Cab Calloway And The Nicholas Brothers
Lately, Will and I have seen a few old Fred Astaire movies on the Classics channel. I know that the movies were mainly to showcase his dancing, because frankly, the writing was shit as was his acting. He was a terrific dancer and a terrible actor. As a matter of fact, he usually played characters that I wanted to punch right in the fucking face. Most of them were such smuggers (that's a cross between smug and fucker - I just made it up now, I'm on a "cross" kick. Please feel free to spread its use widely).
Something that really struck me though, were the servant roles of the black characters in the movies. I was shocked. I'm not naive, I know our history, I just haven't "seen" it in a while and I was sitting there mouth agape, thinking this was just 60 years ago. That's not very long. And although we've come a long way, baby, we still have a long way to go. But, I do believe that we are getting somewhere. "Where?" You ask? I don't know, but it is somewhere.
In any case, there's two brothers that I'm certain never received the acknowledgment that they truly deserved. I've heard that Fred Astaire greatly admired them and he should have. I've also read where during that time (1930's & 40's), other black entertainers scenes would be cut to accommodate the racism of the day, but the studios demanded that no changes would be made to any of the material of the Nicholas Brothers. These two could dance ANYONE under the carpet (or is it table? I don't know...where do you dance someone under? The stage?), then AND now. You really have to watch the entire video to appreciate their talents...and their limberness.
Long live their memory!
Stumble It!
posted by Kevin Charnas | 8:59 AM
19 Comments:
OH MY DEAR!!
I've visited so often but never commented. (SHAME on me!!!)
But I JUST.COULDN'T.RESIST!!!
LOVE the Nicholas Brothers!! LOVE Cab Calloway (he was a LOT more than the "Hidey-HO" man!)
Thanks for telling the world!!
Oh, and speaking of the World, please go to Jenny's blog today! Thanks!!
http://blogs.chron.com/mamadrama/
Love the Nicholas Brothers!!!
They make it look so easy. Almost not real.
You are awesome for putting those two out there again. Great post.
Have you ever seen Holiday Inn... where Bing Crosby sings a song which includes the lyrics:
Who was it set the darkie free
while in blackface?
Stephanie - Thanks for commenting! :) And I went right over to Jenny's place and clicked and got on the email reminder too, so thanks so much for telling me.
Janet - Thank you. They're unbelievable, aren't they?
Kristin - that is EXACTLY one of the movies that I saw. I felt sick when it was over...and the way that Fred's character and Bing's character were to each other also made me sick...I found the whole movie to be disgusting. And I DID catch that line and almost fell out of my chair and puked.
Those dudes were completely BADASS! I saw some of their moves and was like whooaaaaa! They just don't do it like that anymore. Nowadays, you don't need to know how to dance, just move your coochie and weeter woo round and round and guess what--You're DANCING! Yayyy*cough*ayyyy!
One of the brothers married and had a child with Dorothy Dandridge. I've always wondered what happened to that kid.
Ok, I am back to comment again, I just watched the video. Not only was Cab Calloway HOT as heck...those two dudes rocked the hell out of that set!
I am left wondering one thing though....Did they need an icy/hot pack to the nether regions after that!?
Those guys were awesome! Nicccce.
And as far as old movies go, the ones that sicken me and make me turn the channel are the ones that portray black servants as kowtowing idiots. I hate that crap, and the language they were told to use, and I'm sure those actors went home at night and spoke the same fucking brand of English as anybody else.
That disturbed me when I first started watching old movies in my teens, and it disturbs me now.
But at least we have documentation of that part of Hollywood history.
They're awesome!! I'm sure they inspired Fred Astaire to do the amazing stuff he did, (and got more famous for because he was white.)
Kind of like Elvis with regard to Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
Thank you so much for sharing this. It's a treasure!
That was GREAT!
I was never a Fred Fan...
Funny Face? Like why would Audrey want that ole man???
Fred and Ginger combos were okay...
Was more prone to Gene Kelly...and Danny Kaye...
I went to New York a few years ago and was blown away by the best hoofer I have seen in my life...
His name is Sauvion Glover... and I say him in the play Turn up Da Funk...Bring Up DaNoise
while he danced and I sat in the third row of the theatre... I forgot to breath...
Broadway gave him a blank cheque and said for him to come up with a musical...And man, I still get goosebumps when I try and encapsolate that moment...
Sad, that it is not on film as all Americans should experience one of your greatest dancers of OUR time..
How fun! A little song and dance on a Saturday. It's hard to imagine just how incredibly talented they would have had to be - above and beyond Fred Astaire - to have this video made.
Thanks for the reminder!
What I would give to be able to dance like that. Thanks too for the the link to their site. The biography was fascinating.
I saw a grat documentary about the Nicholas Brothers once. Amazing. Someone once said if they ever decided to do a movie about their life story they'd have to do the dancing with computer animation because there's no one that's ever been able to dance like that again.
I saw Cab Calloway's daughter perform in Galveston. She was amazing.
PS. Thanks Stepanie and Kevin!
that was truly entertaining. thanks for posting that
I'm SO relieved to hear that you think 60 years is not a long time!
Great post, Kevin!
Finally got around to clicking on the clip... that was amazing!
I am so in awe of people who can do that. Tap dancing and "river" dancing - both look like they defy gravity because legs that are doing that can't possibly also be holding up the weight of a person!
Happy Feet - Glover was the computer model for the dancing penguin and was told to hold absolutely still. The director kept hearing this noise. He finally discovered that Glover, who'd been told to hold still was tapping his feet so fast the camera couldn't see it! That man must be AMAZING!
Amazing, aren't they?
I just watched a PBS special on the history of vaudeville (this is another side effect of aging) and they discussed the racism of the theater in detail...you're right, 60 years ago really wasn't that long!!!
Anyway, thanks for posting this clip! That splits-down-the-stairs segment, plus the ending--wow! Very cool.
Yes, its quite surprising how society has changed in this time. I was watching a really awful UFO movie from the 50's and the way that women were portrayed in those days, you'd just never get away with now. My goodness me have times changed.
Some of the British war songs that kept our home front going in the 40s have some very odd lines in them you'd never get away with now, as do some of the sitcoms you can see repeats of on cable channels from as recently as the late 1970s. The references in a sitcom called Rising Damp to the black chap who lived int eh apartment building is very offensive in these enlightened times....
xx
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