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Starring the Nicholas Brothers
My lunchtime entertainment today has been rewatching dances by The Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold. Of course there's their famous "Jumpin' Jive" number in the 1943 film Stormy Weather, sung by Cab Calloway, which Fred Astaire famously said was the best dance number he'd ever seen:
I can totally see what Astaire saw in it, the way they transmute such powerful athleticism into liquid grace, the way they subsume their superhuman effort to make it seem like they just sort of float and fly, it's mesmerizing. And as a duo they have this subtle back-and-forth trading of a sort of puppeteer thing between them, where one will seem he's shaping the other's movements out of the air with his own gestures. (It's in the other clip too, I absolutely love that.)
And, the number that reminded me to revisit them, from three years earlier in Down Argentine Way (1940) where they do the singing and the dancing both:
I saw a voiced-over version of this number this morning, in The New Yorker, discussed in terms of Hollywood segregation and dead-ending of black performers, making some solid points that too often get overlooked in Studio System nostalgia:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/movie-week-argentine-way?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=tumblr&mbid=social_tumblr
(The embedded video in that article is his narration over the dance number; I recommend it!)
He talks about how the Nicholases could have been, had the talent and work ethic and charisma to be, full-fledged movie stars--imagine them getting a comedy-duo-movie series like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's "Road" movies! But instead, they're in this system that's glad to showcase them, but only in an isolated number that could be cut from film prints being circulated to certain areas of the country if a local community objected. So their performances are amazing, genius, but also in a way painful reminders of the systemic bottleneck they were stuck in.
I keep rewinding to watch Fayard's face, in particular, in Down Argentine Way, how he keeps looking and reacting to people in the audience, bringing them in with undeniable charisma. The performance they're giving with their faces and bodies, even beyond the dancing, that's what makes it "a number", more than a dance, and that's the test of a star.
I can totally see what Astaire saw in it, the way they transmute such powerful athleticism into liquid grace, the way they subsume their superhuman effort to make it seem like they just sort of float and fly, it's mesmerizing. And as a duo they have this subtle back-and-forth trading of a sort of puppeteer thing between them, where one will seem he's shaping the other's movements out of the air with his own gestures. (It's in the other clip too, I absolutely love that.)
And, the number that reminded me to revisit them, from three years earlier in Down Argentine Way (1940) where they do the singing and the dancing both:
I saw a voiced-over version of this number this morning, in The New Yorker, discussed in terms of Hollywood segregation and dead-ending of black performers, making some solid points that too often get overlooked in Studio System nostalgia:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/movie-week-argentine-way?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=tumblr&mbid=social_tumblr
(The embedded video in that article is his narration over the dance number; I recommend it!)
He talks about how the Nicholases could have been, had the talent and work ethic and charisma to be, full-fledged movie stars--imagine them getting a comedy-duo-movie series like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's "Road" movies! But instead, they're in this system that's glad to showcase them, but only in an isolated number that could be cut from film prints being circulated to certain areas of the country if a local community objected. So their performances are amazing, genius, but also in a way painful reminders of the systemic bottleneck they were stuck in.
I keep rewinding to watch Fayard's face, in particular, in Down Argentine Way, how he keeps looking and reacting to people in the audience, bringing them in with undeniable charisma. The performance they're giving with their faces and bodies, even beyond the dancing, that's what makes it "a number", more than a dance, and that's the test of a star.
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I've always been amazed watching the Nicholas Brothers. It's as if physics doesn't even apply to them. They're amazing.
And you're right, it's sad how much they weren't able to do simply because of the society and the system they were working in.
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THE ROAD TO THE SOUTH POLE
Bing and Bob, owing money as usual, scramble for jobs on what they think is a tramp steamer. It turns out to be a research vessel sailing to the South Pole! Dorothy Lamour is onboard as a scientist, possibly studying penguins.
Fayard and Harold are running late for the ocean liner taking them on a dance tour of South America; they scramble up the gangplank onto what they think is their ship, but turns out to be that same research vessel sailing to the South Pole!
As it turns out, even though the Pole has already been discovered, there's a big cash prize for the first explorers to climb a fictitious mountain at the Pole (yanno, the perilous Mount Macguffin).
So Bing and Bob and Dorothy (who got swept up in the enthusiasm maybe), and Fayard and Harold, end up hastily outfitting themselves from clothes and equipment onboard ship, and end up racing through various wacky mishaps through Antarctica toward Mount Macguffin! Fayard and Harold do a dance number along the way, on a big sheet of ice, thus highlighting their sliding/splits. Possibly the dance is penguin-themed.
I have the idea that when they get there at last, all the way to the top of perilous Mount Macguffin, it turns out that Hattie McDaniel already lives there, in a cozy cabin, wearing the same floor-length fur coat she wore to the Oscars (which I surprisingly can't find a picture of online; they had a great photo of it at the old job). She's puttering around up there living a quiet, luxurious hermit's life, and had no idea about the cash prize.
I just have to come up with Hattie's involvement in the whole thing, and the ending, and then we're gold.
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Oh, I would love to see the adventures on Mount Macguffin with all of them. Especially Dorothy as a scientist and Hattie living up there already.
And I absolutely know the photo you're talking about.
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I love the Nicholas Brothers and always wished they were in more movies (and were in the movies more).
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Please press 2 to launch your current cable company into the sun.
(...sounds like somebody who had to stand in line at Comcast, doesn't it?)
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But this means you have wonderful dance numbers to see for the first time! There's also a documentary about them up on YouTube, though I haven't taken a look to see how good it is.
The greatest thing about having their dance numbers excerpted online these days is that you don't have to sit through some pretty insipid, weightless movie musicals. :D I mean, I think anyone in their right mind would rather watch the brothers do a bravura turn, than watch Don Ameche and Betty Grable suffer through a tepid and predictable plot about mistaken identity and falling in parentally-disapproved love. Zzzzz. (Okay, it also has Carmen Miranda, who'll do her best to keep you awake. But otherwise!)
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I first saw them when I was really little, and I never realized until maybe 10 years ago that they're the reason I haven't been impressed by many dancers in my life (unpopular opinion: I've only ever thought Astaire was an okay dancer, and still prefer him with partners). It was glaringly obvious to me that pretty much everyone stole their moves -- like, break/hip hop dancers totally ripped off the their flying split moves (especially the one where one leg is extended and the other bent, the way runners jump over hurdles).
I love the Jumpin' Jive, number so much. I remember as a kid, loving the way Cab Calloway's hair flew around when he got going, and when Harold's started to come loose, too, it made me ridiculously happy. :D
I love that they sang in Down Argentine Way, too. And they were so elegant in their tails. *sigh*
You've probably seen Lucky Number, right? Harold was still just a kid.
Thanks, this made my day.
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And heck yeah Lucky Number! That's probably one of the first Nicholas Brothers numbers I saw, though not the very first--I can't remember what the first was, but it was a dance without them singing. They were still kids, though. For the longest time, I had only ever remembered them as kids--with skinny Fayard towering over Harold, aww--and I had the vague impression they were just child stars or something. But then eventually I learned the error of my ways. ♥
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So charming and talented and luckily things had changed enough that they more of an opportunity to be stars in their own right(eh,and now I've made myself sad, thinking about Gregory).
Both sets of brothers exude such a genuine joy in dancing that it's breathtaking.
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One of the clips people put up on YouTube is this great bit sticking together a couple of instances of Gregory talking about the "Stormy Weather" number. I love to hear his expert analysis, but even more, in the first interview, I absolutely love how worked up he gets, his arms and body moving, like he's almost about to grab the interview and just shake them with the sheer amazeballsness of it all.