Entertainer. A noted tap dancer and singer, he created the role of 'Sportin' Life' in the 1935 world premiere of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess". Born John William Sublett he was raised in Indianapolis and began dancing at an early age. In his late teens he formed the duo Buck and Bubbles with his childhood friend jazz pianist Ford "Buck" Washington and began touring, the pair playing California's Orpheum Circuit of the 1920s and eventually becoming the first black artists to perform at New York's Radio City Music Hall and, maybe, on television when they appeared in an experimental 1936 broadcast from London. Bubbles was in several movies starting in 1929 with "Black Narcissus" and "On With the Show"; in 1935 he was chosen by Gershwin for the role of the drug dealer Sportin' Life in the Boston world premiere of "Porgy and Bess". He did not, however, get to record his two big numbers, "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York", until cutting a 1963 album with William Warfield and Leontyne Price; Gershwin used white singers Lawrence Tibbett and Helen Jepson for the 1935 first RCA recordings and in the 1940 "original cast" sessions Sportin' Life's songs were preserved by Todd Duncan and Avon Long. Bubbles gave tap dancing lessons to Fred Astaire as early as 1920 and in 1936 helped coach him for a black-face routine in "Swing Time"; he was seen in a number of Hollywood features including the 1937 "Varsity Show" and 1943's "Cabin in the Sky" as well as in some early television productions while dancing in the shows of such jazz musicians as Duke Ellington. Criticized by the NAACP in the 1960s for pandering to racial stereotypes he replied simply that he had to earn a living. During the Viet Nam War he traveled in Bob Hope's USO shows and in 1980 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Guild of Variety Artists. His signature phrase "Shoot the liquor to me John Boy" has been worked into the lyrics of a number of popular songs.
Entertainer. A noted tap dancer and singer, he created the role of 'Sportin' Life' in the 1935 world premiere of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess". Born John William Sublett he was raised in Indianapolis and began dancing at an early age. In his late teens he formed the duo Buck and Bubbles with his childhood friend jazz pianist Ford "Buck" Washington and began touring, the pair playing California's Orpheum Circuit of the 1920s and eventually becoming the first black artists to perform at New York's Radio City Music Hall and, maybe, on television when they appeared in an experimental 1936 broadcast from London. Bubbles was in several movies starting in 1929 with "Black Narcissus" and "On With the Show"; in 1935 he was chosen by Gershwin for the role of the drug dealer Sportin' Life in the Boston world premiere of "Porgy and Bess". He did not, however, get to record his two big numbers, "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York", until cutting a 1963 album with William Warfield and Leontyne Price; Gershwin used white singers Lawrence Tibbett and Helen Jepson for the 1935 first RCA recordings and in the 1940 "original cast" sessions Sportin' Life's songs were preserved by Todd Duncan and Avon Long. Bubbles gave tap dancing lessons to Fred Astaire as early as 1920 and in 1936 helped coach him for a black-face routine in "Swing Time"; he was seen in a number of Hollywood features including the 1937 "Varsity Show" and 1943's "Cabin in the Sky" as well as in some early television productions while dancing in the shows of such jazz musicians as Duke Ellington. Criticized by the NAACP in the 1960s for pandering to racial stereotypes he replied simply that he had to earn a living. During the Viet Nam War he traveled in Bob Hope's USO shows and in 1980 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Guild of Variety Artists. His signature phrase "Shoot the liquor to me John Boy" has been worked into the lyrics of a number of popular songs.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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