He earned money selling newspapers at a street corner - he’d get extra change by doing a few steps. Soon he was studying formally, getting a discount because his father volunteered to help out at the dance studio. While his siblings pursued other careers - the military, banking, education, firefighting - young Arthur found the arts irresistible, catching the bug when a couple of grade school buddies recruited him to join their would-be dance team.

“Our parents were very concerned about education and well-being,” Duncan said.

James Duncan later worked for a local oil company, Duncan recalled, and the family became part of a tightknit Black community in the Pasadena area that valued hard work, thrift and education. 25, 1925, in Pasadena, the sixth of 13 children to Corabel LaMar and James Alfred Ernest Duncan, who worked as a merchant seaman before settling in Southern California, according to family members and Duncan himself during an interview in August. It wasn’t difficult for him to do.”ĭuncan was born on Sept. “They couldn’t have picked a better person like that. “He was safe for them and safe for us,” said Cunningham, who also is Black and later became Duncan’s friend. Always a gentleman.”ĭancer, teacher and entertainer Skip Cunningham used to admire Duncan from afar on the weekly broadcasts. Never had a bad word to say about anybody.

“During the 1960s, there were only two shows on television where you could see tap dancing every week: Friday on ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ for Talent Round-Up Day, and Sundays with Arthur Duncan with a featured dance on ‘The Lawrence Welk Show,’ ” said dance historian Rusty Frank, author of “Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars And Their Stories 1900-1955.” “These were the days before digital recorders, streaming TV and YouTube, so if you wanted to see tap dancing, you had to sit in front of that television at the specific airing time.” Tap was no longer the dance of the streets, concert halls or Broadway. Tap greats were still around, but jobs had long ago dried up.ĭuncan honed his skills as big bands - which often hired tappers - made way for rock bands, and jazz players - who often made their rhythmic inventions alongside hoofers - moved to smaller venues and more experimental musical forms for which tap dancers need not apply. It wasn’t just Duncan’s presence on the Welk show from 1964 to 1982 that mattered, but what he did: virtuoso tap dancing at a time when the art form had become virtually invisible.

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