June Taylor

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Marjorie June Taylor (December 14, 1917 – May 16, 2004) was an American choreographer, best known as the founder of the June Taylor Dancers, who were featured on Jackie Gleason's various television variety programs.

Early life

Taylor was born in Chicago,<ref name=Female>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Hill>Template:Cite book</ref> the daughter of Percival Guy Taylor (1893-1968)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Angeline Veronica (née Campbell) Taylor (1897-1977).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=June/><ref name=bio>Template:Cite web</ref> Her sister, Marilyn, was born October 6, 1925.<ref name=Sister>Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

Early career

Taylor started taking dance lessons at age eight; by age 13, she lied about her age to get into the chorus of George White's Scandals in her hometown<ref name=Female/><ref name=Osgood>Template:Cite news</ref> and became one of the dancers at the Chicago nightclub, Chez Paree.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At age 17, Taylor left Chicago to perform in London with the Ted Lewis Band.<ref name=Female/> At age 19, she was touring the US and Europe as a dancer in various nightclubs. She returned from London and began performing again in Chicago. In 1938, at age 21, Taylor collapsed on stage, ill with tuberculosis;<ref name=Female/><ref name=Hill/> she spent the next two years in a sanitarium,<ref name=bio/> after which she turned to choreography, founding her own dance troupe in 1942,<ref name=Female/> which made its first professional appearance at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant.<ref name=bio/><ref name=NYT>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Taylor's first troupe consisted of three friends and her sister, Marilyn, and opened for band leader Ted Weems.<ref name=Female/><ref name=Esterbrook/> In 1946, she met Jackie Gleason at a Baltimore nightclub.<ref name=Age>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Coleman>Template:Cite book</ref> The two became friends when Taylor helped Gleason overcome a case of stage fright.<ref name=Sun>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1948, Taylor made her television debut on The Toast of the Town starring Ed Sullivan,<ref name=Hill/><ref name=Sister/><ref name=Age/><ref name=Coleman/><ref name=Blade/> where six of her original dancers appeared as The Toastettes,<ref name=Coleman/> bringing the chorus line to television.<ref name=Female/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1949, she crossed paths with Gleason on NBC's The Broadway Spotlight.<ref name=Coleman/> and joined Gleason's Cavalcade of Stars,<ref name=Coleman/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and followed him, along with 16 dancers, to The Jackie Gleason Show,<ref name=Hill/><ref name=June>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> where her signature was the overhead camera shot of the dancers making kaleidoscopic geometric patterns.<ref name=Blade>Template:Cite news</ref> She opened up a dance school with instructors tap, ballet, and modern dancing.<ref name=Age/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:June Taylor dancers gleason special.JPG
June Taylor Dancers with Jackie Gleason on one of his television specials.

The June Taylor Dancers

Taylor was initially dubious about joining Gleason on his DuMont Network show because it meant signing a long-term contract; her husband, Sol Lerner, suggested she take the offer.<ref name=Sun/> The high-kicking, smiling routines that formed the first three minutes of each broadcast were Broadway-based and reminiscent of The Rockettes.<ref name=Hill/> In addition to Gleason's show, the June Taylor Dancers also made appearances at the General Motors Motorama auto shows in New York City and Boston and on Stage Show. Gleason and Taylor also worked together to produce a television ballet, Tawny,<ref name=Bud>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1953; the music was done by Gleason and the choreography by Taylor.<ref name=bio/><ref name=NYT/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1954, Gleason doubled the size of the dancers from sixteen to thirty-two.<ref name=Women>Template:Cite book</ref> Taylor won an Emmy Award for choreography in 1955.<ref name=June/><ref name=NYT/><ref name=Blade/><ref name=Esterbrook/>

