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That athleticism and showmanship are unreal. Yet they make it look effortless somehow. I could watch them all day.
IKR? So smooth!
But have you seen Johnny Depp do the fork roll dance in Benny and Joon? It’s probably at least as skillful as this.
This was borrowed from Charlie Chaplain in The Gold Rush.
Which in turn was borrowed from Fatty Arbuckle in "The Rough House" (1917).
I looked it up assuming the ‘fork roll’ was a well known dance technique. Im also an idiot.
DInner rolls or buns speared with forks to look like two little legs with feet. So good!
I've watched Benny and Joon like 6 times and almost looked it up myself. I too am an idiot
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It is. They're sliding around a lot and if you notice, every time they land on the stage, they do the splits or some slide motion. As a former tap dancer, it's incredibly difficult to keep stable on the floor like that. They did great and used it to their advantage.
So criminally smooth...
They were the real playboys of their time lol
Their jumps on the band podiums are synced together and in time to the music!
"We're going to jump together a couple feet over some musicians, not kick any of them, and land on the right beat, together." Damn impressive.
Yeah and let’s be clear, this is ONE take. This isn’t some stitched-together, stand-in dancer, CGI-enhanced, overproduced nonsense. This is raw talent.
Yeah, incredible. From Wikipedia -
"Fred Astaire once told the brothers that this dance number was the greatest movie musical sequence he had ever seen. Numerous articles have been written about this whole dance being filmed in one take and unrehearsed. As unbelievable as that sounds, the Nicholas Brothers confirmed it in an interview shortly before their recognition at the 14th Annual Kennedy Center Honors...Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov once called them the most amazing dancers he had ever seen in his life."
wow! baryshnikov is incredible- that is a humongous compliment!
Man they can move. I have watched every video I can get my hands on of them. First time someone told me to look them up I couldn’t imagine anyone tapping better than Fred, but man the Nicholas brothers are amazing!
It sounds unbelievable because it is.
You can see the cuts. You can see when the camera obviously knows where they are going to go and tracks them or zooms in. They move all around the room but you never see tracks or cameras or lights. They dance in one spot then in the next shot the camera has to be where they were just dancing. The shadows are not consistent - when they are dancing around the brass players early on there are these big, crisp, dark shadows behind them that weren't there before the cut.
At the very least everyone knew exactly where the dancers were going to go so they could move the cameras around to get those shots, so it wasn't "unrehearsed".
I always love ONE sax player that keeps leaning away from the dancers. You can tell he got kicked in rehearsal. The other one just sits there and lets them go around him.
Came here to say this. Dude looks bothered as hell
I came here to play mah horn, not get a damn tap shoe in the face.
Reminds me of this other bit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDlC9m1FDo4
Even smaller platforms!
I don't know where the original footage is from
It's in the info under the video (can be hard to access sometimes on mobile) "Hi-De-Ho," starring Cab Calloway (1947) Had to search a bit to find the dancers - Miller Brothers and Lois. Video also uses "Pot o' Gold" (1941). OP clip is from Stormy Weather (1943) and features the Nicholas Brothers dancing and Cab Calloway conducting/singing.
As a dance hobbyist, I can tell you it looks effortless bc all the sweat and spirit-breaking happens during practice & rehearsal. Getting routines to look & feel right can be brutal.
Eventually, you hit points where it gets easier and natural. But even then...lots & lots of rehearsal.
So Wikipedia is saying this was a single unrehearsed take... which is... just... wild.
"Numerous articles have been written about this whole dance being filmed in one take and unrehearsed. As unbelievable as that sounds, the Nicholas Brothers confirmed it in an interview shortly before their recognition at the 14th Annual Kennedy Center Honors. 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.[14][3][15]"
I don't understand how that could be possible, everyone had to know their moves and what to play..?
Basically everyone learned it separately and once the film started rolling it was one take (never rehearsed with all the components).
It's possible because of how jazz works...the only part I'd consider calling BS on is the tower at the end, but even then I could still see it improvised.
You see, jazz at it's purest is both improvisational, AND predictable. I'm more experienced with the dance part and theory for dancers rather than theory for musicians. Experienced jazz bands & musicians know how to play, improvise, and bend their phrases for dancers. Dancers likewise, with enough experience can pick up on how many bars the band is playing with (affects how many counts of 8 to a phrase), how the next phrase might play (where the 'break' will be, and can hence play off each other AND the band.
Most music operates on a pattern, the artistry comes from how you fill & connect the spaces. But there's a remarkable cohesion to it.
They probably had time to game plan their routine but we must remember that folks back in those days were built differently. These two brothers made a name for themselves and got on film during an era where that was not normal. Back in those days when you heard the saying that “you gotta work twice as hard and be twice as good” this is what that looks like.
You can do plenty of practice separately and have a tight routine and then only do it once for real with the whole band/extras, etc. I take this to mean that they had the choreo and everything already but didn't want to do tons of rehearsals with the full set: band, extras, cameras, etc.
I can only imagine how much time they needed between each shot to recover
Going airborne off each step into the splits probably took a few days recuperation and had to walk around like cowboys.
