Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles, was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer. His career began in minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television. 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. In 1989, Congress designated Robinson’s birthday of May 25 as National Tap Dance Day.
About Bill Robinson in brief
Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles, was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer. His career began in minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television. 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. 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. Robinson came under heavy criticism for his apparent tacit acceptance of racial stereotypes of the era, with some critics calling him an Uncle Tom. Despite being the highest-paid Black performer of the time, Robinson died penniless in 1949, his funeral paid for by longtime friend Ed Sullivan. In 1989, Congress designated Robinson’s birthday of May 25 as National Tap Dance Day. Robinson was a popular figure in both the Black and white entertainment worlds of his era, and 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, saying that he ‘changed the course of my life’ Robinson was born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, on May 25, 1878 to Maxwell, a machinist and Maria Robinson, a church choir director. He and his younger brother William were raised in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood.
His grandmother Bedilia Robinson, an former slave, raised him after both his parents died tragically in 1884: his father from chronic heart disease and his mother from unknown natural causes. He claimed that he was christened Luther, a name that he did not like. He suggested to his youngerbrother William that they should exchange names, and they eventually did. His brother subsequently adopted the name of Percy and achieved recognition as a musician under that name. In 1891, at the age of 12, Robinson ran away to Washington, D. C., where he did odd jobs at Benning Race Track and worked briefly as a jockey. He teamed up with a young Al Jolson, with Jolson singing while Robinson danced for pennies or sell newspapers. In 1900, Robinson entered a buck-and-wing dance contest at the Bijou Theatre in New York, winning a gold medal and defeating Harry Swinton in the show Old Swinton. He later joined the U.S. Army as a rifleman when the Spanish War broke out and received an accidental gunshot wound from a second lieutenant who was cleaning his gun. He toured with May Martinny’s troupe in The Before the War, despite his age. He travelled with the show for over a year before growing too mature to play the role. He was later hired by Whelallen and Remington and performed as a pickaninny, touring with the troupe for over two years.
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