White Tuxedo
Datec. 1980
Credit LineGift of Joey Hollingsworth, Hamilton, Ontario, 2024
Object number2024.007.001
Label TextLegendary Afro-Canadian tap dancer Joey Hollingsworth (b. 1936) wore this white tailcoat set. He wore these tails with white tap shoes and gold cufflinks in the 1980s while he performed at an event in Toronto against apartheid occurring in South Africa. The outfit consists of a faintly striped shirt, a vest, double-breasted jacket, pants, and matching white bowtie.
Raised in London, Hollingsworth was an early Black performer on CBC television. In 1956, at twenty years old, in the era of big bands, he performed on CBC television’s Christmas with the Stars directed by the upcoming director Norm Jewison. Hollingsworth’s extensive preforming career included acting with Canadian Black opera singer Portia White in Playdate: In the Good Time (1961), appearing on the iconic Ed Sullivan Show (1962), and he was the Dancing Salesman on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
As a child, growing up poor, his father, Cecil Hollingsworth, hand-sewed all of his costumes, including a white set of tails that he wore at 5 years old. In his hometown of London, Ontario, Hollingsworth would perform at Hotel London, local clubs and restaurants such as the Seven Dwarfs, the Iroquois, the Latin Quarter, and the Red Lion, and the nearby Stork Club. In 2018, the Ontario Black History Society awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2024 he was inducted into the Canadian Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame.
NameTuxedo
CopyrightPhoto Credit: Alex Walker
