Volume 15 Number 064 Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Lead

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Volume 15 Number 064 Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Lead: Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1878, raised by his grandmother, a former slave, legendary tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson transformed the art of tap dancing. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Bill Robinson lost both parents when he was a young and by the time he was six Robinson was dancing in beer gardens and on neighborhood street corners. All his life he carried the nickname “Bojangles,” but he could never be quite sure why. One story was that some of his friends had stolen a hat from Broad Street haberdasher named Boujasson. He inherited the hat, along with the name youthfully mispronounced “Bojangles.” Robinson dropped out of school to pursue a career in dancing, and at seventeen, he was working the vaudeville circuit in the United States and Europe. Robinson’s was not the conventional shuffling flat footed style, but instead, he danced with a light, swaying style on the balls of his feet. He refined the “stair dance” in the 1928 Broadway review Blackbirds and then with Shirley Temple in the 1935 movie The Little Colonel (1935). Vaudeville was fading by the late 1920s, but Robinson’s popularity in that medium helped him make the leap into a successful Broadway and motion picture career during the next two decades. During a time when there were limited opportunities for black actors and entertainers, many accepted roles such as those of Stepin Fetchit and Amos and Andy that, while pleasing to white audiences and paving the way for the Sydney Poitiers in the future, confirmed in their own era the worst kind of racial stereotype. Robinson frequently played a butler opposite Temple in movies such as The Littlest Rebel (1935). In one film, however, One Mile from Heaven (1937), he actually played a romantic lead opposite Lena Horne. Robinson continued to dance into his 60s and due to a penchant for gambling and a generous spirit, he died penniless in New York in 1949 at the age of seventy-one. He was mourned by many fans, tens of thousands of whom attended his funeral which was said to be one of New York’s largest up to that time. Research by Ann Johnson, at the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts. Resources Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson.” American Tap Dance Foundation. http://www.atdf.org/awards/bojangles.html. Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson.” StreetSwing.com: Dance History Archives. http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2bojan1.htm. Frank, Rusty. Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories 1900-1955. New York: Da Capo Press, 1990. Haskins, James and N. R. Mitgang. Mr Bojangles: The Biography of Bill Robinson. New York: William Morrow, 1990. Copyright by Dan Roberts Enterprises, Inc. .

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Bill 'Bojangles'
‘It’s all the way you look at it, you know’: reading Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson’s film career Author: Hannah Durkin Affiliation: University of Nottingham, UK This article engages with a major paradox in African American tap dancer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson’s film image – namely, its concurrent adherences to and contestations of dehumanising racial iconography – to reveal the complex and often ambivalent ways in which identity is staged and enacted. Although Robinson is often understood as an embodiment of popular cultural imagery historically designed to dehumanise African Americans, this paper shows that Robinson’s artistry displaces these readings by providing viewing pleasure for black, as much as white, audiences. Robinson’s racially segregated scenes in Dixiana (1930) and Hooray for Love (1935) illuminate classical Hollywood’s racial codes, whilst also showing how his inclusion within these otherwise all-white films provides grounding for creative and self-reflexive artistry. The films’ references to Robinson’s stage image and artistry overlap with minstrelsy-derived constructions of ‘blackness’, with the effect that they heighten possible interpretations of his cinematic persona by evading representational conclusion. Ultimately, Robinson’s films should be read as sites of representational struggle that help to uncover the slipperiness of performances of African American identities in 1930s Hollywood. Keywords: Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson; tap dance; minstrelsy; specialty number; classical Hollywood Hannah Durkin. Email: [email protected] In 1935 musical Hooray for Love, a character played by Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson (1878-1949), one of Hollywood’s first black screen stars, declares, ‘it’s all the way you look at it, you know’ to describe his surroundings.
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Sammy Davis Jr.'S Facts on Tap Dancing | Entertainment Guide
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Exposing Minstrelsy and Racial Representation Within American Tap Dance Performances of The
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Mr. Bojangles - 1968
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Autobillography
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"Peg Leg" Bates: Monoped Master
INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 1345758 Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates: Monoped master of the art of tap dance Vaughn, Carol Blair, M.A. The American University, 1991 Copyright ©1991 by Vaughn, Carol Blair.
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