Bill Robinson

According to one jazz dance source Bill Bojangles Robinson was the chief instigator for getting tap dance up on its toes Early forms of tap including the familiar buck and wing contained a flatfooted style while Robinson performed on the balls of his feet with a shuffletap style that allowed him more improvisation It obviously got him noticed and it certainly made him a legend Born Luther Robinson in Richmond Virginia on May 25 1878 he was orphaned in infancy and reared by a grandmother He took his brother Bills name for his own once he went professional His brother in turn took the name Percy and later became a renowned drummer Hoofing in beer gardens at age 6 Bojangles joined traveling companies and vaudeville tours in his teens and slowly built up a successful reputation in nightclubs and musical comedies He headlined with Cab Calloway many times at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem Bojangles unique sound came from using wooden taps and his direct claim to fame would be the creation of his famous stair dance which involved tapping up and down a flight of stairs both backwards and forwards Both black and white audiences were taken by his style and finesse and following the demise of vaudeville he easily transferred his talents to Broadway Lew Leslie a white producer put together Blackbirds of 1928 an allblack revue that would prominently feature Bill and other black musical talents From there it was films for the now oldtimer In the 1930s various studios usurped his patented talent in their oldfashioned Depressionera musicals Times being what they were he was typically cast as a butler or servant Nevertheless he enjoyed immense popularity especially when partnered with reigning 1 box office moppet Shirley Temple Bojangles would be featured in four of Shirleys sentimental vehicles The Little Colonel 1935 in which he recreated his stair dance with her The Littlest Rebel 1935 Just Around the Corner 1938 and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 1938 In addition he assisted in the choreography on one of her other films Dimples 1936 For the most part Bill was a specialty player but every once in a while he got into the thick of things playing Lena Hornes love interest in One Mile from Heaven 1937 for instance Still tapping his heart out as a 60yearold Bojangles returned to the stage in The Hot Mikado which was a tuneful jazz reworking of Gilbert and Sullivans classic operetta Suffering from a chronic heart condition he slowed down in the mid40s and died in New York City in 1949 of heart disease