Bojangles - Bill Robinson

Bill Robinson photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1934
Born:	May 25, 1878 Richmond, Virginia, USA
Died:	November 25, 1949 New York, New York, USA
Occupation:	Dancer

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer. Image File history File links Bill_Robinson. ... Photographic self-portrait by Carl Van Vechten, 1934 Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Virginia. ... Nickname: River City Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Government  - Mayor L. Douglas Wilder (I) Area  - City 62. ... November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_New_York. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... A contemporary dancer rehearsing in a dance studio Dance generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Protestantism (chiefly Baptist and Methodist); Roman Catholicism; Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ... The American style of rhythmic foot stomping known as tap dance was born in the United States during the 19th century, and today is popular all around the world. ...

Childhood and Early Career

Born in Richmond, Virginia on May 25, 1878, to Maxwell Robinson, a machine-shop worker, and Maria Robinson, a choir singer, Bill Robinson was brought up by his grandmother after the death of his parents when he was still a baby. He was a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson. He was Christened "Luther" - a name he did not like, so he suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made! (The new 'Luther' later adopted the name Percy and became a well-known drummer.) The details of Robinson's early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Bill Robinson himself. Nickname: River City Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Government  - Mayor L. Douglas Wilder (I) Area  - City 62. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... This article is becoming very long. ...

At the age of 6 he began dancing for a living, appearing as a "hoofer," or song-and-dance man, in local beer gardens. At age 7, Bill dropped out of school to pursue dancing. Two years later in Washington, DC, he toured with Mayme Remington's troupe. In 1891 (Ed: another source-1892), at the ripe age of 12, he joined a traveling company in The South Before the War, and in 1905 (Ed: another source 1902) worked with George Cooper as a vaudeville team. He gained great success as a nightclub and musical comedy performer, and during the next 25 years became one of the toasts of Broadway. Not until he was 50 did he dance for white audiences, having devoted his early career exclusively to appearances on the black theater circuit. Busking is the practice of doing live performances in public places to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips. ... Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ...

In 1908 in Chicago he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins' tutelage, Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3500 per week. The publicity that gradually came to surround him included the creation of his famous "stair dance" (which he claimed to have invented on the spur of the moment when he was receiving some honor--he could never remember exactly what-- from the King of England. The King was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, and Bojangles' feet just danced up to be honored), his successful gambling exploits, his prodigious charity, his ability to run backward (he set a world's record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash) and to consume ice-cream by the quart, his argot--most notably the neologism copacetic--and such stunts as dancing down Broadway in 1939 from Columbus Circle to 44th St. in celebration of his 61st birthday. Look up copacetic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Because his public image became preeminent, little is known of his first marriage to Fannie S. Clay in Chicago shortly after World War I, his divorce in 1943, or his marriage to Elaine Plaines on January 27, 1944, in Columbus, Ohio. This article is becoming very long. ...

Toward the end of the vaudeville era a white impresario, Lew Leslie, produced Blackbirds of 1928, a black revue for white audiences featuring Robinson and other black stars. From then on his public role was that of a dapper, smiling, plaid-suited ambassador to the white world, maintaining a tenuous connection with the black show-business circles through his continuing patronage of the Hoofer's Club, an entertainer's haven in Harlem. Consequently, blacks and whites developed differing opinions of him. To whites, for example, his nickname "Bojangles" meant happy-go-lucky, while the black variety artist Tom Flatcher claimed it was slang for "squabbler." Political figures and celebrities appointed him an honorary mayor of Harlem, a lifetime member of policemen's associations and fraternal orders, and a mascot of the New York Giants major league baseball team. Robinson reciprocated with open handed generosity and frequently credited the white dancer James Barton for his contribution to Robinson's dancing style. For other uses, see Harlem (disambiguation). ... Major league affiliations National League (1883–present) West Division (1969–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers NY, NY, 3, 4, 11, 24, 27, 30, 36, 42, 44 Name San Francisco Giants (1958–present) New York Giants (1885-1957) New York Gothams (1883-1885) Troy Union Cities / Trojans (1879-1882) Ballpark AT... Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in professional baseball in North America. ...

Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple

After 1930 black revues waned in popularity, but Robinson remained in vogue with white audiences for more than a decade in some fourteen motion pictures produced by such companies as RKO, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. Most of them had musical settings, in which he played old-fashioned roles in nostalgic romances. His most frequent role was that of an antebellum butler opposite Shirley Temple in such films as The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) and Just Around the Corner (1938), or Will Rogers in In Old Kentucky. Rarely did he depart from the stereotype imposed by Hollywood writers. In a small vignette in "Hooray For Love" (1935) he played a mayor of Harlem modeled after his own ceremonial honors; in One Mile From Heaven (1937), he played a romantic lead opposite the singer Lena Horne after Hollywood had relaxed its taboo against such roles for blacks. Audiences enjoyed his style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug. In contrast, Robinson always remained cool and reserved, rarely using his upper body and depending on his busy, inventive feet and his expressive face. He appeared in one film for black audiences, Harlem Is Heaven (1931), a financial failure that turned him away from independent production. Image File history File links Bojangles_&_Shirley_Temple. ... Image File history File links Bojangles_&_Shirley_Temple. ... RKO could stand for: RKO Pictures The R.K.O. - finishing manoever (and initials) of WWE professional wrestler Randy Orton. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the major American film studios. ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Antebellum is a Latin word meaning before war(ante means before and bellum is war). ... Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23,1928) later known as Shirley Temple Black, is an American diplomat, and a former child actress. ... the little colonel was a movie by shirley with costar Bill bojangles Robinson ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 film directed by Allan Dwan, based upon the childrens book Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin. ... Just Around the Corner is a 1938 movie musical starring Shirley Temple, Joan Davis, Charles Farrell, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Bert Lahr, and Franklin Pangborn. ... Will Rogers. ... Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City, New York) is a popular African American singer. ...

In 1939 he returned to the stage in The Hot Mikado, a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta produced at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, and was one of the greatest hits of the fair. His next performance, in All in Fun (1940), failed to attract audiences. His last theatrical project was to have been "Two Gentlemen From The South" with James Barton, in which the black and white roles reverse and eventually come together as equals, but the show did not open. Thereafter he confined himself to occasional performances, but he could still dance in his late sixties almost as well as he ever could, to the continual astonishment of his millions of admirers. He explained this extraordinary versatility--he once danced for more than an hour before a dancing class without repeating a step--by insisting that his feet responded directly to the music, his head having nothing to do with it. The Hot Mikado was a 1939 adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivans The Mikado. ... W. S. Gilbert Arthur Sullivan Librettist William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900) collaborated on a series of fourteen comic operas in Victorian England between 1871 and 1896. ... Operetta (literally, little opera) is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. ... Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline photo by Sam Gottscho The 1939-40 New York Worlds Fair, located on the current site of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (also the location of the 1964-1965 New York Worlds Fair), was one of the largest worlds fairs of all time. ...

Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949. His body lay in state at an armory in Harlem; schools were closed, thousands lined the streets waiting for a glimpse of his bier, and he was eulogized by politicians, black and white--perhaps more lavishly than any other African American of his time. "To his own people", wrote Marshall and Jean Stearns, "Robinson became a modern John Henry, who instead of driving steel, laid down iron taps." He was buried in the cemetery of the Evergreens in New York City. New York, NY redirects here. ... A bier from Grendon church A bier is a flat frame, traditionally wooden but sometimes made of other materials, used to carry a corpse for burial in a funeral procession. ...

Note

• The previous biographical article is from the International Tap Association Newsletter May/June 1993. The biographical material was extrapolated from The American Dictionary of Biography and Webster's American Biographies.

