Difference between revisions of "Bill "Bojangles" Robinson" - New World Encyclopedia
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Bojangles (the name referred to his happy-go-lucky ebullience) starred in vaudeville, musical stage and movies. He invented the stair tap routine and is remembered for his appearances as trouper with the moppet Shirley Temple in four of her 1930s films. | Bojangles (the name referred to his happy-go-lucky ebullience) starred in vaudeville, musical stage and movies. He invented the stair tap routine and is remembered for his appearances as trouper with the moppet Shirley Temple in four of her 1930s films. | ||
| − | Some jazz sources say, Bojangles was the chief instigator for getting tap dance "up on its toes." Early forms of tap, including the familiar "buck and wing" | + | Some jazz sources say, Bojangles was the chief instigator for getting tap dance "up on its toes." Early forms of tap, including the familiar "buck and wing," contained a flat-footed style, while Robinson performed on the balls of his feet with a shuffle-tap style that allowed him more improvisation. It got him noticed and certainly made him a legend. |
==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
| Line 9: | Line 9: | ||
Born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, on May 25, 1878, he was orphaned in infancy and reared by a grandmother. He disliked his birth name, so he suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made. The new 'Luther' later adopted the name Percy and became a well-known drummer.The details of Robinson's early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Bill Robinson himself. | Born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, on May 25, 1878, he was orphaned in infancy and reared by a grandmother. He disliked his birth name, so he suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made. The new 'Luther' later adopted the name Percy and became a well-known drummer.The details of Robinson's early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Bill Robinson himself. | ||
| − | At the age of six, he began dancing for a living, appearing as a "hoofer" or song-and-dance man in local beer gardens. A year later, young Bill quit school altogether to pursue dancing full-time. Two years later in Washington, | + | At the age of six, he began dancing for a living, appearing as a "hoofer" or song-and-dance man in local beer gardens. A year later, young Bill quit school altogether to pursue dancing full-time. Two years later in Washington, D.C., he began touring as a member of the pickaninny chorus for [[Mayme Remington]] with The South Before the War. In his teens, Bojangles joined various traveling companies and vaudeville tours, slowly building up a successful reputation in nightclubs and musical comedies. From 1902-1914, he teamed with tapper, [[George W. Cooper]]. Bound by the "two-colored" rule in vaudeville, which restricted blacks to performing in pairs, they performed together on the Keith and Orpheum circuits, but did not wear blackface makeup that performers customarily used. Having devoted his early career exclusively to appearances on the black theater circuit, he would not dance for white audiences until he was 50-years-old. |
In 1908 in Chicago, he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins' tutelage, Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3,500 per week. He headlined with [[Cab Calloway]] many times at the famous [[Cotton Club]] in [[Harlem]]. Bojangles' unique sound came from using wooden taps while 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. He claimed to have invented this dance on the spur of the moment when he was receiving some honor — he could never remember exactly what — from the King of England. The King was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, and Bojangles' feet just danced up to be honored. | In 1908 in Chicago, he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins' tutelage, Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3,500 per week. He headlined with [[Cab Calloway]] many times at the famous [[Cotton Club]] in [[Harlem]]. Bojangles' unique sound came from using wooden taps while 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. He claimed to have invented this dance on the spur of the moment when he was receiving some honor — he could never remember exactly what — from the King of England. The King was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, and Bojangles' feet just danced up to be honored. | ||
| − | == | + | ==Infiltrating White America== |
Toward the end of the vaudeville era, a white impresario, [[Lew Leslie]], recruited Robinson for Blackbirds of 1928, a black revue for white audiences featuring he and an assortment of other black stars. From then on, Robinson's public role was that of a dapper, smiling, plaid-suited ambassador to the white world, maintaining a tenuous connection with the black show-business circles through his continuing patronage of the Hoofers Club, an entertainer's haven in Harlem. Consequently, blacks and whites developed differing opinions of him. To whites, for example, his nickname "Bojangles" meant happy-go-lucky, while the black variety artist Tom Flatcher claimed it was slang for "squabbler." | Toward the end of the vaudeville era, a white impresario, [[Lew Leslie]], recruited Robinson for Blackbirds of 1928, a black revue for white audiences featuring he and an assortment of other black stars. From then on, Robinson's public role was that of a dapper, smiling, plaid-suited ambassador to the white world, maintaining a tenuous connection with the black show-business circles through his continuing patronage of the Hoofers Club, an entertainer's haven in Harlem. Consequently, blacks and whites developed differing opinions of him. To whites, for example, his nickname "Bojangles" meant happy-go-lucky, while the black variety artist Tom Flatcher claimed it was slang for "squabbler." | ||
