The Nicholas Brothers gala

Dance Magazine, July, 1998 by Don McDonagh

They were the best of that spectacular group known as the "flash acts." They sang, danced, did acrobatic turns, and vaulted off improbable heights to land in unbelievable splits. Others tapped up and down flights of stairs; the impeccably dressed Nicholas Brothers came down in a single bound. Still impeccably dressed, though with a trifle less agility, they took the stage of Carnegie Hall in early April to enjoy a celebration of their careers, appropriately titled "From Harlem to Hollywood." The brothers did it all. As Fayard, the elder by over six years, commented in an interview, "We danced everything except opera" --club dates, vaudeville, films, concert tours, Broadway shows. Among the honors amassed was a 1995 Dance Magazine Award.

The band played "In the Mood" as Bill Cosby escorted the brothers to a cafe table onstage during their standing ovation; he then emceed wittily. Bobby Short sang a tribute that stemmed from seeing them in The Big Broadcast of 1936, and Jimmy Slyde smoothly danced another.

It started in Philadelphia, where their parents directed their own pit band in the Standard Theater. The brothers saw all of the great black entertainers of the day from the first row of the orchestra. They themselves precociously appeared on the Horn and Hardart Children's Hour radio show. After they were spotted appearing in both the Standard and Pearl theaters in their hometown, New York City beckoned, and they first appeared in the Lafayette Theater, and then in the Cotton Club. Fayard was eighteen and Harold eleven. They adopted the top-hat-and-tails attire of sophisticates, and it became their signature look. They remained at the Cotton Club for nearly two years before being engaged to appear in Eddie Cantor's movie Kid Millions. Two years later they danced in The Big Broadcast of 1936.

The live stage was very much in their blood, and they returned to New York City to appear in the Ziegfeld Follies, where they preceded the comedienne Fanny Brice. Their reception was so tumultuous that she routinely asked, "Is it all fight to speak now?" before beginning her skit with Judy Canova. The brothers toured with Lew Leslie's Blackbirds in England and in 1937 were back on Broadway in Babes in Arms.

They had developed a reputation for being willing to do anything, and choreographers routinely took the opportunity to ask for it. George Balanchine, the choreographer for Babes, suggested that Fayard do a flip across eight bent-over chorus girls and land in a split. Harold was asked to do a split slide underneath the girls' spread legs and finish standing up. Both stunts became part of the show.

The brothers returned to Hollywood for Down Argentine Way in 1940, in which choreographer Nick Castle had Fayard take two gravity-defying steps up a vertical wall, flip over backward without using his hands, land in a split, and bounce back up on the beat. It was reported that throughout the country audiences in darkened movie theaters applauded. In 1941, they appeared in The Great American Broadcast and Sun Valley Serenade (Glenn Miller's band supplied the accompaniment for their classic "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" number). In 1948, they backed up Gene Kelly in Vincente Minnelli's The Pirate, with Judy Garland.

At the gala, Lena Horne reminisced that she was sixteen and working in a Harlem club when she first met the brothers; she later befriended them in Hollywood when she was making Stormy Weather (1943). Maurice Hines gestured wildly as he enthusiastically celebrated Fayard's expressive hands. He got Fayard to lead the band so that the audience could appreciate his dexterity and gestural eloquence. Fayard roguishly tossed in a few pelvic thrusts.

As a child, Fayard was impressed by circus clowns' "crazy gestures" and worked to develop his own. The result was commented on years later by Castle, who declared that Fayard had the most beautiful hands in show business, giving Fred Astaire second place and Buddy Ebsen third. In years past, Fayard playfully described his Astaire imitation: "I flap my legs out in a jerky figure-eight pattern, and alternate between using my elbows with dangling hands and throwing my arms out like a windmill." It usually brought down the house at the Hoofer's Club,

Harold went to the microphone but promised that he would not dance. He did do a little heel-and-toe sidestep as he gang "I Knew a Man, Bojangles." Along with live tributes both sung and danced, the gala included film clips of the brothers' characteristically spectacular routines. For those who might never have seen them, it was a revelation. For those who had seen them on film or live, it was a welcome confirmation of fond old memories.

A family moment was introduced when two of the brothers' granddaughters, Nicole and Kathy, danced and lip-synched to a clip from one of their films. All of those at the celebration joined in the finale, including Savion Glover and members of Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. Previously, Glover had danced a celebratory tiff alone, quite clearly directed to the brothers' table onstage, as if they were the only two people in the house who counted--and who could argue?