Everything about John W Bubbles totally explained
John William Sublett (
February 19,
1902 –
May 18,
1986), known by his stage name
John W. Bubbles, was an
American vaudeville performer, singer and entertainer.
Born in
Louisville, Kentucky, Sublett's family soon moved to
New York City. Here, the ten-year-old performed with
Ford L. Buck in "Buck and Bubbles" begininng in the
1930s, with Buck playing piano and singing while Bubbles tapped. The two appeared in the
Ziegfield Follies of 1931 and were the first black artists to appear at the
Radio City Music Hall.
Sublett is known as the father of "
rhythm tap", a form of
tap dance. As opposed to the tap dancing of
Bill Robinson (Bojangles) who emphasized clean phrases and toe taps, Sublett brought in percussive heel stomps and played with the traditional eight-bar phrase, slowing it down to allow for more rhythmic freedom. He thus merged the art of tap dancing with the new improvisitory style of jazz, reinventing the tap artform.
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Though unable to read music, Bubbles was chosen by
George Gershwin to create the role of Sportin' Life in his opera
Porgy and Bess in
1935. Sublett performed the role occasionally for the next two decades. In 1963, in a
studio recording of
Porgy and Bess featuring
Leontyne Price and
William Warfield, he performed Sportin' Life's two main arias from the opera,
It Ain't Necessarily So and
There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York. (Ironically, he didn't perform these songs on the so-called "original cast" album, recorded in 1940.)
In
1920 he gave lessons in tap dancing to
Fred Astaire who considered Sublett the finest tap dancer of his generation. In the number "Bojangles of Harlem" from
Swing Time (
1936) Astaire dresses in
blackface as the Sportin' Life character and dances in the style of Sublett while ostensibly paying tribute to
Bill Robinson.
In 1978, John Bubbles spoke at the Variety Arts Theatre in Los Angeles as a participant in a seminar on vaudeville. Someone asked him who the best tap dancer was. Bubbles answered, "You're looking at him." Then he added, "Honestly, if I'd to name the best dancer, it would be Fred Astaire. He could tap. He had a good teacher. But he could ballroom, dance with a partner. All in all, he's the best." That same night, Bubbles mentioned that Fred had actually brought him into the rehearsal hall to work on "Bojangles of Harlem" and John's chops are right there in the number.
Sublett also appeared in
Hollywood films of the late 1930s and
1940s, including
Varsity Show in 1937,
Cabin in the Sky in 1943 and
A Song Is Born in 1948. In later life, he also made television appearances, one of his last being on a musical episode of
The Lucy Show, which, in addition to Bubbles, also guest-starred
Mel Torme.
Sublett received the 1980 Life Achievement Award from the American Guild of Variety Artists. He died in 1986 in
New York City.
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