TAPS
Tap dancing trailblazer Arthur Duncan has hung up his shoes aged 97. Duncan’s career prospects faced long odds – one, he was a tap dancer in the 50s and 60s, when the art form was going out of vogue, and two, he was African American in the 50s and 60s. But there was a life raft in the shape of Betty White that kept him afloat, with White recruiting him for a semi-regular slot on her eponymous 50s talk show and standing firmly in his corner when Southern sponsors threatened to boycott. White’s programme was short lived, but in the 60s Duncan hoofed his way to The Lawrence Welk Show for a fruitful 18 years where he was the first black regular on a variety show and one of the few routine displays of tap dancing on 60s television. Still dancing into his 90s, he reunited with Betty White on a geriatric talent programme in 2017, and a second reunion with her benefits God, It’s Brutal Out Here.
Arthur Duncan
25 September 1925 – 4 January 2023, aged 97
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