New York — BOBBY ROBINSON, whose tiny record shop on Harlem’s 125th St. spawned No. 1 national hits and made him an uptown patriarch for six decades, died yesterday.
He was 93 and had been ill for several years – though he regularly went to work at his shop until it was forced to close in January 2008.
Impeccably dressed, well-spoken and ambitious to make his mark in the entertainment business, Robinson opened Bobby’s Happy House in 1946.
His shop was the first black-owned business on 125th St., and within five years he used it to launch a series of record labels.
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