The Four Step Brothers (1954) | Feets Do Your Stuff

Some of the best dancing I've seen on camera.

[@lemurianchick]

I remember seeing them before and there is a clip on here somewhere where they jump from these different cubes on stage and I think it has millions of hits. It's unbelievable.

[@TonyaNogames1234]

I LOVE MY PEOPLE, WE ARE SO TALENTED IN EVERYTHING WE DO. DANCE FELLAS!!!!👏🏾✊🏾

[@paulgittelsohn8965]

From September 1978 to April 1979 I was a street musician in San Francisco, playing ragtimey and old jazz songs on Banjo-Mandolin, calling myself "The Bawdy Balladeer". For a few days I teamed up with a young woman tap dancer named Rusty Frank. We were performing near the Powell and Market Street cable car turnaround when an elderly man holding a shoe bag asked if he could tap dance with Rusty to my accompaniment. He proceeded to lace up his leather tap shoes and began to tap dance on the sidewalk. He was absolutely amazing. A huge crowd gathered around. After about three tunes he put his tap shoes back into the little shoe bag and introduced himself. Unfortunately, I don't remember his name but he said he was one of the original Four Step Brothers and was in San Francisco performing in a tap dance revival show. That was 24 years after he danced in this 1954 video.

[@rustyfrank]

And now here is that very Rusty Frank. We have been reunited after all of these years!

[@janettucker3196]

I remember these amazing dancers from way back on television. Love seeing all the comments from others who also saw them on the Ed Sullivan show and were thrilled by their performance.

[@i-35vagabond56]

I remember seeing The Step Brothers on The Ed Sullivan Show back in the 1960's. I thought they were the most entertaining guests that ever was on that show.

[@areannamitchell1851]

We are some phenomenal entertainers and moreeeee💪🏿❤❤❤

[@coachfonde]

Yeah sis 💯

[@jameswaggoner3124]

If white people said that you would call them racist

[@TricksterDa123]

I used to watch them on TV when I was a little boy. I remember that hand clap, foot stomp beat they had. it used to fascinate me to no end. Fond memories, indeed. Though they appear here on the Peter Lind Hayes variety show, I saw them more frequently on the Ed Sullivan Show, and that was because no other variety show of the era consistently showcased black acts like the Ed Sullivan show.

[@N2LADIES55]

I'm been a fan of theirs for decades and they were amazing dancers.

[@loahmadaidid1986]

The Nickeless Brothers. Wherr Awesome

[@dr.thrive1812]

LEGENDS!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😎🕺🏾

[@liteskinnedbobbybrown6256]

Demond Wilson aka Lamont Sanford,obviously used some of these moves on his dance routines on Sanford & Son

[@charmaine1775]

Every kid wanted to tap dance in the 80's...💛

[@alfalfa5271958]

No, they did not!

[@MrOverdogg]

pure showmanship and greatness

[@iveywebb]

Welp, I'm about to look up as much footage as I can on them 🤷🏾‍♀️💖.

[@terreciakennedy3265]

Me too. Lol

[@iveywebb]

@@terreciakennedy3265 lol 💯

[@rickglorie]

What raw power, so talented musically, the rythm, dance, the entire act is real.

[@normal2954]

Smooth.

[@arabiamcmahan5778]

Black people; we ARE some powerful, intelligent, and talented people! Always have been and always will be 💯✊

[@Benet1nOnly]

Thank you❣ for posting this priceless footage.

[@fiordalizatorres6962]

Are ancestors will never be Forgotten ✊🏾

[@jamesbarber4765]

Excellent 👍 content. Thank you

[@MrRudyc]

What Talent

[@Jesus_is_God279]

I try not to comment on you tube much. But Reelback I thank you soo much for sharing this. I took tap dancing as a credit class in high school. I knew nothing about it but was determined to learn it. I wasn't that good, but my instructors picked me to tap with a few of my other class mates at the Smithsonian. In the class we went to see Jelly's last Jam on stage. Took dance classes from well known local dancers. It was amazing. As I have gotten older I released why they wanted to introduce tap to my generation. Because it's cultural history was fading. They wanted to introduce to us and old style put it in our hands and a battalion and have us to carry it on to the next generation. Not to bring up colour, but I notice that most of the people you see tapping today are whites. The classes are filled with whites. They have come to be appreciative of this magnificent form if art today than we as blacks are. Just to think about it Jean Kelly and Fred Astaire were white tap dancers that came to love the art and navigated to a different style. My main point is the cultural history of this dance started with African Americans and man this filmed showed the creativity, style, and effortlessness. Man! Anyone that knows about tap knows it is a language and I am hearing the four brothers loud and clear!!! Thanks again for sharing. I with I saw more African Americans tapping like this today.

[@brendaann727]

Everyone had their own unique style and were legends in their own right. I miss the old style and yes it would be great if more did it today!

[@uprightdoublebass]

I wish real life cops were this cool.

[@brendaann727]

Yea really! There are some dancing traffic directing police out there though, some doing dance challenges, and even a dancing police horse. No tapping though...

[@-oiiio-3993]

Great stuff!

[@BozemanHomeImproveme]

My father was one of the stepbrothers and i have been trying to find footage on him for sometime.. He replaced Prince Spencer after he left..

[@brendaann727]

Do you know Tammy Liggins? She commented on the video "The Four Step Brothers 1943". Sounds like your relative. Hope you find footage. Comment on every video of theirs and someone may turn up with it eventually. What year did he replace him?

