LeRoy Broomfield

LeRoy Broomfield (1902–1971) was an American dancer, choreographer, producer, and dance instructor whose career spanned stage, film, and international touring productions.

Broomfield was the adopted son of Jack Broomfield, an African American businessman and noted criminal from North Omaha, Nebraska. He was raised in the Near North Side neighborhood, close to the community's center at 24th and Lake Streets. His father's resources gave him early access to capital, and by 1919 Broomfield was operating the Monarch Billiards hall and Monarch Hall out of his father's building at 14th and Dodge. He closed those ventures in 1923 and launched a real estate firm in North Omaha, which subsequently merged with his father's operation to become the Broomfield and Son Real Estate Company. The combined enterprise grew to hold more than 100 properties across Omaha and in Gary, Indiana. When Jack Broomfield died in 1927, Leroy inherited a substantial sum that enabled his relocation to Los Angeles, California, where he would spend the remainder of his life.

His performing career began in the early 1920s when a three-day engagement by the Smart Set Company came through Omaha. Working as a chorus boy during that production, Broomfield caught the attention of producers Salem Tutt Whitney and J. Tutt, known as the Tutt Brothers, partly at the urging of his uncle. The brothers brought him to New York City, where he studied dance under Ted Shawn and appeared on Broadway in the 1923 musical How Come?. It was during this New York period that he met Aurora Greeley, who became his long-term dancing partner.

Broomfield and Greeley went on to hold a residency at Frank Sebastian's Cotton Club in Culver City, California, from 1926 to 1938. The venue was regarded as the most popular jazz club in the Los Angeles area and the largest indoor entertainment space in Southern California during that era. Between engagements at the Cotton Club, the two led touring troupes on circuits that included destinations across the United States and in China. A photograph of Broomfield in costume, taken alongside Ubangi Club dancers in 1937, is held today in the collection of California State University Northridge.

Broomfield also accumulated a filmography that included The Lady Fare (1929), The Virginia Judge (1935), in which he played the role of Willie Gaylor, and So Red the Rose (1935). In 1942 he appeared in Close Shave, a short musical film featuring Broomfield and Greeley alongside music recorded from John Kirby's orchestra, produced by R.G.M. Productions.

Broomfield died in 1971. His death went unacknowledged in the press, and his gravesite location remains unknown.