Robert Waltrip Short (September 15, 1924 – March 21, 2005)[1] was an American cabaret singer and pianist who interpreted songs by popular composers from the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Richard A. Whiting, Vernon Duke, Noël Coward and George and Ira Gershwin.

Short also championed African-American composers of the same period such as Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Andy Razaf, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, presenting their work not in a polemical way, but as simply the obvious equal of that of their white contemporaries.

Short was born in Danville, Illinois, where two of his school classmates were Dick Van Dyke and Donald O'Connor.

[2][better source needed] He began performing piano in dance halls and saloons, and as a busker, after leaving home at age 11 for Chicago with his mother's permission.

Short (accompanied by Beverly Peer on bass and Dick Sheridan on drums) became an institution at the Carlyle, as Feyer had been before him, and remained there as a featured performer for more than 35 years.

In 1971 Short published Black and White Baby, a brilliant description of his childhood upbringing in the dance halls and saloons of Chicago and New York, and his family's fight for survival after the death of his father.

In 2000, the Library of Congress designated Short a Living Legend, a recognition established as part of its bicentennial celebration.

When asked by a friend why he hadn't taken part in any of the gay pride marches of the '70s and '80s, Short's response was, "I have a living to make!