Contents
- 1 Do they have Bojangles in Texas?
- 2 Why did Mr Bojangles go to jail?
- 3 Is Bojangles Coke or Pepsi?
- 4 How many Bojangles are there in the world?
- 5 What rapper owns Bojangles?
- 6 What was Bojangles cause of death?
- 7 What does Bojangles stand for?
- 8 Why are Bojangles biscuits so good?
- 9 How did Bojangles become famous?
- 10 Why do people love Bojangles?
- 11 Who made Bojangles famous?
- 12 Why are Bojangles biscuits so good?
What is Bojangles famous for?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bojangles in Tifton, Georgia | |
Trade name | Bojangles |
---|---|
Type | Private |
Industry | Food |
Founded | 1977 ; 46 years ago |
Founders | Jack Fulk Richard Thomas |
Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina, United States |
Number of locations | 818 (2023) |
Area served | United States |
Key people |
|
Products | Fast food, including fried chicken, biscuits, french fries |
Revenue | US$547 million (2021) |
Owner | Jordan Company Durational Capital Management |
Number of employees | 9,900 (2021) |
Website | www,bojangles,com |
Bojangles OpCo, LLC., doing business as Bojangles (known as Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits until 2020), is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants that specializes in Cajun -seasoned fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits and primarily serves the Southeastern United States,
The company was founded in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1977 by Jack Fulk and Richard Thomas. Bojangles has previously franchised restaurants in Grand Cayman Island, Jamaica, Honduras, Mexico, Ireland and China, As of 2023, restaurants are in 17 U.S. states ( Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia ) with planned expansions into New Jersey,
Its home state of North Carolina has the largest number of locations. In July 2023, the company announced plans to open 20 restaurants on the West coast, starting in Las Vegas,
Why is Bojangles named Bojangles?
Editor’s note: You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C. A version of this post was emailed to subscribers on Saturday, June 27, 2020. The Ledger offers free and paid subscription plans.
Sign up here: Big news out of Bojangles’ : The Charlotte-based chicken chain has quietly dropped the apostrophe after its name. The company will now be known simply as Bojangles, The apostrophe after the “S” always seemed like a mystery, just hanging out after the name like an unnecessary appendage — unlike Wendy’s and McDonald’s, whose possessives always seemed neater and more straightforward.
As recently as Feb.6, the company’s Twitter account was proclaiming : “It’s spelled with an apostrophe on the end.” An astute Ledger reader pointed out the apparent difference a couple weeks ago, and we’ve been trying to get an answer to this burning question ever since. According to the company’s website, Bojangles got its name when co-founder Jack Fulk heard the song “Mr. Bojangles” on the radio. Fulk had been trying to think of names for his new restaurant, which opened in 1977 on West Boulevard in Charlotte. The song was originally recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker in 1968.
- It’s unclear how the apostrophe came to be added, but many restaurant chains have possessives as names, including competitors Church’s Chicken and Popeye’s,
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Like what we are doing? Feel free to forward this along and to tell a friend. Archives available at https://charlotteledger.substack.com/archive, On Twitter : @cltledger Sponsorship information : email [email protected], The Charlotte Ledger is an e-newsletter and web site publishing timely, informative, and interesting local business news and analysis Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, except holidays and as noted.
Do they have Bojangles in Texas?
Anything else we should know? – All I’ll say is, it’s Bo Time. Texas’ first Bojangles is located at 201 E. Euless Blvd., Euless. It opened June 27, 2023.
Is Bojangles coming to Canton Ohio?
CANTON, Ohio — Bojangles has officially arrived in Northeast Ohio as the fast food chain opened their new North Canton location at 4551 Everhard Road NW on Tuesday. It’s the first Bojangles restaurant to open in the region – and it already seems to be drawing in crowds.
Why did Mr Bojangles go to jail?
Composition – Walker said he was inspired to write the song after an encounter with a street performer in a New Orleans jail. While in jail for public intoxication in 1965, he met a homeless man who called himself “Mr. Bojangles” to conceal his true identity from the police.
Mr. Bojangles had been arrested as part of a police sweep of indigent people that was carried out following a high-profile murder. The two men and others in the cell chatted about all manner of things, but when Mr. Bojangles told a story about his performing dog who was killed by a car, the mood in the room turned heavy.
Someone else in the cell asked for something to lighten the mood, and Mr. Bojangles obliged with a tap dance. The homeless “Mr. Bojangles”, who was white, had taken his pseudonym from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878–1949), a black entertainer.
Is Bojangles only in America?
Bojangles 12 things you might not know about Bojangles’ With its spicy chicken and fresh-made biscuits, it’s easy to see how Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits has accrued its share of fans. After all, the fast food chain has been around for nearly 40 years. Christie Dedman | [email protected] Bojangles’ Fun Fact #1 Founders Jack Fulk and Richard Thomas opened the first Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits location in 1977 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bojangles Bojangles’ Fun Fact #2 There are now more than 600 Bojangles’ restaurants in 12 contiguous states as well as Honduras.
AP Bojangles’ Fun Fact #3 Bojangles’ employees drove more than 2,000 miles from North Carolina to Santa Clara, Calif., to deliver its sweet tea to the Carolina Panthers before the 2016 Super Bowl. /6W Bojangles’ Fun Fact #4 Bojangles’ has its own emoticon app, called “Bomoji” in the iOS app store, for when a biscuit text is all you need.
Bojangles Bojangles’ Fun Fact #5 Bojangles’ co-founder Jack Fulk was originally a Hardee’s franchisee owner, but stayed in trouble with the fast food chain for tinkering with their recipes and adding new items to the menu. Bojangles’ Fun Fact #6 Bojangles’ originally only served their spicy Cajun recipe chicken. The fast food chain didn’t introduce its mild seasoning until 1986.
Bojangles Bojangles’ Fun Fact #7 A Bojangles’ executive said its beloved biscuits, which are made fresh every 20 minutes, stand out from the competition because of a secret pressing technique they use.
Bojangles Bojangles’ Fun Fact #8 While they’re known for their chicken and biscuits, you can also get a seasoned, fried turkey from the fast food chain for Thanksgiving each year.
