More Items:

• Dixie Dunbar

From:

• Performing Arts Encyclopedia
• Tap Dance America

Dates: 1919-1991
Birth Date: Jan 9, 1919
Death Date: Aug 29, 1991

Place of Birth: Montgomery, Alabama
Place of Death: Miami Beach, Florida

Dixie Dunbar, vivacious, kewpie doll-like actress and tap dancer, was born Christina Elizabeth Dunbar in Montgomery, Alabama, and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Nicknamed "Tootsie" by her mother, she took dancing classes at an early age and it was discovered that she had talent. Her mother took her to New York, and with her heavy Southern drawl, re-nicknamed her Dixie. After dancing in big-band orchestras and nightclubs, she made her film debut as a tap dancer in George White's Scandals of 1934, as one of the few white female tap dancers, along with Ruby Keeler and Eleanor Whitney, to be acclaimed on Broadway and Hollywood musical films. That same year she made her Broadway debut in Life Begins at 8:40, starring eccentric comedy dancer Ray Bolger, with whom she sang and danced in "You're a Builder-Upper." Twentieth Century-Fox then signed her up, where she appeared in both dancing and non-dancing roles including The First Baby (1936), performing with tap and legomania dancer Johnny Downs; King of Burlesque (1936), Pigskin Parade (1936), Sing and Be Happy (1937), and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938).

Cast as a specialty dancer in Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), she sang and tap-danced in "Everybody's Doing It" and "This is the Life." From 1949 to 1951, Dunbar was seen dancing in the now-famous television commercial ads that featured her totally covered, head to hips, by a giant Old Gold cigarette box. Dunbar's cutie-doll tap-dancing persona made her almost as beloved as Shirley Temple. Like Temple, dunbar helped to popularize tap dance.

[Source: Constance Valis Hill, Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History (2010)]