It was some guy called Armstrong.
Seriously though, this is one of those topics that I always think ‘Didn’t anyone think of this before?’
I am sure some guys were doing the moonwalk in the 1970s, but they were not famous.
And wasn’t there a dancer called Bill Bailey from the 1940s who did it?
What is the supposition you are basing your question on, and for that matter, what is your actual question?
I am proposing that if you asked people who ‘invented’ the moonwalk dance. A large percenage of people would answer Michael Jackson.
Wikipedia’s article had some useful links that pretty much answer my question.
Could I ask you what this means ‘What is the supposition you are basing your question on…’?
It seems like you are supposing that Michael Jackson claims to have invented the Moonwalk, or that he stole it from someone, or that he has an illegitimate copywrite on it, or . . . ? I still don’t understand what the General Question is. I never knew Michael Jackson was supposed to have invented the Moonwalk.
Since there really isn’t a General Question here, let’s move this to MPSIMS.
samclem GQ moderator
On Rotten.com’s little short bio of James Brown it has this quote:
1986 “Michael Jackson, he used to watch me from the wings and got his moon walk from my camel walk. I ain’t jealous I’m zealous. I ain’t teased, I’m pleased.”
This bird did it first
http://www.lookatentertainment.com/v/v-1268.htm
What they don’t show, however, is that afterwards it went back to the nest and touched the eggs inappropriately.
Are you thinking of Bill Haley of Bill Haley and the Comets, of “Rock Around the Clock” fame?
This makes me think of that dance move that Marty McFly does in Back To The Future while performing his rock 'n’roll number - where you are playing the guitar and doing a little can-can thing with one leg from the knee while shuffling across stage. I’m sure some performer was famous for it back in the fifties.
Too vague. No nicotine.
Are you referring to Chuck Berry’s duckwalk?
That’ll be the one, thank you. I thought maybe the OP was meaning this.
Click here to see Chuck Berry duck walking.
Freebird Michael Hayes was moonwalking pre-1980.
I question the Wikipedia article. I never saw James Brown do Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. Brown did do some (much-imitated) backward and sideways slide/shuffle moves, but the moonwalk is distinct, with the raised knees giving the illusion of a forward walking motion.
It caused a sensation when Jackson did it in '83 because no one (or very few) had seen it before. Not saying Jackson invented it, necessarily, but at the very least he is the first one who gave it broad exposure.
James Brown shows off all his moves here. No moonwalk among them.
The mime in Children of the Paradise does something that looks very much like the moonwalk. France, 1944.
It’s generally known that the moonwalk was a move that lots of street dancers had done for years before Michael broke out with it at the Motown 25 special. In fact, Jeffrey Daniel, who was in the band Shalimar (with Howard Hewitt and Jodi Watley) in the late 70s-early 80s has been credited with popularizing the move. But even Jeffrey won’t take credit for inventing it.
As far as I know, Jackson has never claimed to invent the dance. In fact, if Daniels is to be believed, the moonwalk is actually the name of another dance. The move we know as the moonwalk was actually something else. Michael got the names confused.
Sorry, no cite… just years of reading Right On! magazine and an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Jackson 1975-1984 or so…
I’m going to have to see video evidence of a moonwalk like Jackson’s that predates 1983. I’ve never seen such, but I’m willing to be proven wrong.
I’ll grant you that there were similar moves earlier (like some of Brown’s slide moves). But if Jackson’s moonwalk had been old hat in '83, it wouldn’t have created the sensation that it did.
He learned it from Dr. Sam Beckett. 