| − | + | The publicity that gradually came to surround Robinson included his successful gambling exploits, his bow ties of multiple colors, his generosity, his ability to run backward (he set a world's record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash) and to consume ice-cream by the quart and his neologism copacetic. | |
| − | |||
| − | The publicity that gradually came to surround Robinson included his successful gambling exploits, his bow ties of multiple colors, his generosity, his ability to run backward (he set a world's record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash) and to consume ice-cream by the quart | ||
Because his public image became preeminent, little is known of his first marriage to Fannie S. Clay in Chicago shortly after World War I, his divorce in 1943, or his marriage to Elaine Plaines on January 27, 1944, in Columbus, Ohio. | Because his public image became preeminent, little is known of his first marriage to Fannie S. Clay in Chicago shortly after World War I, his divorce in 1943, or his marriage to Elaine Plaines on January 27, 1944, in Columbus, Ohio. | ||
| − | After 1930, black revues waned in popularity, | + | After 1930, as black revues waned in popularity, Robinson remained a mainstay with white audiences in some fourteen motion pictures produced by such companies as RKO, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. Most of them had musical settings, in which he played old-fashioned roles in nostalgic romances. His most frequent role was that of an antebellum butler opposite Shirley Temple in such films as The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) and Just Around the Corner (1938). Rarely did he depart from the stereotype imposed by Hollywood writers. In a small vignette in Hooray For Love (1935) he played a mayor of Harlem modeled after his own ceremonial honor; in One Mile From Heaven (1937), he played a romantic lead opposite African American actress Fredi Washington after Hollywood had relaxed its taboo against such roles for blacks. |
| − | In 1939, he returned to the stage in ''The Hot Mikado'', a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta produced at | + | In 1939, he returned to the stage in ''The Hot Mikado'', a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta produced at [[New York World's Fair]]. Thereafter, he confined himself to occasional performances, but he could still dance in his late sixties almost as well as he ever could, to the continual astonishment of his admirers. As a matter of fact, on his 60th birthday the much-loved performer danced his way backwards down Broadway from Columbus Circle to 44th Street. |
| − | In | + | In 1943, as a farewell to Hollywood, but a salute to his fellow Black performers who were continually stereotyped in Hollywood, Robinson starred opposite Lena Horne and Cab Calloway in the quality film musical, ''Stormy Weather''. |
==Motion Pictures== | ==Motion Pictures== | ||
| − | Whether he was performing in a small town theater or a grand Broadway playhouse, Robinson gave his best and his national popularity became such that he was invited by studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck to come to Hollywood to appear in motion pictures, albeit limited to stereotypical roles. In all, he appeared in more than a dozen films but is best remembered for a number of 1930s film performances with the child star Shirley Temple | + | Whether he was performing in a small town theater or a grand Broadway playhouse, Robinson gave his best and his national popularity became such that he was invited by studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck to come to Hollywood to appear in motion pictures, albeit limited to stereotypical roles. In all, he appeared in more than a dozen films but is best remembered for a number of 1930s film performances with the child star Shirley Temple. |
Partial filmography | Partial filmography | ||
| Line 51: | Line 49: | ||
A notorious gambler with a big heart, he had a soft spot for anyone down on their luck or with a good story. During his lifetime Robinson spent a fortune, but his generosity was not totally wasted and his haunting memories of surviving on the streets as a child never left him. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he saw two children risk speeding traffic to cross a street because there was no stoplight at the intersection. Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have a safety traffic light installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles" was erected in a small park at that intersection. | A notorious gambler with a big heart, he had a soft spot for anyone down on their luck or with a good story. During his lifetime Robinson spent a fortune, but his generosity was not totally wasted and his haunting memories of surviving on the streets as a child never left him. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he saw two children risk speeding traffic to cross a street because there was no stoplight at the intersection. Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have a safety traffic light installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles" was erected in a small park at that intersection. | ||
