Fayard Nicholas
Also Known As: The Nicholas Brothers, Nicholas Brothers, Fayard Antonio Nicholas
Biography: Fayard Antonio Nicholas was an American choreographer, dancer and actor. He and his younger brother Harold Nicholas made up the Nicholas Brothers tap dance duo, who starred in the MGM musicals An All-Colored Vaudeville Show, Stormy Weather, The Pirate, and Hard Four. The Nicholas brothers also starred in the 20th Century-Fox musicals Down Argentine Way, Sun Valley Serenade, and Orchestra Wives. In 1932, when he was 18 and his brother was only 11, they became the featured act at Cotton Club in New York City. The brothers earned fame with a unique style of rhythm tap that blended "masterful jazz steps with daredevil athletic moves and an elegance of motion worthy of ballet". They appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway and in London they worked with jazz choreographer Buddy Bradley. The performances led them to a career in film. Nicholas appeared in over 60 films, including the 1943 musical Stormy Weather with their signature staircase dance. His career was interrupted from 1943 to 1944 when he served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Nicholas achieved the rank of Technician fifth grade while in WWII. After his dance career ended, Nicholas and his wife, Katherine Hopkins Nicholas, embarked on a lecture tour discussing dance. In 2003, Nicholas served as "Festival Legend" at the third "Soul to Sole Tap Festival" in Austin, Texas. Nicholas was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 2001.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Mobile, Alabama, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: October 20, 1914
Age: 110 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: January 24, 2006
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Known For:
Down Argentine Way
Overview: The story—in which an American heiress on holiday in South America falls in love with an Argentine horse breeder against the wishes of their families—takes a backseat to the spectacular location shooting and parade of extravagant musical numbers, which include the larger-than-life Carmen Miranda singing the hit “South American Way” and a showstopping dance routine by the always amazing Nicholas Brothers.
Genres: Comedy Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-10-11
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An All-Colored Vaudeville Show
Overview: Black vaudeville acts are featured in this Vitaphone Pepper Pot short. In addition to those listed in the credits, acts include The 3 Whippets, a group of acrobats; and The Five Racketeers, a band that initially backs up Eunice Wilson and then sings "Tiger Rag".
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-06-21
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Hard Four
Overview: When legendary gambler Golden Hands Segal suffers a fatal heart attack at the craps table in Las Vegas, his grandson Freddy Meingold and boyhood pal Spencer Ragusa have less than 24 hours to retrieve the body for burial in New Jersey.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-11-01
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Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
Overview: Stars celebrate Bob Hope's 50 years with NBC.
Genres: Comedy TV Movie Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-05-16
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The Big Broadcast of 1936
Overview: Two-bit radio station owner Spud Miller doubles as the station's sole announcer. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud is receptive to the wacky notions of George and Gracie, who've just invented a television device that can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-09-20
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Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies
Overview: The Nicholas family home movies capture a golden age of show business -- with extraordinary footage of Broadway, Harlem and Hollywood -- and also document the middle-class African-American life of that era, images made rare by the considerable cost of home-movie equipment during the Great Depression. Highlights include the only footage shot inside the Cotton Club, the only footage of famous Broadway shows like "Babes in Arms," home movies of an all African-American regiment during World War II, films of street life in Harlem in the 1930s, and the family's cross-country tour in 1934.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-01-01
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Nicholas Brothers: Stormy Weather
Overview: In the 1940s, the Nicholas Brothers performed a dance routine so seminal it prefigured hip hop by three decades. Contemporary dancers Les Twins choreograph and perform their homage to the one and only duo.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-06-11
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Calling All Stars
Overview: Musical review. The messenger carrying the master discs of a season drops them, so Flotsam and Jetsam are sent out to collect the stars concerned. Each star gives an extract from his or her record.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-03-01
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Pie, Pie Blackbird
Overview: Short featuring musician Eubie Blake and his orchestra, singer Nina Mae McKinney, and young tap dancers Fayard and Harold Nicholas.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-06-03
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The Black Network
Overview: The owner of a shoe polish company sponsors a radio show that showcases black performers. Since his wife's father put up the money to be the sponsor, she insists on singing on the show. She goes on after the main star, singer Nina Mae McKinney. The wife sings so badly that the sponsor's customers abandon him. He is forced to shine shoes on street corners, while Nina Mae and her boyfriend win a bet on a daily number and end up on easy street.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-04-04
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That's Entertainment!
Overview: Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
Genres: Documentary Family Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-06-21
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Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story
Overview: The story of the short film from the beginning of the movies in the 1890s, when all movies were shorts, through the 1950s when short subjects virtually disappeared from theaters.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-02-05
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Barber Shop Blues
Overview: A barber shop owner wins a sweepstake. He remodels his shop and hires Claude Hopkins and his orchestra to play for his customers. Two songs are sung, and the Four Step Brothers tap dance in the closing number.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-30
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The Liberation of L.B. Jones
Overview: A successful African American businessman has a quarrel with a white policeman, suspecting that he is having an affair with his wife. The policeman's colleagues are seeking to avoid publicity.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-03-18
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Orchestra Wives
Overview: Connie Ward is in seventh heaven when Gene Morrison's band rolls into town. She is swept off her feet by trumpeter Bill Abbot. After marrying him, she joins the band's tour and learns about life as an orchestra wife, weathering the catty attacks of the other band wives.