Bojangles Bojangles’ Fun Fact #9 To keep up quality at its locations, Bojangles’ hosts a competition between its franchise-operated restaurants each year based on unannounced inspections for customer satisfaction, food quality and experience. The winning locations get cash and other prizes, reports Businesswire.
Bojangles Bojangles’ Fun Fact #10 In addition, Bojangles’ employees also compete for cash and other prizes during the company’s Master Biscuit Maker Competition each year. In 2015, Chandrea Stephens, a biscuit maker at the Bojangles’ in Oxford, was named a finalist, according to Businesswire.
Bojangles Bojangles’ Fun Fact #11 Bojangles’ makes a “beverage hat” specially designed to hold its tea cups, and soda, for when you need to double fist without using your hands. You can get one for $15 in the Bojangles’ store. Bojangles’ Fun Fact #12 Bojangles’ has inspired its own fan-made tribute song and music video by aspiring rappers J.
What is the two colored rule?
Richmond Story: Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Black History is Richmond history. From Richmond’s founding in 1737 to the present day, Black Richmonders not only built this city with their hands, but also indelibly shaped its politics, religion, entertainment, businesses and institutions.
- As we get closer to Black History Month, the next few posts will highlight Black Richmonders who have done just that.
- In some cases, their influence has spread beyond Richmond.
- In others, the impact comes not an from individual, but a collective of everyday people.
- Of course, while it’s impossible to adequately represent the breadth of Black influence, but we will endeavor to tell fascinating, complicated and important stories about Black Richmonders.
The first of these subjects was an entertainment giant who gained worldwide fame on the big screen, though he started out as a little boy shelling peas for two cents a basket at the 17 th Street Market. Birthplace of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, 915 N.3rd Street, Circa 1950, V.79.120.1094.01, Edith K. Shelton Collection, The Valentine Luther Robinson was born in 1878 in a small wooden house on 3 rd Street in Jackson Ward. Orphaned early in his childhood, he was raised by his grandmother, a formerly enslaved woman.
Black Richmonders had few educational opportunities, and Luther had to blaze his own path early on. At the age of five, he began dancing for pennies on the sidewalk. By seven, he had snagged his first role as a dancer in a traveling show. These early years elude a hard historical record, as the origins of cultural giants often do.
Some accounts show him running away to D.C. at the age of nine to dance full time, while others place him in Richmond dancing in local beer gardens at that age. No matter the specifics, we do know that by the time he was a teenager, Luther had changed his name to Bill and was established in Black vaudeville circuits around D.C.
- Among his friends, he had also earned a nickname— Bojangles—for his contentious attitude.
- This nickname and its future contradictions would perfectly encapsulate his blockbuster career that has been called both groundbreaking and retrograde, both defiant and subservient.
- Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s dance career unfolded at a peculiar time in this nation’s history—the forces of segregation were rising at the same time as the appeal of Black entertainment.
Popular, everyday entertainment began to threaten the “color line.” For this, many laws and industry norms dictated what Black performers could do, for whom they could perform, where they could perform and with whom they could perform. Blackface was still popular and even expected of Black artists.
The “two-colored” vaudeville rule prevented Black performers from appearing alone onstage. Because of these restrictions, from 1902 until 1914, Robinson was required to have an onstage partner. He also danced almost exclusively in Black theaters for Black audiences. But, during this time, he pioneered a new form of tap-dancing.
His style was elegant, quick and mesmerizing to behold. Into the 20 th century, white audiences grew less content to watch white performers going through the motions in front of more skilled Black background dancers. So the astonishingly talented Robinson and his partner, George W.
Cooper, attracted notice. They soon became so popular that the duo began to flout the rules of segregation. They performed in white-only venues in addition to Black venues. By World War I, Robinson went solo. In 1918, he became one of the few Black performers to headline a show at the prestigious Palace Theater, in New York.
At that show, he introduced his new “stair dance,” in which he danced up and down a staircase not only with dizzying ease and skill, but also producing different rhythms and tones on each step. It was a masterpiece of showmanship that would make him world famous, which you can watch, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Jack Dabney, and Jesse Owens, 1936, V.99.61.15, The Valentine In the 1930s, As Robinson broke down barriers of segregation with sheer talent, he found himself breaking out of the vaudeville world and into the stages of Broadway and Hollywood.
- But more complicated barriers arose in tandem with his stardom.
- In these worlds, he was limited to the roles written for him by white writers.
- Unsurprisingly, they were nearly always stereotypical.
- His most famous and frequent role was that of a cheerful, enslaved butler dancing alongside Shirley Temple.
The pair made four movies together. With fame, Robinson’s nickname ‘Bojangles’ took on an ironic meaning. Initially derived from the term ‘jangler”—an argumentative, angry person—white fans began to associate his nickname with the smiling, docile roles written for him.
- The nickname itself then became a stereotype of Black servility, even though Robinson was famous among his friends for his temper, his gambling and for carrying a gold-plated pistol.
- In defiance of both interpretations of his nickname, however, Robinson was not complacent when it came to race relations, nor was he hard-hearted.
Though he made millions over the course of his career, he gave away vast amounts to Black charities in Harlem, where he lived. In one year alone, he performed in four hundred benefits. He was a founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America. He even co-founded a Negro League baseball team, the New York Black Yankees.
- Visiting Richmond in 1931, he joined Maggie Walker’s Independent Order of St. Luke.
- While here in 1933, he witnessed Black children attempting a dangerous intersection in Jackson Ward in order to get to school.
- He contacted the city and paid all costs to install a set of traffic lights at the intersection—the first traffic light “North of Broad.” For this act of charity, Richmond would later get its first monument to a Black citizen, in 1973, in Robinson’s honor at that intersection.
But after a lifetime of charitable acts just like that one, Robinson died penniless in 1949, at the age of 71. Ceremony at Bill Bojangles Robinson Monument, 6/24/1986, V.91.04.1032, Richmond Newspapers, Inc., The Valentine Robinson died a decade before the first modern civil rights movement in this country. He never saw a lunch counter sit-in. That is important to keep in mind when discussing his legacy.
