RUFUS THOMAS
Rufus started his show business career as a frog in a school play. From a frog he went to rabbits – as part of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, where he toured the South as a tap dancer and comedian before forming a comedy team, Rufus and Bones. But just in case show biz didn’t work out, he kept his day job at a textile plant for the first 20 years. It turns out that show biz worked out quite well. Rufus is already in our Deejay Lounge talking about his days at WDIA, but this multi-multi-hyphenate (singer, songwriter, tap dancer, deejay, comedian) was also responsible for hits including The Dog, Walking the Dog, Can Your Monkey Do The Dog (do we see a pattern here?) Do The Funky Chicken and The Funky Penguin. We couldn’t convince him to do the Dog or dig out the penguin costume, but he shared some great stories with us. We met up with him in Memphis shortly before his death in 2001.
