Bill Bailey - The Apollo Theatre Performance (First moonwalk)

"The World is Waiting for Sunrise" performed by the Paul Williams Quartet

[GoADHDGo]

0:42 This entire segment is so simplistic but incredibly amazing.

The syncopation is perfect and it takes a good amount of power to make taps pop that loud. Bailey made it look easy. All the greats make it look easy.

[bobbythespaceghost]

An 85-year-old gentleman told me that the moonwalk was around since he was young. It was called the "back slide".

[starfilipa]

Merece más crédito y reconocimiento. Es lo justo. Es todo.

[SztarPlayer]

It is not who did it better or who was first. It is all about developing and elevating something you find inspirational. That is how it works with everything. RIP legend.

[viceman]

I saw MJ's do this on live tv for the Motown 25th anniversary, in his "Billy Jean" performance and all of us kids, my siblings and friends learned it as fast as we could. What I learned later and what younger people may not know is that the whole performance was a tribute to past dancers. The hat part was Fred Astaire, the Moonwalk was a tribute to Billy Bailey, and probably others in the routine, that I am unaware of. But that Motown performance really shot an already popular Jackson into a level we had not seen before, as far as album sales. But he never claimed to invent any of those dance steps and was actually honoring those who came before him.

[mikel]

The music, the dancing...can feel it all in my soul!

[xerxesalmighty]

Bill was singer/actress Pearl Bailey’s brother. And Pearl stole a Broadway role from Maya Angelou who was passed over b/c of her “looks.” That gave us Maya the poet. Talent finds a way to the top. But Bill deserves more credit.

[quintonmoore]

MJ may not be first but he took it to another level and the original name is called the backslide

[ElaJean]

Adalberto Martínez Chávez, also known as "Resortes", is said to have performed the first moonwalk in Mexico on February 11, 1950. This was 5 years before Bill Bailey's performance and 33 years before Michael Jackson's famous moonwalk on Motown's 25th-anniversary TV special in 1983.

Bill Bailey is often credited with "inventing" the moonwalk because of his tapdancing move called "backslide". Bailey performed one of the first moonwalks on film at The Apollo Theatre in New York in 1955

[adryanopoderosocantor]

Não foi Michael que inventou o Moonwalk mais eternizou. 🙌🙌🙌

[RoryVanucchi]

First moonwalks done in the Charleston era 1920s. There's a clip in King of Jazz 1930 and I forget the dancer name, and he's likely not the first either

[seanpoopie]

Holy shit. Michael definitely got his inspiration from homeboy. Wow. So shocked!

[mpressiveu]

We'll never know who definitively did it first, but we know without question who did it best.

[lorir]

In always said he watched old videos of dancer like bill and Fred astaire then combined it with what was new. I'm sure people did moon walks for thousands of years but some people have swag on another level. Something that can never be taught

[evelynwashere]

Bailey was fantastic and in tap 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🔥🔥🔥

[ckludecke]

Talk about someone ahead of their time

[AkashVora]

How the hell did YouTube know i was thinking about this ????

[HarborAreaLoc]

This guy could be a professional upstairs neighbor

[tobeuri]

Naranjas. Mis queridos guayabos! El primero y creador del moonwalk, fue el magnífico " resortes " icono del cine Mexicano! Bill lo copio después de 5 años! Amen