Freddie James vs. Baby Laurence Challenge Dance Baby Laurence performer James, Freddie performer Baby Laurence Jackson performer Challenge Dance 1938 Around 1938, Baby Laurence was egged into a battle of taps with Freddie James on the corner of Harlem's 126th Street and Lenox Avenue. "Fans would start arguments. Then the dancer would come along and have to prove himself" John Bubbles told Marshall Stearns in 1960. Freddie James, star of the Four Step Brothers, was one of the very best dancers. Baby Laurence had spent much time at the Hoofer's Club watching other dancers' feats, and was just coming into his own as a tap dancer, so battling James was his opportunity to move up. After the police broke up the crowd on the sidewalk, the contest adjourned to a nearby nightclub. They fired steps at each other from 11 P.M. to 4 A.M. while Bill Bailey accompanied them on piano. Freddie James finished with his feet in the air, tapping with his hands. "I think we were even" Baby Laurence recalled, though several eyewitnesses claimed that he had won. (Stearns, Jazz Dance 339) Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Stearns, Marshall and Jean Stearns: Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance. New York: Macmillan (1968). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html "Baby" Laurence Jackson (biography) loc.music.tdabio.109 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.718