The Silver Belles facts for kids

The Silver Belles were an amazing group of female tap dancers who started in Harlem, New York City. They were known for their incredible talent and for bringing joy to many people through their performances.

About The Silver Belles

The group included talented dancers like Marion Coles, Elaine Ellis, Cleo Hayes, Fay Ray, and Bertye Lou Wood. Their manager was Geri Kennedy. The Silver Belles made a big comeback to the stage on June 8, 1986, at a place called the Latin Quarter. Their story is also shared in a 2006 movie called Been Rich All My Life, which was directed by Heather Lyn MacDonald.

Meet the Dancers

Bertye Lou Wood

Bertye Lou Wood (born April 28, 1905 – died March 7, 2002) was a famous dancer during a special time in Harlem's history when Black artists, writers, and musicians created amazing works. She was very helpful to other dancers, teaching them new steps. Marion Coles, another Silver Belle, said that Bertye taught her everything she knew about dancing. Bertye Lou Wood was 95 years old when she filmed the movie Been Rich All My Life.

She started dancing in 1922 at the Lafayette Theater in Newark, New Jersey, while also raising her three sons. She later lived on her own to pursue her dancing dreams. A dance director named Addison Cary gave her a big chance. She danced on Broadway with the famous Bill Robinson in a show called Brown Buddies in 1931. She was one of the first women to dance on stairs with him! In 1927, at age 22, she first performed in the chorus line at the Lafayette and the Apollo Theater. She also danced with famous musicians like Andy Kirk, Harry James, and the Jimmie Lunceford Band. Bertye Lou Wood and other dancers even helped Ella Fitzgerald buy her first fancy dress because she didn't have one.

In the 1930s, Wood was the dance captain at the Apollo Theater, where many young dancers first met. On February 23, 1940, Wood led the Apollo Theater chorus line in a strike. They wanted better pay and a week of vacation. Sixteen chorus girls stopped the show by refusing to go on stage and protested for 24 hours. This was the first strike for Black entertainers. It helped create the American Guild of Variety Artists. They won a pay raise from $22.50 to $25 per week, more time for rehearsals, and shorter working hours.

Marion Coles

Marion Coles (born March 15, 1915 – died November 6, 2009) was born in Harlem, New York. Her father was in the navy and passed away at sea. Every Sunday after church, Marion's mother taught her ballroom dancing. As a teenager in the 1930s, she started dancing the lindy hop at the Savoy and Renaissance Ballrooms. Her husband was the legendary tap dancer Charles Coles.

Marion toured as a lindy hopper and joined the Apollo's top chorus line in 1936. She was a leader in the dancers' strike at the Apollo. She also went on "Round the World" tours and toured with Leonard Reed. Marion became a dance teacher, teaching rhythm dance and the Black chorus line style. She taught tap dance workshops all over the country. She was known for planning and practicing dance routines in her mind before performing them. In 2002, Queens College gave Coles an honorary degree for her dedication to her students. She was also the dance director for The Silver Belles.

Elaine Ellis

Elaine Ellis (born November 30, 1917 – died December 21, 2013) was born in Panama. She moved to New York with her family when she was young. She started dancing after seeing an advertisement looking for Spanish dancers. She learned how to dance from both chorus girls and male tap dancers.

After the famous Cotton Club closed, she danced at other clubs like Café Zanzibar, Club Mimo, the Lenox Lounge, and the Apollo Theater. She also performed at the Paradise Club, Harlem Club in Atlantic City, and Rhum Boogie in Chicago. In an interview, Ellis said that Small's Paradise, located at 135th and 7th, was where The Silver Belles group first came together. After her dancing career, she raised two children and worked as a bartender and bar manager.

Cleo Hayes

Cleo Hayes (born August 19, 1914 – died May 23, 2012) was born in Greenville, Mississippi. She moved to Chicago hoping to become a star and got her first job at the Grand Terrace with Earl Hines. In New York, she worked at Small's Paradise, a club that welcomed Black people, unlike many others. When someone from the new Apollo Theater asked her to join the chorus line, she became an 'Apollo Theater Rockette.'

After her time at the Apollo, she joined the Cotton Club, where Bertye Lou Wood also worked. In 1938, Hayes and Wood danced on tour in South America. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, they toured with the first Black USO unit during the Second World War. Hayes remembered the unfair treatment she experienced on these tours in the South. They often had to get their meals from the back doors of dining halls. In the movie, she talked about how she resisted segregation by taking a 'whites only' sign off a train. After dancing jobs became harder to find after the war, she continued to work at Broadway's Café Zanzibar, the 845 Club, toured with Cab Calloway, and appeared in the movie Stormy Weather. Throughout her dancing career and afterward, she also worked as a barmaid.

Fay Ray

Fay Ray (born September 11, 1919 – died September 14, 2013) was born in Louisiana. She wanted to be a dancer from a very young age. At age 12, she bravely left her difficult childhood of picking cotton by jumping on a freight train, dressed as a boy. She made it to Shreveport, where she lived and worked. She joined a group from Kansas City who were looking for young dancers. She traveled the country as a singer and dancer on the vaudeville circuit, which was a type of traveling variety show.

She learned a lot from her mentor, Carnel Lions, one of the three "Business Men of Rhythm." At 16, she started performing a solo act. At 18, she tried out an act for Leonard Reed, who was so impressed by how well she copied his moves that he hired her. In the 1940s, she moved to New York and worked at the Café Zanzibar, Club Ebony, and the 845. During the Second World War, Ray became a certified welder, helping to build ships for the Navy. After theaters in the United States closed, she went abroad and produced shows. She danced and told jokes with USO tours in the 1960s in Paris, Beirut, Egypt, and Tokyo. She didn't stop performing until she was 50 years old. When she returned to the United States, she worked as a taxi driver in New York City, and then worked on the pipeline in Alaska.

Geraldine "Geri" Rhodes Kennedy

Geraldine "Geri" Rhodes Kennedy (born July 12, 1930 – died November 16, 2017) was born in Monroe Township, North Carolina. Kennedy was the manager of The Silver Belles. While working as a barmaid in Harlem, Kennedy became interested in the stories of former chorus girls, like Edna "Yak" Taylor. She was inspired to form The Silver Belles while she was working as a road manager for Sister Sledge, a rhythm and blues group formed by her nieces who toured in America and Europe.

In the 1970s, Kennedy brought together former dancers for a special event to help senior citizens, which was called the Swinging Seniors. She always believed that the chorus girls from the 1920s to the 1940s were the true stars of the shows. These chorus girls created new performances every week, but many people never heard about them. Kennedy wanted to make sure these talented women received the recognition they deserved and could continue to use their skills for as long as possible. The Silver Belles performed to share the long history of Black women in dance and to raise money for good causes, especially for children and senior citizens.