The Nicholas Brothers were an entertainment act composed of brothers Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), who excelled in a variety of dance techniques, primarily between the 1930s and 1950s. Best known for their unique interpretation of a highly acrobatic technique known as "flash dancing", they were also considered by many to be the greatest tap dancers of their day, if not all time. Their virtuoso performance in the musical number "Jumping' Jive" (with Cab Calloway and his orchestra) featured in the 1943 movie Stormy Weather has been praised as one of the greatest dance routines ever captured on film.
Growing up surrounded by vaudeville acts as children, they became stars of the jazz circuit during the Harlem Renaissance and performed on stage, film, and television well into the 2000s. Diminutive in size, they were appreciated for their artistry, innovation, and soaring leaps.
Early lives Fayard Antonio Nicholas was born August 28, 1914, in Mobile, Alabama, and Harold Lloyd Nicholas was born March 17, 1921, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Viola Harden (maiden; 1893–1971), a pianist, and Ulysses Dominick Nicholas (1892–1935), a drummer.
The Nicholas Brothers grew up in Philadelphia, the sons of college-educated musicians who played in their own band at the Standard Theater. At the age of three, Fayard would always sit in the front row while his parents worked, and by the time he was ten, he had seen most of the great African-American vaudeville acts—particularly the dancers, including such notables of the time as Alice Whitman, Willie Bryant, and Bill Robinson."Biography" . The Nicholas Brothers' official website. The brothers were fascinated by the combination of tap dancing and acrobatics. Fayard often imitated their acrobatics and clowning for the kids in his neighborhood.
Neither Fayard nor Harold had any formal dance training. Fayard taught himself how to dance, sing, and perform by watching and imitating the professional entertainers on stage. He then taught his younger siblings, first performing with his sister Dorothy as the Nicholas Kids, later joined by Harold. Harold idolized his older brother and learned by copying his moves and distinct style. Dorothy later opted out of the act, and the Nicholas Kids became known as the Nicholas Brothers."Nicholas Brothers". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. November 6, 2013.
The brothers moved to Philadelphia in 1926.Imogen Sara Smith, "The Nicholas Brothers" , Dance Heritage Coalition, 2012. As word spread of their talent, the Nicholas Brothers became known around Philadelphia. They were first hired for a radio program, The Horn and Hardart Kiddie Hour, and then by other local theatres such as the Standard and the Pearl. When they were performing at the Pearl, the manager of The Lafayette, a New York vaudeville showcase, saw them and immediately wanted them to perform for his theater.
Stage Career In 1932, they became the featured act at Harlem's Cotton Club when Harold was 11 and Fayard was 18. They astonished their mainly white audiences dancing to the jazz tempos of "Bugle Call Rag"; they were the only entertainers in the African-American cast allowed to mingle with white patrons. They performed at the Cotton Club for two years, working with the orchestras of Lucky Millinder, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Jimmy Lunceford. During this time, they made their uncredited movie debut, in the 1932 short Pie, Pie Blackbird, featuring Eubie Blake and his orchestra. The brothers attributed their success to their unique style of dancing—a hybrid of tap dance, ballet, and acrobatics sometimes called "acrobatic dancing" or "flash dancing"—which was greatly in demand during this time.
The brothers made their Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. Their act at the Follies stopped the show so consistently that Fannie Brice would regularly joke: "Do you think we can talk now?". The Follies led to a tour of England with a production of "Blackbirds" that gave them an opportunity to see several of the great European Ballet companies. They impressed the choreographer, George Balanchine, who invited them to appear in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Babes in Arms 1937. With Balanchine's training, they learned many new stunts. Their talent led many to presume they were trained ballet dancers.Biography (p. 5) , Nicholas Brothers website.
By 1940, they had moved to Hollywood and for several decades divided their time between movies, nightclubs, concerts, Broadway, television, and extensive tours of Latin America, Africa, and Europe. In 1948 they gave a royal command performance for the King of England at the London Palladium. Later, they danced for nine different presidents of the United States. They appeared in most of the major nightclubs and theaters in America, guest starred on virtually every popular TV variety show from the 1950s through the 1970s, and performed for the troops in Vietnam in 1965.
Film Career The Nicholas Brothers made their screen debut in Pie, Pie, Blackbird (1932), an all-black musical short directed by Roy Mack and starring Nina Mae KcKinney. Harold Nicholas briefly broke out on his own for the Disney short Stoopnocracy (1933)—where he got to show off his Cab Calloway impression—as well as the independently produced pre-code drama The Emperor Jones (1933), a landmark film starring Paul Robeson. Producer Samuel Goldwyn saw them at the Cotton Club and invited them to California to be a part of Kid Millions (1934). The duo reunited again for the Warner Bros. Vitaphone short An All-Colored Vaudeville Show (1935). Also directed by Roy Mack, the Nicholas Brothers are one of five acts in the film.
In 1940, they were contracted to the Twentieth Century Fox studio and made six films there. Stormy Weather (1943) remained their personal favorite. It features their now-classic, breathtaking staircase routine, their last appearance on film as a duo.
