Ernest Brown

Ernest "Brownie" Brown (April 25, 1916 – August 21, 2009) was an African American tap dancer and last surviving member of the Original Copasetics. He was the dance partner of Charles "Cookie" Cook, with whom he performed from the days of vaudeville into the 1960s, and of Reginald McLaughlin, also known as "Reggio the Hoofer," from 1996 until Brown's death in 2009.

Early life Ernest Brown was born on April 25, 1916, in Chicago, Illinois, where he professionally danced as a child.

Career

Early career At age thirteen, Brown met his longtime dance partner Charles “Cookie” Cook, with whom he performed until the 1960s. They performed in acts such as Garbage And His Two Cans, in which they played the garbage cans, and Sarah Venable's Mammy And Her Picks. They performed with Duke Ellington, Eartha Kitt, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, and other jazz legends.

In 1934, Cookie and Brownie opened at New York's Cotton Club, and for over forty years, they headlined in vaudeville, performing at theaters such as New York's Palace, Palladium, Apollo, Roxy Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, the Cotton Club, and at the London Palladium and Latin Casino in Paris.

Copasetics On December 5, 1949, Brown became a founding member of the Copasetics, a tap group honoring Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who had died earlier that year, as well as reviving the art of tap. The Copasetics got their name from Bojangles’ famous expression “everything’s copasetic,” meaning “excellent,” and along with Brownie, the group consisted of composer Billy Strayhorn, choreographer Cholly Atkins, Charles “Cookie” Cook, and Honi Coles. Tap dance at this point was declining in popularity in favor of ballet and modern dance on Broadway, but the Copasetics kept it alive through annual dance reviews, boat trips, fundraisers and personal initiatives. tap historian Jane Goldberg wrote, "He had an amazing sense of 'entitlement' in a good way. He always felt he belonged on the stage, shaking his shoulders in that jazzy, goofy move he was known for, even while Honi Coles was cutting Gregory Hines in a tap battle, or other of the greats were there. I don’t think Brownie was tap as much as jazz, and he had a wonderful feeling for jazz."