It's a hilarious scene, but the whole mambo lesson was a free-for-all. Alice looked like she was doing a pre-Chubby Checker Twist. Mrs. Manicotti was gyrating like a madwoman. Carlos' dance instructions were totally ignored...he lost control of the class!
The actor who played Carlos Sanchez, Charles Korvin, was asked when he tried out for the part if he could dance the mambo. He lied and said he could, so after he got the part, he went to a local dance studio to learn some basic mambo moves. The dance instructor tried her best, but found him so uncoordinated that she told him,
"I'm surprised you can walk." She was so embarrassed by his appearance on the episode that she hoped no one found out that she was the one who had attempted to teach him.
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo.
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Ha! Well, there you go. I think we're all drawn to Mrs. Manicotti in that scene so we don't notice Carlos as much.
It seems the only character who had the coordination to do the mambo was Norton, and he wasn't even there for the initial instructions!
Gee, I'd hardly noticed that but I'm so uncoordinated almost any dance moves look graceful to me.
Mostly I noticed that whenever he has to dance, Jackie Gleason does the exact SAME moves. He was very graceful for a big man but he only had about two dance moves. ha
THat's true in his variety show when he said "A little traveling music!" and did those sideways steps.
But you have to admit he did a mean hucklebuck.