Fayard Nicholas

Fayard Nicholas died on Tuesday. Seventy years ago, the Nicholas brothers were among the stars of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 which opened on January 30, 1936 at the Winter Garden theater. The show featured what can only be considered an all-star cast including Fanny Brice, Josephine Baker, Bob Hope (his Broadway debut had occurred in 1933 when he starred in Roberta), and Eve Arden.

Time gave the show a lukewarm review which failed to mention the Nicholas brothers.

None of its comedy is funny enough to make anyone wear himself out laughing. On the other hand, Vincente Minnelli's diverting surrealist decor, the arts of a half-dozen stars and the blandishments of 48 show girls are likely to keep most spectators from going to sleep.

The magazine saved its harshest comments for the performance (and character) of Josephine Baker. The criticism is typical of the casual racism which characterized Time in this period.

Josephine Baker is a St. Louis wash woman's daughter who stepped out of a Negro burlesque show into a life of adulation and luxury in Paris during the booming 1920's. In sex appeal to jaded Europeans of the jazz-loving type, a Negro wench always has a head start. The particular tawny tint of tall and stringy Josephine Baker's bare skin stirred French pulses. But to Manhattan theatre-goers last week she was just a slightly buck-toothed young Negro woman whose figure might be matched in any night club show, whose dancing & singing could be topped practically anywhere outside France.

According to Josephine Baker's "official" web site, Time's criticism was typical of the reception Baker received for her performance:

A 1936 return to the United States to star in the Ziegfield Follies proved disastrous, despite the fact that she was a major celebrity in Europe. American audiences rejected the idea of a black woman with so much sophistication and power, newspaper reviews were equally cruel (The New York Times called her a "Negro wench"), and Josephine returned to Europe heartbroken.

Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin collaborated on the songs for the show which included "I Can't Get Started" - sung by Bob Hope to Eve Arden - and "He Hasn't a Thing Except Me."

The New Yorker (Robert Benchley) was considerably kinder to Ms. Baker and the show:

There is no sense in listing the good and bad things here, although the Surrealist Ballet, arranged by [George] Balanchine and danced by Harriet Hoctor [remember her from Show Girl], is something to see twice, as is the "Maharanee" number, in which Josephine Baker is featured. There is also Gertrude Niesen's singing and the dancing of the Nicholas Brothers . . ..

According to Constance Valis Hill's Brotherhood in Rhythm, the "Maharanee" number featured the Nicholas Brothers:

Baker strutted and sang in French . . .. Then she danced a one-step tango and waltz with the Varsity Eight, an all-male chorus dressed in top hats and tails. As Baker danced, one glimpsed the small and sleek figures of Fayard and Harold Nicholas moving swiftly and smoothly around and behind her, shifting the panels of her sari.

This was followed by Harold Nicholas performing an imitation of Josephine Baker, followed by the Brothers dancing "their own tap dance specialty." Hill quotes Brooks Atkinson (writing in the New York Times) as praising the Nicholas Brothers dance virtuosity:

After her cylonic career abroad, Miss Baker has become a celebrity who offers her presence instead of her talent . . . When the two Nicholas Brothers follow her with some excellent Harlem hoofing out of the Bill [Bojangles] Robinson curriculum, they restore your faith in dusky revelry.

In short, the Nicholas Brothers stole the show.