Harlem Is Heaven (1932) | Bill "Bojangles" Robinson First Starring Role

Bill Robinson was already a veteran of two broadway shows when he was tapped to star in this all-black cast musical in 1932. In 1935, he would begin starring opposite Shirley Temple in a popular series, but he wouldn't star in another feature film until Stormy Weather (1943) which proved to be his swan song.

The story is woven around the true life experiences of Robinson. It has to do with the adventures of a beautiful young actress (Anise Boyer) just arrived from the south and the manner in which she is aided and befriended by Bill, star of a musical revue of a leading Harlem theatre. Look for future Oscar winner James Baskett (Uncle Remus in Song of the South) as Money Johnson.
From The Larry Richards / A Cinema Apart Collection.

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From Wikipedia
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was an American tap dancer and actor, the best known and most highly paid African-American entertainer in the first half of the twentieth century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. He started in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway, the recording industry, Hollywood, radio, and television. According to dance critic Marshall Stearns, "Robinson's contribution to tap dance is exact and specific. He brought it up on its toes, dancing upright and swinging", giving tap a "…hitherto-unknown lightness and presence."[1]:pp. 186–187 His signature routine was the stair dance, in which Robinson would tap up and down a set of stairs in a rhythmically complex sequence of steps, a routine that he unsuccessfully attempted to patent. Robinson is also credited with having introduced a new word, copacetic, into popular culture, via his repeated use of it in vaudeville and radio appearances.

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