Mr. Bojangles - Jim Haskins

More than fifty years after his death in 1949, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson is still the most famous tap dancer who ever lived, immortalised in the song 'Mr. Bojangles,' fondly remembered as Shirley Temple's dance partner in three of her films, and the subject of a Fred Astaire dance routine, 'Bojangles of Harlem.' Robinson was the first black dancer to star in white vaudeville circuits, for nearly thirty years as a headliner. Not only did he get top billing at the Palace in New York, he also played command performances for kings, presidents, and lesser folk. He appeared on radio and television, and played to packed houses on Broadway. Mr. Bojangles, the first full-length biography of Bill Robinson, reveals the charmer, gambler, brawler, athlete, consummate entertainer, and crusader for actors' rights behind the man who pushed past the colour barrier in the first half of the 20th century.;Haskins and Mitgang, with access to many of the people who knew Bojangles best as well as to his scrapbooks and personal papers, have created a vivid portrait of the man behind the myth, from his birth in Richmond, Virginia, to his death and his funeral, where Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Jackie Robinson and Irving Berlin were among the honorary pallbcarers.