The Nicholas Brothers Story.

in 1914 America was moving to a rhythm set by the assembly line of Henry Ford's motorcars movie house pianos scoring silent films and the syncopated beat of ragtime among the musicians making that joyous sound were viola and Ulysses Nicholas a college-educated couple who became proud parents on October 20th 1914 in Mobile Alabama determined that everything about their son would be special they christened him with an exotic European name Fayard Antonio months later the family left the segregated south for the more integrated north and in Philadelphia they found success as pit musicians at a black vaudeville theatre the standard each night infant fared suede in his bassinet to the pulse of his parents music mother played piano father played Trump's had wonderful parents oh they were the best in the world they taught us right from wrong and I just love them I love them as he grew into an extroverted adolescent Fayard would spend every day in the audience enraptured by the elegant tap dancers on stage the sound of applause and the glamorous lives of the performers ignited in him a desire to be a part of this world a world that transcended the racial barriers all too common in the 1920s I said to myself they're having fun up there I would like to be doing something like that so just by watching I taught myself how to perform I used to walk down the street and I see a fire I jump over the fire into a speck and come up on March 17th 1921 fayard and his younger sister Dorothy were joined by a brother and before long Harold Nicholas Gerard's faithful disciple his movements could never be replace it like a a poet with his talking to you with his with his feet in hand he was always that for me soon fayard was choreographing professional routines for the pair I told my brother and my father was watching me one day as I was rehearsing and he said son there's something that you do I like very much I said what is that dad he said I like the way you use your hands he said do mo look back I said okay dad and so that's why how we got the Nicholas brothers style in 1931 the team made it stage debut at the standard where they stunned the crowd with their adult sophistication and within months they were star attractions at all the local black vaudeville houses even though they were kids they move like adults usually you have to work into being good it seems that they were good right from the beginning the protective viola made sure her sons were dressed in impeccable suits and spit shine shoes she was a real theatrical mom she understood everything about the business and she fought for them and stood by they always presented a portrait of dignity and elegance and pride and who they were and what they were about popular stage acts were naturals for the movies and in 1932 Warner Brothers Studios hired the excited dance duo to make their first screen appearance in a low-budget movie short titled pipe I Blackbird but a greater offer lay just ahead by the early 1930s Harlem was the most prosperous black community in America and at its heart on the corner of a hundred and 42nd Street and Lenox Avenue stood the glamorous Cotton Club it was run by powerful gangsters and was patronized by a white celebrity clientele who sipped champagne as they were entertained by the likes of Bill Robinson Ethel Waters and Cab Calloway but black faces were found only on stage the Cotton Club was completely segregated a black people couldn't go there and the dolmen he would stop you and the dolmen was black how do you like that at all not it Oh in 1932 17 year-old fayard and eleven-year-old Harold made their Cotton Club debut before a star-studded audience they're stunning numbers stop the show and after that triumphant night no singer or dancer dared to follow them the Nicholas family moved to Manhattan where Fayard and Herold lived in a world pampered and protected from the harsh reality known to most African Americans now the face show at the Cotton Club was 12:00 midnight and me wouldn't leave the club until maybe like five or six o'clock in the morning then we have to we go to our apartment and then we go to bed I tried to get some sleep because our teacher was could be coming there at 3 o'clock in the afternoon she would leave we go back to bed until it was time to get up and help our dinner and our chauffeur would be outside waving first we had this long limousine and we get in the car he drive us right to the cotton cap the brothers grew extremely close despite their age difference and their drastically different personalities Fayard was outgoing friendly and optimistic Harold was cool distant and emotionally detached Harold was the cute one and faired was the one that held the two together fared really worked hard Harold kind of had a casual thing about it was a difference in styles in a way both young man were favourites of the cotton club chorus girls especially the seductive Harold who from an early age found women irresistible it was fabulous the people the way they act the pretty girls and everything it was great each night star patrons like Charlie Chaplin Gloria Swanson and Al Jolson asked to meet the amazing pair and although black performers were not allowed to mingle with the all-white audience for the irrepressible Nicholas brothers the house manager made an exception he's a going out there now we were just little boys but the rest of the