Film career

Whether he was performing in a small town theater or a grand Broadway playhouse, Robinson gave his best and his national popularity became such that he was invited by studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck to come to Hollywood to appear in motion pictures, albeit limited to stereotypical roles. In all, he appeared in more than a dozen films but is best remembered for a number of 1930s film performances with the child star Shirley Temple including director Allan Dwan's very successful 1938 production of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902–December 22, 1979) was a producer, writer, actor and director who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors (the length of his career being rivalled only by that of Adolph Zukor). ... ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23,1928) later known as Shirley Temple Black, is an American diplomat, and a former child actress. ... Allan Dwan (April 3, 1885 – December 21, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter. ... Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 film directed by Allan Dwan, based upon the childrens book Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin. ...

Partial filmography

• Harlem Is Heaven (1932)
• The Little Colonel (1935)
• The Littlest Rebel (1935)
• In Old Kentucky (1935)
• Hooray For Love (1935)
• One Mile From Heaven (1937)
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
• Just Around the Corner (1938)
• Cotton Club Revue (1938)
• Stormy Weather (1943)

the little colonel was a movie by shirley with costar Bill bojangles Robinson ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 film directed by Allan Dwan, based upon the childrens book Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin. ... Just Around the Corner is a 1938 movie musical starring Shirley Temple, Joan Davis, Charles Farrell, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Bert Lahr, and Franklin Pangborn. ... Stormy Weather is the title of an American musical motion picture produced and released by 20th Century Fox in 1943. ...

Other notable performances

In 1939 Robinson returned to the New York stage to take on the lead role in The Hot Mikado, a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. The much-loved performer brought his show great publicity when in his sixties, he danced his way backwards down Broadway from Columbus Circle to 44th Street. Robinson had spoken out against being stereotyped by Hollywood and in 1943 he went back there to star opposite Lena Horne and Cab Calloway in the quality film musical, Stormy Weather. W. S. Gilbert Arthur Sullivan Librettist William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900) collaborated on a series of fourteen comic operas in Victorian England between 1871 and 1896. ... Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City, New York) is a popular African American singer. ... Cab Calloway, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Cab Calloway (December 25, 1907–November 18, 1994) was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader. ... Stormy Weather is the title of an American musical motion picture produced and released by 20th Century Fox in 1943. ...

Legacy

Robinson was dogged by lifelong personal demons, enhanced by having to endure the indignities of racism that, despite his great success, still limited his opportunities. A notorious gambler and a high liver but with a big heart, he was a soft touch for anyone down on their luck or with a good story. During his lifetime Robinson spent a fortune but his generosity was not totally wasted and his haunting memories of surviving on the streets as a child never left him. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he saw two children risk speeding traffic to cross a street because there was no stoplight at the intersection. Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have a safety traffic light installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles" was erected in a small park at that intersection. Nickname: River City Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Government  - Mayor L. Douglas Wilder (I) Area  - City 62. ...

Bojangles co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler. The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... For other uses, see Harlem (disambiguation). ... Negro National League can refer to either one or both of these two leagues Negro National League 1920 to 31 or Negro National League 1933 to 48 This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

In 1989 a joint U.S. Senate / House resolution declared "National Tap Dance Day" to be May 25th, the anniversary of Bill Robinson's birth. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United States Senate is the upper house of the U.S. Congress, smaller than the United States House of Representatives. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ...

Death

In 1949, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson died penniless in New York City at the age of 71 from heart disease. Television host Ed Sullivan is said to have personally paid for the funeral. More than half a million people lined the streets when Robinson's funeral procession made its way through Harlem and down Broadway to Times Square on its way to his interment in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Times Square Times Square is the name given to a principal intersection at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. ... The Cemetery of the Evergreens, is a non-denominational cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. ... Brooklyn (named for the Dutch city Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. ...

Jerry Jeff Walker wrote a song about Robinson, "Mr. Bojangles". Jerry Jeff Walker, 2002 Jerry Jeff Walker (born March 16, 1942) is a country music singer. ...