- He may have performed in stereotypical roles, but his mere presence in mainstream movies in the 1930s was a revolution in itself.
- He bucked plenty of trends that threatened to limit his career: he never performed in blackface, he performed solo, he performed with white performers and before white audiences before any of these things were considered acceptable.
But what does it mean that most Americans remember him as a smiling, antebellum butler? One can imagine that it was a very skillful, difficult way of moving ahead—an optical illusion—through hostile territory. Ps- The “stairs dance” is as amazing as it sounds and worth watching: : Richmond Story: Bill “Bojangles” Robinson
Is Bojangles Coke or Pepsi?
Fountain beverage by PepsiCo.
What is the two can dine for 9.99 at Bojangles?
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Get a Demo Today Bojangles says that while others may be cutting back, it’s giving you more and introducing the Two Can Dine for $9.99 meal. It contains six pieces of chicken, two sides, and two biscuits for $9.99. Published July 18, 2022 Advertiser Bojangles Advertiser Profiles Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Products Bojangles Two Can Dine for $9.99 Meal Tagline “It’s Bo Time!” Songs – Add None have been identified for this spot
Submit ONCE per commercial, and allow 48 to 72 hours for your request to be processed. Once verified, the information you provide will be displayed on our site.
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What city has the most Bojangles?
Cities with the most number of Bojangles restaurants in the United States –
City | State / Territory | Number of Locations |
---|---|---|
Charlotte | North Carolina | 34 |
Greensboro | North Carolina | 11 |
Raleigh | North Carolina | 11 |
Columbia | South Carolina | 10 |
Winston Salem | North Carolina | 9 |
Durham | North Carolina | 8 |
Fayetteville | North Carolina | 8 |
Knoxville | Tennessee | 8 |
Asheville | North Carolina | 7 |
Spartanburg | South Carolina | 6 |
What happened to Bojangles in Florida?
Published September 2, 2022 Updated 6:52AM article Bojangles Famous Chicken n Biscuits in Muhlenberg Township, Photo by Lauren A. Little 9/27/2018 (Photo By Lauren A. Little/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images) SANFORD, Fla. – Bojangles is back in Central Florida! After the popular chicken chain closed eight of its locations in Central Florida back in 2015, the company opened its first of fifteen planned restaurants in Sanford this week.
- The new restaurant is located at 101 S.
- Oregon Ave.
- Last year, Bojangles – which is based out of North Carolina – announced a new business venture with ‘Chaac Foods Restaurants’ which will allow them to open 40 new Bojangles locations over the next several years.
- The Sanford location, however, is owned by Bojangles Restaurants Inc.
MORE NEWS: Kellogg’s will pay you $5,000 to eat cereal for dinner Bojangles is known for its southern food, like fried chicken, biscuits, sweet tea, and more. Fans on social media were excited to have it back in Central Florida. “All, Hail the best chicken in the world!” one person wrote.
How many Bojangles are there in the world?
Bojangles Marks Unprecedented Growth in 2022 with 800th Location CHARLOTTE, N.C. (November 17, 2022) – Bojangles, Inc., one of the nation’s leading restaurant franchises famous for its Southern chicken, biscuits and tea, announced today it has hit a significant milestone with the opening of its 800th restaurant.
- The new restaurant, which is owned by Bojangles franchisees Kelly and Michael Quarles of K & M Yardbird, LLC, is located in Monroe, Louisiana.
- This is Bojangles’ first restaurant in northern Louisiana.
- Achieving this milestone is the latest example of the chicken and biscuit chain’s growth momentum throughout 2022, particularly in new markets.
Bojangles has opened 31 new locations since January, including several new markets such as Memphis, Tennessee, and Sanford, Florida, and has experienced strong sales, putting the chain on track to continue its expansion efforts well into 2023. “Bojangles has expanded its footprint across the country at a rapid pace, and reaching 800 restaurants nationwide is a landmark milestone for the company.
Paired with a growing AUV, the addition of the new Genesis prototype this year contributed to this huge achievement,” said Patricia Halpin, Vice President of Franchise Growth, Bojangles. “It’s rewarding to see the ongoing investments we’ve made positively impact our expansion efforts, and I’m proud of our franchisees, corporate team members, and each customer who played an integral part in our journey to 800 restaurants.” Though this marks Quarles’ first franchise location with Bojangles, he is no stranger to the franchising world.
K & M Yardbird owns and operates other franchise restaurants throughout the state and has two additional Bojangles locations in the pipeline, which are slated to open in 2023. “I’m proud to be a new franchisee of Bojangles and to help bring this momentous occasion to fruition with the opening of the brand’s 800th restaurant.
Since learning about Bojangles and exploring the available franchise opportunities, the corporate team and fellow franchisees alike have consistently provided a high level of support, which has given me confidence to continue growing our franchise portfolio with this leading chicken and biscuits brand,” added Quarles.
“Born and raised in Louisiana, I have grown up on the same kind of delicious food that Bojangles offers, so I knew it was an instant fit. I am certain our new location in Monroe will be successful with the community, and we look forward to developing more locations in years to come.” The opening of Bojangles’ 800th location follows the success of multiple development agreements signed earlier in 2022 to expand in markets such as Dallas Fort-Worth, greater Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, as well as Virginia Beach, and Northern New Jersey.
- Additionally, Bojangles executed a trio of multi-unit agreements that will bring restaurants to Northeast Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; and Washington, D.C.
- About Bojangles, Inc.
- Bojangles, Inc.
- Is a highly differentiated and growing restaurant operator and franchisor dedicated to serving customers high-quality, craveable food made from our Southern recipes.
Founded in 1977 in Charlotte, N.C., Bojangles® serves menu items such as made-from-scratch biscuit breakfast sandwiches, delicious hand-breaded chicken, flavorful fixins (sides) and Legendary Iced Tea®. Currently, Bojangles has approximately 800 system-wide restaurants in 14 states.
Will Bojangles ever come to NY?
