Shirley Temple Tap Dancing Wtih Bill "Bojangles" Robinson

Shirley Temple Tap Dancing With Bill Robinson

Online videos of child star Shirley Temple dancing with tap dancing legend Bill "Bojangles" Robinson

Bill Robinson made four films with child star Shirley Temple in the 1930's and all of them featured at least one scene of the two tap dancing together. The films were "The Little Colonel" and "The Littlest Rebel", both made in 1935, 1937's "Rebeca of Sunnybrook Farm" made in 1937, and "Just Around the Corner", made in 1938.

The Little Colonel (1935)

Period film set after the Civil War featureing Shirley Temple as a small girl whose family is estranged from her grandfather, played by Lionel Barrymore. Bill Robinson plays her grandfather's butler. The Robinson-Temple staircase dance in "The Little Colonel" is one of the duo's most iconic dances.

DANCE: The Famous Staircase Dance
DANCERS: Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson
DESCRIPTION:
The most iconic Temple-Robinson dance features the duo dancing up and down a staircase in her grandfather's home.

The Littlest Rebel (1935)

DANCE: Shim Sham Tap Dance
DANCERS: Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson

DANCE: Street Dance to Raise Money
DANCERS: Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1937)

SONG: "The Toy Trumpet"
DANCERS: Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson
DESCRIPTION: Military style tap dance at the end of the film.

Just Around the Corner (1938)

SONG: "This is a Happy Little Ditty"
DANCERS: Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson

SONG: I Love to Walk in the Rain
DANCERS: Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson

Related Resources

NPR "Two Stars, One Lifelong Friendship" Article

Remembering Hollywood's First Interracial Paring
Article written by Lakshmi Gandhi and published on February 27, 2014.

Shirley Temple Videos | Profile

Bill Robinson: Videos | Profile

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