cast couldn't go but I'm glad we did go out there yes because we started something like integration although the Great Depression had brought America to its knees the little princes of Harlem were making more money than most adults and in 1933 12-year old Harold reported to Paramount's Astoria studios on Long Island to appear briefly in the movie drama the Emperor Jones starring Paul Robeson but the Nicholas brothers had just begun their climb to stardom their fame would soon spread across the country as one of the movie's most powerful moguls summoned them to Hollywood in 1934 the Nicholas brothers made their first trip to California to appear in producer Samuel Goldwyn lavish musical Kid Millions starring Eddie Cantor in glamorous Hollywood the pair got to meet many of their idols like the world's most celebrated dancer Fred Astaire then filming top-hat at RKO studios after you finish synchronizes steps that we went out and I say okay let's do the time step but how's it da da da da dun da da ah yes Oh count up step type step oh yes didn't you know done ah okay so we had so much fun doing it and we were friends ever since 1935 the brothers one featured parts in Paramount's musical big broadcast of 1936 the future looked bright for the Nicholas family which seemed inseparable but in 1935 tragedy struck when the boy's father Ulysses suffered a fatal heart attack the brothers had lost not alia but one of their greatest champions the resourceful viola Nicholas quickly took charge of her son's careers and in 1936 the brothers made their Broadway debut joining Bob Hope in the Ziegfeld Follies their choreographer was Ballet genius George Balanchine and he said fellas I'm happy to meet you I've seen your movies we could get up on stage you still know something from me it's a show so we got on one stage I jumped over my brother's head into a split he went through my earrings it was split and we were just doing all these these crazy things he said did you ever take a brownie no we'd never did he said well it looks like it going underneath the legs and the somersaults and all of that and doing the fast breaks and over the tops and everything else they could do so many combination of things that I think that's one of the things I made them so exciting of course you see their smiles and how much they sincerely love each other the brothers reteamed with Balanchine on Broadway the following year for the Rodgers and Hart musical babes and arms the show was a smash rying 289 performances after its long run the pair returned to their unofficial home the Cotton Club where one fateful day a trio of singing beauties caught their eyes at the trio's Center was a shy 16 year old named Dorothy Dandridge I had looked at my brother say look over there my main eye is on darvid Anderson and I want to get a little closer to her hey and brother was the same way then I could say she was paying more attention to my brother so I backed out cuz my brother now we've never fight over women 16 year-old Harold was deeply struck by Dorothy's vulnerability and exquisite beauty on his best behavior he courted her on dates chaperoned by her protective family Dorothy was very how can I say it she wouldn't shy but she was you know quiet so let's be and how was the outspoken one but the burgeoning relationship was put on hold in 1939 the Nicholas brothers were booked on a tour of South America where they thrilled audiences alongside the bombshell from Brazil Carmen Miranda the Entertainer was about to make her Hollywood movie debut and a big-budget Technicolor musical down Argentine Way produced by 20th Century Fox Don Ameche and Betty Grable would provide romance but studio head Darryl F zanuck hedged his bets by adding one more musical act to the picture Fox choreographer Nick Cassell was excited by the possibilities the versatile brothers offered and together they crafted a number that broke ground with its combination of elegance and athleticism Vava TV ever live director Irving Cummings wanted to shorten the number but Nick castle fought to keep it intact the studio finally agreed to show the scene castles way of a sneak preview Nick call me right after the scene and he said listen after your number the audience in the theater were clapping their heads stomping their feet whistling that they're operating in the projection room had to rewind the film and showed over again the numbers stayed intact and went on to become a Hollywood classic the shrewd zanuck signed the brothers to a five-year non-exclusive contract a rarity for black performers in Hollywood the pair resettled in Los Angeles and they were soon back on the Fox lot filming a specialty dance for the musical Tin Pan Alley we were supposed to be in a harem and I never saw dancing like that before in my life Fayard with his long legs and he's gorgeous hands and arms and his attitude and and Harold with his clothes little tight moves and the power of their legs I mean any famous ballet dancer couldn't possibly do the things that they did it was a guarantee for the Nicholas brothers in the film you're gonna have a show-stopping number in your film all those amazing steps and tricks and stunts but the Nicholas brothers were not allowed to appear with the film's headlining stars Alice Faye Betty Grable and John pain in all of their Fox movies the brothers routines were staged so they could easily be cut when the film was shown in