Bojangles Gets Off to Hot Start in 2023
| January 26, 2023
Bojangles ended 2022 with more than 230 units in its development pipeline. Bojangles announced its strong start to 2023, signing multiple franchise development agreements to bring 32 new restaurants to key target markets across the U.S., including Texas, Mississippi, New York, Maryland, and Tennessee.
This announcement comes on the heels of a monumental year of growth for the brand, ending 2022 with more than 230 units in its development pipeline. Our brand has proven to be an attractive investment for multi-operators across the country, and we were thrilled to expand with three of our existing operators while welcoming 11 new franchisees of high caliber to the Bojangles family in 2022.
Many of them have built impressive portfolios within the QSR segment, and we look forward to their success with our brand,” says Patricia Halpin, Vice President of Growth at Bojangles. “With 2023 now underway, we are proud to have carried the strong momentum over to the new year.
Kirby Dolliole and First Biscuit Enterprises, LLC will open 15 Bojangles in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and in South Austin, Texas. The stores will open in Ft. Worth, Garland, Richardson, Waxahachie, Mansfield, and San Marcos, with the first planned in 2024. Previously, Dolliole worked as District Manager at a Mexican restaurant chain. No stranger to franchising, he later became an operator with Jamba, eventually to VP of Operations for the brand.
Michael Overton, Dean Hilton and Charles Robinson of BFCB Restaurants, LLC have committed to opening 10 Bojangles locations across North Central Mississippi in the next six years with stores in Tupelo, Oxford and Starkville, and to the Golden Triangle of Mississippi with stores in Starkville, West Point and Columbus. The veteran franchise group brings years of experience franchising within the restaurant space and is eager to expand their portfolio with Bojangles to build upon the brand’s natural growth.
Makhan S. Matharu, Baljinder S. Matharu and Amaritpal S. Matharu of Matharu Foods, LLC have signed on to build five Bojangles locations throughout Baltimore, Maryland, with stores in Hagerstown and Frederick throughout the next five years. Native to Frederick, the family- and operated business has more than two decades of restaurant franchising experience and is confident that Bojangles’ fresh-made biscuits and menu items will resonate well with the surrounding community.
Ketan Patel, Dharmendra Patel and Kumar Yogesh of Munch Box, LLC announced the signing of a two-unit development agreement in Tennessee, which will bring new locations to the Memphis market. An existing franchise group, Patel and his team already operates one Bojangles’ location in Horn Lake, MS and are in the process of developing a second location in Olive Branch, MS.
These deals are the latest addition to Bojangles’ franchise development efforts, with more than 230 units in its current pipeline within target markets, which include Dallas-Fort Worth, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., among others. The brand opened more than 30 new locations last year within key markets such as Memphis, Tennessee, and Sanford, Orlando, and celebrated its 800th location milestone in Monroe, Louisiana. Additionally, the chain brought its beloved Southern food to markets outside the Southeast, with new locations in the Peoria-Bloomington and Philadelphia areas. Bojangles’ compounding success and record AUV of more than $2M has continued to position the concept for further expansion throughout 2023 and beyond. With 40 percent of sales coming before most competitors even open their doors and a variety of prototypes and features such as its ‘Biscuit Theatre”, the brand’s key differentiators continue to attract multi-unit operators. News and information presented in this release has not been corroborated by WTWH Media LLC.
: Bojangles Gets Off to Hot Start in 2023
Does Ohio have Bojangles?
Chicken favorite Bojangles makes debut in Stark County, Ohio’s first open location. The Jackson Township location is on Everhard Road NW near Dressler. The chain also opened locations in Columbus and Heath.
What rapper owns Bojangles?
Quality Control’s Coach K And Music Exec Mel Carter Strike Historic Deal As Bojangles Owners music executive Kevin “” Lee and music executive Mel Carter have landed a with, The new owners now control the operations of the number one Black-owned restaurant franchise in the country.
The duo is part owner of Melanbo, the company that struck the development agreement with the popular southern restaurant. They plan to open 14 new sites in the Greater area, which will drive their total number of locations they will own up to 32 as the deal includes the acquisition of the existing 18 locations spanning across Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
This news comes one year after Bojangles opened 100 new restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and more. “I’m proud to do this with Mel and to keep pushing forward Black entrepreneurship,” Coach K said. “We built our way up in music and it’s exciting to branch out in so many ways and to join forces with the #1 Black-owned franchise.” “Over the last few years, we have been aggressively seeking opportunities to grow our footprint in Atlanta, and we are thrilled to have reached an agreement with two influential voices in the city’s community,” said Patricia Halpin, Vice President of Franchise Growth, Bojangles.
What was Bojangles cause of death?
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, 1878 – 1949, May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949, was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer since his c hildhood. Born in Richmond, Virginia on May 25, 1878, to Maxwell Robinson, a machine-shop worker, and Maria Robinson, a choir singer, Bill Robinson was brought up by his grandmother after the death of his parents when he was still a baby.
- The details of Robinson’s early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Bill Robinson himself.
- He claims he was christened “Luther” – a name he did not like.
- He suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names.
- When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made (The new ‘Luther’ later adopted the name Percy and became a well-known drummer).
At the age of six, he began dancing for a living appearing as a “hoofer” or song-and-dance man in local beer gardens. At seven, Bill dropped out of school to pursue dancing. Two years later in Washington, DC, he toured with Mayme Remington’s troupe. In 1891 (Ed: another source-1892), at the ripe age of 12, he joined a traveling company in The South Before the War, and in 1905 (Ed: another source 1902) worked with George Cooper as a vaudeville team.
He gained great success as a nightclub and musical comedy performer, and during the next 25 years became one of the toasts of Broadway. Not until he was 50 did he dance for white audiences, having devoted his early career exclusively to appearances on the black theater circuit. (There is an urban legend in Richmond, Virginia that Robinson was discovered while working as a bellhop at the Jefferson Hotel.
However, this is most likely untrue. When the Jefferson Hotel opened in 1895, Robinson (then 16) was already touring with traveling shows.) In 1908 in Chicago, he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins’ tutelage, Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3500 per week.
