I'm 62 now and this was made 15 years before I was born. The Nicholas Brothers were possibly the best dancers in world history. Thank God this clip and a few others survives so that future generations can gasp at their talent.
You are so right and thank goodness sites like RU-vid make it so easy to find. I have watched about 4 of their dances plus a documentary on them this past month and been awed by each and every one of them. These two brothers broke the mold and are truly something special that will never be able to be duplicated
I was born in 62 and the tv was playing this videos until I was 10. I still enjoy a good black and white video now and then and my music catalog has music from the 20's up to the 60's
The music is "Swing Jazz". The singer is Cab Calloway and his Orchestra. They say he was the Originator of "Swag", he was always dapper. The Brothers did this dance with one rehearsal, and all in just one take! True talent.
That's not true. The splits at the end were done in one take, but the rest of the number took weeks of rehearsal, and was done in multiple takes, as all dance numbers were. Fayard Harold and were perfectionists and would have it no other way.
can you just imagine the leg and thigh muscles they had to have to pull that routine off? The dancers are the The Nicholas Brothers, considered the greatest tap-dancers of their time, and this performance is considered one of the best dance routines of all time. Gregory Hines said that it can't be reproduced. If anyone ever made a movie about them he said this routine would have to be computer-generated because no one now alive can do it. Mikhail Baryshnikov called them the most amazing dancers he had ever seen in his life.
Yup one take! No autotunes or computer work or fancy editing...all Raw authentic talent from real icons and legends. This was at a time when you had to have real Raw talent to be famous.
Not to be a downer, but that wasn't a single take. Not only is that insanely hard to do all at once physically, it's basically impossible to get the lighting and cameras right to cover all of their movements. If you watch closely, you'll see about a dozen cuts here and there. Basically every time the camera position has to shift to follow them, the lighting and other arrangements have to be shifted and reset. The entire sequence might have taken two days or so to film, and then it all gets stitched together in edit.
Yes, it is insanely hard to dance like that. But the Nicholas Brothers used to do routines like this LIVE in the theater, five and six shows a day. And while you may not believe it, the director and many others have said that it was done in one take.
@@simbahunter8894 Watch it again and take note every time the camera angle changes or there's a shift in perspective. Those are cuts. We're used to editing, so we usually don't notice them, but those shots could easily be different takes that were spaced days apart. The usual method, even for a "single take," is to light a scene and film it once from two or three cameras set up for a long shot. Then you reset everything and do it again with medium-length lenses. Then you do it again in pieces to get the close-ups and reaction shots. Even with modern tech, you basically can't film two men dancing around on a stage from all three focal lengths, with always-perfect lighting and camera sweeps. That's even to assume everything else goes perfect, with nobody flubbing a line, missing a mark, moving into a shadow, breaking a prop, etc.
These guys later in life were Michael and Janet Jackson's dance instructors! Just goes to show we all stand on the shoulders of giants. Also fascinating to notice the extreme tap influences on Michael's footwork looking back.
I'm a 70s dude, I seen this stormy weather way back in early 80s cab calloway was the man. Not excluding the Nicholas brothers was better than dynamite, that all black orchestra was a jukebox in itself. Stormy weather was released in 1943, raw talent.
Cab Calloway came up in 1927 in the Big Band music era; it was large bands playing different styles of 'blended' music. They developed Jive, Bop, Rhythm & Blues... Calloway appeared in films 1932-1994. The Nicholas Brothers were dancing as soon as they could walk; similar to how Sammy Davis Jr. started...
The Hines Brothers Maurice&Gregory were said to be the second coming of the Nicholas Brothers but MH&GH saw them in person and knew they could not keep up with these legends!!!!!
When I was a kid they still had these old movies on TV. People dressed so classy back then. Cab Calloway appeared in another movie called The Blues Brothers many many many years later you should check out that!
The greatest dance sequence in the history of tap dancing. You can start at age 10 and practice everyday day for 2 hours 7 days a week for 20 years and you’ll end up maybe half as good as the Nicholas Brothers. This was unrehearsed, shot in one take and the steps were totally original. Al
They may be the best dance team of all time, but it wasn't shot in one take-the number of different camera angles makes that impossible. Also, unless you've read one of the brothers saying it was unrehearsed, I don't buy it. Their movements are too coordinated with each other to have just gotten up and done it.