racially tense areas like the deep south at that time it was all right to be in the movie if you were separate but they were never integrated in with the white cast which is shocking to me by 1941 Harold was pressing Dorothy Dandridge to set a wedding date she was hesitant but in the meantime they formed a different partnership on film in Sun Valley serenade starring Sonja Henie and the Glenn Miller Orchestra the brothers were signed to dance to a new song Chattanooga choo-choo at first they hated the tune so they convinced Fox to hire Dorothy for some extra kick oh pardon me boy is that the Chattanooga to judge to Chattanooga choo-choo and check 29:29 uh-huh that's Alma Tina's ela she said the Tennessee line check she means that she can of all I can afford to bow to Chattanooga future help you get in there oh gosh my face so you had a harbor not a nickel to spare well I do boo boo this way you leave the Pennsylvania Station bar alone for real dinner in the diner nothing could be finer than to have your head and exact arrows when you hear the hook the bow in a Google bar big coho the Tennessee is not very pumped hello the goal in fact to keep it rolling Chattanooga thank you you are Chattanooga choo-choo man you up Dorothy Dandridge with the Nicholas brothers was just like putting butter on a hot biscuit job and that we appreciate a lot because you know there's very little sexuality allowed between black people in the early films in 1941 another special woman was about to join the Nicholas entourage while appearing in Chicago Fayard met a beautiful college student with a quick sense of humor and sharp intellect her name was Geraldine pate well totally fascinated with his lifestyle his experiences he seemed so vulnerable you wanted to immediately protect him I think anyone's first impression of Fiat is he's probably one of the nicest human beings in the world now all the time always thinking I just want to be a bachelor I didn't want to get married I just want to meet nice little girls and just have a ball but Geraldine were really fascinated me so as we were leaving to get back to the theater I'd say to everybody grumble marry the girl true to his word they aren't married Jerry Pate less than a month later in January of 1942 and eight months later Harold followed his brothers lead when he walked down the aisle with Dorothy Dandridge the Nicholas brothers were on top of the world and soon they would climb even higher while struggling against barriers of race and facing family heartbreak a b c d e f g h i got again in Kalamazoo Kalamazoo by 1942 the Nicholas brothers were among America's most famous black entertainers thanks to their stunning specialty numbers for 20th Century Fox films the Nicholas brothers had tremendous impact and specifically I mean for black people black audience would go to see a movie and know that they were gonna see the Nicholas brothers and feel that kind of pride okay but their talent would not protect them from the shadow of racism their color barred them from even entering the Fox studio commissary humiliated they drove home for meals until Darryl zanuck learned to the brothers demeaning situation and insisted they be allowed inside for Harold life at home was also filled with tension the born Ladykiller was flagrantly unfaithful to his lonely wife Dorothy I wanted to be a big man you know sure that I was I wasn't just the youngster something it has and I was just horrible and and I loved it you know but I was in poop terrible on screen however the brothers never made a misstep and in 1943 they filmed the sequence that sealed their place in cinema history Fox's all-black musical stormy weather featured Lena Horne bill Robinson Fats Waller and Cab Calloway but it was the Nicholas brothers who stole the movie with a dance number Fred Astaire once called the greatest ever put on Finland I think the stormy weather number is like Shakespeare they begin like champion let's doing some very interesting tap steps and they jump up on the orchestra Stan that's beautiful that is really beautiful I mean they bring the dance to the music and then they dance right inside the music we'll do a new sock Gaga and they stop and they jump on the piano and they exit camera right so that beautiful white staircase they play with us they do look three or four splits they go back and come up without using their hands so when they head up on the right side of the staircase it's beautiful it's so beautiful I mean every time they land that could be a beautiful picture and then they come down we never realized it but we could picture in our minds what we were really supposed to do and we start doing it oh one step right after the other over each other's here and the castle our dance director said cut that's it you cannot get it any better and I said oh happy day and let me tell you this but I like go back to for just look look wait let me tell you this tell him what you say let me get a chance to talk yeah how much chance are you I love all of them cuz I could see the progress of each one see because we would always try to make the next film better than the last one yeah I've told him that already yo you didn't yet after their success in stormy weather the brothers dreamed the more important film roles while Harald also aspired to a solo singing career but in March of 1943 the team faced separation for the first time a continent away World War 2 