Research Catalog
The HistoryMakers video oral history with Elaine Ellis.
- Title
- The HistoryMakers video oral history with Elaine Ellis.
- Publication
- Chicago, Illinois : The HistoryMakers, [2016]
Available Online
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- 1 online resource (2 video files (49 min., 46 sec.)) : sound, color.
- Summary
- Dancer Elaine Ellis was born on November 30, 1917, in Panama. After graduating from Jamaica High School, Ellis taught typing and eventually became a traveling instructor. Interested in going into business for herself, Ellis owned and operated a dry cleaners and later a cosmetics counter. Not wanting to own a business, Ellis answered an open call at the Cotton Club and was the last chorus girl hired, in 1939. When the Cotton Club closed in 1940, Ellis went on to perform at Café Zanzibar and the Apollo Theater. She performed with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Duke Ellington, and others during this period. Ellis eventually quit dancing to begin a twenty-five year bartending career. In 1986, Ellis was invited to join the Silver Belles, a group of former chorus girls who regularly perform at the Cotton Club. The Silver Belles were the subject of the documentary Been Rich All My Life. Ellis passed away December 21, 2013.
- Alternative Title
- History Makers video oral history with Elaine Ellis
- Elaine Ellis
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Internet videos.
- Interviews.
- Nonfiction films.
- Oral histories.
- Credits (note)
- Videographer, Neculai Burghelea.
- OCLC
- 1003150574
- Title
- The HistoryMakers video oral history with Elaine Ellis.
- Publisher
- Chicago, Illinois : The HistoryMakers, [2016]
- Country of Producing Entity
- United States naf
- Playing Time
- 004946
- Type of Content
- two-dimensional moving image
- Type of Medium
- computer
- Type of Carrier
- online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
- video file
- Performer
- Adrienne Jones, interviewer.
- Credits
- Videographer, Neculai Burghelea.
- Event
- Recorded New York, New York 2007 October 25.
- Source of description
- Vendor-supplied metadata.
- Connect to:
- Indexed Term
- Dancer.
- Added Author
- Ellis, Elaine, 1917-2013, interviewee.Jones, Adrienne (Interviewer), interviewer.Burghelea, Neculai, director of photography.HistoryMakers (Video oral history collection), production company.