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"The Lady with the Famous Walk"
started her career in Vaudeville at a very young age. Studied
dance as a child with Ned Wayburn and would be billed as
the "Baby Vamp." Would later star in movies, and
made her big screen debut in 1932 in the movie entitled
"Night after Night." Her last film before censorship
forced her out of Hollywood was "The Heat Is On"
in 1943. It would be over twenty years before she made another
film.
She would later appear on television
and write her own plays / manuscripts, such as "Sex"
(1926) for which she would be arrested. It is said she created
the "Shimmy
Sha Wabble" dance (aka the Shimmy.) However
Gilda
Gray is the more popular theory due thru her use of
Advertising. Mae West would later challenge Gray and Bee
Palmer's claim by stating it was her who first did the Shimmy
and Palmer and Gray copied her and capitalized on it. West
goes on to say "she didn't care as she wanted to be
known as an actress not a dancer". However the Bulfrog
Hop song written in 1908 pre dates Gray's, Palmer and Wests
stories by 10 years.
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