Bill Robinson
...up on its toes.” Robinson had a major acting and dancing appearance in stormy weather with Lena Horne and Fats Waller. Bill was born in Richmond, Virginia on may 25, 1878, to father Maxwell Robinson, a machine-shop worker, and mother Maria Robinson, a choir singer. Bill live with his grandmother after the death of his parents as a baby. He was named christened Luther a name he did not like, so he suggested to his younger brother to exchanged names. At the age of six he began dancing for a living as a song and dance man in local beer gardens. At 12 he joined a traveling company in “The South Before the War”. A year later became a professional tap dancer. He succeed as a nightclub and musical comedy performer. Twenty five years later he became one of the toasts of Broadway. At fifty not only having to dance with white audience but on the black theater circuit. In Chicago he met Marty Forkins, who became his manager. Working as a solo act in nightclubs made his earnings increased. He gain more success for his famous “stair dance” which he was performing to the king of England in honor to him. In the 1930s made fourteen motion pictures. His most frequent roles in “The Littlest Colonel,” “The Littlest Rebel” and “In Old Kentucky” all were released in 1935. Then, he played a romantic lead opposite the singer Lena Horne in “One Mile Heaven”. In 1939 he returned to the stage in “The Hot Mikado”, a jazz version in New York world’s f...