Bobby Short

Nightclub entertainer Bobby Short performed from the 1930s to the 2000s, primarily singing the songs of the masters of pre-rock popular song, especially Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Noël Coward, and Rodgers & Hart, while accompanying himself on piano. The quintessential cabaret artist, the dapper Short, who often made best-dressed lists, perfectly articulated the lyrics in a husky baritone, delighting his well-heeled customers, particularly at the ritzy Cafe Carlyle of the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where he was in residence from 1968 to 2004. Live performance was his métier, but he also made a series of recordings for Atlantic Records, Telarc, and other labels, along with occasional forays into film and television acting as well as the musical theater. The ninth of ten children born to Rodman Jacob Short, a coal miner, and Myrtle (Render) Short, a domestic, in Danville, IL, Robert Waltrip Short, nicknamed Bobby, took an early interest in the family piano and, despite a few lessons, was essentially self-taught. He began playing professionally in local roadhouses at the age of eight or nine. Soon, he was performing at society parties in a white tuxedo. In July 1936, when he was 11, he attracted the attention of booking agents who, with his mother's permission, took him to Chicago to perform in vaudeville and on radio. In June 1937, after finishing grade school, he traveled to dates in Cleveland and Toledo, then moved to New York City, where he appeared at the Frolics Cafe in October and at La Grande Pomme, as well as at other clubs and theaters around the country. He returned to Danville in the summer of 1938 to attend to high school and performed only in local venues over the next several years. But after graduating in 1942 he went back to show...