# Whatever happened to: Boston area specialty dancer George 'Rubber Neck' Holmes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327 "2018-01-23T21:59:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [January 23, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/1 "2018-01-23T21:59:21Z")
Info is pretty non-existent on him. Rubberneck was a specialty dancer and in addition to his fancy footwork employed his ‘rubber neck’. You can see him in the movies [The Duke Is Tops (1938)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030089/reference), [The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139504/reference), and [It’s Black Entertainment (2002)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0237343/reference) (which I suspect is using footage from ‘Elinor Lee’). I found newspaper articles from 1958-1959 indicating he was going on a tour of Australia, and after that. . . nothing. He quietly disappears. Presumably he’s deceased, but I found it odd that he apparently was staying pretty busy in the Boston area, but then just quit. But maybe he just quietly retired. Anyone??? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/2 "2018-01-25T02:41:56Z")
An item in the _New York Amsterdam News_, a Black newspaper, from 23 January 1971. Written by the reporter with a dateline of Freeport Grand Bahama Island. > [@](#): > > If you’re past the magic age, you’ll remember "Rubberneck Holmes and Jean. Well, “Rubber” is here looking great with two beautiful kids a lovely ?"French spouse and getting ready to open his own sin shop. , “Yours of Freeport.” A 1967 article from the _Los Angeles Sentinel_, another Black newspaper. > [@](#): > > George (Rubberneck) Holmes is also living in Frankfurt(ed–Germany) and has his own show, and is doing very well. Black Newspapers are a great resource to track Black entertainers. Unfortunately, their digitized versions are only available in pay newspaper databases. I would venture a guess that Rubberneck, who lived in France but worked in Germany in the period I cited, probably died in France or the Bahamas. Good luck on finding an obit. ---
**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:** [January 25, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/3 "2018-01-25T14:35:58Z")
That’s probably true about his lived out his years overseas. I had looked in Ebony and Jet archives, which are available, but didn’t find anything. Thanks a bunch! ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/4 "2018-01-25T17:19:45Z")
I find it amusing that “Snake-Hips” is asking about “Rubber Neck”. ---
**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:** [January 25, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/5 "2018-01-25T18:53:03Z")
Ha! That’s another mystery of sorts. Various citations indicate that dancer Earl Snake-Hips Tucker died in 1937 of some kind of ‘abdominal ailment.’ Unconfirmed chatter says that the ‘abdominal ailment’ was actually either a stab wound or gunshot–from a jealous boyfriend/husband. The real Snake-Hips was quite the ladies’ man back in the day. And you can see both Snake-Hips and Rubber Neck (and a host of others) in the aforementioned doc “It’s Black Entertainment.” ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/6 "2018-01-25T22:01:03Z")
To save others the search: [Earl Tucker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4ww-MmAY4) [George Holmes](https://youtu.be/jA8T-n4PFEk?t=142) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/7 "2018-01-26T00:44:58Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Ha! That’s another mystery of sorts. Various citations indicate that dancer Earl Snake-Hips Tucker died in 1937 of some kind of ‘abdominal ailment.’ Unconfirmed chatter says that the ‘abdominal ailment’ was actually either a stab wound or gunshot–from a jealous boyfriend/husband. The real Snake-Hips was quite the ladies’ man back in the day. > > And you can see both Snake-Hips and Rubber Neck (and a host of others) in the aforementioned doc “It’s Black Entertainment.” Whadda you know. I always pictured you as a white guy from SC. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-boston-area-specialty-dancer-george-rubber-neck-holmes/807327/8 "2018-01-26T07:47:46Z")
Keeping in the theme, [here’s Al “Rubber Legs” Norman.](https://youtu.be/LZgT9B3cGKI)