Jimmy Slyde

There is an interesting piece in the Fall 2008 The Threepenny Review by Brian Seibert on the legendary tap dancer and aptly named Jimmy Slyde.

Except for Peg Leg Bates and Sandman Sims, the great tap dancer with the most illustrative name was Jimmy Slyde. Printed on a program or spoken by an announcer, the name told audiences what to expect: a man named Jimmy, not James or Jim, was going to slide around the stage, and as the unorthodox spelling hinted, he was going to do it without losing his cool. He was born James Titus Godbolt in 1927, but it was as Jimmy Slyde that he began a professional career that lasted from the mid-Forties up until his death this past May, and it is as Jimmy Slyde that he will be remembered.