Despite their continued success, the Nicholas Brothers faced problems at their home studio. They wanted more involvement in their movies but according to a Los Angeles Times article on the brothers, "Because of racial prejudice, they appeared as guest artists, isolated from the plot, in many of their films. This was a strategy that allowed their scenes to be easily deleted for screening in the Jim Crow-era South".Dennis McLellan and Lewis Segal, "Nicholas Brothers – Dance Team", Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2000, and January 26, 2006. Due to various reasons, their contract with Fox was not renewed.
After World War II, the Nicholas Brothers took a break from filmmaking and went on tour performing throughout the southern Southern belt and the Caribbean. They returned to the big screen in what would be their last major film together, the Vincente Minnelli directed MGM musical The Pirate (1948). They joined Gene Kelly for the "Be a Clown" number despite resistance from the studio that Kelly would dance with two black performers. Arthur Freed believed that because the story was set in the Caribbean and not in the United States that audiences wouldn’t be as opposed to seeing Gene Kelly perform with two black dancers. Harold Nicholas, who disliked rehearsal, put very little effort into Kelly's practice runs which angered the star. The story goes that Kelly accused Harold of not knowing the choreography and Harold responded by doing the entire routine by himself without missing a beat. In all, they have made over thirty films.
Style and moves The brothers were particularly known for their expressive use of their hands and arms while dancing, particularly tap. One of their signature moves was to leapfrog down a long, broad flight of stairs, completing each step with a split. Its best remembered performance is in the finale of the movie Stormy Weather (1943). In that routine, the Nicholas Brothers leapt exuberantly across the orchestra's music stands and danced on the top of a grand piano in a call and response act with the pianist, to the tune of "Jumpin' Jive". Fred Astaire once told the brothers that this dance number was the greatest number he had ever seen on film. The choreographer Nick Castle said, "Just do it. Don't rehearse it, just do it." And so it was done, unrehearsed and in one take, which relieved Harold Nicholas because he did not want to do the rigorous routine over and over all night."Those Dapper Tappers", Chicago Tribune, 22 Dec 1991.Nicholas Brothers dancing in "Jumpin' Jive" in Stormy Weather (1943)
In another signature move, they would rise from a split without using their hands. Gregory Hines declared that if their biography were ever filmed, their dance numbers would have to be computer-generated because no one now could emulate them. Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov once called them the most amazing dancers he had ever seen in his life.
Teaching The Nicholas Brothers taught master classes in tap dance as teachers-in-residence at Harvard University and Radcliffe at Ruth Page Visiting Artists. Among their known students are Debbie Allen, Janet Jackson, and Michael Jackson. Several of today's master tap dancers have performed with or been taught by the brothers: Dianne Walker, Sam Weber, Lane Alexander, Mark Mendonca, Terry Brock, Colburn Kids Tap/L.A, Channing Cook Holmes, Chris Baker, Artis Brienzo, Chester Whitmore, Darlene Gist, Chris Scott, Tobius Tak, Carol Zee, and Steve Zee.Everybody Dance! meet our teachers
Legacy In 1991, the Nicholas Brothers received Kennedy Center Honors in recognition of their six decades of achievements. A year later, a documentary film, We Sing & We Dance, celebrated their careers and included tributes from Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, MC Hammer, and Clarke Peters. In 1994, members of the cast of Hot Shoe Shuffle also paid them tribute.
On April 8, 1998, Carnegie Hall hosted a lifetime tribute to Fayard and Harold, with the event "From Harlem to Hollywood: A Tribute to the Nicholas Brothers". Both brothers were in attendance along with a sold-out audience. In honor of the brothers' exquisite tap dance legacy and artistic contributions as a dance team in Hollywood films, the night included a veritable Who’s Who in tap dance and entertainment, presenting and performing. On a large screen, the brothers’ full tap dance scene in the film "Stormy Weather" was shown.
Personal lives Fayard Fayard married four times. His marriage to Geraldine Pate lasted from 1942 until their divorce in 1955."Nevada County Marriages, 1862-1993," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL4L-K7RK : 22 July 2021), Fayard Nicholas and Geraldine Pate, 10 Feb 1942; citing Marriage, Clark, Nevada, United States, Nevada State Museum and Historical Society, Las Vegas; FHL microfilm 005241845.Gates, Henry Louis; Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks (2008). The African American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 148. . That year, he married Mexican dancer Victoria Barron.Hill, Constance Valis (2000). Brotherhood in Rhythm : The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 243. ."Secret Told". The Pittsburgh Courier. November 5, 1955. p. 1. Retrieved March 27, 2022. As of May 1960, that marriage remained intact, with "Vicky" also working alongside Fayard professionally."Rusty Draper Swings Into La Fiesta Light". El Paso Times. May 29, 1960. p. 14-B. Retrieved March 27, 2022. He married Barbara January in 1967, the same year he converted to the Baháʼí Faith, and they remained together until her death in 1998. He married Katherine Hopkins in 2000.
He died on January 24, 2006, of pneumonia contracted after a stroke. His memorial service, presided over by Mary Jean Valente of A Ceremony of the Heart, was standing-room only and featured personal tributes, music, dance, and one last standing ovation.Program of Fayard Nicholas' memorial service