Talk:Nicholas Brothers

too little reference to documentary

I'm looking to include material from We Sing, We Dance: The Nicholas Brothers (documentary () if I can find good info on it somewhere.... as much a note not to loose track of as anything.--Smkolins 01:59, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

awards

still trying to find details because I know sometimes one or another brother won an award and sometimes they won it together and sometimes they both won a nearly identical award but for specific individual contributions. But details seems sparse.....--Smkolins 11:33, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Style

The page has a reference to Gregory Hines saying:

...if ever a movie was made of The Nicholas' Brothers life that their dance numbers would have to be computer generated because no one could duplicate them.

But it might be mentioned that Gregory Hines and his brother Maurice played a fictionalized version of the Nicholas Brothers in Francis Coppola's movie "The Cotton Club".K8 fan 20:01, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Re the Stormy Weather dance scene that was supposedly done unrehearsed and in one take. Although the article text cites the Nicholas Bros' own account as confirming this, any viewing of the scene as filmed makes it clear that it could not have been done that way. A number of the Brothers' moves also involved the orchestra musicians, who had to know what to expect; also there are fourteen camera cuts during their number, including shots that would have revealed the camera of the previous shot if there had been no pause between takes to clear the set (assuming there were multiple cameras used, which would also have been unusual), plus camera moves that would have to be rehearsed, and a number of the cuts involve lighting changes. I don't know what can be done about this, since the article references what would normally be deemed a respectable source, but it's repeating what amounts to an urban myth. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2403:4800:348E:4801:B580:F4B1:F0B0:965E (talk) 10:11, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

Re the Jumpin' Jive number in Stormy Weather. Perhaps not the entire dance number, but only the amazing last part where they jump over each other heads on the stairs was unrehearsed and done in one take.

Brotherhood in Rhythm (2000) by Constance Valis Hill says (p. 184):

Fred Astaire told the brothers that the “Jumpin’ Jive” number in Stormy Weather was the greatest number he had ever seen on film. He would have been more impressed had he known, Harold admits, that “when it was time to do the jumps over each other’s heads into splits in the routine, we never rehearsed it.” Fayard adds: “It came nice and easy. Nick Castle said not to rehearse it, that we knew what to do, so we did it like a rehearsal. And in one take!” K.enevoldsen (talk) 19:54, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

I forgot to add that Hill's book notes the source for those quotes about "never rehearsed" and "one take":

Reflections with the Nicholas Brothers, television documentary, WGBH-TV, Boston, 15 June 1996. K.enevoldsen (talk) 02:53, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

more refs to try to incorporate

• Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers
• History Maker's "EntertainmentMakers" (served in the army)
• DIANNE WALKER and SAM WEBER, and LANE ALEXANDER, and MARK MENDONCA, TERRY BROCK, mentions as working with the brothers.
• Goodbye Fayard seems to be a blog but mentions specific quotes that might be findable.--Smkolins 20:32, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

lead sentence

The lead states that the Nicholas Brothers were "a famous African-American tap dance pair of brothers during the Harlem Renaissance." But it seems like (a) they were much more than tap dancers and (b) whatever they did, it went far beyond the scope of the Harlem Renaissance - at least chronologically. No? - Eliezg (talk) 07:12, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Marriages

It says Harold was married four times but goes on to note that he was married to his third wife at the time of his death - unless he remarried one of the first two a second time, there's a mistake here. Irish Melkite (talk) 08:33, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Btw, the standalone article on him lists only 2 of the 3 wives (#1 and #3). I'll hold off on adding the missing one until I see the outcome of the point raised above. Irish Melkite (talk) 08:33, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Scar of Shame

I can’t help but wonder if the Nicholas Brothers are the two young boys dancing in the Lido party scene. “Scar of Shame” was filmed in Philadelphia where the brothers were living at the time and the boys who are dancing appear to be the ages the brothers would have been at that time. 2600:1700:E5B0:5600:7DCF:59C3:9310:E86D (talk) 01:13, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

Stormy Weather Sequence in One Take?

Much has been made of the claim that the famous Stormy Weather dance sequence was filmed in one take. But if you watch it carefully, it clearly wasn't. There are many cuts throughout the sequence, so there were many cameras. I don't know enough about film history to definitively claim that they didn't yet have the technology to sync multiple cameras with a live soundtrack, but I can say this. The dancers aren't always in the same place when cutting from one clip to the next. This is most obvious in the last cut of the dance, made just before they ascend the staircase the second time, one on each staircase. There's a cut just before they start climbing. The first clip ends with the two in front of the staircase on the right. The second clip starts with them in the middle, between the two staircases. And this isn't just some repeated footage of the same thing from two different cameras, because in the second clip, one dancer goes to each staircase. This couldn't have been done in one shot.

It probably was filmed in several shots, with breaks, and then assembled into a single sequence. That's how films have been made since the time of Charlie Chaplin.

It's no great scandal that their claim, made years later, that it was shot in a single take wasn't true, but we should find a way to clarify in the article that this claim is a bit dubious. — MiguelMunoz (talk) 00:24, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

There are only two real sources, the third is just a ref to the film itself. There is nothing in USA Today about anything being shot in one take. That leaves the Tribune. It says "Consider, for instance, their still astonishing performance in 'Stormy Weather,' where they careen down a flight of oversized stairs ... able to perform this sequence in what is clearly a single take (in other words, no editing-room tricks to patch things up)". So I think they're talking about just the staircase sequence, not the entire dance number. Otherwise they wouldn't say "clearly a single take". In the interview Fayard says "When it came time to do that part" and I think he means the staircase sequence, not the entire dance.

I took out the parts that aren't in any of the sources: "Numerous articles have been written", "unbelievable as that sounds", "requiring two or more cameras". GA-RT-22 (talk) 00:23, 12 April 2026 (UTC)