Bill Robinson

Did you know?!

1. A first

   Robinson set a world record for running backward in 1922, covering 100 yards in 13.5 seconds, a mark that stood until 1977 when Paul Wilson ran it in 13.3 seconds.

2. A first

   After Phil Baker and Leonard Sillman, the white stars and co-producers, pulled out, Robinson took over as the star. It was the first time an African-American headlined a production that was otherwise all white.

3. First role

   Robinson began performing at age five as a busker in Richmond beer gardens and outside theaters for tossed pennies, and a promoter spotted him outside the Globe Theater and hired him for a minstrel show.

4. Big break

   Robinson won a buck-and-wing contest at Brooklyn's Bijou Theatre in 1900, defeating Harry Swinton, and the publicity helped him land work in numerous traveling shows.

5. A first

   Robinson tried to patent his signature stair dance through the U.S. Patent Office but never succeeded, though the routine became so identified with him that Fred Stone sent him a check for performing it.

6. A change of course

   In 1936, Robinson and financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler started the New York Black Yankees, a Harlem baseball team. It belonged to the Negro National League and did well until it folded in 1948.