Bill "Bojangles" Robinson: 2011

Bibliography

"Bill Robinson." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Oxford University Press, Inc., 2004. Answers.com 26 Feb. 2011. http://www.answers.com/topic/robinson-bill

"Bill Robinson." Contemporary Black Biography. The Gale Group, Inc, 2006. Answers.com 26 Feb. 2011. http://www.answers.com/topic/robinson-bill

"Bill Robinson." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1994-2010. Answers.com 26 Feb. 2011. http://www.answers.com/topic/robinson-bill

"Bill Bojangles Robinson quotes." Think Exist. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://thinkexist.com/quotes/bill_bojangles_robinson/>.

"Bill Bojangles Robinson and Shirley Temple." Web. 25 Feb 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjCFYpWDmfM.

""Bojangles" ." Streetwise. Sony Watson, 31 Dec 2009. Web. 25 Feb 2011. http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2bojan1.htm.

Hill, Constance Valis. "TAP DANCE HALL OF FAME." American Tap Dance Foundation. American Tap Dance Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2011. http://atdf.org/awards/bojangles.html

Larkin, Colin. "Stars Over Broadway." PBS. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, 2004. Web. 25 Feb 2011. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/robinson_b.html.

Pemberton, Anne.”Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.”http://www.educationalsynthesis.orghammer/BRobinson.html.N.p., 30 June 2010. Web. 24 Feb 2011.< http://www.educationalsynthesis.org>.

Padgett, Ken. "Bill Bojangles Robinson." Blackface. Kenneth William Padgett, n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2011. http://black-face.com/Bill-Bojangles-Robinson.htm..

"The Legend of Mr. Bojangles." Squidoo. Squidoo, n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2011. http://www.squidoo.com/mr_bojangles.

Wells, Mark. " Bill "Bojangles" Robinson;" King of Tap "." mingle city. N.p., 10 Jan 2010. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://minglecity.com/group/knowledgeisking/forum/topics/bill-bojangles-robinson-king?commentId=2322904:Comment:15138238&groupId=2322904:Group:14845749>.\

Interview

Q: You started at six-years-old, as a hoofer. At this young age what caused you to go into the arts?

I didn’t really have any major events in my life that caused me to go into the arts. I just had the gift and desire to dance every chance I got. At school the teacher found me hard to deal with so at age 5 I dropped out. At age six I started my dancing career. I picked up a few dance moves from some city kids on the streets.

I used to just make money dancing on the street. I would work at night for money, I would earn 50 cents. I was eventually discovered while working at a beer garden at 12 years old. So since I was out of school I had to start working.

Q: Who were the people that inspired you to become a dancer?

Well there weren’t many dancers or tap dancers at that when I was younger. I had a friend who we called “Eggie” (Oxford, 2004); he was kind of a mentor to me. Ha! I remember those days when me and Eggie used to dance around town passing a hat. Around this true that was when I started to go by ‘Bojangles”.

When I was 12 me and my friend “Dots” (Oxford, 2004) left Richmond. I was kind of his little sidekick. He got me my first professional job in a musical. The musical was called “The South Before The War”, I played a pick. Short for pickaninnies, they were very popular in Minstrel shows. These two led me into my career.

Q: What was the dance Industry like when you entered it?

Back then blacks didn’t really perform on stage. We weren’t really welcomed to. So you mostly saw dancers on streets. There were actually lot of white performers who would black their faces and performing like blacks. Most black children became pickaninnies and were put in minstrel shows. Black adults were not welcomed at all to the stage.

In the early 1900s Vaudeville was beginning to rise. There were some great black performers who challenged the Vaudeville’s segregation. Blacks were also restricted to perform in pairs. But starting in 1902 I had teamed up with George W. Cooper. This challenged the Vaudeville segregation rules. So black dancers kind of had to fight their way to success.

Q: How did the cultural, economic, and political situations around the time of your success affect your work?

Actually around World War 1 I was having trouble finding work so I enlisted in the war. I was with New York’s 15^th Infantry, National Guard (Gale, 2006). We started serving under France’s Fourth Army and was renamed the 369^th Infantry. That’s when they started calling us the “Harlem Hellfighters” (Gale, 2006).

I was also the 369^th drum major. Yeah, I remember leading regiment band up Fifth Avenue on our return from overseas. The war was one of my worst experiences in life, but when I returned home I focused on my career. Two years after I returned was when I started working with George Cooper.

Q: What were your greatest accomplishments and what methods did you use to achieve them?

My greatest accomplishments, I would have to say was when I changed tap from a flat-footed dance to dancing on your toes. It was one of my most popular dances. What success I achieved in the theater is due to the fact that I have always worked just as hard when there were ten people in the house as when there were thousands. Just as hard in Springfield, Illinois as on Broadway (“Think Exist”).I also invented the famous stair dance. I actually first did that dance for the King of England (Wells, 2010). I also did that dance with Shirley temple in the film “The Little Colonel”. It was one of my most popular dances. What success I achieved in the theater is due to the fact that I have always worked just as hard when there were ten people in the house as when there were thousands. Just as hard in Springfield, Illinois as on Broadway (“Think Exist”).

The story about that dance is when I made the dance it was kind of a spur of the moment. I was getting an honor from the King of England and he was standing at the top of a flight of stairs. I was so happy; I just had to dance up the stairs. Ha, but I also set a world record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash. I always claimed I could run backwards faster than most men could run forward.

Q: What opportunities were you given that made the changes to your life leading to your dancing career?

When I was 12 my friend Lemuel landed me my first professional job with a traveling group. That gave me the opportunity to learn the professional business. Also when George Cooper asked me to be his partner it helped me get more famous. Around 1914 me and George split and I went solo. Later Lew Leslie gathered me and other black stars to star in “Blackbirds”. It was like a black revue for white audiences. After that I started to crossover to white audiences. I challenged color barriers by performing in white only theaters.

After “blackbirds”, for about a decade my popularity started to grow within the white audiences. I started to do a lot of Shirley Temple films. I often played a butler. I was also the first black male to dance on film with a white girl. So I actually had many opportunitie

Q: What obstacles did you have to overcome to become a top dancer?

When Vaudeville was rising it was segregated. That was my biggest obstacle, segregation. Also before I did the movie “Blackbird” I didn’t really perform for any audiences. Before me and George teamed up there was a “Two-colored” rule in Vaudeville (Hill). It restricted blacks from performing in pairs. George and I challenged that rule.