His name was Carl Wallace) And we just had the family get business. Actually, we were the “Three Aces”, ... Otho, in the twenties. And our father was together. And so, when I was able to walk, I and the “Speed Kings” name came later. Sam a cakewalker. He was a dancer, but not a pro- was able to do what I call dancing (tapping). Campbell, John Orange, I met them in High fessional dancer. He just liked to dance, and What got me interested in showbusiness was School. That was the original act. They had he taught my sisters, my oldest ones. So we all the vaudeville shows that used to come to an annual show in that High School. And danced like ballroom dancing. And we all town. And there was a show called the every year they would give that show. They liked to go out and dance. We were called the Whitman Sisters (1898 – 1942, Mable, would do it in the auditorium, but my first year we did the show up there, and the next “Let’s go, I’m ready to go home!” And when I Washington we went back with them, not to year when they gave the show the audience came home my sister laughed at me. work, we just went with them. I was just was too big for the auditorium, so they went Ruth: He was in Pennsylvania and enjoying showbusiness. I was really having a out and got a public dance hall. And from mama didn’t know where he was. And when ball. then on to the next three years, every year we we found out where he was, Mama told did “Autumn Follies”. (1928 – 1932, the Bubba to find him. (The young man in the shows were patterned of big shows of the Regal block, Nathaniel Butler, we called him Brownskin Models Theater.) Bubba, he adopted Buster because he didn’t Their next big engagement was with Buster, Sam and John would go have a brother.) So he went up, finally found the show “Brownskin Models”. through the night clubs of Baltimore dan- him and brought him home. Buster: I must have stayed with cing for tips. And, talking about famous Buster: Then the same show got a job “Brownskin Models” with the “Speed Kings” schoolmates, Laurence Donald Jackson – in Columbus, Ohio, and they would say: for about two years, 36, ’37, something like Baby Laurence –, the later Charlie Parker of “Listen, man, don’t worry about nothing! As that. Al Stewart, he was with “Brownskin tap, also went to Douglass High. soon as we get there we tell the man about you Models”, he wrote down everything. He had a Buster: Baby Laurence didn’t go to guys.” And two days later we got a telegram if book, and everytime we seen him he had this school that much. But I knew him in Balti- we would like to come to Columbus they book. I don’t know where I was last night, you more as a boy. He sang, no dancing. He was would send us the money, and they did. We know. But I have been in New York at the with the “Highlanders”. He was about my went to that place and we worked there a Apollo with the “Brownskin Models”. age, some years difference. But we knew each week and then an agent came in from other, we were close. We did the same thing, Cleveland, Frank McSina. dancing and singing the same clubs and passing the hat in Baltimore. He was one of the guys that went out every night. We called Jeni LeGon Tour him the “Midnight Hawk”. And he lived in Baltimore till he was dicovered by Don Buster: Then we went to Cleveland. Redman and went with him to New York. The last day that we were with the show in In his biography Cab Calloway who Philadelphia we were standing getting our was a schoolmate of Buster’s older sister said stuff out of the bus when a guy named Emmet that he also got his first contact with show- came up, he had been at a rehearsal right business through Douglass High. across the street at the Lincoln Theater where the bus stopped, and he asked for us, ’cause I met him before in Cleveland. He asked: “Is The Speed Kings 1 Buster Brown of the Speed Kings on this bus?”