Fine original signed photograph from the great dancer/performer as shown in costume in the 1939 hit show, produced at the New York World's Fair. Vintage doubleweight matte-finish photo of Robinson, signed and inscribed in fountain pen “To Thos. K. Litch With best Wishes always Copesetically, Bill Robinson.” Light surface creasing, otherwise fine condition. 11 x 13.5 inches.
“Hot Mikado” was a musical with an all-black cast produced by Michael Todd and directed by Hassard Short. It opened at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway on March 23, 1939, and closed three months later after a successful run of 85 performances. It was then moved to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, where it stayed until September. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan's comic “The Mikado,” Todd and Short’s Broadway musical was a jazzy version and in the title role of the Emperor, Robinson was bedecked in a gold suit, gold shoes, gold derby and gold cane.“ From the minute the curtain rises on the dancing dragon to the final tap of Bill Robinson, song and step stir the ‘Hot Mikado’ into the hottest show the ol’ town ever saw,” stated the program. “… Here have assembled the peaches of Harlem, the cream of the colored crop, the sirens of Sepialand. And there are sixty of these girls, sixty serenading sugarplums.”
Fine original signed photograph from the great dancer/performer as shown in costume in the 1939 hit show, produced at the New York World's Fair. Vintage doubleweight matte-finish photo of Robinson, signed and inscribed in fountain pen “To Thos. K. Litch With best Wishes always Copesetically, Bill Robinson.” Light surface creasing, otherwise fine condition. 11 x 13.5 inches.
“Hot Mikado” was a musical with an all-black cast produced by Michael Todd and directed by Hassard Short. It opened at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway on March 23, 1939, and closed three months later after a successful run of 85 performances. It was then moved to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, where it stayed until September. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan's comic “The Mikado,” Todd and Short’s Broadway musical was a jazzy version and in the title role of the Emperor, Robinson was bedecked in a gold suit, gold shoes, gold derby and gold cane.“ From the minute the curtain rises on the dancing dragon to the final tap of Bill Robinson, song and step stir the ‘Hot Mikado’ into the hottest show the ol’ town ever saw,” stated the program. “… Here have assembled the peaches of Harlem, the cream of the colored crop, the sirens of Sepialand. And there are sixty of these girls, sixty serenading sugarplums.”