@@almostfm - Yes, it would have taken multiple cameras to film this in one take and probably a modern lighting system, remotely controlled, to be able to change the lighting on the fly, while the scene was in progress. What might be true is each section of the dance number were filmed in a single take. Look at about the 2:50 mark when the Nicholas Brothers jump up on the small tables that are in front of the musicians in the band. Specifically, look at second saxophone player at ground level on the right. As the brothers leap from table to table you can see him flinch several times. He was definitely concerned that he might get kicked in the face. It's not absolute proof, but this man's reaction suggests this might be the first take. In an interview done in the late 1990's, Fayard Nicholas said that the brothers had rehearsed every element in this dance number, but they had never done a full start to finish rehearsal. Before that, they got together with the director and set designer to plan what they would do. Those leaps down the staircase; the staircase itself, and the finishing slide down it weren't improvised, that was planned from the beginning. Finally, I've also heard that one of the Nicholas Brothers; I don't which one, was injured in one of those leaps down the staircase, but didn't feel it until after the number was finished. That strongly suggests those leaps were shot in one take.
That's not true. The splits at the end were done in one take, but the rest of the number took weeks of rehearsal, and was done in multiple takes, as all dance numbers were. Fayard Harold and were perfectionists and would have it no other way.
@@johnjackson7045 he literally just proven my point in that video. The only thing that wasn't rehearsed was the jumping over each other on the stairs, and the only thing that was done in one take.
Oh... we're going THERE?!?! 😎 I'm gonna give you a suggestion for this kinda thing, and if you don't at least listen to it (react if you want... but it would be good), then you'll hate yourself for not hearing it earlier when you DO hear it eventually... And that suggestion is 'Screamin' Jay Hawkins - "I Put a Spell On You" TRUST ME, MAN! The 1920's - 1940's jump, swing, and blues is a passion of mine, and Jay Hawkins is... let's just say "one of a kind" (he's basically a musical voodoo priest).
The Nicholas brothers are some of the best dancers in the history of file (Fred Astaire called them the greatest). No one could do a biography, cause no one can dance like that today.
Love this. Cab Calloway was such an entertainer. This is big band/swing music. Its awesome. It gets you moving. You should react to couples swing dancing...bet no one nowadays could do it. Fred Astaire was once quoted as saying this was the best dance routine ever recorded on film. He felt his talent could never even hold a candle to theirs, and he was the most famous dancer in history. The Nicholas Brothers deserve a lot more recognition than they get. And most of all....no slutty stage performance to hide the fact that some entertainers have no talent.
1939. It’s Big Band/Swing music, popular around World War Ii. Cab Callaway was the James Brown of his era. And the Nicholas Brothers were sure box office gold. Fred Astaire, thought by many to be the greatest dancer who ever lived, said this number by the Nicholas Brothers was the greatest dance routine ever captured on film. That’s a pretty heady compliment once you’ve seen Astaire’s dance number where he dances on the walls and the ceiling.
This era was my parents' time. The Nicholas Brothers were absolutely top-shelf talent. Their precision and timing, the best! And they made it look easy.
I love your reaction. As others I’m sure have pointed out that this is from the mid-1930s. It is a pinnacle of human creative expression in the last century, and I can’t get enough of it.
You're watching the Nicholas Brothers. The "BEST" tap dancers in the world. They danced with such elegance and grace. This is GOD given talent. No one can compare to the Nicholas Brothers.
It's impossible to find anything cooler than this! No one could possibly duplicate it. There's an excellent documentary out there on the Nicholas Brothers. Definitely worth a watch. Exceptional dancers performers...men. 💖💖
Here is one aspect on this clip I always found amusing. Toward the beginning when they are hopping from one table to another in the band. The member seated I'm front on the right didn't really trust their skill. He keeps on moving his head further to our right. Everytime that foot came around. He is the only one I saw doing it.
I love black and white movies. The Big Band Era was so wild and wonderous. My grandparents had quite the collection of Phonograph records and great stories of those performers, they read about and whatever else was going on at that time. This is so fun.
The music is Swing with Jazz. What Cab Calloway is doing with the lyrics is called "scat". It amounts to rapid nonsense syllables that mimic the jazz trumpet. The Nicholas Brothers' dance moves are totally real. One rehearsal, one take, no editing. What you are seeing is exactly what they performed live back in 1943.
@@hazebruv Sooo glad I found your channel & sooo glad you reacted to this. Please & I mean PLEASE react to Whitey's Lindy Hoppers "Hellzapoppin." If you thought this dance routine was mesmerizing, wait until you see them 😱.
