dancing brothers

[Marijn]

What was the name of the fantastic dancing brothers who were famous about the same time as Fred Astaire?They were black, they may have been twins, I can't remember.

[andy-hughes]

From the back of the memory - the Clarke Brothers?

[andy-hughes]

Yaaas! get it IN!!!!

http://www.eabf.org.uk/clark-bros/legends.htm

[lindapinda]

I saw them a couple of years ago on This Morning,and they were really interesting to listen to;-)

[lindapinda]

Here they are https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcFbdjPSjJ4

[Ethel]

Here's the Nicholas Brothers in a terrific Glenn Miller vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00giGIsauiQ

[Marijn]

Thank you all very much. It's the Nicholas Brothers I was looking for. They are unbelievable! I had a look on youtube and found a couple of clips (1932 and 1936) of when they were really young boys, they were amazing then too.
I tried to look at your youtube clip Ethel, but it was taking a while to load, will have another look in a minute. Also looked at the Clarke Bros out of interest, but that was taking a while to load too, will definitely have another go at watching that. PS If you love Clarke Bros you'll love Nicholas Bros too.

[jno]

the Nicholas Brothers - one of them died quite recently, the other a few years ago. They were wonderful.

They used to do their 'specialty dancing' in musicals in those days - but always in completely self-contained sequences that had no relationship to the rest of the film (they'd just be one among several performers and groups you'd see as part of a show, for instance). This was so they could be removed entirely when the film was shown in the southern USA, where they didn't take too kindly to seeing black people on the screen unless they were servants or slaves.

[Marijn]

I didn't know that jno. That's very interesting, but very sad too (I mean,about their dancing being cut out of some films).
I've seen Ethel's clip now, very good, thank you. If you put "Nicholas Brothers" into youtube, the clip of them when they were really young is called Pie Pie Blackbird, can't remember what the 1936 one was called, but that was even better. Sorry I don't know how to do the link thing.

[jno]

quite so, IaP - well, it was the southerners' loss. What tremendous performers.

[Marijn]

Just watched the Clark Bros clip, thank you, they're good. They must have been same sort of time as Nicholas Brothers. But Nicholas Bros are just amazing and inimitable! Have you watched the youtube clip yet where they are 15 and 22 years old? They are dancing AND singing. lovely voices too.

[Cetti]

The Glen Miller video is amazing. I've never ever heard of the Nicholas Brothers, although the Clarke Bros were fairly familiar, but can see now where Michael Jackson found inspiration for his moon walking.

Are these the same Nicholas Brothers - only one is very much shorter than the other?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4zHeVSQLoQ&fea ture=related

[Marijn]

Yes, this is when they were young, there's a seven year age gap between them. The 1932 clip I mentioned earlier is called Nicholas Brothers 1932. The 1936 clip is called Nicholas Brothers Lucky Number. That's the one I like best! They were born in 1914 and 1921.

[jno]

that's them, Cetti - I'm guessing that would have been made sometime around 1930, when one would have been about 10 and the other 17, as there was 7 years between them.

[jno]

sorry, notafish, didn't see your post there when I started typing my last answer

[Marijn]

That's ok jno. If I'm not careful I could stay up all night watching these youtube Nicholas Brothers clips. I've just watched the one Cetti linked to, that was lovely too. They seem so happy, I hope they were.

[Marijn]

I've just read on wikipedia that Harold Nicholas married Dorothy Dandridge (the singer on the Glen Miller clip that Ethel put on).
I didn't read it all, as I must get some sleep.

[GEEMAC]

Great thread and great clips too. The Clarke Brothers were certainly very good but the Nicholas Brothers were in a class of their own. I remember seeing this clip on TV a few years ago and was blown away by it. I think it's the best of the bunch. Fred Astaire called it 'The greatest dance number ever filmed' and who am I to argue.
Enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBb9hTyLjfM

By the way notafish, it's quite easy to post links. When you are on youtube, you will see the address at the top of the page. Simply point your cursor at the address and then left click, this will hilight the address. Then right click and a little drop down menu will appear, from here click on 'copy'.
Then go back to your answerbank message and start typing. When you want to insert the link, right click and again a little drop down menu will appear, from here select 'paste' and the address will appear. This is called 'copy and paste' and you can use it to link to any website. I hope this is useful without sounding too patronising. Give it a go on this thread and see how you get on.

GEEMAC

[GEEMAC]

The dancing may not be as good but it's certainly cool. Christopher Walken as you've never seen him before...unless of course you've seen it before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WW8flwpH-Q