Atkins, Cholly
Howard Rye (Author)
[Charles; the Man with the Moves]( b Birmingham, AL, Sept 30, 1913; d Las Vegas, NV, April 19, 2003). American dancer. Tennessee Birth Records, a 1944 marriage certificate, and the Nevada Death Index document his vital records. His parents moved to Buffalo when he was four, and he later began his professional career in the area as a singing waiter. In 1933 he met the dancer Bill (William) Porter, and the two men formed an act, the Rhythm Pals; in 1935 they went to New York, after which they toured widely until 1939, incorporating a residency at Sebastian’s New Cotton Club in Los Angeles in 1938. In 1936 Atkins married the Cotton Club dancer Catherine Gayle Williams, who enjoyed a distinguished career in social work in Iowa after her retirement from show business in 1942. In 1939 he returned to New York and began dancing with and choreographing for the Cotton Club Boys, appearing with them in the show ..
Encyclopedia Article, 2002
Oxford Music Online, 20020120
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002