BILL ROBINSON (1943) Photo – 2

[Hollywood: Twentieth Century Fox, 1943]. Vintage original 10 x 8″ (25 x 20 cm) black-and-white print still photo, near fine.

Portrait of the ebullient Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, with a cane in one hand and a bouquet in the other, at the time that he was shooting the Black-cast musical film Stormy Weather at Fox.

“Mr. Bill” Williamson (Robinson), a naturally talented dancer, recounts his past to some neighborhood children in a series of flashbacks, which show his return home in 1918 after serving in World War I, meeting a beautiful singer/dancer named Selina Rogers, who is the sister of one of his war buddies, and his travels to New Orleans to become a performer.

“In 2001, Stormy Weather was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’” (Wikipedia)