Mable Lee

Mable Lee started dancing at the age of three and was still dancing past the age of eighty. She was performing in public at the age of four; by twelve she was dancing in night clubs in her native Atlanta. At nineteen, she went north to New York City where she got her first job dancing in the chorus at the West End Theater on West 125th Street in Harlem. She was soon soloing at the Apollo Theater, as well as appearing in comedy skits with comics like Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham and John 'Spider Bruce' Mason. After appearing in USO shows during World War II, Mable went before the cameras, appearing at least one hundred Soundies until about 1946, when she went to Europe for a time. Upon her return to the States, she starred in the 1952 Broadway revival of "Shuffle Along," and would later appear in the national touring company of the Broadway musical "Bubblin' Brown Sugar" (1976). In 2008, Mable Lee was named to the American Tap Dance Association Hall of Fame.