The publicity that gradually came to surround him included the creation of his famous “stair dance” (which he claimed to have invented on the spur of the moment when he was receiving some honor–he could never remember exactly what– from the King of England. The King was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, and Bojangles’ feet just danced up to be honored), his successful gambling exploits, his bow ties of multiple colors, his prodigious charity, his ability to run backward (he set a world’s record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash) and to consume ice-cream by the quart, his argot–most notably the neologism copacetic –and such stunts as dancing down Broadway in 1939 from Columbus Circle to 44th St.
in celebration of his 61st birthday. Because his public image became preeminent, little is known of his first marriage to Fannie S. Clay in Chicago shortly after World War I, his divorce in 1943, or his marriage to Elaine Plaines on January 27, 1944, in Columbus, Ohio.
Toward the end of the vaudeville era, a white impresario, Lew Leslie, produced Blackbirds of 1928, a black revue for white audiences featuring Robinson and other black stars. From then on, his public role was that of a dapper, smiling, plaid-suited ambassador to the white world, maintaining a tenuous connection with the black show-business circles through his continuing patronage of the Hoofers Club, an entertainer’s haven in Harlem.
Consequently, blacks and whites developed differing opinions of him. To whites, for example, his nickname “Bojangles” meant happy-go-lucky, while the black variety artist Tom Flatcher claimed it was slang for “squabbler.” Political figures and celebrities appointed him an honorary mayor of Harlem, a lifetime member of policemen’s associations and fraternal orders, and a mascot of the New York Giants major league baseball team.
- Robinson reciprocated with open handed generosity and frequently credited the white dancer James Barton for his contribution to Robinson’s dancing style.
- After 1930, black revues waned in popularity, but Robinson remained in vogue with white audiences for more than a decade in some fourteen motion pictures produced by such companies as RKO, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures.
Most of them had musical settings, in which he played old-fashioned roles in nostalgic romances. His most frequent role was that of an antebellum butler opposite Shirley Temple in such films as The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) and Just Around the Corner (1938), or Will Rogers in In Old Kentucky,
Rarely did he depart from the stereotype imposed by Hollywood writers. In a small vignette in Hooray For Love (1935) he played a mayor of Harlem modeled after his own ceremonial honor; in One Mile From Heaven (1937), he played a romantic lead opposite African American actress Fredi Washington after Hollywood had relaxed its taboo against such roles for blacks.
Audiences enjoyed his style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug. In contrast, Robinson always remained cool and reserved, rarely using his upper body and depending on his busy, inventive feet and his expressive face. He appeared in one film for black audiences, Harlem Is Heaven (1931), a financial failure that turned him away from independent production.
- In 1939, he returned to the stage in The Hot Mikado, a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta produced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and was one of the greatest hits of the fair.
- His next performance, in All in Fun (1940), failed to attract audiences.
- His last theatrical project was to have been Two Gentlemen From the South with James Barton, in which the black and white roles reverse and eventually come together as equals, but the show did not open.
Thereafter, he confined himself to occasional performances, but he could still dance in his late sixties almost as well as he ever could, to the continual astonishment of his admirers. He explained this extraordinary versatility–he once danced for more than an hour before a dancing class without repeating a step–by insisting that his feet responded directly to the music, his head having nothing to do with it.
- Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949.
- His body lay in state at an armory in Harlem; schools were closed, thousands lined the streets waiting for a glimpse of his bier, and he was eulogized by politicians, black and white–perhaps more lavishly than any other African American of his time.
“To his own people”, wrote Marshall and Jean Stearns, “Robinson became a modern John Henry, who instead of driving steel, laid down iron taps.” He was buried in the cemetery of the Evergreens in New York City. In 1939 Robinson returned to the New York stage to take on the lead role in The Hot Mikado, a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
- The much-loved performer brought his show great publicity when in his sixties, he danced his way backwards down Broadway from Columbus Circle to 44th Street.
- Robinson had spoken out against being stereotyped by Hollywood and in 1943 he went back there to star opposite Lena Horne and Cab Calloway in the quality film musical, Stormy Weather,
Robinson was dogged by lifelong personal demons, enhanced by having to endure the indignities of racism that, despite his great success, still limited his opportunities. A favorite Robinson anecdote is that he seated himself in a restaurant and a customer objected to his presence.
When the manager suggested that it might be better if the entertainer left, Robinson smiled and asked, “Have you got a ten dollar bill?” Politely asking to borrow the note for a moment, Robinson added six $10 bills from his own wallet and mixed them up, then extended the seven bills together, adding, “Here, let’s see you pick out the colored one.” The restaurant manager served Robinson without further delay.
A notorious gambler and a high liver but with a big heart, he was a soft touch for anyone down on their luck or with a good story. During his lifetime Robinson spent a fortune but his generosity was not totally wasted and his haunting memories of surviving on the streets as a child never left him.
- In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he saw two children risk speeding traffic to cross a street because there was no stoplight at the intersection.
- Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have a safety traffic light installed.
- In 1973, a statue of “Bojangles” was erected in a small park at that intersection.
Robinson’s favorite adjective was copasetic. He claimed to have coined the word; in any event, there is little argument that he popularized the term sufficiently to make it part of the English vocabulary. Bojangles co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James “Soldier Boy” Semler.
The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948. In 1989 a joint U.S. Senate / House resolution declared “National Tap Dance Day” to be May 25th, the anniversary of Bill Robinson’s birth. In 1949, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson died penniless in New York City at the age of 71 from heart disease.
Television host Ed Sullivan personally paid for the funeral. More than half a million people lined the streets when Robinson’s funeral procession made its way through Harlem and down Broadway to Times Square on its way to his interment in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn.
What does Bojangles stand for?
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson :Biography Description: Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress
Dates: 1878-1949Birth Date: May 25, 1878Death Date: Nov 25, 1949Place of Birth: Richmond, VirginiaPlace of Death: New York, New York
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, the most famous and beloved of tap dancers in the first half of the twentieth century who claimed he could run backward faster than most men could go forward, was born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia. His father Maxwell Robinson was a machinist and his mother Maria was a choir singer; both parents died in 1885 and young Bill was reared by his grandmother, Bedilia Robinson, who had been a slave.
