Arthur Duncan, a tap dancer and singer who became one of the first African American regulars on a TV variety show, joining “The Betty White Show” in 1954 and later showing off his footwork on Lawrence Welk’s weekly music series, died Jan. 4 at a care center in Moreno Valley, Calif.
Imagine how Bruce Springsteen would feel if rock 'n' roll lost its popularity overnight and you'd know, I guess, how the great tap dancers felt in the early 1950s. One day, tap dancing was enormously popular (I can remember half the kids in my grade school class taking lessons at Thelma Lee Ritter's Dance Studio, up above the Princess Theater on Main Street in Urbana). The next day, it was passe - blown away by rock. And there was another cruel blow for many of the tap stars, who were black: As the civil rights movement gained strength, tap dancing itself was seen as projecting the wrong image of black people.