. They said: “Yes, he is in the back.” So Buster, John and Sam, “The Three he came back, said: “Listen, you guys wanna Aces”, graduated 1932 and went directly work? Jeni LeGon is rehearsing across the into showbusiness. They were renamed to street.” So we went there. Her manager and “The Speed Kings” because their whole act teacher was named Earl Dancer. And from was highspeed and precision . that day we were with that show. So we Their first real gig besides the Autumn stayed with that show for two weeks, a variety Ruth: Buster got married. He had a Follies also gave them the first impression show featuring Jeni LeGon. We were in Phila- daughter, Lolita Price. She travelled with how tough business can be. delphia with her, then we went to Washing- them as a baby. Her mother was a Brownskin Buster: 1932 when I came out of High ton, D.C., the Howard Theater. After Model, she was a beautiful girl. We called her School, we went to a place fifty miles from Bootsy. He married her in the theater. That Baltimore, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That was in the thirties, 1937. They lived in Cleve- was our first show out of Baltimore and the land. But they travelled all the time. He was first show not being in the school. That’s when on the road most of the time. I got the first bite from the biz. This little Buster: After two years, that show broke show was playing round the corner in a little up. Then we went to Canada and that was vaudeville house (Lafayette Theater) right where one of my act, John, was drowned while where I lived. My partners and I were dan- we were in Susan St. Marie, Canada. cing in the show, and when they went away Ruth: He died very young when they they invited us to go with them, a whole week, were in Canada. He was drowned. It just so seem like two years. This guy wasn’t paying happened. He stayed in the house and was any money and I wasn’t enjoying it much. sleeping and John went out to swim. And When I looked up on stage and seen one of my Buster had to bring him back home. neighbors, almost like a brother, sitting out in That tragedy was the end of the the audience, I stopped right there, I said: Jeni LeGon and . “Speed Kings 1”. tried to imitate them but we never seen them. They did everything. Everything they did looked like they had almost … Everything they did was together. And they dressed well. They were the best dressed tap dancing act ever. With the Speed Kings 2 I actually really came to New York, that was in 1939. We stopped at my home in Baltimore, and that’s when we wrote the , we sent pictures, and they sent a contract. So we went to New York and made New York our headquarters. We played the Apollo with Chick Webb’s band. Second job was at Small’s Paradise with Earl Bostic’s band. But then we didn’t work for a year. We had good friends there in New York, and dancers were great friends. They would say: “Come on, man, come home with me!” And my two partners would get a girl and wherever they stayed I stayed. I remember the . The Hoofers Club was a club where you just go and dance, you know. If you feel like you wanna rehearse, you go in there and rehearse, put an act together, go there rehearse, you know. And some of the guys in there would give you some help. All the great dancers sooner or later came there. I did only see the last year of the Hoofers Club. The owner used to fix the floor when it kinda broke down. When we went in there, there was nobody in there but us. A guy named Duke, a bass player, said: “I will bring you round the Hoofers Club.” A guy named Acie, a very good dancer, he was from Philadelphia, he and the bass player took us, and then we danced a little bit. At least we could say we The Speed Kings 2: Sylvester Luke, Emmet McClure, danced in the Hoofers Club. Buster Brown. Photo Credit: L. E. Bigham. Photo thing different dancewise. Very fast and with Then, after one year, somebody gave us courtesy Buster Brown. precision. When we danced everybody’s hands a job. We met a girl who had been a big were together. We admired “Pete, Peaches and chorus girl in New York, and she did ask me Duke” who were one of the greatest precision dancers. I heard so much about them The Speed Kings 2 – Coming before I actually seen them. to New York When we were in Cleve- land that’s the first time we Buster: So I came home to Baltimore, seen them. I remember we stayed there a little while, then I went back to were working in a place, Cleveland where I met Emmet McClure and the “E-light Club”, and Sylvester Luke. And so I put the act back they came in town for a together, and that was the “Speed Kings 2”. one-nighter. And they were We danced a Soft Shoe, then we did playing an auditorium. We rhythm. We did a whole medley of tunes, three went over to see them. We numbers. Soft Shoe, the rhythm dancing. We didn’t care whether the man opened with the Soft Shoe, and the music (for whom we worked) never stopped from the point we started. From liked this or not, we’ve got the Soft