In Richmond, he got the nickname “Bojangles” from “jangler,” meaning contentious, and invented the phrase “Everything’s Copasetic,” meaning tip-top. He got his first professional job in 1892, performing as a member of the pickaninny chorus for Mayme Remington with The South Before the War. When Robinson arrived in New York around 1900, he challenged the In Old Kentucky star tap dancer Harry Swinton to a Buck-dancing contest and won.
From 1902-1914, he teamed with George W. Cooper. Bound by the “two-colored” rule in vaudeville, which restricted blacks to performing in pairs, they performed together on the Keith and Orpheum circuits—but did not wear blackface makeup that performers customarily used.
In the first decade of the 20th century, it was still common for performers to get laughs by using racial and ethnic epithets (Mick and Tad for the Irish; Shenny, Kike, or Goniff to Jews, Coon or Nigger when referring to African Americans). When ordinances were passed in Boston and New York City banning such epithets from the stage, it is believed that this was due in part to Cooper and Robinson’s singing of a song written by Chris Smith called “Yoi Yoi Yoi, Mary Ann” in a heavily burlesqued supposed Jewish accent; which many believe sped up the passage of the ordinances against such epithets on stage.
Tom Fletcher says that Robinson’s own schrewdness in meeting and overcoming racial and religious prejudice helped strengthen a suspicion that the number was introduced for that purpose. Robinson was a staunch professional, but he was also a gambler who possessed a quick temper and carried a gold-plated revolver.
An assault charge in 1915 split the act. After the split, Robinson launched his solo career, becoming one of the few African-Americans to headline at New York’s prestigious Palace Theatre. Robinson’s Stair Dance, introduced in 1918, was distinguished by its showmanship and sound, each step emitting a different pitch and rhythm.
Onstage, his open face, twinkling eyes and infectious smile were irresistible, as was his tapping, which was delicate and clear. Buck or Time Steps were inserted with skating steps or crossover steps on the balls of the feet that looked like a jig, all while he chatted and joked with the audience.
- Robinson danced in split clog shoes, ordinary shoes with a wooden half-sole and raised wooden heel.
- The wooden sole was attached from the toe to the ball of the foot and left loose, which allowed for greater flexibility and tonality.
- In 1922, he married Fannie Clay who became his business manager, secretary, and partner in efforts to fight the barriers of racial prejudice.
A founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, Robinson was also named “Mayor of Harlem” in 1933. Hailed as “The Dark Cloud of Joy” on the Orpheum Circuit, he performed in vaudeville from 1914-1927 without a single season’s layoff. Broadway fame came with the all-black revue, Blackbirds of 1928, in which he sang and danced “Doin’ the New Low Down.” Success was instantaneous.
He was hailed as the greatest of all dancers by at least seven New York newspapers. Brown Buddies (1930), Blackbirds of 1933, All in Fun (1940) and Memphis Bound (1945) followed. The Hot Mikado (1939) marked Robinson’s sixty-first birthday, which he celebrated by dancing down Broadway, one block for each year.
Robinson turned to Hollywood films in the thirties, a venue hitherto restricted to blacks. His first film, Dixiana (1930) had a predominantly white cast; Harlem is Heaven (1933) was the first all-black film ever made. Other films include Hooray For Love (1935), In Old Kentucky (1935), The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935), One Mile From Heaven (1937), By An Old Southern River (1941), and Let’s Shuffle (1941).
- Stormy Weather (1943) featured Robinson, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway and Katherine Dunham and her dance troupe.
- Robinson and Shirley Temple teamed up in The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), Just Around the Corner (1938) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), in which he taught the child superstar to tap dance.
Claiming to have taught tap dance to Eleanor Powell, Florence Mills, and Fred Astaire, Robinson profoundly influenced the younger tap dancers at the Hoofers Club in Harlem, where he also could be found gambling and shooting pool. Throughout his lifetime, he was a member of many clubs and civic organizations and an honorary member of police departments in cities across the United States.
- His participation in benefits is legendary and it is estimated that he gave away well over one million dollars in loans and charities.
- To his own people, Robinson became a modern John Henry, who instead of driving steel, laid down iron taps,” wrote Marshall Stearns.
- When Robinson died on November 25, 1949, newspapers claimed that almost one-hundred thousand people turned out to witness the passing of the funeral procession/one million people lined the streets of New York in silent tribute as his boy moved to Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn.
The founding of the Copasetics Club insured that his excellence would not be forgotten. Robinson’s style of dancing upright and swinging, his light and exacting footwork brought tap “up on its toes” from an earlier flat-footed shuffling style, developed the art of tap dancing to a delicate perfection.
Why are Bojangles biscuits so good?
Good in Bojangles’ world means you’re both fast and you follow the procedure. The procedure is the 48-step process for making Bojangles’ famous biscuits. The process ensures that every biscuit that leaves the biscuit kitchen is the exact same size, thickness and quality. They are very protective of that process.
Is Bojangles stopping selling chicken?
Is Bojangles going to stop selling chicken? – Despite the online speculation, Bojangles spokesperson Stacey McCray told The Charlotte Observer in an email that Armario’s comments to QSR were taken out of context. “Bojangles will always be in the business of serving delicious Southern chicken, biscuits and tea, and that will never change,” McCray said.
Why does Bojangles not have bone in chicken?
Bojangles is testing restaurants that featured a menu with only breakfast and boneless chicken. / Photograph: Shutterstock. Bojangles is ditching the bones, at least in newer markets. The Charlotte-based chicken chain, which has made its living specializing in bone-in chicken, is planning to expand in new markets with a menu pared down to its breakfast and boneless options, the better to take advantage of shifting consumer demands.
- Jose Armario, CEO of the 800-unit chain, said on this week’s episode of the A Deeper Dive podcast that the company has been testing a smaller menu featuring its breakfast, chicken sandwiches and chicken fingers, but not the bone-in chicken for which it’s known.
- The company is testing the new menu at some restaurants in Memphis.
Results have been strong thus far, and he said the company will likely use that menu in new locations going forward. “We’re finding the customer is pretty happy, really. The sales have been well over our projections,” Armario said. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised, so far.” Chicken is increasingly popular among consumers in general.
