Guide to the Vanessa Broussard Simmons 2002 Archives Center, National Museum of American History P.O. Box 37012 Suite 1100, MRC 601 Washington, D.C. 20013-7012 archivescenter@si.edu http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives
Table of Contents Collection Overview... 1 Administrative Information... 1 Arrangement... 3 Scope and Contents... 3 Biographical / Historical... 2 Names and Subjects... 3 Container Listing... 4 Series 1: Early Career, 1930s... 4 Series 4: Tributes and Awards, 1979-2002... 6
Collection Overview Repository: Title: Identifier: Archives Center, National Museum of American History Date: 1930-2002 Extent: 1 Cubic Feet (1 box, includes photographs) Creator: LeGon, Jeni, 1916- Language: Summary: English The collection documents the career of Jeni LeGon as a dancer, dance instructor and actress. Administrative Information Acquisition Information The collection was donated by Jeni LeGon in 2002. Other Finding Aids Inventory available; contact the Archives Center for more information. Processing Information Collection processed by Vanessa Broussard Simmons, archivist, 2002. Preferred Citation, 1930s-2002, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Restrictions Collection is open for research. Conditions Governing Use Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. Page 1 of 6
Biographical / Historical Jeni LeGon was born Jennie Bell in Chicago, Illinois to Hector Ligon and Harriet Bell Ligon on August 14, 1916. She graduated from Sexton Elementary School in 1928. LeGon began her career at the age of thirteen with a job in musical theater. She later auditioned and was selected for the chorus line of band leader Count Basie. Later she formed a song and dance team with half sister Willa Mae Lane and performed in Detroit with nightclub owner Leonard Reed. She died December 7, 2012. She was one of the first African-American women to establish a solo career in tap. LeGon and her halfsister, Willa Mae Lane, formed a song-and-dance team. They were given the opportunity to go to Detroit and work with nightclub owner. While there, they received an offer to travel to Hollywood and perform with composer Shelton Brooks. Upon arrival, they discovered there was, in fact, no job. LeGon heard about auditions being held by Ethel Waters' former manager, Earl Dancer. The audition was for a film that Fox Studios was producing. She won the part and subsequently appeared in dance numbers in several musicals. While in Hollywood, LeGon had the opportunity to work with performers such as Ethel Waters and Al Jolson. She danced with Fred Astaire and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, becoming the first African-American woman to do so on screen. During this time, she was given a role in Hooray for Love, which led MGM to offer her a long-term contract, making LeGon the first African-American woman to receive such an opportunity. In 1969, LeGon settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she taught tap and point. In 1999, the National Film Board of Canada released Grant Greshuk's prize-winning documentary Jeni Le Gon: Living in a Great Big Way Jeni LeGon is one of the first African American women in tap dance to develop a career as a soloist. Not a high-heeled dancer in pretty skirts, she was a low-heeled dancer performing toe-stand in pants, and her rigorous combination of flash, acrobatics, and rhythm dancing proved you didn't have to be a man to dance like a hoofer. Born in 1916 and raised near the south side of Chicago, her musical talents were developed on the street in neighborhood bands and musical groups. At the age of thirteen, buoyed by her brother who got a job touring as a singer and exhibition ballroom dancer, she landed her first job in musical theatre, dancing as a soubrette in pants, not pretty skirts. By the age of sixteen, she was dancing in a chorus line backed by Count Basie Orchestra, and soon after touring as a chorus line dancer with Whitman Sisters, the highest paid act on the TOBA circuit. This all black, woman-managed company was successful in booking themselves continually in leading southern houses, and had the reputation for giving hundreds of dancers their first performing break. The Whitman Sisters' chorus line, LeGon remembers, "they had all the colors that our race is known for. All the pretty shading from the darkest, to the palest of the pale. Each one of us was a distinct-looking kid. It was a rainbow of beautiful girls." It was while working in Los Angeles, where she was stopping the show for her flips, double spins, knee drips, toe stands, that LeGon got a part in the 1935 MGM musical, Hooray for Love, as dance partner to Bill Robinson, who she says was a patient teacher and a perfectionist. It was while working on that movie that she met Fats Waller, whom she continued to work for much of her career. In 1936, LeGon performed in the London production of C.B. Cochran's At Home Abroad. She was hailed as one of the brightest spirits, the new Florence Mills, and the "sepia Cinderella girl who set London agog with her clever dancing." In New York, she was one of the few women ever to be invited back to the Hoofer's Club. LeGon played leading roles in a number of black films, where she claims, "sometimes I even got to be myself," not a maid or any number of stereotypical roles. She toured widely with US Army shows, and she did club and theater performances nationally and internationally. In a 1999 documentary by Grant Greshuck, LeGon's extraordinary devotion to passing on tap dancing is as much a feature of the film as her stardom. Living in a Great Big Way, named for one of her famous numbers with Bill Robinson, is narrated by Fayard Nicholas, who reveres LeGon as a star performer and a gifted teacher who could "do it all." LeGon says that sees teaching as a natural extension of her Page 2 of 6
