Colleen
Keeler, Ruby
performer
Draper, Paul
performer
Film
1936-03-26
Warner Brothers
Alfred E. Green, dir.
A neglected Warner Brothers musical with usual girl-meets-boy framing starring Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell with tasteful song and dance numbers that include "Colleen" "An Evening with You" "Boulevardier from the Bronx." The elegant tap dancing of Paul Draper. A number devised by dance director Bobby Connolly in this musical Warren and Dubin, "You Gotta Know How to Dance" is worthy of more attention than it received. Keeler, a professional dancer, tries to persuade Powell that he too should be a dancer. Harry Warren came up with a skillfully constructed staccato melody that was beautifully suited to tapping.. Draper, who had been trained in ballet but turned to tap dancing and elevated it to concert proportions, devised a style known as ballet-tap.
Performing Arts Encyclopedia
http://www.loc.gov/performingarts
Frank, Rusty E.: Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and their Stories 1900-1955. New York, William Morrow. (1990).
Smith, Ernie: Selected List of Films and Kinescopes. In Jean and Marshall Stearns' Jazz Dance (1968).
Tap Dance America
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html
Paul Draper (biography)
loc.music.tdabio.78
Ruby Keeler (biography)
loc.music.tdabio.117
tda
IHAS
151216
loc.music.tda.100