Fred Kelly, "first choreographer in television" Kelly, Fred performer Television/Video 1948 Fred Kelly: "They refer to me as the first choreographer in television. When I went into television, there was no network; it was CBS local. Then in '48, we went network, across the country. I did the first musical show on television, The Lannie Ross Show. Then I directed The Steve Allen Show, around '51 or '52. I insisted on having a tap dancer or dance act on the show, because each show ran over an hour. I used more tap dancers in six month's time when I directed The Steve Allen Show than have played in the entire history of the Palace Theatre. Television should have been the medium for tap dancing, but what happened was the sound men came in and insisted that they had to have extra men put on the mikes to pick up the taps. Then the sound engineers came in a said, "Well, then we have to have an extra man to ride them.' Finally, the directive came down from above. It said: 'No more tap dancers will be used on any shows going over CBS local or network.' This was sent to every director, and the reason was given was the union costs." Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Ames, Jerry, and Jim Siegelman: The Book of Tap: Recovering America's Long Lost Dance. New York: D. McKay Co. (1977). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html Fred Kelly (biography) loc.music.tdabio.118 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.2555