- And bone-in chicken had something of a renaissance during the pandemic as buckets of chicken proved popular meal replacements for consumers stuck at home, not wanting to cook.
- But in general, much of that market has shifted to boneless options like chicken fingers or chicken sandwiches.
- That was highlighted by the popularity of Chick-fil-A, now the largest chicken chain in the U.S.
and the country’s third-largest restaurant chain, period. And in general, companies specializing in boneless chicken, such as Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane’s, have easily outperformed their bone-in cousins, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic.
- But even those numbers highlight one key fact: Popeyes’ growth in recent years has been driven primarily by the sale of its own boneless option, the chicken sandwich.
- Armario understands this trend well.
- He was part of the private equity group Durational Capital Management, which took Bojangles private in 2018 for just under $600 million,
The chain was founded in Charlotte in 1977. It features a selection of bone-in chicken, though it is known as much for its biscuits and sweet tea as anything else. “I don’t know of anyone that has a better-tasting biscuit,” Armario said. “It takes 49 steps to make our biscuit.” Bojangles also serves breakfast, featuring a selection of biscuit sandwiches, such as Country Ham.
- Almost 40% of the chain’s sales are before 11 a.m., Armario said.
- At the same time, consumers after 11 a.m.
- Have been more likely to order on-the-go chicken items like the aforementioned fingers and chicken sandwiches.
- Consumers, for the most part, preferred their bone-in chicken chains to stick to that.
In 2019, Popeyes broke through this barrier with its chicken sandwich, and other chains joined in the fray, notably KFC. Many of these chains are shifting much of their innovation focus toward those boneless options, which work well for on-the-go orders.
- So, Bojangles decided to test a restaurant with a menu that featured its full breakfast menu, but with a lunch and dinner menu pared down to its boneless options.
- We wanted to hit the sweet spot of where the customer is today,” Armario said.
- He also said the new menu results in improved service.
- By going with a more focused menu, we’re delivering a better experience and our customers are giving us rave reviews,” Armario said.
Bojangles likes the results so much, Armario said, the company plans to keep the menu in its new markets. But he also acknowledges the move is a risk, given that the chain will be effectively operating with multiple menus, one with bone-in chicken in legacy markets, and one without in new markets.
The company has an answer for that, too. “We left room in the kitchen” to add equipment for the bone-in chicken, he said. “If we want to add bone-in chicken, we can always do that.” But, he said, evolution is important. “Look, it’s a new world,” he said. “If you stay where you’re at, you’re never going to move forward.” Members help make our journalism possible.
Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here, Restaurant Business Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze is a longtime industry journalist who writes about restaurant finance, mergers and acquisitions and the economy, with a particular focus on quick-service restaurants.
How did Bojangles become famous?
Who Was Bill “Bojangles” Robinson? – Broadway legend Bill “Bojangles” Robinson started his career as a vaudeville performer, transitioning to Broadway and to Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. His delicate tap-dance style and cheerful demeanor made Robinson a favorite of both Black and white audiences. He died in New York City on November 25, 1949.
Why do people love Bojangles?
The secret to Bojangles chicken – The fried chicken at Bojangles undergoes about a 12-hour process, where the chicken is tumbled and seasoned and marinated before frying. Despite the enormous volume of a fast food chain, Avery said the chicken is never made from frozen pieces.
That chicken has become a staple at tailgates and picnics, where big yellow Bo Boxes are the life of the party. Avery said that while fried chicken is a beloved meal, it can be labor-intensive to make at home. “We are in the South and fried chicken is a staple,” Avery said. “Tri-Arc has been in this market for 43 years and our customers find us for our consistent product and value.
Fried chicken is not all that easy to do at home, it can be messy. And that’s why (Bojangles) is so popular. People love fried chicken but don’t want the hassle.” The chicken at Bojangles stands out in the fast food crowd for a bit more aggressive seasoning than the norm.
Sure you can get spicy chicken at Popeyes or apply your own dashes of Texas Pete, but Bojangles serves a spiced chicken that has a peppery warmth fried into the crust. If you can’t handle a mild tingle, it might not be the chicken for you. “Our founder (the late Jack Fulk) had really good recipes and he knew your run of the mill chicken isn’t anything all that special,” Avery said.
“Having the flavor we have, it doesn’t give you the heat, but you do get the warmth, the spice flavor. We don’t do Nashville hot chicken, there’s a big difference between that and our chicken. We say ours is flavorful, not spicy. It’s that really good sweet spot.” The fried chicken at Bojangles undergoes about a 12-hour process, where the chicken is tumbled and seasoned and marinated before frying. CHARLOTTE OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
Who made Bojangles famous?
Jerry Jeff Walker, Who Wrote and Sang ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ Dies at 78 (Published 2020) He never had a Top 40 pop hit. But his best-known composition became a standard, and he became a mainstay of the outlaw country movement. Jerry Jeff Walker in performance in 2001 in Annapolis, Md. An architect of the so-called cosmic cowboy music scene in Austin, Texas, he once recalled that “Texas was the only place where they didn’t look at me like I was crazy.” Credit. Kristen Elstner for The New York Times Published Oct.24, 2020 Updated Oct.26, 2020 the singer-songwriter who wrote the much-recorded standard and later became a mainstay of the Texas outlaw movement that catapulted Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to fame, died on Friday at a hospital in Austin, Texas.
- He was 78.
- His former publicist John T.
- Davis said the cause was cancer. Mr.
- Walker learned he had throat cancer in 2017.
- A native New Yorker, Mr.
- Walker began his career in the 1960s, hitchhiking and busking around the country before establishing himself in Greenwich Village and writing the song that would secure his reputation.
A waltzing ballad about an old street dancer Mr. Walker had met in a New Orleans drunk tank, “Mr. Bojangles” was first recorded by Mr. Walker for the Atco label in 1968. The song achieved its greatest success in a folk-rock version that reached the pop Top 10 in 1971 with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and went on to be covered by a wide range of artists, among them Nina Simone, Neil Diamond and even Bob Dylan.
