# Belated obit for original Earl “Snakehips” Tucker **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 18, 2019, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052 "2019-12-18T22:31:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/1 "2019-12-18T22:31:50Z")
The NY Times has just published an obituary of Earl Snakehips Tucker, who died in 1937, aged 31, part of its “overlooked no more” series ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/2 "2019-12-18T23:11:20Z")
He is a better poster from beyond the grave than the rest of us living mediocrities. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/3 "2019-12-18T23:41:46Z")
He was someone outside of here? Hmm. I thought this thread was about the SDMB poster, and feel misled. But that could be all on me for not knowing there was another. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/4 "2019-12-19T00:00:08Z")
[Earl “Snakehips” Tucker in action.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGxYSWb1sro) ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/5 "2019-12-19T00:02:12Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Earl “Snakehips” Tucker in action.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGxYSWb1sro) I need to take a couple Ibuprofen just watching that. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/6 "2019-12-19T01:11:04Z")
So why didn’t they have to show that guy from the waist up? Oh wait, 1930, so it’s pre-code. Nice to see Vernon Dent before the Stooges. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/7 "2019-12-19T01:22:28Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Earl “Snakehips” Tucker in action.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGxYSWb1sro) Well, his nickname was certainly well earned. Hokey smokes. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/8 "2019-12-19T02:13:52Z")
You can tell it’s the sort of thing that most professional dancers could do quite easily nowadays but that probably blew people away back then. Like a modern guitarist listening to a Chuck Berry or something. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/9 "2019-12-19T02:54:06Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Earl “Snakehips” Tucker in action.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGxYSWb1sro) > [@pool](#): > > You can tell it’s the sort of thing that most professional dancers could do quite easily nowadays but that probably blew people away back then. Like a modern guitarist listening to a Chuck Berry or something. [Kinda reminds me of David Byrne](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLk6bUvS6Ic) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belated-obit-for-original-earl-snakehips-tucker/845052/10 "2019-12-19T18:38:10Z")
And supposedly he is one of the dancers in Duke Ellington’s [Sympohony in Black (1935)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027068/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). Personally, I’m not convinced it’s Tucker, but better scholars than I say so. He also appears in a doc called [That’s Black Entertainment (1990).](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100768/). This has some rare vintage of various Black entertainers from the 1930s thru the 1950s. A 300-pound tap dancer (whose name I don’t recall), Crip Hearn, a one-legged dancer, Frank ‘Sugar Chile’ Robinson, a young piano prodigy, and George ‘Rubberneck’ Holmes. When you see Holmes’s dance, you’ll see why they call him ‘Rubberneck.’