'I KNEW A MAN, BOJANGLES'.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

Gregory Hines wasn't really all that big a fan of Bill Robinson, a k a Bojangles - ``I just thought his story was real and needed to be told'' - until he tried to re-create a famous tap routine Robinson created up and down a staircase.

``Frankly, when I looked at it on the tape, it didn't look that challenging at all, but after I started to get into it, I can't tell you how much respect I had for him,'' says Hines, picking at a salad in his room at Pasadena's Ritz Carlton. ``Once I went up and down the stairs a few times, I realized how intense it was physically. It employs a different set of muscles. My shins were killing me - they hurt me for about two months.

``Now,'' he says with a grin, ``I'll only travel by escalator.''

At the end of ``Bojangles,`` a split-screen shows Hines' near-letter-perfect re-creation of Robinson's alongside archival footage of the dancer's own performance. ``I was happy at how good it looked,'' says Hines, who in addition to starring in the film, also served as its executive producer. ``I think he would've appreciated the fact that I worked hard to do his routine, and I think he was egotistical enough to be happy that he's shown at the end.''

``Bojangles'' explores the life of Robinson, a groundbreaking performer - he was the first African-American allowed to perform solo on stage, as well as the first who didn't perform in blackface; at one point, he was the highest-paid black entertainer in America, appearing in films alongside Shirley Temple. The film examines his contradictory impulses - he was an angry, illiterate man, left penniless in the end by his gambling, yet he performed tirelessly at benefits and was known for his gregarious smile.

Robinson chafed at the racism of his day - he performed from the turn of the century until 1943, when he starred in ``Stormy Weather,'' and died in 1949 - and was resentful of the sort of film roles he was given, often as Shirley Temple's cheerful servant.

``One of the things I learned about him that surprised me is that he could smile like that, given what was going on in his heart,'' Hines says. ``He hated the kinds of roles he had to play to be that highest-paid black actor. It was always difficult for him to deal with the unsophisticated way he was shown on screen, as opposed to the highly sophisticated way he was shown in theaters and nightclub stages. That took its toll on him.''

``Bojangles' '' 85-year-old choreographer, Henry Le Tang - who worked with Robinson in his youth and mentored Hines and his brother Maurice when they came up in the business - calls the movie ``pretty authentic'' in its depictions of Robinson's ``habits, good and bad.'' He says the depiction of Robinson's encounters with racism ring true.

``When Robinson went out to California to do movies and get started with Shirley Temple, he couldn't get accommodations in the beginning,'' Le Tang remembers. ``Shirley Temple's mother made a little apartment over their garage for him to stay.''

Le Tang recalls his youth in New York, when he would bike to the Loews Paradise Theater in the Bronx. ``I went backstage and asked to see Mr. Robinson, and that wasn't bad. He saw me and told me stories of what he went through, same thing I heard from other performers, of how they made a name for themselves but the portrayals were done in bad taste. ...

``The old-timers - they'd break your heart, the stories they'd tell you,`` Le Tang says, adding that Hines himself ``missed that treatment by just a few years.''

Actually, not quite, Hines says. He says he wishes the film dealt more with Robinson's benefits, some of which weren't done for entirely altruistic reasons. ``He courted the police when he went around the country. I remember when I was a kid, we did a club date for the Monticello police department. Johnny Carson was the star - this was 1958. And after the show, one of the policemen came up and gave my mom a card. He said, 'This will help you when you get stopped by the police.' My mom carried that thing around until it was orange.''

One of the film's highlights is a scene in which an aging Robinson is out-tapped by a newcomer, played by Hines' celebrated protege, Savion Glover. ``There are so many reasons we wanted to do that, and one was that I've already been through that with Savion,'' Hines says with a smile. ``It wasn't hard to do because I've been there once or twice.

``Three quarters of the way through Robinson's career, John Bubbles came onto the scene - Buckin' Bubbles - and he revolutionized tap, in much the same way Savion has revolutionized the dance,'' Hines continues. ``The idea was - because tap-dancing is such a competitive sport, ridiculously so - we thought of this as a gunfight. This guy idolizes Robinson; he wants to take him. Robinson, with his back to the stage, hears the future, and knows what it is. He doesn't want to go back on the stage, but it's competitive. I felt it was a necessary scene to show what happens to everybody.

``That was the most exciting night of the shoot,'' he recalls. ``People who weren't working came in to see it. It was charged, the exact kind of environment to fuel Savion and fuel me. That's the most poignant part - when Savion says he's 'dancing with history' and Robinson says to nobody in particular, 'I ain't history just yet.' That's the toughest thing - to know your day is done.''

Hines' day clearly isn't done, but he says with a self-deprecating smile that in order to out-tap Glover today, ``I have to catch him on a night where he has maybe the remnant of a cold and was out all night the night before at a disco. Then maybe I can take him.''

Late in the film, Robinson takes umbrage when a young activist dismisses him and his entertainment style as a form of Uncle-Tomism, despite the strides the dancer had made for his race.

``His grinning while performing - the perception of it had nothing to do with the art, the perception was that it was pandering,`` Hines says. ``But it was a style of performing. It just was. It's unfortunate that many times the next generation, in order to feel good about themselves, have to look back and criticize those who came before and helped pave the way.

``I'm not here talking to you if Bill Robinson hadn't done what he did; it's not happening. I know if there's any truth that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, I'm standing on that man's shoulders.''

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Gregory Hines stars as Bill ``Bojangles'' Robinson

(2) Gregory Hines stars as Bill ``Bojangles'' Robinson in a Showtime movie tonight.