Louis Francis DaPron (February 13, 1913, in Indiana – July 21, 1987, in Agoura, California) was an American dancer, choreographer and dance instructor. He worked often with tap dancer

Donald O'Connor Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. His b ...

Early days

His parents were Elizabeth Kurtz (b. around 1890) and Louis I DaPron, and the family shows up on the 1930 Federal Census as living in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Both parents were professional dancers, and at some point in the 1930s they settled in Hollywood to open a dance school.

Professional beginnings

Louis, who had been dancing and teaching dance with his parents since he was a child, was hired by choreographer

LeRoy Prinz LeRoy Jerome Prinz (July 14, 1895 – September 15, 1983) was an American choreographer, director and producer, who was involved in the production of dozens of motion pictures, mainly for Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers, from 1929 through ...

and actor/choreographer

Nick Castle Nicholas Castle is an American screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is known for playing Michael Myers in John Carpenter's horror film ''Halloween'' (1978). He reprised the role in ''Halloween'' (2018), and its sequels ''Halloween Kills'' ...

in 1936 to assist with dance direction for films at Paramount. He seems not to have been under contract, but to have worked for various studios for the next few years. By 1941 he was the primary choreographer for

Ruby Keeler Ethel Ruby Keeler (August 25, 1909 – February 28, 1993) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who was paired on-screen with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Bros., particularly '' 42nd Street'' (1933). From ...

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

' ''Sweetheart of the Campus'', her last musical film.

Universal

In 1941,

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

was assembling a group of the best teenage dancers in the country for a dance group to be marketed as the "

Jivin' Jacks and Jills The Jivin' Jacks and Jills were a twentieth century American dance group of the World War II era. The group was assembled by Universal Pictures via open audition. The intent was to assemble a group of young dancers with appeal to a teen audience. L ...

" in musical comedy films, and DaPron was put under contract by Universal to be the choreographer for this group. The Jivin' Jacks and Jills were popular with teen audiences, primarily for the dancing and comedy efforts of

and

Peggy Ryan Margaret O'Rene Ryan (August 28, 1924 – October 30, 2004) was an American dancer and actress, best known for starring in a series of movie musicals at Universal Pictures with Donald O'Connor and Gloria Jean. Career Ryan joined her paren ...

, who were frequently teamed together. As O’Connor became increasingly popular, Universal focused on him, and the Jivin’ Jacks and Jills were disbanded after 14 films. DaPron stayed on, as O'Connor's choreographer and as head choreographer at Universal, a role he retained well into the 1950s. He can be seen in small dancing parts in two films from 1948: Are You With It and

Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' ''Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin is a 1948 American musical comedy film directed by George Sherman and starring Donald O'Connor. Also featured are Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride, (who later reprised essentially the same roles as Ma and Pa Kettl ...

(as ‘the shadow’ in a dance routine to

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...

Me And My Shadow "Me and My Shadow" is a 1927 popular song. Officially the credits show it as written by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, and Dave Dreyer, with Jolson and Dreyer being shown on the sheet music as being responsible for the music and Rose the lyrics. Al ...

), illustrating his unique style of movement.

Television

DaPron provided choreography for ''The Colgate Comedy Hour'', again working with Donald O'Connor, and The Louis DaPron dancers were regulars on the popular Perry Como Show from 1955 to 1960.

References

External links

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dapron, Louis 1913 births 1987 deaths American tap dancers American choreographers People from Indiana American male dancers 20th-century American dancers