Been Rich All My Life

Director Heather Lyn McDonald and dancer Fay Ray will participate in a Q&A after the 7:20 screening on September 29th.

This acclaimed documentary follows the octogenarian and nonagenarian tap dancing troupe, the Silver Belles. The group first met in the chorus lines of the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club and other legendary Harlem venues of the 1930s. Now aged 84-96 and still dancing, they have been performing again at concert halls to standing ovations. The Los Angeles engagement of BEEN RICH ALL MY LIFE will begin on Friday, August 29th at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills and the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena.

"Marvelous...a real treasure." ~ The New Yorker

"Indefatigably spirited dancers...nothing stops them." ~ The New York Times

"Charming subjects & a fine sense of history. Recommended." ~ New York Magazine

"Awe-inspiring and delightful." ~ New York Sun

"Charming...sassy humor and startling frankness." ~ Time Out N.Y.

"Fabulous heroines, extraordinary energy...they charm." ~ N.Y. Daily News

"An inspiration. . . these ex-Harlem chorus girls are still shaking booty." ~ Variety

"Never mind the Rockettes - see this movie." ~ Savion Glover

"Enchanting . . . splendid slice of African American history" ~ N.Y. Beacon, 4 stars

"BEEN RICH ALL MY LIFE is a treasure in celebrating remarkable women with a unparalleled zest for life. With their humor and vibrant personalities, the Silver Belles are clearly the classiest women in movies this year." ~ Film Threat

"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." ~ The Village Voice

"Money has little to do with the kind of emotional wealth shared so generously in BEEN RICH ALL MY LIFE, Heather Lyn MacDonald's affectionate portrait of the Silver Belles - five uptown knockouts who met as Harlem chorus girls in the 1930s and continue to dance into their 80s and beyond. MacDonald mixes choice footage of the hoofers in their prime with loose on-the-spot scenes in happy times and sad. Injury, illness, and death make appearances, but these remarkable women never lose their gratitude for where their feet have taken them. Good times and bum times, they've seen it all and they're still here. Lucky us." ~ Entertainment Weekly

Director MacDonald has created a stereotype-busting portrait of age-defying women who have never wavered in their love of dance or of each other. At the core of BEEN RICH ALL MY LIFE is the friendship that has continued over 70 years, and the film sparkles with their humor, vibrant personalities and unparalleled zest for life. As their eldest member Bertye Lou states, "I'm going to dance, dance, dance 'til I can't dance no more!"
BEEN RICH ALL MY LIFE also offers the rare opportunity to see a century of history through the eyes of the these last surviving dancers of Harlem's golden age - when crowds flocked to Harlem to see shows featuring the great band leaders and the most beautiful dancers in New York. It is little remembered that at the Apollo Theater, where the chorus dancers worked 15 hour days to open a new show for a different headliner each week, these young women walked out one night in a strike for higher wages, and established the American Guild of Variety Artists, the nation's first integrated performer's union. They toured the world, were honored abroad, and danced on the first black USO tour (when they stole the "for colored only" signs off the trains they rode through the American south). Today, they have lost none of their spirit or style.
These colorful characters and their stories are accompanied by a music score that artfully ranges over eight decades of evolving jazz styles. "The right music will just push you," says Fay Ray, the youngest at 84. "I light up like a Christmas tree when I go out there. Play the music, let's get it on!"