raged on and fared was drafted becoming private Nikolas stationed in Mississippi the elegant dancer soon found himself assigned to a laundry detail in an all-black unit back in Los Angeles Harold turned his energies to his two passions golf and women he was rarely home and spent a little time with his pregnant wife on September 1st a pain stricken Dorothy tried to convince Harold that their baby was on the way but he casually dropped her off at the home of Jerry Nicholas taking the car and leaving them stranded Harold had pulled a loose what he called funny and he left the keys and we thought we had the car but we did find a man going to work and got her in but she kept holding back she said Harold is gonna come he's gonna come but after more than 15 hours of labor Harold was still missing and on September 2nd at 2:42 a.m. Harold and Suzanne Nicholas was finally born Dorothy was overjoyed and her child's presence made Harold's absences easier to take in April 1944 a relieved fayard was discharged from the army and the following year he became the father of a son Tony but like Harold the proud father soon became an absentee parent I tried to be a good husband and a good father something happened I don't know what but like she said that what a lot of show people are not the real family type by the age of two Tony had begun to speak but Harold and Dorothy's daughter age four could not to their horror the couple realized that something was seriously wrong with their child finally a doctor confirmed their worst nightmare Carolyn had irreparable brain damage because daddy had held back Lynn was denied oxygen and that was a contributing factor Allen was such a beautiful little girl I always felt so bad about that I don't know how my brother feels about it he he never talks about it much I know inside he he said he said about it I didn't want to show it you know it's like a lot of men even nowadays they feel pain but they don't want to chew it in 1948 the brothers made their last film appearance as a team alongside Gene Kelly in the pirate but unlike white dancers such as Kelly or Astaire their race still relegated them to brief supporting roles to stay on top hey art and Harold would have to look beyond America and sidestep new obstacles in the decade to come by 1948 the Nicholas brothers career had cooled in Hollywood but audiences still embraced the dazzling duo especially when they traveled abroad well we had just great times in your never thinking about prejudice or anything like that he was all open arms Europe became the brothers home into the early 1950s in London they danced for the royal family in Egypt their admirers included King Farouk Harold was especially drawn to Europe's racial climate and its women Europe for me was a haven I tried to learn the language I love to talk to the ladies you know cuz that's where I learned most of my languages fell in 1950 Fayard became the father of another son Paul but even when his wife Gerry joined him on tour Fayed was far from faithful it seems as though when I went to Europe everything would wow all these beautiful girls from Italy from friends from England from Sweden from Switzerland I went wild and my wife heard about it the bellboy came to the room and he said mr. Nicholas the young lady that you brought along on the tour wants to know is she gonna stay in this hotel on the one across the way and I had to translate for him so he took his chute and through you don't sucker although Jerry could stand up to her rivals dorothy was deeply wounded by Harold's infidelities their marriage was at an impasse and in 1951 the couple divorced eight-year-old Lynne was placed for the caretaker as harold withdrew into work it ended rather bitterly it was terrible to watch in January of 1953 the brothers returned to America to perform at the inauguration of Dwight D Eisenhower but although they counted presidents and Kings among their fans they soon faced bitter discrimination again when they joined Frank Sinatra the headline at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas between shows I walked into the lobby I'm a signet all of a sudden one of the guys of the hotel came word to me he says you're not suppose we sitting here you see being back in your dresser I said I'm just here minding my own business I'll go to my dressing room when I feel like it Harold had choir to do with one of the very big entertainers who attempted to rub his head for good luck it was something that came out of slavery and he would say you're white but I'm talented don't ever dare treat me less than a man so this man says well we're gonna make Sammy Davis Lee a star and you're not gonna work anymore he says fine there's the world I can work in the world Errol stood by his words launching a solo career in France during his stay he married seamstress le Anne patron in a short-lived union that produced the son Mellie meanwhile Gerry Nicholas had had enough of Fay ARDS philandering they divorced in 1956 but remained close friends the 60s would be an era of explosive unrest in America across the nation blacks marched for civil rights and u.s. soldiers were being called to fight in the distant jungles of Vietnam in 1965 Herold joined his brother and Bob Hope to entertain American troops in Vietnam only 50 miles from enemy fire once back in the States tragedy hit close to home on September 8th 1965 the brothers received the shattering