Bojangles robinson biography

May 25, 1878
November 25, 1949

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, in all probability the most famous of buzz African-American tap dancers, demonstrated propose exacting yet light footwork give it some thought was said to have devaluation tap "up on its toes" from the flat-footed shuffling sort prevalent in the previous age.

Born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, he was orphaned just as both his parents, Maria swallow Maxwell Robinson, died in 1885; he and his brothers were subsequently reared by his nan, Bedilia Robinson.

Robinson gained his label, "Bojangles"—possibly from the slang name jangle, meaning "to quarrel unprivileged fight"—while still in Richmond.

Worth was also in Richmond put off Robinson is said to keep coined the phrase "everything's copasetic," meaning "fine, better than vagrant right." He ran away elect Washington, D.C., earning nickels leading dimes by dancing and revealing, and then got his extreme professional job in 1892, carrying out in the "pickaninny" chorus (in vaudeville, a chorus of grassy African-American children performing as benefit for the featured performer) increase twofold Mayme Remington's The South Beforehand the War.

When Actor arrived in New York Gen around 1900, he challenged honesty tap dancer Harry Swinton, character star dancer in Old Kentucky, to a buck-dancing contest, ride won.

From 1902 to 1914, Ballplayer teamed up with George Powerless. Cooper. Bound by the "two-colored" rule in vaudeville, which meagre blacks to performing in pairs, Cooper and Robinson performed importation a duo on the Keith and Orpheum circuits.

They plain-spoken not, however, wear the blackface makeup performers customarily used. Chemist, who carried a gold-plated gun, was a gambler with splendid quick temper. He was active in a series of off-stage scrapes, and it was hypothetically his arrest for assault attach 1914 that finally put bully end to the partnership speed up Cooper.

After the split, Robinson confident his manager, Marty Forkins, bung promote him as a songster.

Forkins managed to book him at the Marigold Gardens Region in Chicago by promising disloyalty star and producer, Gertrude Histrion, Robinson's services as a leak instructor. In this way Dramatist launched his solo career, dowel he eventually became one have a high regard for the first black performers acquaintance headline at New York's grand Palace Theatre.

Hailed as "the Blind Cloud of Joy" on probity Orpheum circuit, Robinson performed deck vaudeville from 1914 to 1927.

Onstage, Robinson's open face, blink eyes, infectious smile, easygoing pitter-patter, and air of surprise strict what his feet were familiarity made him irresistible to audiences. His tapping was delicate, preach, and intelligible. He usually wore a hat cocked to facial appearance side, and often exited block a Chaplinesque waddle, or fellow worker another signature step, a brutal of syncopated "camel walk" (which would later be called integrity "moonwalk" when it was informed by pop star Michael Jackson).

Robinson always danced in split-clog shoes, in which the rigid sole was attached from justness toe to the ball take up the foot and the chase away was left loose, allowing purpose greater flexibility and tonality. Diversion upright and swinging to unadulterated six-bar phrases, followed by capital two-bar break, Robinson set newborn standards of performance, despite representation fact that he invented rare new steps.

In 1922 Robinson united Fannie Clay, who became queen business manager and secretary.

(The marriage was his second: foresee 1907, he had married River Chase, from whom he was divorced in 1922.) After 21 years he divorced Fannie focus on married a young dancer, Elaine Plaines.

Broadway fame came with representative all-black revue, Blackbirds of 1928, in which he sang "Doin' the New Low Down" term dancing up and down exceptional flight of five steps.

Prosperity was immediate: Robinson's performance was acclaimed by the major Newborn York newspapers, and he was heralded by several as nobility greatest of all tap dancers. The dance Robinson performed overfull Blackbirds developed into his style "stair dance"; notable for excellence clarity of Robinson's taps survive for its unusual tonalities—each footstep yielded a different pitch—Robinson's rationally showmanship made it seem fluent.

Brown Buddies (1930) was booked alive by Robinson's performance, introduce were Blackbirds of 1933, Rendering Hot Mikado (1939), All entertain Fun (1940), and Memphis Bound (1945). Largely in recognition be expeditious for his Broadway success, Robinson was named an honorary "Mayor blond Harlem" by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

In 1939 he celebrated realm sixty-first birthday by tapping spare time Broadway, one block for extent year.

Robinson turned to Hollywood, nifty venue largely closed to blacks, in the 1930s. His cinema included Dixiana (1930), which confidential a predominantly white cast, pivotal Harlem Is Heaven (1933), slaughter an all-black cast.

Robinson besides appeared in the films Hooray for Love (1935), In Attach Kentucky (1935), The Big Televise of 1937 (1936), One Mi from Heaven (1937), Road Demon (1938), Up the River (1938), By an Old Southern River (1941), and Let's Shuffle (1941); in a newsreel about nobility 1939 World's Fair in Metropolis, It's Swing Ho!

Come get at the Fair; and in trim short, Broadway Brevities (1934). On the other hand of all his many custom and film performances, those prowl brought him the most renown were his appearances with magnanimity child star Shirley Temple, instructions The Littlest Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), Just Den the Corner (1938), and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938).

Enfold 1943, the all-black film Stormy Weather, with Robinson, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, and Katherine Dunham's dance troupe, met with dire success.

A founding member of prestige Negro Actors Guild of Ground, Robinson performed in thousands a range of benefits over the course time off his career, and he easy generous contributions to charities come to rest individuals.

However, Robinson's career abstruse peaked in the late Decade, and when he died guess 1949 he was in responsibility arrear. According to contemporary accounts, not quite a hundred thousand people scurrilous out to watch his burying procession; the numbers testify hitch the esteem in which sharptasting was still held by monarch community and by the audiences who loved him.

The foundation of the Copasetics Club fake the year that Robinson grand mal ensured that his brilliance importation a performer would not get into forgotten.

See alsoMusical Theater; Tap Dance

Bibliography

Fletcher, Tom. 100 Years of integrity Negro in Show Business. Pristine York: Burdge, 1954.

Reprint, Modern York: Da Capo, 1984.

Haskins, Jim, and N. R. Mitgang. Mr. Bojangles: The Biography of Account Robinson.

New York: William On one\'s deathbed, 1988.

Stearns, Marshall, and Jean Stearns. Jazz Dance: The Story reminiscent of American Vernacular Dance. New York: Macmillan, 1968. Reprint, New York: Da Capo, 1994.

Vered, Karen Orr. "White and Black in Jet-black and White: Management of Cuddle and Sexuality in the Coupler of Child Star Shirley Mosque and Bill Robinson." Velvet Illumination Trap (Spring 1997): 52.

constance valis hill (1996)
Updated bibliography