Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (May 1878 – November 1949) photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1941
Edited from Wikipedia:
Bill "Bojangles"
Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was an American tap dancer, actor,
and singer, the best known and the most highly paid black American entertainer
in America during the first half of the twentieth century.
His long career mirrored changes
in American entertainment tastes and technology. His began in the age of
minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording
industry, Hollywood films, radio and television. According to dance critic
Marshall Stearns, "Robinson's contribution to tap dance is exact and
specific. He brought it up on its toes, dancing upright and swinging",
giving tap dancing a "hitherto-unknown lightness and presence."
His signature routine was the
Stair Dance, in which he would tap up and down a set of stairs in a
rhythmically complex sequence of steps, a routine that he unsuccessfully
attempted to patent. He is also credited with having coined the word copacetic
in popular culture via his repeated use of it in vaudeville and radio
appearances.
Robinson was a popular figure in
both the black and white entertainment worlds of his era. He is best known
today for his dancing with Shirley Temple in a series of films during the
1930s, and for starring in the musical Stormy Weather (1943), loosely based on
his own life and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. He
used his popularity to challenge and overcome numerous racial barriers,
including becoming:
•one of the first minstrel and
vaudeville performers to appear without the use of blackface makeup
•one of the earliest black
performers to go solo, overcoming vaudeville's two-colored rule
•a headliner in Broadway shows
•the first black performer to
appear in a Hollywood film in an interracial dance team (with Shirley Temple in
The Little Colonel, 1935)
•the first black performer to
headline a mixed-race Broadway production
Robinson came under heavy
criticism for his tacit acceptance of racial stereotypes of the era, with
critics calling him an Uncle Tom. He resented such criticism, and his
biographers suggested that critics were at best incomplete in making such a
characterization, especially given his efforts to overcome racial prejudice. In
his public life, Robinson led efforts to:
•persuade the Dallas Police
Department to hire its first black policeman
•lobby President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt during World War II for more equitable treatment of black soldiers
•stage the first integrated
public event in Miami, a fundraiser which was attended by both black and white
city residents
Despite being the highest-paid
black performer of the time, Robinson died penniless in 1949, and his funeral
was paid for by longtime friend Ed Sullivan. Robinson is remembered for the
support that he gave to fellow performers, including Fred Astaire, Lena Horne,
Jesse Owens and the Nicholas Brothers.
Sammy Davis Jr. and Ann Miller
credited him as a teacher and mentor, Miller saying that he "changed the
course of my life." Gregory Hines produced and starred in a biographical
movie about Robinson for which he won the NAACP Best actor Award. In 1989,
Congress designated Robinson's birthday of May 25 as National Tap Dance Day.
On March 21, 1908, as a result of
a dispute with a tailor over a suit, Robinson was arrested in New York City for
armed robbery. On September 30, he was convicted and sentenced to 11–15 years
hard labor at Sing Sing prison.
Robinson had failed to take the
charges and trial seriously and paid little attention to mounting a defense.
After his conviction, Robinson's partner, George Cooper, organized his most
influential friends to vouch for him, and hired a new attorney who produced
evidence that Robinson had been falsely accused. Though he was exonerated at
his second trial and his accusers indicted for perjury, the trial and time
spent in the Tombs (Manhattan's prison complex) affected Robinson deeply. After
he was released, he made a point of registering his pistol at the local police
station of each town where he performed. Robinson's second wife, Fanny, also
sent a letter of introduction with complimentary tickets and other gifts to the
local police chief's wife in each town ahead of Robinson's engagements.
Despite being the highest-paid
black performer of the first half of the twentieth century, earning more than
US$2 million during his lifetime, Robinson died penniless in 1949, at the age
of 71 from heart failure. His funeral was arranged and paid for by longtime
friend and television host Ed Sullivan.
Robinson lay in repose at the 369th Infantry
Regiment Armory in Harlem, where an estimated 32,000 people filed past his open
casket to pay their last respects. The schools in Harlem were closed for a
half-day so that children could attend or listen to the funeral, which was
broadcast over the radio. Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Sr. conducted the
service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, and New York Mayor William O'Dwyer
gave the eulogy.