WATCH ABOVE: Alice Barker danced among the greats – Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly to name a few, but she had never seen herself – so at 102 years old – she was shown film and images of herself for the first time. Allison Vuchnich reports.
TORONTO – Former professional dancer Alice Barker has lived over a century and expected to die having never seen footage of her impressive career in film and television – but two men went out of their way to change that.
David Shuff met Alice Barker, now 103 years old, during a chance encounter when he brought his therapy dog to her nursing home. Over the course of many follow-up visits, Shuff learned that Barker had enjoyed a career on stage during the Harlem Renaissance era of the 1930s.
Shuff was told that she danced with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and graced world famous venues like The Apollo, Cotton Club and Zanzibar Club.
He claims that she even appeared in films, commercials and television episodes but had never actually watched herself in action.
With the help of Mark Cantor, from Jazz on Film, Shuff visited Barker last year (when she was 102) and showed her three ‘soundies’, the precursor to music videos according to UCLA.
He recorded Barker’s reaction with a cellphone and eventually posted it Monday on YouTube and Reddit. At the time of this writing, it has been watched nearly 700,000 times in over 24 hours.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO
“How did it feel seeing yourself?” one woman can be heard asking the former dancer as she lay in bed.
“Making me wish I could get out of this bed and do it all over again,” Barker responds.
Shuff left the videos at the nursing home with Barker. He claims that they are played regularly in a communal room – meaning she’s famous all over again – to remind Barker that it “don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing.”
Comments