Sweetness_ The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton - Jeff Pearlman [51]
Like many who met Payton, King developed affection for the boy. He was goofy and quirky and always messing around with someone. At the time King owned a beautiful white Cadillac, and Walter said he’d like to repay him for the dancing opportunity by taking the vehicle to the car wash. King accepted the offer on multiple occasions, never giving much thought to the fact that his car would be gone for three hours a pop. “When I scolded him about it taking too long, Walter would give me some story about the vacuum not working,” said King. “Well, one day someone took me to where Walter was supposed to be cleaning, and I caught him with a bunch of females in the car.”
Midway through the academic year, King announced that 24 Karat Black Gold was affiliating itself with the first-ever Soul Train National Championship Dance-Off. Throughout the country, each state would host its own competition, with the winning couples flying to Los Angeles to appear on Soul Train and vie for the title of America’s Best Dancers. At the time, Payton and Jones were teamed on Black Gold with fairly mediocre partners. “So Walter came up to me one day and said, ‘How about entering the Soul Train contest together?’ ” Jones said. “ ‘I really think we can win this thing if we team up.’ ” For the next three weeks the two met in a second-floor room of Jackson State’s student union building and danced until their toes blistered. “We had forty-fives and LPs, and we practiced for endless hours,” Jones said. “We expected to win.”
The first round of the competition was held at the College Park Auditorium on Lynch Street. Hundreds of couples took to the floor as the judges cruised the room, tapping out those who didn’t make the cut. Along with forty-nine other couples, Walter and Mary survived the first week, then lasted again as the total was reduced to twenty-five, and then again to a mere ten. The championship round was held on a Sunday, ten couples dancing for the right to appear on one of black America’s most popular television programs. “I’d never left Mississippi in my life,” said Jones. “I’d never even been on an airplane. So the possibility was breathtaking.”
The ten couples were pared down to five, then three. Walter gazed at Mary. Mary gazed at Walter. They locked eyes, knowing to ignore the judges and just move. Finally, the music stopped. The couple looked around, and nobody was left. “I was overcome with joy, and so was Walter,” said Jones. “To be chosen to represent the entire state of Mississippi! What an honor!”
By the time Walter and Mary flew to Los Angeles, it was the summer of 1973. The local radio station, WOKJ, presented both students with plane tickets and five hundred dollars in spending money. (“Five hundred dollars!” laughs Jones. “I couldn’t believe it.”) They stayed at the Hyatt in Los Angeles, and were given tours of Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Upon arriving at Soul Train’s studio, they met Don Cornelius, the famed deep-voiced host and producer.
The show was taped the night after they arrived. Couples from across the nation danced away, until fifty were whittled down to thirty, and thirty were whittled down to fifteen, and fifteen were whittled down to two. The victors would be gifted two brand-new olive green Dodge Chargers—“and we really wanted those cars,” Jones said.
Walter wore jeans with wide legs, a cutoff shirt that revealed his muscular stomach, and Gene Simmons–esque platform heels. Atop his head was an apple cap, a style staple for black men in the early 1970s. He and Mary danced as well as they ever had. So, unfortunately, did the couple from Louisiana. “Mississippi and Louisiana were the last two standing,” said Jones. “They were just a little