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Stage Name

Birth Name

Harriet Hoctor Harriet Hoctor

-- The daughter of Timothy and Elizabeth Kearny Hoctor. Harriet started studying dance at the age of twelve, first with Chalif and later Tarasoff, Anton Dolan, Merriel Abbott and Nicholas Legat as her instructors. At seventeen she found herself in Los Angeles doing vaudeville with the Keith Circuit and meet the Duncan sisters, who got her a part in "Topsy and Eva". After Topsy, Harriet went back to vaudeville and worked with William Holbrook until she meet Rosalie Stewart, who would help her achieve stardom.

    She did many dances as well as some Vaudeville and Burlesque shows at the Palace Theater and later becoming a featured dancer in the 1929 Ziegfeld Follies. Hoctor danced in a few movies and portrayed her famous "Backbend" dance (see pic) which brought her the title of "America's Most Cleverest Ballerina". Harriet opened her own school in 1941 called the "Harriet Hoctor's Boston Ballet School".

   Harriet danced with a cheerfulness and energy but rarely smiled, this would get her dubbed as "The Lady Who Never Smiles". When asked about it, she didn't care if anyone wanted her to smile, she was dancing for herself, not what anyone thought. Harriet loved to dance and danced only for the feeling it gave her. Every one loved Harriet as a person and dancer.

Harriet Hoctor Autograph

Birth Place

Birth Date

Spouse

Offspring

Hosick Falls, NY 9/25/1903 - 6/9/77 not married n/a
 

Dance Types

Dance Partners

Music Titles

Ballet Chalif n/a
Ballroom Duncan Sisters      
Bird Dance (in Topsy and Eva) Tarasoff      
Contemporary Dance William Holbrook      
Fairy Doll Dance            
Jazz            
Tap            
Toe-Tapping (en Pointe)            
 

Night Clubs

Theaters

Stage

n/a 1927/30 - Ziegfeld Theater 1924/26 - Topsy and Eva
      1927/30 - Palace Theater 1927 - A la Carte
      1931 - Roxy Theater 1928 - Three Muskateers
      1931/32 - N.Y. Hippodrome 1929 - Ziegfeld Follies
            1930 - Simple Simon
            Various Ziegfeld Revues
            1932 - Earl Carroll Vanities
            1933 - Hold Your Horses
            1942 - Diamond Horseshoe
            Varieties
            1972 - Reigner
 

Films

Television

Publications

$1936 - The Great Ziegfeld n/a 11/1927 - Dance Magazine
1937 - Billy Rose Casa Manaña       12/1927 - Dance Magazine
1937 - Hollywood       1936 - Ballet is Magic (book)
$1937 - Shall We Dance            
1938 - Casa Manaña Review            
1942 - Diamond Horseshoe            
NOTE:
October 10, 2005
http://www.Streetswing.com/histmain/d5index.htm

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