OMG. Check out ‘Is you is or ain’t you my Baby’. My Grandmother used to see him live in NYC. This occurred during 1930’s-40’s. LOVE your reaction. It was amazing, indeed.
Dude u r right - supremely special. Cab Calloway was in the movie “Blues Brothers” u should watch the clip for “Minnie the Moocher” awesome Big Band sound
There's also a classic Betty Boop cartoon from 1932 featuring Cab's Minnie the Moocher. The dance moves were literally traced from film of him dancing.
The Nicholas Brothers were amazing! Even Fred Astaire was in awe of this performance. Cab Calloway was so smooth! I recently saw a video of a Tony Awards show with the Nicholas Brothers recreating a dance they did 50 years before. They had to be in their 70s then, but could still out dance many of today's dancers. You can find that here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dR9u7KzlMw4.html.
Love Cab Calloway....this ROCKS 🎶 Swing /Big Band music Back in it's day...this was the music that parents hated ✌ Try some Andrews Sisters they have some music that ROCKS as well 🎶
These dancers were known as the Nicholas brothers. The younger and shorter of the two was Harold. He appeared in the movie the Five Heartbeats as Sarge, the groups dance instructor.
-If you ever played the game Cuphead on Xbox One or PS4, Cab Calloway is the inspiration for King Dice. The whole game is actually based on this era. -The genre is called Big Band, very popular in the 40s -This was 1943 -If you watched the Grammys recently, Megan Thee Stallions dancers tried to do the stair splits..... they cheated though.. lol
Fred Astaire said the Nicholas Brothers were his favorite dancers and that this is the best routine he had ever seen. They did it without a rehearsal on the first take.
6:20 You ask what year that was. It was 1943. 81 years ago! If any little kids were in that audience watching that performance they're probably now dead. But the shock of those leaping splits that the Nicholas Brothers did will live for a thousand years.
This performance you were watching was performed by Cab Calloway and the necklace brothers during the time of World War II 1941 that is what you’ve been watching if you really want to see a throwback you want to watch Benny Goodman live performance of Chattanooga choo-choo 1941
I'm a Glaswegian, in My sixties. It was an Old Italian Guy that first turned Me onto Jazz about half a century ago. He had the stair secquence on super 8 Cine film, queued up the 78, decades before scratch etc! Then got into Blues, Soul, Funk, Jazz Funk, Electronic. I was already into Scots Trad, Pipes, Classical, R'n'R, ++++! The one I can't get into is, as Bob said in Bob's Country Bunker, country and/or western. It hurts My ears and brain! P..S. should've included Cajun!
Watch the live-action version of 'Friend Like Me'. At the end, Aladdin and the Genie do split-jumps down the stair in homage to this brilliant routine.
This is on the movie Stormy Weather with Bill Bojangles Robinson, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra and many more but Harold and Fayard Nicholas was the dancers at the end. Harold and Fayard is brothers not twins plus Harold the youngest was in the movie "The Five Heartbeats" Cab Galloway and the Nicholas Brothers also was in Janet Jackson music video "Alright" . You also should check out Bill Bojangles Robinson, he's a good tap dancer too. He also did four movie with Shirley Temple and other movies in the 1930's as a tap dancer.
Cab Calloway became even more famous in 1958 for the song Minnie the Moocher. He sang it when he was 51 years old. See: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8mq4UT4VnbE.html Then he did it again and garnered a whole new audience when the Blues Brothers movie came out in 1980. Cab was 73 years old when he did this version: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-250MMq0fTrU.html. -Su
Finally - thank you, Haze! do some more Cab Calloway, when you have a moment (he was a singer/orchestra director and dancer in his own right) - this was the Nicholas Brothers most famous turn b/c it was a fairly popular movie - but they were also featured in another movie (less popular) - called "Down Argentine Way" - where they not only danced but SANG - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HU-AfrNLHLU.html - they started out very young.. Fayard and Harold have been regarded by many dancers, including the likes of Gregory Hines and even Fred Astaire - as some of the best EVER --
Man I love the swing era and amazing Nicholas Brothers I hope you also check out Cab Calloway Minnie the Moocher among many others my mom and dad turned me on to them I am now 65 this was in their era
You should check out Cab's other song from this movie, "Geechy Joe". It's fantastic. Talk about an entrance. Cab comes out in this cream color zoot suit, wide brim hat with a feather in it, watch fob hanging down to knee level. It's great.