Shoe we segued into something else, to see “Pete, Peaches and The Speed Kings 2: Sylvester Luke, Emmet McClure, Buster Brown. and everytime the dancing would do some- Duke”. ’Cause we had Photo courtesy Buster Brown. did I know Green. This girl said her husband thing, but now I was solo, no rest. But I then he started to get in trouble. He would was an agent. And she said: “You should get enjoyed it. Everything was enjoyable. always be in trouble. We were getting ready to in touch with this guy.” And we did. And do the Kate Smith Show, we went to the that’s when we started getting work. This guy rehearsal early, did the rehearsal, come home, was great for us. We were very lucky to get Brown and Beige dressed up before showtime, then couldn’t find him. And that’s when we started doing mostly (1945 – 1951) him. Could not find him. Didn’t show up for club dates, like all the big hotels had big it. So I went back for one of my partners of bands back then in New York. We worked for Buster: While I was in putting the “Speed Kings”, Sylvester Luke. I said: “You “Beckman & Pransky”. I stayed with Emmet my thing together I met Pippy, Ernest Cathy, remember our first dance?” He said: “Yeah!” and Sylvester about seven years till the war the later “Beige”, and we put something So we opened up with our first thing, then we broke us up, 1942. together. There was nothing else to do, you did our own, single. One of the last things they did was in know. So we danced together a little while, Conrad: Pippy never married. He just 1942 the Hollywood Columbia Musical maybe five or six years. We got a good act. But came down to visit when Buster came. He was Movie “Something to shout about” directed by Gregory Ratoff. Stars were Don Ameche, Janet Blair and Jack Oakie. Also on the bill were Hazel Scott, Charles Walker of Chuck and Chuckles and Cyd Charisse (her first film appearance). The film came out 1943. It was a bland Cole Porter Musical with one hit song, “You’d be so nice to come home to” which was nominated for two Oscars (song and scoring). It’s about an ex chorus girl who decides to put on a show herself. They can also be seen in a soundie featuring Bill Robinson’s wife and the Three Speed Kings. The Three Riffs

Buster: The Speed Kings broke up in Detroit, and then I went with “The Three Riffs” who were also in Detroit. This was a singing act. And I taught them a chorus of a tap routine to “Just you”. We did two songs and we closed with this dance routine. I knew them from before, they lived also in the Braddock Hotel in . None of us working at that time, and we all lived in the Braddock Hotel. So we been always in their room listen to them sing. So I knew the tunes. They had a great act, “The Three Riffs”. I stayed with them six months. Buster first time solo

Buster: Then I left New York for Boston to form my single act. It must have taken six months to learn a single ’cause I didn’t want to use nothing I used with the trio. So every- thing I did was brand-new. So I put together everything. I talked, told jokes, opened up with a Soft Shoe, then I would introduce the other things as I went along, and then I did flash at the closing. Same pattern, Soft Shoe, rhythm dance, flash dance, and over. And it was getting kind of funny, I always was used Brown and Beige: Buster Brown and Ernest Cathy (Pippy). to step back and let somebody else do some- Photo Credit: Gaby of Montreal. Photo courtesy Buster Brown. Brown and Beige at the Apollo. Photo courtesy Buster Brown. “Go and see whether Buster can do it.” Chuckles was with them when they were in a happy-go-lucky guy. He was definitely a Germany (1956). And he was with the happy-go-lucky guy. The guy who likes to do Again solo “Chocolateers” just before Eddie Jefferson. his own thing. Buster had to father him. Buster: Around 1950 I was doing a Eddie Jefferson was tap dancing, doing every- Buster had to keep him close ’cause sometimes single. I broke up the act. We did several TV thing. Eddie, when he was a little kid, he had he didn’t show up for the gig. What happened shows when TV first came in. “Beige” messed a hell of a radio show. He was a star. He to him? He had a condition that he was up so many times. We were in Canada and he could do everything. The “Chocolateers” were trying to feed and then took him over. One of felt like going home. So he just left and went Eddie West, Paul Black and Gib Gibson. I those things. Buster never