OTD in early British television: 4 May 1939
John Wyver writes: Yet more dance from Alexandra Palace, this time on the evening of Thursday 4 May 1939. Which only speaks to how rich and varied was early television’s presentation of the artform. Alongside actors Janine Darcey and Jim Gerald, and Norwegian newspaperman Haakon Overland, the 240th edition of Picture Page featured ‘famous tap dancer’ Paul Draper (above, in a detail from a Carl van Vetchen portrait), who was appearing at the Café de Paris.
Draper was celebrated for combining tap dancing with classical music, and here he performed to a Toccata by Paradisi and Gavotte from the opera Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, alongside more familiar tunes like ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ and ‘Yankee Doodle’.
As Jeanette Rutherston detailed for Dancing Times, instead of submitting to questions,
Mr Draper was allowed to talk with his amazing feet and wonderfully expressive body, in fact he gave viewers the rare treat of seeing four of his dances, which could not have failed to appeal to high, middle and low brows of dancing.
Here is a consummate artist, trained to the last degree in operatic and tap work [he had studied under Balanchine], and with a sense of rhythm that flows and pulses through every fibre of his being; his dancing is sheer unadulterated pleasure to watch from start to finish.
Hugely popular immediately after the war, especially in a partnership with harmonica player Larry Adler, his career was then derailed as Wikipedia relates:
In 1949, Draper was accused of affiliating with the Communist party. A routine of his was to appear on CBS’s Toast of the Town in 1950, but was cut out of the segment due to protests the station received. During this period, Draper was forced to put a stop to his tour because many television programs and hotels felt they could not host such a controversial figure.
He filed a libel suit against a Connecticut housewife who claimed he was a Communist, but still received negative press. Draper left the United States in 1951 following this scandal and lived in Switzerland for three years. The LA Times claims ‘he later resumed his career but never recaptured his original popularity.’
Intriguing combination: tap dancing and the harmonica of Larry Adler. Percussive, rhythmic, vernacular – qualities that somehow belong to a bygone era of popular entertainment, before commercialism?
Definitely with roots in vaudeville, but it was mainstream entertainment before and just after the war, per Wikipedia:
“By 1937, [Draper] was performing at such venues as the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel and the Rainbow Room. Carnegie Hall followed, then Broadway and a film version of William Saroyan’s Time of Your Life (1948). In 1940, he teamed up with Larry Adler, a virtuoso harmonicist. The two became a world-famous act, performing together until 1949.