All one take
God they must have been strong and in incredibly shape
Watch 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. They have a dance kinda like this except with axes and logs. As in they are holding the ax and dancing with it/jumping it.
Edit:. Here's a yt video showing the whole dance sequence. https://youtu.be/TygmMPbwfjA
That is definitely an impressive routine too! I think a lot of the actors had trained in ballet, IIRC.
I'm probably on #1,0009 right now. I never pass up a chance to watch this clip.
I used to tap dance but I had to stop. I kept falling into the sink!
I'd always sink away in the music
I found it draining yet soothing
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*rimshot*
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This sounds like Mitch headberg
I used to think that when I read it earlier. Well. I still do, but I used to as well.
The greatest tandem ever. Unimaginably wonderful. Say it out loud: “The Nicolas Brothers.”
It out loud: "The Nicholas Brothers."
Double owned
Nuts, knees and everything attached and in between..... destroyed. Thank you very much, goodnight.
I'm going to walk funny in sympathy the rest of the day.
I noticed one brother was smoother (slicked hair), and the other more energetic (not slicked hair). Interesting contrast, but they're both amazing.
I had to smile every time the saxophonist flinched. I would too, and not just because of the tux tails!
I love how Cab Calloway politely tapdance-backs away from them. He’s ubercool but he knows when he’s beat.
Which is saying something in itself because Cab Calloway was a fantastic dancer in his own right.
THE NICHOLAS BROTHERS.
All kidding aside, your comment should be at the top. I had to scroll too long to find it.
Well it's in the credits
I love cab calloway. Such a legend
I’m so thankful that Cab and many others were in Blues Brothers. That was my portal to that era of jazz and swing etc. Once I saw him and Aretha Franklin and others I started searching for their music and now it’s part of my library.
Yes I just commented this, I knew I recognized him from the Blues Brothers!
Hey folks, here’s a story ‘bout Minnie the Moocher
She was a looooow down hoooochie choocha!
Hands down the best rendition of that song ever. By a ridiculously wide margin.
Sometimes, you just need the impulse.
When I was 11, I was invited to a birthday party. "Bring some cool music CD", I was told.
I didn't possess any cool music CD but my father did. I asked him and we chose a Tina Turner's greatest hits CD that we liked to listen to when working at home on any of our usual crafts.
None of my friends knew this artist. We were in 2001, we were 11, a Linkin Park, Lenny Kravitz or Alicia Keys was more appropriate. But we listened to my CD and it took less than two songs for my friends to be seduced.
I don't see any of these people anymore but I remember it sometimes and think that I introduced them to the good ol'rock'n roll style of music with hope that it stuck with them.
It's good memory. And also, Tina Turner is incredible. I'd even say that she's... Simply the best.
I love Tina Turner. Her version of I can't stand the rain makes me want to run through a wall. When she hits that chorus, it's like she becomes a goddess. That slow burn, building in intensity, her voice is just fucking power.
Yeah, it seems like anything she does is a total blast !
I was a delivery driver for elders at some point and I remember driving to the sound of Nutbush City Limits with the volume set at 11, it was glorious !
One of the most powerful singers ever
He was 73 when he did Blues Brothers
https://youtu.be/zZ5gCGJorKk
There are a few funny stories about Cab in the Special Features of the Blues Brothers DVD.
One story was how Cab wanted to do Minnie the Moocher as a disco for the movie, and Landis said "Cab, I don't think you understand. This movie is called the Blues Brothers. It has to be bluesy."
Cab went into the vocal booth and laid down his track for Minnie, but it wasn't great. Landis said as such, and cab said, "oh, you wanted it great? Fine, I'll do it great!" Take two was perfect. Cab stormed out of the booth and said "next time you need to ask me for what you want!"
Blues Brothers was the first place I ever saw Cab Calloway. As a kid I thought he was just some old dude who could sing. I looked him up years later and was amazed at his long career.
I'll always picture him as he was in the Blues Brothers though; its weird seeing him so young here.
I saw him in Blues Brothers after seeing him in some really, really old movie. “Couldn’t possibly be the same guy,” I says. But it was — he was like 21-22 in the movie
Cab also got me into classic cartoons, he sang a bunch for Betty Boop way back when.
The blues brothers? Shit.
THEY STILL OWE YOU MONEY, FOOL
This video excludes most of his part, which IMO is way more interesting than the tap dancers.
Oh please, I did the exact same routine in college after drinking an entire handle of Jim Beam. From the parts I remember, it was spot on.
Might have even been a little better!
You were probably a lot more entertaining, too.
I remember that night, you hit your head on the ceiling fan and heath ledger had to take you outside for standard NFL concussion protocol
Ooooof balls in that stair part
I just like to imagine they wore full protection during this. I'm talking shin pads for the sliding splits, I'm talkin' cups for the stair splits, and I'm talkin' condoms for the ladies who were there to witness this spectacular feat (or rather their spectacular feet!)
Legend has it that each lady was issued a diaphragm at the door...
Legend continues that each diaphragm was overloaded and made useless by the sheer will of each woman’s sexual desire.
You mean "absorbent towels" for the ladies. FTFY