took those drugs, home. That’s when I had to work alone. I was replaced Eddie. It was comedy dancing and but Pippy. Heroin was the drug of the time. ready for that. I did a single in the fifties, I singing. They were originating the “Peckin’”. And when Pippy wouldn’t show they lost the worked everywhere. I worked Chicago. The They did “Peckin’” in a picture, a soundie. job. Buster hated to let him go because he was Regal Theater, the new Club de Lisa. I don’t That was a big thing, the “Peckin’”, that’s a good dancer. Boy, he could dance. On stage remember all the dates and places. I was sure what put them on the map. at the Royal Theater they had a good 15 being busy having a good time. I minutes. They would come out, say a few couldn’t keep money two minutes. words, jokes, he could emcee a bit while they Money burned my pocket. I could be were dancing. And all of a sudden they cut paid that night and three days later loose. And then they would do acrobats that be broke. I just started picking money was part of the act. Splits and all that kind of when I was with the Ink Spots (70s). stuff. They were very good. The video that we I didn’t think that money was that saw from the sixties that was his rhythm. That important before that. was the same thing. He danced the rhythm. He was a rhythm dancer, you know. He mastered it. And he stuck to it. That was his Chocolateers thing. Brown and Beige used the tunes Buster: I worked with the “Laura” (1945 by D. Raksin), “I Got “Chocolateers”. I didn’t work with Rhythm” and “Just You, Just Me” for their them that long ’cause I was in for The Three Chocolateers became famous in 1937 by creating the act. Eddie Jefferson. So Eddie told them: “Peckin’” in the films “Murder at the Vanities” and “New Faces”. The tap decline – jobs Monday, you know. But the one that I thought that really financed the show was Letitia Jay. She had Buster: The work got so bad right after the money to put down for the Bill Robinson died in 1949. That’s when theater. That’s why I said she was everything just fell. Bang. No more jobs. It responsible for the Hoofers getting was not in the same moment when he died, really started. Lon Chaney, Baby but it slowly went down afterwards. Theaters Laurence, L.D., a guy named were closing. You know, before when we were “Big Red” (“Rhythm Red”). All dancing, there were many theaters. All the the guys that thought about dan- movies came to that theaters. There were cing would go down there on many theaters and night clubs to work. We got Monday to jam and so the man fortune enough to get to the real famous The Hoofers: Buster Brown, Baby Laurence, Chuck gave them the theater every Monday night. It theaters and the real famous night clubs. It Green, L.D. Jackson, John McPhee. At the Newport turned out to be a good performance with was great. But then in the fifties and sixties I Jazz Festival 1972. Photo Credit: Josef Werkmeister. good press. We were had every kind of job you can think of to sur- getting great press, Around the same time Letitia Jay pro- vive. Tap dance became something on the side, you know. And duced a TV show with Buster Brown, Gib you know. I was working for a record com- Letitia was in the Gibson, , Fred Kelly, Chuck pany … that was located on 50th Street and show. She loved tap Green and Ralph Brown. Broadway, they had Basie. Oh, I had a lot of dancing and she Buster: Then in 1968 we went to jobs. I had a restaurant on 7th Avenue and was a dancer, too. Africa. And I know that really started doing Holland. I managed it. It was named after She used to do the Hoofers. This started really in ’68. We the guy I was working for, Bobby’s Restaurant. crazy stuff, eccen- been there in Africa eight weeks and it was tric dance. She during the summer. (The Hoofers toured The Hoofers worked with Africa with the State Department sponsored Chuck. One show Jazz Dance Theater. While in Africa, they Buster: Then I danced with the she did with us. That was in 1966 in Berlin, gave a command performance for Emperor Hoofers, but that’s in the sixties. They started that wasn’t yet the Hoofers, we called it “The Haile Selassie who awarded them with “The here on 125th Street in the sixties. Every Harlem Allstars”. Lion Of Judea Coin”.)

The Harlem Allstars: Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde, Baby Laurence, Chuck Green and Letitia Jay at the Berlin Jazz Festival 1966. Photo Credit: Josef Werkmeister.

