Music
Sugar Chile Robinson
born 1938 · jazz and boogie-woogie pianist, singer
Detroit child prodigy who won a Paradise Theatre talent show at three, played for President Truman in 1946, then quit music for college and a Detroit career.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 87- Birth name
- Frank Isaac Robinson
- Also known as
- Frank Robinson
- Detroit years
- 1938–
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Frank Robinson was born in Detroit, the youngest of seven children, and was playing boogie-woogie piano as a toddler. At three he won a talent show at the Paradise Theatre, the Woodward Avenue movie palace that was then Detroit's leading Black variety stage. Billed as Sugar Chile Robinson, he toured major theaters, setting box-office records in Detroit and California, worked with Lionel Hampton and appeared in the 1946 film No Leave, No Love. That year he played for President Harry S. Truman at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the first African American performer at the event. His Capitol records reached the R&B chart in 1949, and he headlined the London Palladium in 1951. He stopped recording in 1952 and left the stage by 1959 to study, earning degrees from Olivet College and the Detroit Institute of Technology. Back in Detroit he worked at WGPR-TV and ran small record labels and a studio, returning to perform from 2002.
Highlights
- Won a Paradise Theatre talent show in Detroit at age three
- Played for President Truman at the 1946 White House Correspondents' dinner
- Appeared in the film No Leave, No Love (1946)
- Capitol singles on the R&B chart in 1949; London Palladium in 1951
- Inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame (2016)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · early 1940s
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
As the Paradise Theatre (1941–1951) this hall was Detroit's top Black variety stage; three-year-old Robinson won a talent show here. It is now the Detroit Symphony's Orchestra Hall.