news that Harold's ex-wife Dorothy Dandridge had been found dead of an apparent drug overdose Harold suffered the loss with typical stoicism I've never had a chance to talk to her to tell her that I was sorry and she died I was right home after that but two years later there was cause once again to celebrate in the Nicholas family when Fayard married a lovely sophisticated model named Barbara January she was good for me in so many ways happy plucky with with my wives is it and they all beautiful and they take good care of me but as the dancers avid their 50s their careers began to move to a slower tempo in 1970 Fayard gave a dramatic performance as a man falsely accused a murder in the movie the liberation of lb Jones opposite Lola Falana everybody loved what I did he did fail and I thought wow I'm gonna get some other roles but they never did call me in the 1974 film uptown Saturday night Harold played a Harlem gangster opposite Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier but again what seemed to be a new beginning became a frustrating one-shot appearance what can I tell you I am and I don't know really I wonder sometimes I wonder not sometimes most of the times I wonder what happened why why you know what did I do wrong what did I do wrong by now musicals had disappeared from movie screens and many young african-americans saw the Nicholas brothers as old-fashioned stereotypes from an earlier unenlightened Hollywood it appeared that after 45 years of stardom and struggle the brothers were facing their last dance in the limelight but appearances can be deceiving after fading from the spotlight in the 1970s the Nicholas brothers would enjoy a decade of renewal and rediscovery in the 1980s it was thanks partly the popular dancers like Gregory Hines who embraced tap as a black American art form Harold starred on stage in the tap dance kid and won raves when he replaced Gregory Hines and the musical sophisticated ladies this is the kind of thing I wanted to do all along you know I wanted to for myself but it was great it was beautiful even when he was like 65 Hara was like a freak of nature how I was still jumping off staircases into splits Harold also found happiness with a Swedish jazz promoter named Rick more Newman she became his manager and his Life Companion a woman sensitive to his private sometimes moody personality it's very difficult to get close to Harold for you know he's very very honest he's also selfish but he is a good person good-hearted he brought a lot of joy into my life in 1989 75 year-old Fayard was thrilled to receive a Tony Award for choreographing the Broadway dance review black-and-blue it was one of many awards the brothers received over the next decade awards recognizing them as irreplaceable national treasures and no accolade was more prestigious than the one they received in 1991 when they were saluted in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center Honors Nicholas brothers I'm just reowww to you we owe so much to you and we love you so much heroin failure so glad you know all those honors can you descent her honor and stuff like that did that sorta brought up things and you know tears to my eyes Here I am 84 years old and I'm getting all of these awards that I should have gotten years ago but amid the applause came another painful loss in 1998 while Fayard recuperated from a stroke his devoted wife Barbara was hospitalized with an inoperable tumor and three weeks later fayard lost his beloved companion to cancer I miss her so much we were married 20 years it was great twenty-eight years I was so much in love with her and she was beautiful inside and out he broke my heart when Barbara died because I just saw them as this eternal couple and and I saw faired not too long ago at an autograph session and he's carrying on with a wonderful cheerful attitude he asked buoyed by the support of his family including his sons Toni and Paul Cayard has continued to make appearances around the world in 1998 at age 84 he performed on stage with his granddaughters 13 year old Nicole and 10 year-old Kathy my granddaughters have taken over and they do the Nicholas brothers in skates seven decades the Nicholas brothers have electrified audiences and inspired fellow entertainers through the eloquence of their art they demanded their full rights as human beings while scaling heights unsurpassed in the history of dance I think I'm glad to be here a second emotion I'm so fortunate to have known emphasis all my life we're still pals we call each other all the time and we get together we do a couple of steps slowly and have a good time child if you give them together now they'll still try to split honey and give failure they cane honey he'll go down he may not come back up his cricket but he will go down I'll tell you right now we stand on the shoulders of people that came before us I have been afforded stages to tap-dance on because of the great Nicholas brothers and thank you Howlin fáááád thank you my brother is the most versatile actor singer dancer he does everything and I'm so proud of him because I told him anything he knows I'm proud of you too you

Channel: docludi2

Views: 647,192

Rating: 4.8943567 out of 5

Keywords: Nicholas Brothers, Story, Dance, Tap dance, Documentary (TV Genre), Singapore (Country)

Id: jTmJowrBwOY

Length: 42min 10sec (2530 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 04 2013