THe Cake Walk - AC Style

It is believed that the African American dance form, the Cake Walk, originated on plantations in the deep South.

In the era before emancipation the best dancers would form a Cake Walk line and tradition states the winner often received a cake..thus the popular term, " That really takes the cake."

Atlantic City- and Young's Pier - was the first resort to feature Cake Walk dancers with African Americans as a popular act for tourists. Pictured here is a troupe posing on the pier circa 1910.

In later years white dancers would use black face to imitate the dancers but the genuine art form was an African American original. I would have loved to see this act in person.

Emil

( from the collection of Joseph Milligan III )