Willie Eugene Bailey
American, 1912 - 1978
Names
- Willie Eugene Bailey
- Bill Bailey
BiographyWillie Eugene "Bill" Bailey was born on December 8, 1912 in Virginia. He was an American tapdancer. At eighteen years old, Bailey was discovered in New York by Lew Leslie and put in his production Blackbirds of 1930. After the production, he and Derby Wilson, another prominent taps act, formed a team that challenged each other at the Cotton Club and toured with Duke Ellington when his band traveled to Europe in 1933. Then, Bailey and Wilson went solo. In 1946, after years of struggling with drug addictions, Bailey left show business to study religion and open a church in Harlem near the Apollo Theater. He was married to Pernell Bailey. He died on December 12, 1978, in Philadelphia.
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