Jeni Le Gon

Jeni Le Gon, born Jennie Ligon on August 14, 1916, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American dancer, actress, and dance instructor who became one of the first African-American women to establish a solo career in tap dance. She died on December 7, 2012. Her father, Hector Ligon, worked as both a chef and a railway porter, and her mother, Harriet Bell Ligon, was a housewife. Le Gon grew up in Chicago's Black Belt neighborhood, completed Sexton Elementary School in 1928, and at age thirteen auditioned successfully for the chorus line of bandleader Count Basie. She subsequently attended Englewood High School for one year.

Le Gon's professional performing career began in 1931, when she traveled across the southern United States with the Whitman Sisters company. Two years later, she and her half-sister Willa Mae Lane formed a song-and-dance duo called LeGon and Lane, which brought them to Detroit to work with nightclub owner Leonard Reed. An offer to perform in Hollywood with composer Shelton Brooks drew the pair west, though the promised engagement did not materialize upon their arrival. Le Gon then auditioned for a film Fox Studios was producing, with the audition organized by Earl Dancer, formerly the manager of Ethel Waters. She won the part and went on to appear in dance numbers in several film musicals.

In 1935, Le Gon signed with RKO Pictures to serve as the dancing partner of Bill Robinson in Hooray for Love, a film that also featured Fats Waller. That same year she performed in a London production of the revue At Home Abroad, taking over numbers that Waters and Eleanor Powell had performed in the Broadway version. During her time in Hollywood she worked alongside performers including Waters and Al Jolson, and she danced on film with both Fred Astaire and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, becoming the first African-American woman to do so. MGM offered her a long-term contract, making Le Gon the first African-American woman to receive such an arrangement from the studio, though the contract was subsequently cancelled.

Her Broadway career spanned 1936 to 1943. She portrayed the character Jenny in the musical Black Rhythm in 1936 and played Lily Ann in the musical Early to Bed in 1943. Beyond Broadway, Le Gon performed at venues including the Apollo, Cafe de Paris, Howard, Paramount, and Lincoln Theaters. In 1947 she appeared in Hi-De-Ho, a full-length musical film with an all-Black cast, playing Minnie the Moocher, the treacherous girlfriend of Cab Calloway's character. In the early 1950s she appeared on the televised version of Amos 'n' Andy, and in 2001 she had a role in the film Bones.

In 1943, Le Gon married composer, conductor, and pianist Phil Moore. Together they composed the song "The Sping," which Lena Horne performed in the film Panama Hattie. Le Gon owned and operated the Jeni LeGon Dance Studio in Los Angeles and also managed the Drama and Dance Playhouse in that city. In 1969 she relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, where she taught tap and pointe. The National Film Board of Canada released a documentary about her life in 1999, titled Jeni Le Gon: Living in a Great Big Way, directed by Grant Greshuk and produced by Selwyn Jacob.

Le Gon received numerous honors over the course of her life. She was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002. Oklahoma City University awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2002. Her personal papers are housed at the Smithsonian Institution.