Jimmy Mordecai (July 11, 1905 – May 7, 1966) also known as James Mordecai was an American, Harlem-based

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tap dancer Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...

in the 1920s and 1930s. He featured in the 1929 short film ''

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'', and starred in the 1930

Vitaphone Varieties Vitaphone Varieties is a series title (represented by a pennant logo on screen) used for all of Warner Bros.', earliest short film "talkies" of the 1920s, initially made using the Vitaphone sound on disc process before a switch to the sound-on-f ...

musical short film, ''Yarmekraw'', based on

James P. Johnson James Price Johnson (February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key ...

's song of the same name.

Career

Mordecai was born in New York City on July 11, 1905. His father was Samuel Mordecai and his mother Edith Wilhelm. His parents immigrated to the United States from British West Indies in 1901 through Cuba. He was in the cast of a 1924 touring show called ''Cotton Land'', with music by James P. Johnson. He was a member of a popular dance trio, Wells, Mordecai and Taylor – Dickie Wells ''(né'' Richard Wells; 1907–1949) and Ernest Taylor (died 1934) – the trio also was known as the Hot Feet Boys and the Three Klassy Kids, with whom he performed at the

Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a 20th-century nightclub in New York City. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1936, then briefly in the midtown Theater District until 1940. The club operated during the United States' era of P ...

in 1930 with a

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revue called ''Brown Sugar (Sweet But Unrefined)''. In that revue, he danced with Cora LaRedd, a renowned tap dancer active at the time. In 1929, Mordecai began a brief film career, featured opposite

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's short, ''

''. Basically a vehicle for Smith (her only known film appearance) and for the music of W.C. Handy and the bandleader James P. Johnson, the film featured Mordecai as "Jimmy the Pimp", Smith's two-timing lover. Mordecai also played the lead role in Murray Roth's 1930 film ''Yamekraw'', and a minor role in Dudley Murphy's 1933 ''

The Emperor Jones ''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed ...

'', which starred

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

. By 1936, Mordecai was the host and master of ceremonies at The Theatrical Grill, a Harlem nightclub on West 134th Street managed by Dickie Wells (Mordecai's former dancing partner, and a notorious Harlem gigolo — not to be confused with jazz trombonist,

Dicky Wells William Wells (June 10, 1907 or 1909 – November 12, 1985), known professionally as Dicky Wells (sometimes Dickie Wells), was an American jazz trombonist. Early life Wells was born in Centerville, Tennessee. Early in his life, he lived in Cent ...

). A Jimmie Mordecai was cited, along with one Arizona Coffman, in a February 15, 1943, conviction in the City Magistrates Court of the City of New York, for selling liquor without a license from the basement of a Harlem establishment called the Frog Club, but it is unclear that this is the same Jimmy Mordecai. Mordecai died in New York City on May 7, 1966, from a heart attack. He left a wife, Lucille Graves, and four children. Richard (Junie), Lionel (snookie), Joyce and Paul.

Filmography

*''

'' (1929) *''

Yamekraw ''Yamekraw, a Negro Rhapsody'' is a jazz musical composition written by James P. Johnson in 1927 about a neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia. It was a response to George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue''. It was initially composed for the piano, but w ...

'' (1930)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mordecai, Jimmy 1905 births 1966 deaths American male dancers American tap dancers