| − | Robinson's favorite adjective was copasetic. He claimed to have coined the word; in any event, there is little argument that he popularized the term sufficiently to make it part of the English vocabulary | + | Robinson's favorite adjective was copasetic. He claimed to have coined the word; in any event, there is little argument that he popularized the term sufficiently to make it part of the English vocabulary. |
Bojangles co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler. The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948. | Bojangles co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler. The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948. | ||
| − | In 1989 a joint U.S. Senate / House resolution declared "National Tap Dance Day" to be May 25th, | + | In 1989, a joint U.S. Senate / House resolution declared "National Tap Dance Day" to be May 25th, Bill Robinson's birthday. |
==Death and Memorial== | ==Death and Memorial== | ||
| − | Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949. His body lay in state at an armory in Harlem; schools were closed, thousands lined the streets waiting for a glimpse of his bier, and he was eulogized by politicians, black and white—perhaps more lavishly than any other African American of his time. "To his own people" | + | Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949. |
| + | He was penniless; so, television host Ed Sullivan personally paid for the funeral. His body lay in state at an armory in Harlem; schools were closed, thousands lined the streets waiting for a glimpse of his bier, and he was eulogized by politicians, black and white—perhaps more lavishly than any other African American of his time. "To his own people," wrote Marshall and Jean Stearns, "Robinson became a modern John Henry, who instead of driving steel, laid down iron taps." He was buried in the cemetery of the Evergreens in New York City. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In death, Bojangles has become indellible in American culture: | ||
| + | * There is a statue of Bill Robinson sculpted by Jack Witt in Richmond, Virginia at the intersection of Adams and West Leigh Streets. | ||
| + | * Fred Astaire paid tribute to Bill Robinson in the tap routine Bojangles of Harlem from the 1936 classic Swing Time. In it he famously dances to three of his shadows. Duke Ellington composed 'Bojangles (A Portrait of Bill Robinson)', a set of rhythmic variations as a salute to the great dancer. | ||
| + | * Bill Robinson's biography was published in 1988 and a made-for-television film titled Bojangles was released in 2001. The film earned the NAACP Best actor Award for Gregory Hines' performance as Bill Robinson. | ||
| + | * Bill Robinson's character was, in effect, memorialized in Jerry Jeff Walker's 1968 folk song "Mr. Bojangles" that was later recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Harry Nilsson, Harry Chapin, Chet Atkins, King Curtis, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Neil Diamond, Sammy Davis, Jr, Tom T. Hall, John Holt, Robbie Williams and others. The song, however, is not about Robinson himself. It is apparently about an obscure imitator, one of several reported, who danced for tips. In a sense, his influence passed into the "folk culture" by inspiring talented, but poor, individuals to dance, thus sharing in his legacy. | ||
| + | * In Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005), the character "Bonejangles" was named after him. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==References== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Mr. Bojangles : the biography of Bill Robinson | ||
| + | by James Haskins; N R Mitgang | ||
| + | Type: Book | ||
| + | Language: English | ||
| + | Publisher: New York : W. Morrow, ©1988. | ||
| + | Edition: 1st ed | 4 Editions | ||
| + | ISBN: 0688072038 | ||
| + | |||
| + | The power of pride : stylemakers and rulebreakers of the Harlem Renaissance | ||
| + | by Carole Marks; Diana Edkins | ||
| + | Type: Book | ||
| + | Language: English | ||
| + | Publisher: New York : Crown Publishers, ©1999. | ||
| + | Edition: 1st ed | 2 Editions | ||
| + | ISBN: 0609600966 | ||
| + | |||
| + | The African-American century : how Black Americans have shaped our country | ||
| + | by Henry Louis Gates; Cornel West | ||
| + | Type: Book | ||
| + | Language: English | ||
| + | Publisher: New York : Free Press, ©2000. | ||
| + | Editions: 2 Editions | ||
| + | ISBN: 0684864142 | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | ==External Links== | ||
| + | http://www.atdf.org/awards/bojangles.html American Tap Dance Foundation | ||
| + | http://www.kathleenacademy.com/funzone/bojangls.html Kathleen Academy Bio | ||
| + | http://www.tapdance.org/tap/people/bojangle.htm | ||
| − | + | ==Credits== | |
| + | Initial content was copied from the following Wikipedia article: | ||
| − | + | * Bill "Bojangles"_Robinson (Dec 11, 2007) history | |
| − | + | All credit for producing the original text goes to the WikiMedia Foundation and its selfless team of volunteer contributors. It was copied here in compliance with the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Any changes made to the original text since then create a derivative work which is also GFDL licensed. Please note the current version here and at Wikipedia are liable to diverge over time. Check the edit history for details. | |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
Revision as of 19:33, 13 December 2007
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer.
Bojangles (the name referred to his happy-go-lucky ebullience) starred in vaudeville, musical stage and movies. He invented the stair tap routine and is remembered for his appearances as trouper with the moppet Shirley Temple in four of her 1930s films.
