Tap legend Prince Spencer dead at 98

Prince Spencer, who tap-danced his way across color barriers as a member of the Four Step Brothers, died Thursday, weeks after celebrating his 98th birthday Oct. 3.

In their heyday, the tap-dancing "Eight Feet of Rhythm" were the first black act to play Radio City Music Hall, and the first to play Copa City in segregated Miami Beach. In 1988, the Four Step Brothers were given a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.

Milton Berle wrote in his 2002 autobiography that he had to take a stand to allow the group on his popular TV show in 1950. He sent the word out, "If they don't go on, I don't go on," and won the standoff 10 minutes before the show aired live.

The group, alternately known as the Three Step Brothers or simply the Step Brothers at various times over the years, dated back to 1925. Spencer joined in 1941 and danced with them during the nine years in which they toured as an opening act for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

On the big screen, the Step Brothers appeared alongside Bob Hope in 1953's "Here Come the Girls" and Lewis in 1964's "The Patsy." Spencer later had a role in Eddie Murphy's 1989 gangster comedy "Harlem Nights."

Spencer stayed with the group until 1964, when he bowed out after performing at the Sands with Jerry Lewis. He went on to spend 19 years as the manager for comedian Redd Foxx. The South Carolina native lived in Las Vegas continuously since 1977, but earlier residencies date back to 1941.

He was one of the entertainers who stayed at the Harrison Boarding House, 1001 F St., which housed performers forced by segregation to stay in the dirt-road area known as West Las Vegas. "He had to be bused to the Strip to go to work and had to be bused back. They couldn't walk through the front door," his daughter Holly Spencer said Friday.

Spencer kept dancing until a stroke in 2002 finally put an end to his career. After Foxx died in 1992, Spencer worked as a casino host at the Sahara and then, for 15 years, as a host at Mahoney's Silver Nugget. He officially retired in 2010.

Spencer once said he decided to leave the act and move to Chicago when he made $250,000 selling 80 acres of land bordering Craig Road he had bought years before.

"A buddy talked me into going into the grocery business in Chicago," Spencer told the Review-Journal in 1988. He stayed for 10 years, "until they built a ghetto around my store... and broke me."

He moved back to Las Vegas in 1977 to work with Foxx. He was always given a solo tap spot during Foxx's later years of stand-up at the Sahara and Hacienda hotels in the late 1980s.

In 2013, the College of Southern Nevada included Lifetime Achievement Awards for Spencer and Bunny Briggs, who died earlier this year, as part of its "Tap in Time" arts benefit.

"I was like a kid in a candy store," said Blake Lindell, the Las Vegas dancer and choreographer who put together the "Tap in Time" benefit. Spencer was "just a sweetheart of a man, so appreciative of not only seeing the dance continue on, but that people acknowledged who he was... He was just smiling from ear to ear."

The Step Brothers were "part of a very important era when not a lot of blacks were seen on televison," Lindell said. "You only had a few. Bill Robinson, the Nicholas Brothers as a duo."

Beyond his health setbacks, Spencer also lost the photos and memorabilia from his career in a house fire a few years ago. He had the house rebuilt, and friends and fans helped round up duplicates of every photo they could find, said Jeanne Brei, the friend and performer who organized his 98th birthday party.

Spencer is survived by three children, Holly, Gary and David Chip Spencer, one grand-daughter and two great-grandchildren. His wife Gerri died last year.

Services will at the Second Baptist Church, 500 Madison Ave., on a day still to be determined.

— Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com Follow him @Mikeweatherford.