Bill “Bojangles” Robinson

Remembering Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (25th May, 1878 - 25th November, 1949) on his birthday, the 25th of May, which Congress designated as ‘National Tap Dance Day’ in 1989, in honour of Mr. Bill “Bonjangles” Robinson. He was a groundbreaking and influential tap dancer, an actor, and a singer, whose career spanned from minstrel shows, to vaudeville, to the Broadway theatre, to Hollywood movies, to recordings, radio, and television. He appeared in the early Pre-Code musical comedy movie for RKO Pictures, Luther Reed’s ‘Dixiana’ (1930), also starring Bebe Daniels, Everett Marshall, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey (“Wheeler & Woolsey”), and Jobyna Howland. David Butler’s comedy-drama for Fox Films, ‘The Little Colonel’ (1935), featured the first Hollywood interracial dance team, Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple, in the post-Civil War Shirley Temple vehicle that also starred Lionel Barrymore, Evelyn Venable, and Hattie McDaniel. He co-starred again with Shirley Temple in David Butler’s ‘The Littlest Rebel’ (1935), also starring John Boles, Jack Holt, and Karen Morley, and soon afterwards he co-starred with Will Rogers and Dorothy Wilson in George Marshall’s ‘In Old Kentucky’ (1935), and then he was part of an all-star cast in Norman Taurog’s ‘comedy ‘The Big Broadcast of 1936’ (1935). He then appeared co-starring again with Shirley Temple in Allan Dwan’s musical comedy ‘Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm’ (1938), also starring Randolph Scott, Jack Haley, Gloria Stuart, and Slim Summerville, then in Alfred L. Werker‘s ‘Up The River’ (1938), also starring Preston Foster and Arthur Treacher, and then dancing with Shirley Temple again in the musical comedy ‘Just Around the Corner’ (1938), also starring Charles Farrell and Bert Lahr. His last movie was the legendary iconic musical, Andrew L. Stone’s ‘Stormy Weather’ (1943), also starring Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller, the Nicholas Brothers, Ada Brown, and Dooley Wilson. Many cited Bill “Bojangles” Robinson as a huge influence on them, and a friend who helped them, including Fred Astaire, Anne Miller, Eleanor Powell, Lena Horne, The Nicholas Brothers, Jesse Owen’s, Sammy Davis Jr., and Gregory Hines. He was one of the most important screen actors and entertainers of the first half of the 20th century.