Some jazz sources say, Bojangles was the chief instigator for getting tap dance "up on its toes." Early forms of tap, including the familiar "buck and wing," contained a flat-footed style, while Robinson performed on the balls of his feet with a shuffle-tap style that allowed him more improvisation. It got him noticed and certainly made him a legend.
Biography
Born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, on May 25, 1878, he was orphaned in infancy and reared by a grandmother. He disliked his birth name, so he suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made. The new 'Luther' later adopted the name Percy and became a well-known drummer.The details of Robinson's early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Bill Robinson himself.
At the age of six, he began dancing for a living, appearing as a "hoofer" or song-and-dance man in local beer gardens. A year later, young Bill quit school altogether to pursue dancing full-time. Two years later in Washington, D.C., he began touring as a member of the pickaninny chorus for Mayme Remington with The South Before the War. In his teens, Bojangles joined various traveling companies and vaudeville tours, slowly building up a successful reputation in nightclubs and musical comedies. From 1902-1914, he teamed with tapper, George W. Cooper. Bound by the "two-colored" rule in vaudeville, which restricted blacks to performing in pairs, they performed together on the Keith and Orpheum circuits, but did not wear blackface makeup that performers customarily used. Having devoted his early career exclusively to appearances on the black theater circuit, he would not dance for white audiences until he was 50-years-old.
In 1908 in Chicago, he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins' tutelage, Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3,500 per week. He headlined with Cab Calloway many times at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem. Bojangles' unique sound came from using wooden taps while 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. He claimed to have invented this dance on the spur of the moment when he was receiving some honor — he could never remember exactly what — from the King of England. The King was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, and Bojangles' feet just danced up to be honored.
Infiltrating White America
Toward the end of the vaudeville era, a white impresario, Lew Leslie, recruited Robinson for Blackbirds of 1928, a black revue for white audiences featuring he and an assortment of other black stars. From then on, Robinson's public role was that of a dapper, smiling, plaid-suited ambassador to the white world, maintaining a tenuous connection with the black show-business circles through his continuing patronage of the Hoofers Club, an entertainer's haven in Harlem. Consequently, blacks and whites developed differing opinions of him. To whites, for example, his nickname "Bojangles" meant happy-go-lucky, while the black variety artist Tom Flatcher claimed it was slang for "squabbler."
The publicity that gradually came to surround Robinson included his successful gambling exploits, his bow ties of multiple colors, his generosity, his ability to run backward (he set a world's record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash) and to consume ice-cream by the quart and his neologism copacetic.
Because his public image became preeminent, little is known of his first marriage to Fannie S. Clay in Chicago shortly after World War I, his divorce in 1943, or his marriage to Elaine Plaines on January 27, 1944, in Columbus, Ohio.
After 1930, as black revues waned in popularity, Robinson remained a mainstay with white audiences in some fourteen motion pictures produced by such companies as RKO, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. Most of them had musical settings, in which he played old-fashioned roles in nostalgic romances. His most frequent role was that of an antebellum butler opposite Shirley Temple in such films as The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) and Just Around the Corner (1938). Rarely did he depart from the stereotype imposed by Hollywood writers. In a small vignette in Hooray For Love (1935) he played a mayor of Harlem modeled after his own ceremonial honor; in One Mile From Heaven (1937), he played a romantic lead opposite African American actress Fredi Washington after Hollywood had relaxed its taboo against such roles for blacks.
In 1939, he returned to the stage in The Hot Mikado, a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta produced at New York World's Fair. Thereafter, he confined himself to occasional performances, but he could still dance in his late sixties almost as well as he ever could, to the continual astonishment of his admirers. As a matter of fact, on his 60th birthday the much-loved performer danced his way backwards down Broadway from Columbus Circle to 44th Street.
In 1943, as a farewell to Hollywood, but a salute to his fellow Black performers who were continually stereotyped in Hollywood, Robinson starred opposite Lena Horne and Cab Calloway in the quality film musical, Stormy Weather.
Motion Pictures
Whether he was performing in a small town theater or a grand Broadway playhouse, Robinson gave his best and his national popularity became such that he was invited by studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck to come to Hollywood to appear in motion pictures, albeit limited to stereotypical roles. In all, he appeared in more than a dozen films but is best remembered for a number of 1930s film performances with the child star Shirley Temple.
