Born on the Delta in Greenville, Mississippi, Cleo escaped to Chicago and got her first job dancing at the Grand Terrace with Earl Hines. After a stint performing at the World’s Fair, she took a bus to New York and started at the newly opened Apollo Theater, as one of the Apollo “Rockettes.” When the Cotton Club moved to its elegant new home downtown in Times Square, Cleo joined that company. She then traveled with Bertye Lou dancing throughout South America, and later with the first black USO unit during WWII. Cleo recounts that USO tour: how they had to receive their meals out the back doors of the mess halls in the south, and her own personal insurrection: taking “For Colored Only” signs off the trains they rode. After the war, with theaters wanting to cut expenses and chorus line work drying up, Cleo danced while the work lasted — at Broadway’s Café Zanzibar, the 845 Club, on tour with Cab Calloway, and in the film “Stormy Weather.”

Geri Kennedy is manager of the Silver Belles and their fierce protector. She and one of the dancers (Bertye Lou) organized the Silver Belles because Geri hated to see the legendary chorus girls forgotten. “None of the great women dancers of their era have been given the same notice as the males, and they need to have their history known.”

“The Silver Belles, five former Harlem chorus girls who are still bustin’ a move despite their advanced ages, are the best kind of company there is. Despite not being able to “remember shit,” and despite declining and unpredictable bodies, they make it to performance after performance, donning sequins and spangles, and whooping up a whole lotta somethin’ in front of sold-out crowds. Been Rich gives us a slice of American history, as the Belles discuss their origins and their years as chorus girls. They danced with Bill Robinson (a/k/a Bojangles); shared the stage with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong; and put on upwards of half a dozen shows a day, seven days a week. The Silver Belles are bold, brash, and gorgeously awake, and their willingness to live large is thrilling.”

‘Been Rich All My Life’
‘Toots Crackin Production’
http://www.tootscrackin.com/braml_cleo_new.htm