Sugar chile robinson caledonia
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Sugar Chile Robinson
Attend:
Saturday, Jun 22, 2024
7 p.m.
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| Free with ticket purchase |
Join us for a very special event on the final weekend of Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 – 1971. Preceding the 7:30 p.m. screening of Stormy Weather, the DFT will present an overture performed by Frank Isaac Robinson, known in his early musical career as Sugar Chile Robinson, an American jazz pianist and Detroit native who became famous as a child prodigy in the mid-1940s.
Robinson was born in 1938, the youngest of seven children of Clarence A. and Elizabeth Robinson. He taught himself to play the piano by ear and won a talent show at Detroit's Paradise Theatre when he was three. In 1945, he played with Lionel Hampton on the radio, and appeared in the Hollywood film No Leave, No Love. In 1946, Robinson played for President Harry S. Truman at the White House Correspondents' Association where he shouted out "How'm I Doin', Mr. President?" which became his catchphrase.
Free with admission to Stormy Weather.
Join us for a very special event on the
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Sugar Chile Robinson
Frank “Sugar Chile” Robinson was one of the first African American child stars to become a household name. Born in Detroit in 1938, he was a self-taught piano prodigy by the age of three. At age seven, Sugar Chile performed for President Truman at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. He was the first African American artist to ever be invited. Only a kid, Sugar Chile had a record deal, Billboard chart spots, a gig with Count Basie’s orchestra, and movie appearances at a time when few African Americans were seen on the big screen.
Sugar Chile returned to school in the ‘50s and his fame faded, but his legacy remained. In 2016, President Obama invited him back to the White House Correspondents Dinner to celebrate 70 years since his first groundbreaking appearance there. But by that point, Frank was struggling with his health and finances, and had little left to his name after a devastating house fire. The small apartment he shares with his niece had no beds, let alone a piano.
How We Helped:
In 2017, Music Maker got word that Frank was days from eviction
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SUGAR CHILE ROBINSON (By Dave Penny)
Born Frank Issac Robinson, 26 December 1935, Detroit, Michigan
The history of 20th century entertainment has been littered with the often ultimately tragic stories of its child prodigies; from Jackie Coogan in the 1920s, Shirley Temple in the 1930s, Toni Harper in the 1940s and Frankie Lymon in the 1950s. On the whole, although precociously talented, child entertainers were usually saddled with inferior, childish material that, while perhaps cute at the time, usually resulted in the youngster being regarded as a flash-in-the-pan novelty act which grew tiresome pretty quickly. The fall from grace, when they reached adolescence, was usually brutal, and some couldn't handle the swift drop in popularity and turned to drink or drugs, while others accepted that their time in the spotlight had ended and retired more gracefully to concentrate their energies in other directions. One such was that tiny bundle of Detroit dynamite, "Sugar Chile" Robinson.
Born Frankie Robinson in Detroit on 28th December 1935, the youngest of seven children born to Cla
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