Bill Robinson

His manager from 1908 until his death was Marty Forkins who eventually had him working in nightclubs for up to $3500 per week.

Bill Robinson quit school at age seven and began work as a professional dancer the following year. Bojangles (the name referred to his happy-go-lucky ebullience) starred in vaudeville, musical stage and movies. He invented the stair tap routine and was considered one of the world's greatest tap dancers. His film debut was in Dixiana (1930).

One of the first blacks to act on Broadway, he also appeared in the first all-black motion picture called Harlem Is Heaven (1932) in which he played a mayor.

He worked in fifteen movies, but his movie fame came primarily from the films he made with Shirley Temple -- The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938).

During World War I, Robinson was the drum major of the 369th Infantry Regiment, the so-called "Harlem Hellfighters."

Two scenes featuring Bill Robinson were cut from the final version of 'Café Metropole (1937)': a solo tap dance performance in black tie by the dancing legend and a Danse Apache duet with Geneva Sawyer. Both scenes are included in a DVD released by Fox as part of "Tyrone Power, Matinee Idol".

Ebbets Field, April 15, 1947: In celebration of Jackie Robinson's first appearance breaking the color barrier in professional baseball, was tapdancing on top of the Brooklyn Dodgers dugout.

Though it borrowed his name, Jerry Jeff Walker's 1968 song "Mr. Bojangles" (covered by many other artists, including Sammy Davis Jr. in 1972) was about a fantasy character who had little in common with Robinson. Robinson did not drink, was never a down-and-outer and was always a fastidious dresser. His dancing style was always close to the ground, never "leap . . . and lightly touch down.".

In 1982, a pair of his tap shoes were on display in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute.

Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002 (inaugural class).