Bobby Short — American Musician born on September 15, 1924, died on March 21, 2005

Robert Waltrip "Bobby" Short was an American cabaret singer and pianist, best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Noël Coward and George and Ira Gershwin... (wikipedia)

But life is tough and if you're creative, it's tougher.
Even in today's opera world, the position of the black tenor is problematic.
If you try to do that in pop music - to play only rare show tunes, for example - people don't come.
Once in a while, I try to sneak in something less known anyway.
I was very young at the time, and I mainly appreciated their vocal qualities, even though I was already living as they did - as black performers in a white world.