Bone Jangler: Cafe Metropol

Bojangles is dressed exquisitely in clothes he shouldn't be wearing according to some. But his marvelous toothy grin never stops, and the only thing that shines brighter are the sounds emanating from his tap shoes. Only two movie musical stars of the day always insisted on dubbing their own sounds - Bill Robinson and Fred Astaire.

His eyes flit about playfully, like he's got some magic tricks up his sleeves. But the tricks are located much lower. In tap terminology, he pulls off a furious flurry of double pull backs, so fast you can't count the sounds unless you listen very carefully. But they're there, all of them. And all the while his white gloved hands and white smile gleam and glimmer as sounds sparkle all around him.

Dressed like Fred Astaire, with all the dignity to carry off the tuxedo, he dances to an appreciative white audience. There isn't a flicker of spite in those magical eyes, even though he wouldn't be allowed to sit in that audience himself. But nothing deters the artist from creating something beautiful. Thank God for that.