• Link Grave: Find a Grave

Mr. Bojangles memorialized

• There is a statue of Bill Robinson sculpted by Jack Witt in Richmond, Virginia at the intersection of Adams and West Leigh Streets.
• Fred Astaire paid tribute to Bill Robinson in the tap routine Bojangles of Harlem from the 1936 classic Swing Time. In it he famously dances to three of his shadows. Duke Ellington composed 'Bojangles (A Portrait of Bill Robinson)', a set of rhythmic variations as a salute to the great dancer.
• Bill Robinson's biography was published in 1988 and a made-for-television film titled Bojangles was released in 2001. The film earned the NAACP Best actor Award for Gregory Hines' performance as Bill Robinson.
• Soapstar Robbie Silva claimed he would 'tap his ass' as a homosexual joke in a late night chat show on NBC.
• Bill Robinson's character was, in effect, memorialized in Jerry Jeff Walker's 1968 folk song "Mr. Bojangles" that was later recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Harry Nilsson, Harry Chapin, Chet Atkins, King Curtis, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Arlo Guthrie, Nina Simone, John Denver, David Bromberg, Neil Diamond, Sammy Davis, Jr, Tom T. Hall, John Holt, Robbie Williams, the Nervous Rex, and David Campbell. The song, however, is not about Robinson himself. It is apparently about an obscure imitator, one of several reported, who danced for tips. In a sense, his influence passed into the "folk culture" by inspiring talented, but poor, individuals to dance, thus sharing in his legacy.
• In Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005), the character "Bonejangles" was named after him.
• In a skit from Saturday Night Live called "Dog Show," there was a character of an androgynous dog named Mr Bojangles.

Image File history File linksMetadata Bojangles_Statue. ... Nickname: River City Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Government  - Mayor L. Douglas Wilder (I) Area  - City 62. ... Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. ... This article is about the film. ... Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C.; d. ... Bojangles is a biographical drama that chronicles the life of legendary entertainer Bill Bojangles Robinson (1878-1949). ... The NAACP Image Award winners for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: Categories: NAACP Image Awards ... Gregory Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was an American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer. ... Jerry Jeff Walker, 2002 Jerry Jeff Walker (born March 16, 1942) is a country music singer. ... Mr. ... The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since the original founding in California in 1965. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Harry Forster Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer, songwriter, and humanitarian. ... Chet Atkins Chester Burton Chet Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001) was an influential guitarist and record producer. ... Curtis Ousley (February 7, 1934– August 13, 1971), who performed under the name King Curtis, was an American tenor, alto, and soprano saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and soul jazz. ... Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is a Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. ... Harold George Belafonte, Jr. ... A press photo of Arlo Guthrie. ... Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Nina Simone (February 21, 1933–April 21, 2003), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. ... John Denver (December 31, 1943 – October 13, 1997), born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. ... David Bromberg David Bromberg (b. ... Essential Neil Diamond album cover. ... Sammy Davis, Jr. ... Tom T. Hall (born May 25, 1936 in Olive Hill, Kentucky) is an American country balladeer and songwriter. ... John Caldwell Holt (April 14, 1923 - September 14, 1985) was an American author and educator, and one of the best known proponents of homeschooling. ... Robbie Williams (born Robert Peter Williams on February 13, 1974 in Stoke-on-Trent) is a Grammy Award-nominated, 15 time BRIT Award-winning English singer-songwriter. ... David Campbell is the son of legendary Australian singer Jimmy Barnes. ... Timothy William Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an Academy Award-nominated American film director, writer and designer known for his off-beat and quirky style. ... Tim Burtons Corpse Bride is a 2005 Academy Award-nominated stop-motion-animation film based loosely on a 19th century Russian-Jewish folktale version of an older Jewish story and set in a fictional Victorian era England. ... This is a list of film-related events in 2005. ...

References

Haskins, James; Mitgang, N. R, Mr. Bojangles: the biography of Bill Robinson (New York: William Morrow, 1988) ISBN 0-688-07203-8

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