Partial filmography
- Harlem Is Heaven (1932)
- The Little Colonel (1935)
- The Littlest Rebel (1935)
- In Old Kentucky (1935)
- Hooray For Love (1935)
- One Mile From Heaven (1937)
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
- Just Around the Corner (1938)
- Cotton Club Revue (1938)
- Stormy Weather (1943)
Legacy
Robinson was dogged by lifelong personal demons, enhanced by having to endure the indignities of racism that, despite his great success, still limited his opportunities. A favorite Robinson anecdote is that he seated himself in a restaurant and a customer objected to his presence. When the manager suggested that it might be better if the entertainer left, Robinson smiled and asked, "Have you got a ten dollar bill?" Politely asking to borrow the note for a moment, Robinson added six $10 bills from his own wallet and mixed them up, then extended the seven bills together, adding, "Here, let's see you pick out the colored one." The restaurant manager served Robinson without further delay.
A notorious gambler with a big heart, he had a soft spot for anyone down on their luck or with a good story. During his lifetime Robinson spent a fortune, but his generosity was not totally wasted and his haunting memories of surviving on the streets as a child never left him. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he saw two children risk speeding traffic to cross a street because there was no stoplight at the intersection. Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have a safety traffic light installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles" was erected in a small park at that intersection.
Robinson's favorite adjective was copasetic. He claimed to have coined the word; in any event, there is little argument that he popularized the term sufficiently to make it part of the English vocabulary.
Bojangles co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler. The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948.
In 1989, a joint U.S. Senate / House resolution declared "National Tap Dance Day" to be May 25th, Bill Robinson's birthday.
Death and Memorial
Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949. He was penniless; so, television host Ed Sullivan personally paid for the funeral. His body lay in state at an armory in Harlem; schools were closed, thousands lined the streets waiting for a glimpse of his bier, and he was eulogized by politicians, black and white—perhaps more lavishly than any other African American of his time. "To his own people," wrote Marshall and Jean Stearns, "Robinson became a modern John Henry, who instead of driving steel, laid down iron taps." He was buried in the cemetery of the Evergreens in New York City.
In death, Bojangles has become indellible in American culture:
- There is a statue of Bill Robinson sculpted by Jack Witt in Richmond, Virginia at the intersection of Adams and West Leigh Streets.
- Fred Astaire paid tribute to Bill Robinson in the tap routine Bojangles of Harlem from the 1936 classic Swing Time. In it he famously dances to three of his shadows. Duke Ellington composed 'Bojangles (A Portrait of Bill Robinson)', a set of rhythmic variations as a salute to the great dancer.
- Bill Robinson's biography was published in 1988 and a made-for-television film titled Bojangles was released in 2001. The film earned the NAACP Best actor Award for Gregory Hines' performance as Bill Robinson.
- Bill Robinson's character was, in effect, memorialized in Jerry Jeff Walker's 1968 folk song "Mr. Bojangles" that was later recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Harry Nilsson, Harry Chapin, Chet Atkins, King Curtis, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Neil Diamond, Sammy Davis, Jr, Tom T. Hall, John Holt, Robbie Williams and others. The song, however, is not about Robinson himself. It is apparently about an obscure imitator, one of several reported, who danced for tips. In a sense, his influence passed into the "folk culture" by inspiring talented, but poor, individuals to dance, thus sharing in his legacy.
- In Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005), the character "Bonejangles" was named after him.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Mr. Bojangles : the biography of Bill Robinson by James Haskins; N R Mitgang Type: Book Language: English Publisher: New York : W. Morrow, ©1988. Edition: 1st ed | 4 Editions ISBN: 0688072038
The power of pride : stylemakers and rulebreakers of the Harlem Renaissance by Carole Marks; Diana Edkins Type: Book Language: English Publisher: New York : Crown Publishers, ©1999. Edition: 1st ed | 2 Editions ISBN: 0609600966
The African-American century : how Black Americans have shaped our country by Henry Louis Gates; Cornel West Type: Book Language: English Publisher: New York : Free Press, ©2000. Editions: 2 Editions ISBN: 0684864142
External Links
http://www.atdf.org/awards/bojangles.html American Tap Dance Foundation http://www.kathleenacademy.com/funzone/bojangls.html Kathleen Academy Bio http://www.tapdance.org/tap/people/bojangle.htm
Credits
Initial content was copied from the following Wikipedia article:
- Bill "Bojangles"_Robinson (Dec 11, 2007) history
All credit for producing the original text goes to the WikiMedia Foundation and its selfless team of volunteer contributors. It was copied here in compliance with the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Any changes made to the original text since then create a derivative work which is also GFDL licensed. Please note the current version here and at Wikipedia are liable to diverge over time. Check the edit history for details.