performing --"I've had a dance school all my life." One envies those students for whom she clearly and still labors for the love of the form. Scope and Contents Papers documenting LeGon's career as an actress and dancer. The collection includes biographical information; letters; photographs of LeGon, her students, and other dancers with whom she worked, including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson"; her early travel itineraries, schedules and personal calendars; an honorary doctoral degree; programs; advertisements and invitations to dance events; a scrapbook of clippings; and clippings and articles. Arrangement The collection is arranged into four series. Series 1, Early Career, 1930s Series 2, Materials relating to Movie Performances, 1935-1945 Series 3, Dance Instruction and Performances, 1953-2002 Series 4, Tributes and Awards, 1979-2002 Names and Subject Terms This collection is indexed in the online catalog of the Smithsonian Institution under the following terms: Cultures: Actresses African American women African American women entertainers Dance in motion pictures, television, etc. Dance, Black Dancers Tap dancing Types of Materials: Advertisements -- 20th century Clippings Itineraries Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century. Photographs -- 20th century Programs -- 1930-2000 Names: Robinson, Bill, 1878-1949 Page 3 of 6
Series 1: Early Career Container Listing Series 1: Early Career, 1930s Box 1, Folder 1 Box 3, Folder 1 Box 1, Folder 2 Box 3, Folder 9 1 1 Articles 3 1 Articles 1 2 Publicity photographs Image(s) 9 Publicity photographs, undated 2: Materials relating to Movie Performances, 1935-1945 Return to Table of Contents Box 1, Folder 3 Hooray for Love, 1935 Image(s) Box 3, Folder 4 Hi--De-Ho, 1945 Box 1, Folder 8 Early to Bed, 1943 Box OS 1 incoln Theater, 1938 Box 3, Folder 3 Hooray for Love, 1935 Box 3, Folder 4 Ali Baba Goes to Town, 1937 Box 1, Folder 4 Broadway Melody, 1935 Box 1, Folder 5 Follow the Sun, 1936 Box 1, Folder 6 Dishonour Bright, 1936 Image(s) Box 1, Folder 7 Ali Baba Goes to Town, 1937 Box 3 3: Dance Instruction and Performances, 1953-2002 Box 1, Folder 9 1 9 Ballet Teens Dance Company, Los Angeles, California, 1953 Box 1, Folder 10 10 Ed Sullivan Show, correspondence relating to possible show performance, 1960 Box 1, Folder 11 11 Jazz Caribe, 1965 Box 1, Folder 12 12 Calendar, 1966 Box 1, Folder 13 13 Calendar, 1967 Page 4 of 6
Series 1: Early Career Box 1, Folder 14 14 Urban Gateways school program, 1967-1968 Box 1, Folder 15 15 Jazz Caribe, 1968 Box 1, Folder 16 16 Jazz Caribe, 1969 Box 1, Folder 17 17 Jazz Caribe, 1972 Box 1, Folder 18 18 Jazz Caribe, 1977 Box 1, Folder 19 Box 1, Folder 20 19 Photographs, Jazz Caribe, undated 20 Troupe One Youth Theatre Group, 1970s Box 1, Folder 21 21 Troupe One Youth Theatre Group, 1976-1985 Box 1, Folder 22 22 Troupe One Youth Theatre Group, 1979 Box 1, Folder 23 23 Roots and All That Jazz, 1982 Box 3, Folder 6 3 6 Pelican Players, 1982 Box 3, Folder 3 3 Troupe One, 1984 Box 3, Folder 5 5 Troupe One, undated Box 1, Folder 24 1 24 Pelican Players, 1985 Box 1, Folder 25 25 Jazz Cinq, 1985-1988 Box 1, Folder 26 26 Roots and All That Jazz, 1986 Box 1, Folder 27 27 All Tap Nightclub Review, 1989-1991 Box 1, Folder 28 28 National Tap Dance Festival, 1993 Box 1, Folder 29 New Orleans Jazz Dance Festival, 2001 Box 1, Folder 29 Festivals and Performances, 2002 Box 3, Folder 7 3 7 Masters of Tap, 2002 Box 3, Folder 8 8 Private Club performances, undated Box 2, Folder 3 3 African American Film Marketplace Honor, 1998 Page 5 of 6
Series 4: Tributes and Awards, 1979-2002 Series 4: Tributes and Awards, 1979-2002 Box 1, Folder 30 Leo Birthday Week, 1979 Box 1, Folder 31 Articles about achievement, 1984 Box 1, Folder 32 Articles about achievement, 1987 Box 1, Folder 33 Black Filmakers Hall of Fame, 1987 Box 1, Folder 34 Articles about achievement, 1988 Box 1, Folder 35 Articles about achievement, 1989 Box 1, Folder 36 Marla Gibbs 'Choice Award', 1992 Box 2, Folder 1 Article relating to book From Harlem to Hollywood, 1995 Box 2, Folder 2 Articles about achievement, 1997 Box 2, Folder 4 rticles about Living in a Great Big Way Film, 1999 Box 2, Folder 5 Tributes, 2000 Box 2, Folder 6 Flo-Bert Lifetime Achievement Awards, 2001 Box 2, Folder 7 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Performing Arts, Oklahoma City University, 2002 Box 2, Folder 8 Beacon of Freedom Award, 2002 Articles about achievement, 2002 Box 3, Folder 9 Tributes, 1999-2002 Return to Table of Contents Page 6 of 6