This was another dreary Saturday (almost all Saturdays have been dreary since Grace died, to be honest) until Ethics Alarms provided a triple treat. A new commenter debuted with a Comment of the Day, and I always love that. Better yet, the comment arrived on an old post, one from July of 2012. I also love that, as it shows that these poor rhetorical exercises with too many typos don’t always vanish like random pebbles thrown into the surf, but sometimes provide amusement and perspective to readers months and even years later, giving hope that my existence has some meaning after all.

Best of all, however, is that Kevin Hall’s Comment of the Day focuses much deserved attention on the amazing Nicholas Brothers, probably the greatest tap dancers who ever lived, whose memory is tragically faint because of the racism that restricted their careers. That number above, from a film that was seen almost exclusively by black audiences when it was released, is perhaps the most famous film performance by Harold and Fayard Nicholas, and it is certainly characteristic of their amazing style, but there are others. There is also a website dedicated to their lives and artistry. I feel about the Nicholas Brothers a bit like King Arthur does about the legend of Camelot as he expresses it in the final song in that Lerner and Lowe musical…

Ask every person if he’s heard the story
And tell it strong and clear if he has not…

Here is Kevin Hall’s Comment of the Day on the post, “Justice for the Nicholas Brothers.” I can’t resist some brief comments at the end…

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While I applaud you for encouraging people to experience the wonder that is the Nicholas Brothers, and I think most people will agree with you about all the injustices done to them over the years, it doesn’t hurt to acknowledge when others do make some efforts in the right directions. No, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and “white Hollywood” did NOT do enough to acknowledge them or provide them with opportunities they should have had, but it wouldn’t kill you to give a little credit when some folks try. Sure, they should have tried harder, but just toss out ANY efforts people made on their behalf? That’s just shooting yourself in the foot trying to make a point you’re already made.

To their credit, both Astaire and Kelly acknowledged the Nicholas Bros. repeatedly as two of the best dancers ever. Period. Bar none. As for “The Pirate,” Gene publicly repeatedly said that the Nicholas Brothers were two of the ONLY dancers who could have kept up on those numbers. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the number, but I thought it was pretty incredible and even included their legendary “splits” limberness as they slid through each others’ legs. As Kelly himself did a LOT of his own choreography, you don’t think he didn’t put that in there to feature them? Did you notice that he didn’t try that move himself??

As to them being in “clown makeup” so you can’t even tell they’re black as you said in your other post. Seriously? While they did have hats on, it was still completely obvious who was dancing. There was even a nice closeup of their 3 faces together at the end of the number (where you can see one Nicholas brother more winded than the other!). As to Gene being the “star” of the number and not featuring them enough…um…that might be because he was the star. That’s happened in many Gene Kelly movies. Gene was the “star” of Singing in the Rain. Don’t hear you crying about Donald O’Connor. As for it being a bad or second-rate movie that Gene Kelly put them in, I suspect Gene would have rather the movie did better as well!! I don’t think he put them in a “bad movie” on purpose. The reporting I’ve read on that movie states that he was even warned to *not* put them in the movie because Southern states would censor it out anyway. Remember, Jack, this is 1948!! 1965 is almost 20 years away still.

Should things have been better then? Yes. Should the Nicholas brothers have gotten more opportunities and more respect? Heck, yeah. Can we ALL strive to correct that injustice to some extent by sharing the Nicholas Brothers with as many people as possible? Darned straight!! But railing on and on about big names that did try (even if it wasn’t enough by your standard) doesn’t promote change or moving in the positive direction. Just promotes bitterness.

I’m sure I’ll get banned for this, and you’re welcome to bait me…I’ve already said what I had to say. As everyone reading this I’m sure does, I hope the Nicholas Bros. get a lot more respect and recognition as time goes on. They deserve it. Thank you for your efforts in that direction.

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I’m back. Just a couple of comments…

• Jeez, what kind of monster do people think I am? When have I ever banned a commenter for a thoughtful post like this? I am cut to the quick…
• Fred Astaire said in one interview that the bothers were, in his opinion, the best tap dancers he ever saw. Fred did a homage to John Bubbles and Bill Robinson, both brilliant black dancers who mentored him, but he never featured the Nicholas Brothers despite his admiration. True, Fred never had competing dancers, just partners, except for his (disappointingly pedestrian) duet with Gene Kelly in “The Ziegfeld Follies, and his sublime dance-off with Eleanor Powell in “The Broadway Melody of 1940” (I think she out-dances him, and so did Fred).
• ADDED: To Kevin’s point, it’s nice that Gene and Fred acknowledged the brothers, but Fayard and Harold would have gladly eschewed the praise (my father used to say, “That and 25 cents will get you a ride on the subway”) in exchange for chances to show how good they were in more movies. By the time they weren’t segregated out of the public consciousness and appeared now and then on TV, both were past their primes.
• Despite Kevin’s defense of Gene Kelly and director Vincent Minnelli for the marginalizing of Fayard and Harold in “The Pirate,” Gene was a film director as well as a big star, and he could have used his influence to finally give the brothers a featured number in a major movie musical. (“The Pirate” was a bomb.) Why not something in “Singing in the Rain” or “An American in Paris”? Kelly once answered a question about using the Nicholas Brothers in more than one film by joking, “Do you think I’m crazy?” But truth be told, he let Donald O’Connor out-dance him in “Singing in the Rain” and was willing to be compared to ace dancers Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey in “There’s Always Fair Weather.” Then again. Gene was better than Michael and Dan.
• Nobody did those leaps into splits like the Nicholas Brothers. It helped that they were both small and light (Fayard was 5’4,” younger brother Harold was two inches shorter.) It will not surprise you, I suspect, that both brothers had to have hip replacements
• ADDED: Ugh. I just re-watched “Be a Clown” from “The Pirate.” Kevin is right: I was wrong, and now I can’t figure out why I was so sure the Nicholas Brothers were in “white face” in the number. You can see that they are black. I made a corresponding fix in my original post. I apologize to all.
• BUT I have to scold Kevin for stating that Kelly “even included their legendary “splits” limberness as they slid through each others’ legs.” That move was not the Brothers’ trademark splits (Kelly could do those). Re-watching the number, I thought for a moment that we would see the “Jumpin’ Jive” splits when the trio ran up the stairs, but no. And watching it pissed me off, frankly, because the Nicholas Brothers were being restrained. Kelly had them do one of his signature bits, the thing where he brings one leg over the other mid-air, but never let them loose to show their stuff. Shame on him.