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Artists and Models / King and King [theatrical performance]

Title

Artists and Models [Theatrical Performance]

Performers

King and King

Condos, Frank

Olvera, Mateo

Published/Created

1927-11-15

Genre

Theatrical Performance

Venue

Winter Garden Theater

Abstract

When Artists and Models opened at the Winter Garden, King and King (Frank Condos and his partner Mateo Olvera) were featured dancers. "We did mostly wings" Frank Condos told Marshall Stearns. Their wing was a specialty five-tap wing in which one foot scraped out and up and--in the process of coming back down--made four additional and distinct taps. This style of wings was nearly uncopyable as the team executed them with speed; wearing shoes with steel plates so that the tap sounds were always audible.

The New York critics seemed to have no comprehension of the kind of dancing they were witnessing. Gilbert Gabriet in the American called them "soft-shoers" (16 Nov. 1927). Robert Coleman in the Mirror described them as "buck and winging" (16 Nov. 1927) and Burns Mantle in the News made an extra effort, calling them "tap dancers, or step dancers, or high-schooled ankle twisters of some particular classification" (16 Nov. 1927) and then gave up. Variety reached a new high in poverty-stricken jargon by labeling them "tap-steppers" (23 Nov. 1927). At least all the critics agreed King and King were great. Referring to them inaccurately as "clog dancers" Alexander Woollcott reported: "Then a team named King and King (one of whom looks like a Chinese Sam Harris and each of whom shakes a mean foot) danced such clogs...as brought down the Winter Garden and spilled so much applause into the next scene that a prima donna, all squared off to sing some fearful ballad, was in no end of a pet" (Times 16 Nov. 1927). Dancers themselves simply refer to King and King as "the greatest of all wing teams."

Source

Stearns, Marshall and Jean Stearns: Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance. New York: Macmillan (1968).

Bordman, Gerald: American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle. New York: Oxford University Press (1992).

Last Updated: 12-16-2015