The Tiller Girls Chorus 1930

From the movie: HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE 1930
John Tiller is often credited with originating the highly synchronized style of chorus dance that in America led to the Radio City Rockettes. The various Tiller Girls dance troupes date back to 1890's in England and survived into the 21'st century. It is said that Russell Markert got the inspiration for his original " Missouri Rockets" from seeing the Tiller Girls in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1922. The Missouri Rockets eventually evolved into The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes in 1932.

[raffaelaviglietti]

Nice to see, they don't have performances like this anymore, thank you for the video.💝

[chippower]

1930s tap honeys with the Tiller Girls!

[StevenSmith-nqxe]

I’d never seen this in such stunning clarity—thank you! Some trivia: the film’s musical director, Max Steiner, had been a music director / composer for the Tiller Girls during his years working in London, c. 1910. (I’m Steiner’s biographer.)

[esmeephillips]

An intriguing glimpse of what, only a few years after his death, might be as close as we can get to John Tiller's then-revolutionary style of precision dancing. He raised the chorus line to new levels of professionalism.

[esmeephillips]

Modern documentaries on the Rockettes show they still dress as toy soldiers and end with that collapsing move.

[waldolydecker]

Edna Mae Oliver sitting at the table using her compact. lol