[@heathertea2704]

All RIGHT now!!! 👏👏👏

[@dancingheartltd6646]

Wow..❤ this! Actually thought I was in church watching someone shouting😀

[@sheranda77]

Them fellas was jammin!

[@zoraidagarcia625]

So many thanks, reelblack, for posting this. I had not seen these great dancers yet and they are incredible. When you said that they incorporated different music styles to their show, Afro-Cuban style included, may I tell you that I noticed in one of them certain steps I had seen from the Aragón Orchestra singer. Aragón was one of the most important Cuban orchestras of all times. They made the cha-cha-chá very famous and their sound was lovely, mostly because of the violins they had and the singers and other musicians had a section to perform some dance steps. Bring more of the Four Brothers when you can. Take a lot of care these days.

[@ES2990]

What exactly is the Afro-Cuban element in this dance? It looks like tap, swing, and lindy hop and the charleston, but I could be wrong.

[@jamesmiller3816]

Try, if possible, to get some footage on the Mills Brothers, and the Ink Spots. Keep up the excellent work. REEL BLACK!!

[@marieperez8330]

Awesome!!!!

[@rickimhotep1236]

I think one of them is Al (Wilson) from that Sanford and Son episode - The Stand-in💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿

[@jasminevirgo9811]

Alright talented brothers.🏋🏋🏋🏋🏋💃💃💃💃🙋🙋🙋

[@trainluvr]

The NYC subway fare was a nickel from 1904 to 1948. By 1953 it was fifteen cents. Society's managers were as inept then as now, with the working class having to scramble to adjust and make do. Unthinkably long walking distances become thinkable when you simply don't have the means to pay a fare that tripled in five years. Reelblack is one of my favorite channels, brought to me by Dick Gregory!

[@manuelr.knippingreynoso1371]

Peace Peace Peace FAMILY

[@cikidi1]

My people is the best that was liv

[@barbaraibubeleye3316]

We are number 1 in everything!🎩🎩🎩🎵🎵🎵🗝🗝🗝

[@williechill786]

That was Tuff!!

[@ericcarter2795]

Nothing bad about two brothers that was dancing what I see busy brighten up their faces as much as they could laughing my ass off

[@DetroitLives313]

I was going to ask if they were really brothers, but I see in the description that they were not. They were great though.

[@donnasloane9031]

I was watching this at age 6 and later took lessons from Maceo....His grave plot says: WHATCH YOUR STEP

[@dizzlenizzel4422]

at 5:17 it sounds like these cats said BULLSHIT ! LMBAO !!😁

[@commanderwatchman9994]

When men were men?

[@joefagan6244]

Wondering how much wear and tear they used in their tap shoes.

[@CRMunir1]

SMILEY.

[@gwattsrealestate]

What show was that The Host had some smove moves

[@waynelewis8355]

😎🎶👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👍🏽🙏🏽🧡

[@ES2990]

What exactly is the Afro-Cuban element in their dance?

[@davidmorrison5186]

Fiiiiiiife

[@checkmate545]

Does anyone tap anymore lol.

[@brendaann727]

Yea they do!

[@victorcunoswingtap9069]

A question: you mark the year 1954 and the Peter Lind Hayes Show... According to Imdb this show lasted for only one season, 1950/51 and no mention of the Step Brothers. Could this performance come from another TV show?

[@reelblack]

IMDb is authoritative but not definitive. There’s a few things on the channel that they have no record of. I’m glad you researched. This is from a series that aired on CBS.

[@swingtapParis]

@@reelblack Thanks a lot for your quick return! I am a tap dancer and researcher, working actually on the Step Brother's routines, therefore the interest in dating...

[@christlegreen9458]

...and counting.

[@fatimahlee7355]

7th

[@conniemcmillian7010]

It's a damn shame grown black men were called boys back then. Still called boys. These peckawoods make me so sick. Anyway, those brothas could dance their butt off. Pure talent.

[@MemoGrafix]

Because they ALLOWED it, they should have shot the shit out of the KaveAnimals. Back in those days it was way easier to get guns legally/illegally. Too bad people relied on GEEzus so much back then.

[@tyedrichill8097]

Both of y'all are tripping. Peckawoods is a better term than boys.

[@SugarBearMosher]

Boys in this essence was not meant as a negative reference.

[@brendaann727]

If you were around in the era, men of many shades called each other boys; even in the military, private life, or entertainment. It was kind of like a chummy term. They were awesome! Wish they were still tapping around today!

[@NamesKavell]

First

[@reveroneveron9230]

Someone put your hand out again😉😞

[@magovenor]

What was that “...well boys,”, shit about. Those were grown men, not a boy amongst them.

[@SugarBearMosher]

Boys was not meant as a negative in this essence.

[@brendaann727]

It wasn't uncommon back then for men of many shades to call each other boys! Today the equivalent would probably be bruhs!

[@checkmate545]

However, you just couldn't and wouldn't beat Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire for pure perfection 👍

[@AlexRides808]

They were good. But they didnt have the athleticism or stamina of the guys or the Nicholas brothers.

[@Kyohan137]

Nobody did the Nicholas brothers are in a class by themselves and don’t sleep on Sammy Davis jr.

[@checkmate545]

@@AlexRides808 Nicholas Bros were totally in a league of their own. No one and I mean no one could do their routine today. I've seen more dance videos on here than most folk's and the style of dance today has gone out of the window 😭😭😭😭

[@deniseworsham8559]

They both were good students.

[@heathertea2704]

@@Kyohan137 Sammy Davis Jr. was DANGEROUS. 🔥 BAD man.