During 1966 Buster also toured as a soloist with the Duke Ellington Big Band throughout the and Canada doing Ellingtons famous “Sacred Concert” (“David danced before the Lord”). Buster: I think it was the greatest thing like … when I had the opportunity to work with Duke Ellington. It’s like going to heaven. Really, I still look at this … I’m dancing with Duke Ellington. I never did get over that. Never have. That’s the beautifullest thing in my life. 1967 Buster moved with his second wife Dorothy and his two sons Ricky and Shawn into the apartment that he held up to now on 884 Riverside Drive. Ink Spots

Buster: I was working with the Ink The Copasetics: Leslie “Bubba” Gaines, Charles “Cookie” Cook, Ernest “Brownie” Brown, James “Buster” Spots, singing in the seventies. Ralph Brown Brown. Photo courtesy Brenda Bufalino (from “Great Feats of Feet”). was with us. I was with them before Ralph came. We both sang. This was jazz singing. We hum with them and then we go out and (1949). Honi Coles, , Billy 1980 – 2002 tap danced. But that wasn’t the original Ink Strayhorn, he was President, and then, Charles Spots. There were about eight or ten Ink Spot Cook. Everybody in there was in showbusiness. Getting an old master acts working everywhere. I was working for Gib was with us, Bubba Gaines, Cookie, Joe Bothman. He had been with the Ink Spots Brownie, all of the Copasetics. Paul Black, In the eighties and nineties when tap for a half minute. I went to school with one of Brownie, Gib, Stump of “Stump and Stumpy” dance really started to come back one could the original Ink Spots, Billy Kenny. We went – James Cross –, Stumpy was Harold Cromer. find Buster wherever tap dance was to High School, and he was in the “Follies” And with the Copasetics we did a lot of bene- featured, dancing in the Broadway shows with us. fits. One we had in a mental institution – they were C R A A A Z Y about us. There was a guy hangin’ from the ceiling. And another Everything gets copasetic one brooming the floor beneath him. I asked the doctor: “What’s this dude doin’ up there?”. At the beginning He said: “Oh, don’t pay him no mind. He of the seventies Buster thinks he is a light bulb. But follow us, he’s became a lifetime mem- ready for getting his treatment. The doctor got ber of the Copasetics up, screwed him out of the socket and we went Club founded in the to the treatment room. When we turned honour of the late Bill around we saw the brooming guy following us. “Bubbling Brown Sugar” and “Black and Bojangles Robinson The doctor said: “What are you doin’ over Blue”, dancing and teaching at all the and so became the only dancer who danced here?” He said: “Do you think I wanna broom upcoming tap festivals and workshops in with the Hoofers and was a member of the over there in the dark?” America and working with the Hoofers, the Copasetics – the only Hoofersetic. In 1974 one of the best tap docu- Copasetics, Leon Collins (“Schnitzel Buster: I was with the Ink Spots, and mentaries, “Great Feats Of Feet”, was done Brothers”) and as a single in Europe. when I came home my wife said: “You are by Brenda Bufalino. It shows the putting In 1980 you could see Buster with now a Copasetic.” I said: “How had that together of a Copasetics show by Charles the Hoofers in the TV production “Tap happened?” They looked out for new members Cookie Cook. It features Buster Brown, Dancing” and in 1984 in the Francis Ford and somebody mentioned my name. They Charles Cookie Cook, Ernest Brownie Coppola movie “”. In 1987 he said: “Okay, he can come in.” I never tried to, Brown, Leslie Bubba Gaines, Albert Gib was in Susan Goldbetter’s video production they asked me. I worked with the Hoofers and Gibson and Charles Honi Coles. “Cookie’s Scrapbook”. I worked with the Copasetics. And I worked Around this time must have been In 2000 Buster toured with “Savion with the Hoofers again. These guys formed the Buster’s tour with Cab Calloway’s “Jazz Glover And Friends – Footnotes” (with club when Bill Robinson died, same year Train” through South America. Jimmy Slyde and ). Heather Cornell and his son Shawn who (May 2002), completed with excerpts from helped and took care of him. The last weeks Brenda Bufalino’s interview in “Great Feats in hospital he was surrounded by loving Of Feet” (1974). visitors.

BALLIN’ THE JACK (1913, Smith/Burris) (Buster’s favourite workshop closing) First you put your two knees close up tight Jammin’ at Swing 46 with longtime friend, tap dancer And then you wiggle ‘em to the left, and you Fay Ray. wiggle ‘em to the right Then you walk around the floor kinda nice The last few years Buster had his own and light weekly tap jam session on Sunday at Swing And then you twist around, twist around, 46 in New York City. with all of your might In February 2002 he was honoured as Monday night swingin’ it out at Wells Restaurant Put your two loving arms out in space a “Doctor of Performing Arts” at the Okla- with swing dancer Norma Miller And then you do the Eagle Rock with a lot of homa City University. style and grace During the last two years when his This article was made from interviews Put your right foot up and bring it back health got bad, he was fortunate to have with Buster Brown (1994) and with Ruth THAT’S WHAT WE CALL BALLIN’ THE many good friends like Max Pollak, Jackson (sister) and Conrad Turner (nephew) JACK.