Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Mable Lee. February 16, 2017.

Author

Lee, Mable

Publication

2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Bufalino, Brenda

Description

3 streaming files (approximately approximately one hour and 33 minutes) : digital +

Summary

• Streaming audio file 1 (approximately 57 minutes). Mable Lee speaks with Brenda Bufalino about her background and parents; her first professional experience as a dancer, when she was four years old; putting on shows at her school; her birth, on August 2, 1921 in South Atlanta, Georgia; singing with Graham Jackson including their performing for Franklin Delano Roosevelt; early professional engagements including in nightclubs in Auburn (Georgia) and theaters; an anecdote about how being superstitious led to a black eye; moving to New York and performing as a singer and dancer; some of the people she worked with including a performance anecdote; [tap] dancing as a chorus girl at the Apollo Theater, including Frank Schiffman and how he helped her in her career; her experience with soundies; Eubie Blake; performing on tour in the United States for the USO [United Service Organizations]; her experience with the ill-fated revival of the musical Shuffle along; touring in Europe including at the [London] Palladium; Buddy Bradley.
• Streaming audio file 2 (approximately 33 minutes). Mable Lee speaks with Brenda Bufalino about her experience working in the James E. Strates carnival show; returning from Europe to Atlanta and getting married; her solo acts in New York; her (mainly uncredited) choreography for nightclub acts and soundies; her moving back to New York and living with her mother; the musical Bubblin' brown sugar and Honi Coles; [Bufalino describes her memories of dancing with Lee]; Lee names some of the performers with whom she worked; [tap] dancing with Tony Waag; her solo show of some years ago; her age and fact that she still wears high heels.
• Streaming audio file 3 (approximately 3 minutes). Brenda Bufalino speaks about Mable Lee's solo show at Cobi's Place; Lee names some of the people who helped her with the show; her love of teaching.

Alternative Title

• Dance oral history project
• Dance audio archive

Subjects

• African American singers > Biography
• Oral histories
• African American dancers > Biography
• Lee, Mable > Interviews
• Apollo Theater (New York, N.Y. : 125th Street)
• Sound recordings
• Tap dancers
• Soundies (Motion pictures)
• Blake, Eubie, 1887-1983
• Bradley, Buddy

Genre/Form

• Sound recordings.
• Oral histories.

Note

• Interview with Mable Lee conducted by Brenda Bufalino, on February 16, 2017, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Oral History Project.
• For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3360.
• Sound quality is excellent.
• Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

• Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Funding (note)

• The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Call Number

*MGZDOH 3360

OCLC

1080189667

Author

Lee, Mable, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Mable Lee. February 16, 2017.

Imprint

2017.

Type of Content

spoken word

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

audio

Type of Carrier

online resource

volume

Digital File Characteristics

audio file

Restricted Access

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Event

Recorded for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts February 16, 2017 New York (N.Y.)

Funding

The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.

Connect to:

Request Access to Special Collections (Dance Division) material

NYPL Digital Collections

Added Author

Bufalino, Brenda, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZMT 3-3360