Included it in his stage show and performed it on television. “At the time, I was reading a lot of Dylan Thomas, and I was really into the concept of internal rhyme,” Mr. Walker wrote of the song’s origin in his 1999 memoir, “Gypsy Songman.” “The events of the past few months were still swirling inside, along with the memory of folks I’d met in jail cells in Columbus and New Orleans,” he went on.
“And it just came out: Knew a man Bojangles, and he danced for you. ” The song was by far Mr. Walker’s best-known composition, the only original of his — he typically performed songs written by others — to become a major hit. But perhaps his most enduring contribution to popular culture was as an architect of the so-called cosmic cowboy music scene that coalesced around, an iconoclastic nightclub in Austin.
The reception Mr. Walker received in Austin, he often said, signaled the first time he felt truly validated as an artist. “Texas was the only place where they didn’t look at me like I was crazy,” he told Rolling Stone in 1974, referring to the freewheeling ethos he cultivated with fellow regulars at Armadillo World Headquarters like Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen.
“It was the first place where, when I got on the stage to play, they said, ‘Of course, why not?’ Other places, they said, ‘Aw, you’re just another Bob Dylan, trying to make it with your guitar.'” Mr. Walker in Chicago in 1977. In his 1970s heyday, he a made a number of definitive Texas outlaw recordings.
- Credit. Paul Natkin/Getty Images In a career that spanned six decades, Mr.
- Walker never had a Top 40 pop hit.
- But in his 1970s heyday, he and the Lost Gonzo Band, his loose-limbed group of backing musicians, made a number of definitive Texas outlaw recordings.
- Foremost was “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” a boozing, brawling anthem written by Ray Wylie Hubbard that appeared on Mr.
Walker’s 1973 album, “Viva Terlingua.” “Viva Terlingua,” recorded live in Luckenbach, Texas, included other tracks that became signature recordings for Mr. Walker: among them are a dissolute take on Michael Martin Murphey’s “Backsliders Wine,” and a tribute to Armadillo World Headquarters, written and sung by Gary P.
- Nunn of Mr.
- Walker’s band, with Mr.
- Walker on backing vocals.
- With a memorable refrain that began, “I wanna go home with the armadillo,” “London Homesick Blues” later became the theme song of the long-running PBS concert series “Austin City Limits.” Mainstream radio programmers nevertheless didn’t play Mr.
Walker’s music, perhaps because of his gruff, braying singing voice and his reputation for being intoxicated onstage or failing to show up for performances altogether. Further jeopardizing his commercial prospects, he eschewed the glossier sensibilities of Nashville and other recording centers in favor of releasing raucous albums, recorded both in concert and in the studio, without the benefit of editing or overdubs.
“The mid-’70s in Austin were the busiest, the craziest, the most vivid and intense and productive period of my life,” Mr. Walker wrote in his memoir, “Gypsy Songman.” Credit. GAB Archive/Redferns “I wanted our records to sound like we were having a grand time at a party thrown for a bunch of our best friends — which, I guess, is exactly what it was,” Mr.
Walker was quoted as saying in the 1998 edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Jerry Jeff Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16, 1942, in Oneonta, N.Y., in northernmost Appalachia. His father, Mel Crosby, refereed sporting events and tended bar; his mother, Alma (Conrow) Crosby, was a homemaker.
- Young Ronnie grew up in a musical home.
- His parents were local dance champions, and his maternal grandparents led a square-dance band.
- A rebellious youth who excelled in athletics, Mr.
- Walker received his first guitar as a Christmas present when he was 12.
- He later took up banjo and ukulele and played in local pop combos when he was in high school.
He joined the National Guard in the early 1960s, only to go AWOL before embarking on the hitchhiking tour of the country that ultimately led to him changing his name to Jerry Jeff Walker and moving to New York to pursue his muse as a folk singer. While in Greenwich Village, he became a member of the psychedelic rock band Circus Maximus, although he remained with the group only until the release of its debut album.
- By that time he had written “Mr.
- Bojangles,” which, after an auspicious live performance on the listener-supported New York radio station WBAI, helped him secure a contract with Atco Records. Mr.
- Walker made three albums for Atco and another for Vanguard Records before relocating in 1971 to Austin.
- After signing with Decca in 1972, he released an album, titled simply “Jerry Jeff Walker,” which featured an acclaimed version of “L.A.
Freeway,” a staple of the Southwestern songwriting canon written by Guy Clark, the Texan singer-songwriter. The next year, Mr. Walker further helped raise Mr. Clark’s profile as a songwriter with his heart-rending cover of another neo-western touchstone written by Mr.
- Clark. Mr.
- Walker toured and recorded extensively throughout the 1970s and ’80s, even as his drinking became unmanageable and he faced mounting debt, including back taxes owed to the I.R.S.
- With the help of Susan Streit, his wife of 46 years, he gave up liquor and drugs in the late ’70s, put his life back together and eventually settled into the role of elder statesman of the gonzo Texas music scene he had helped create.
In addition to Ms. Streit, Mr. Walker’s survivors include a daughter, Jessie Jane McLarty; a son, Django, who is also a musician; a sister, Cheryl Harder; and two grandchildren. Mr. Walker had been receiving chemotherapy and radiation. In 2017, it was announced that he had donated his music archives, including tapes, photographs and handwritten lyrics, to the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.
The mid-’70s in Austin were the busiest, the craziest, the most vivid and intense and productive period of my life,” Mr. Walker wrote in his memoir. “Greased by drugs and alcohol, I was also raising the pursuit of wildness and weirdness to a fine art,” he wrote. “I didn’t just burn the candle at both ends, I was also finding new ends to light.” Christina Morales contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on, Section B, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Jerry Jeff Walker, Who Wrote and Sang ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ Is Dead at 78, | | : Jerry Jeff Walker, Who Wrote and Sang ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ Dies at 78 (Published 2020)
Why are Bojangles biscuits so good?
Good in Bojangles’ world means you’re both fast and you follow the procedure. The procedure is the 48-step process for making Bojangles’ famous biscuits. The process ensures that every biscuit that leaves the biscuit kitchen is the exact same size, thickness and quality. They are very protective of that process.