In response to:

Crotch Shots Galore from the May 24, 2018 issue

Charles Grass Collection/Chicago Dance History Project

Bob Fosse and Charles Grass performing as the Riff Brothers, 1943

To the Editors:

My father, Charles Grass, was the other Riff Brother who formed the tap-dance duo with Bob Fosse from ages eight to eighteen (they became professionals at the age of twelve) when they were growing up in Chicago [“Crotch Shots Galore,” NYR, May 24]. While Bob was from a big family, my father was an only child, and I can assure you that my grandmother was a very persistent chaperone. The Riff Brothers danced in some seedy places but did not hang out with strippers or go on stage with erections. My father was always bemused by Bob’s rewriting history to give himself a scandalous adolescence to “explain” his sexual obsessions.

Marie Grass Amenta
Flossmoor, Illinois

Joan Acocella replies:

I am glad to have a second report, and one that defends the honor of the Riff Brothers’ parents.