of the black bottom is based on the Charleston. Bradford's version, printed with the sheet music, gave these instructions: Instructions for the mooch are "Shuffle forward with both feet. Hips go first, then feet." Broadway historians Kantor and Maslon describe it as a ‘fairly simple step punctuated by a slap on the rear end’ with the hobbling step akin to pulling your feet out of the deep muddy waters of the Swanee. The Alexander recreation expanded this into having his dance partners cheekily bump their posteriors together; although there is no evidence to suggest that was part of the original dance. Legacy "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", a 1920s blues song by Ma Rainey, makes obvious allusions to the dance but is not itself dance music. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is also the title of a 1982 play by August Wilson, set around recording of the song. Wilson's play was adapted into a 2020 movie of the same name starring Viola Davis as Ma Rainey. The comedy musician Spike Jones, who became popular in the 1940s, performed a jaunty cover of the black bottom. His version, released on 78-RPM records, repeated a single measure of a piano solo in the middle of the song several times, each time continuing with a loud "crack!" as a joke to make the record sound broken. The dance was featured in the 1927 Austrian silent film Café Elektric. Judy Garland repeats vocal refrains from the song while hoofing in some chorus girl lines in a montage sequence from A Star Is Born (1954). References External links Crazy Words--Crazy Tune (Vo-do-de-o) - This 1926 song uses "Black Bottom" as a theme. Walter Nelson on "The Black Bottom" (featuring clips of the dance) Novelty and fad dances Swing dances African-American dance