You're not a singer or dancer, are you? She was phenomenal, in her memory of those long routines alone. Her routines with Bill Bojangles Robinson (a dancer so extraordinary that he broke the color line in the 30s, well before any major sports figures did) were in perfect synchrony. Her acting appeared so natural, it must have looked to you like she wasn't really doing anything. Here's a routine from 1935:
You are certainly right. Not a dancer by any means and my singing voice is a lethal weapon.
I was taken aback by the effusive reviews of Mrs. Black’s cinema career. Like I said she was of her time and place and seemed to have caught a “wave” at the right time for her. Her singing strikes me as very limited, and I am not much on tap dancing. As I said, what I seen of her she giggles, nods her head two or three times, and scrunches up her face toward the camera.
I also don’t get the appeal of her successor Mickey Rooney.