The group of sixteen female dancers that performed Taylor's choreography on The Jackie Gleason Show, was an incredibly talented group of women who produced an immense body of work and had a profound impact on the development of tap dance as an art form through the 1950s and 1960s.<ref name=Constance>Template:Cite book</ref> At this time, tap dancers were struggling to find work as the public lost interest in tap and the professional dance economy collapsed. This so-called “death of tap” occurred for a variety of reasons, including new styles of music like bebop and rock and roll, musicals such as Oklahoma! bringing ballet to the Broadway stage, laws taxing cabaret performances, and the growing ubiquity of television in people's homes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The complexity and excitement of a live tap performance simply did not translate to the small television screens. Blurry, pixelated screens and crude camerawork meant that the nuances of the movement were lost, and a dance form as specific and precise as tap suffered the most. This required stylistic innovation, with choreography that focused more on the larger shapes of the body instead of the intricate rhythms of the feet, so that it would appear dynamic on a small screen. Additionally, while professional dancers could previously perform the same routines again and again, television required an entirely new routine week after week. June Taylor took this in stride, telling The New York Times that “one of the first things I learned in television was the necessity of varying the style of the dancing each week … people want something new.”<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Taylor's choreography does show a remarkable amount of variety, both within a single dance to keep viewers entertained and from week to week.

One dance from the April 21, 1956, episode, titled “Bumble Boogie,” features a 13-year-old violin prodigy playing live while the dancers in bumblebee costumes spin and tap around him. The dance features a range of steps from classical ballet pique turns and saut de basques to popular lindy hop and Charleston steps. The formational changes are complex, and the movement is all very precisely timed, requiring an immense amount of rehearsal in just one week. Other dances they performed on the show involve complex tap dance sequences, kicklines, and even twirling and throwing hula hoops. They often involve June Taylor's signature overhead kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeley-esque shots, in which the dancers lie on the floor in a circle and move their legs to create different shapes together, an effect that could not be produced in a traditional stage setting.<ref name=Hill/> Due to the specific demands of television, the expectations of dancers changed, and it seems that those expectations became much harder to fulfill, as many dancers were not able to keep up. This emphasizes the unique hard work and success of June Taylor and her dancers, as they stepped up to fill the new roles created by the medium of television.

Mercedes Ellington, granddaughter of Duke Ellington and daughter of Mercer Ellington, became the group's first and only African-American dancer in 1963.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In a Dance Magazine article after Taylor's death, Mercedes Ellington emphasized Taylor's role as a mentor in her career, saying that “she looked after me.”<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1964, Gleason moved his television show to the Miami Beach Civic Auditorium.<ref name=Theatre>Template:Cite book</ref> As a result, Taylor closed her dance school in New York in 1964<ref name=Female/> and moved to Florida where she found that her health improved.<ref name=Theatre/> In 1965, the June Taylor Dancers added male performers to the troupe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Later career

In 1978, Taylor, who lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after Gleason moved production of his show from New York to Miami Beach, began choreographing the Miami Dolphins cheerleading squad, the Dolphin Starbrites, and served in this capacity until 1990.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=Blade/><ref name=Ledger>Template:Cite news</ref> The Starbrites, famous for their one-piece bathing suits and go-go boots, performed Broadway-style halftime shows.<ref name=Esterbrook>Template:Cite web</ref> In February 1992, she produced and directed UNICEF's A Tribute to the World's Children.<ref name=Friedler>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1991, Taylor was honored for her contributions to dance at the Capezio Awards.<ref name=Friedler/>

Personal life and death

Taylor's father died in 1968 after killing his current wife and himself in a murder-suicide.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Her mother died in February 1977 at 79 years old.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She married theatrical attorney Sol Lerner in 1945;<ref name=Osgood/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the couple had no children.<ref name=June/><ref name=bio/> Lerner died in 1986<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Her sister, and sometime dance partner, Marilyn Taylor Horwich, became Jackie Gleason's third wife in 1975.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Taylor died on May 16, 2004, at the Miami Heart Institute, in Miami, Florida, from natural causes, aged 86.<ref name=Sun/><ref name=Blade/><ref name=Esterbrook/> She is buried in Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery in Miami, near Gleason's outdoor mausoleum.<ref name=NYT/> and next to her husband and attorney, Sol Lerner.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In addition to her sister, Taylor was survived by a nephew, Craig Horwich.<ref name=Ledger/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Credits

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