Genres: Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-09-04
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Coronado
Overview: Southern California's Hotel Coronado caters to and is frequented by members of the social upper-crust. Although she lives on the wrong side of the San Diego track, in a tent-city with her father. Otto, and ditzy sister, Violet, June Wray is a singer with the Eddy Duchin Orchestra appearing to the hotel. Johnny Marvin, an aspiring songwriter and the son of a wealthy automobile manufacturer, is staying at the hotel and, from they moment June and Johnny meet, they fall instantly in love. Trouble arises when Johnny's father objects to the romance, and complications and help arrive in the form of two Marine-hating sailors,Chuck Hornbostel and "Pinky" Falls, when Chuck marries June's ditzy sister.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-11-27
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Sun Valley Serenade
Overview: When Phil Corey's band arrives at the Idaho ski resort its pianist Ted Scott is smitten with a Norwegian refugee he has sponsored, Karen Benson. When soloist Vivian Dawn quits, Karen stages an ice show as a substitute.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-29
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Tin Pan Alley
Overview: Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.
Genres: Drama Romance Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-11-29
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Bob Hope: Entertaining the Troops
Overview: Dazzling appearances by Ursula Andress, Teresa Graves, Gloria Loring, Bobbi Martin, Romy Schneider, Miss United Kingdom, Miss Worlds, The Golddiggers, and more! Astronaut Neil Armstrong answers questions about being the first man on the moon, and Bob and Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench trade zingers. Musical and dance performances from Suzanne Charny, Lola Falana, Connie Moore, Connie Stevens, and others. Legendary top dancers The Nicholas Brothers and jugglers The Pierro Brothers. Bob delivers messages from home to service members.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2016-05-10
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Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer
Overview: American Masters Series. Documentary on Gene Kelly that gives insight into his dancing, how he formed a style (first "blue collar dancer") and developed different cinematique techniques, such as brilliantly shot dancing sequences.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-09-24
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Don't Gamble with Love
Overview: Standard tale of husband and wife living a party lifestyle. He works in a gambling hall and she occasionally models and sings. Because they want to start a family wife feels the need to change their situation. Situation is changed and husband gets a new job and then a promotion but is tricked into a bad business deal and wants to go back to his old life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-02-28
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Hello Kathrin
Overview: German musical with Caterina Valente and Peter Alexander.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1956-05-08
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The Nicholas Brothers: We Sing and We Dance
Overview: The Nicholas Brothers are presented here in a way that reflects the joy and intrinsic goodness that seemed to come from their hearts, and express itself in brilliantly conceived and executed performances. The film addresses the difficult issues in their lives, such as Harold's health problems, and the fact that in the U.S. they were considered 2nd class citizens because of their race.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-11-29
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Overview: Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-08-06
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El misterio del carro express
Overview: Police detective and his plucky girl-reporter fiancée go after the gang that committed a train robbery.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: es
Release Date: 1953-07-22
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Take It or Leave It
Overview: A young husband becomes a game-show participant in the hopes of winning the cash to pay his pregnant wife's doctor.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-07-17
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Stormy Weather
Overview: The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-07-21
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It's Black Entertainment
Overview: A star-studded tribute (from the creators of That's Entertainment) to the contributions of Afro-Americans in film over the last century. Vanessa Williams traces the struggles and triumphs of the superstars of music and film. Among the many artists featured are: Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Cab Calloway, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Little Richard, Also included are today's contemporary superstars: Snoop Dogg, Ice T, Quincy Jones, Spike Lee, Russell Simmons, and many, more! 80 minutes plus DVD bonus features.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-02-08
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Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty
Overview: Actor Obba Babatundé hosts this biopic showcasing the life of acclaimed African-American singer and actress Dorothy Dandridge, who overcame racism and personal tragedy to become one of the most acclaimed performers of Hollywood's golden age. The film combines rare historical footage of Dandridge, on and off the stage, and interviews with stars such as Laurence Fishburne, Jasmine Guy and Halle Berry discussing her powerful legacy.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-06-24
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That's Dancing!
Overview: A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s 50s and 60s up to the break dance and the music videos from the 80s.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-01-18
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The Pirate: A Musical Treasure Chest
Overview: A documentary on the making of the Gene Kelly/Judy Garland musical The Pirate (1948)
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-07-24
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My Son Is Guilty
Overview: Honest cop Tim Kerry struggles to keep his son Ritzy from becoming involved in a crime ring.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-12-28
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Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
Overview: Broadway: The Golden Age is the most important, ambitious and comprehensive film ever made about America's most celebrated indigenous art form. Award-winning filmmaker Rick McKay filmed over 100 of the greatest stars ever to work on Broadway or in Hollywood. He soon learned that great films can be restored, fine literature can be kept in print - but historic Broadway performances of the past are the most endangered. They leave only memories that, while more vivid, are more difficult to preserve. In their own words — and not a moment too soon — Broadway: The Golden Age tells the stories of our theatrical legends, how they came to New York, and how they created this legendary century in American theatre. This is the largest cast of legends ever in one film.
Genres: Music Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-04-03
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Night at the Golden Eagle
Overview: Two elderly criminals spend their final night in Los Angeles, California at the Golden Eagle Hotel prior to their departure to Las Vegas, Nevada, to lead a life without crime. Unfortunately, on the hottest night of the summer, these two ex-criminals seemingly get caught in the malice of prostitutes, pimps, drunken bums, fighting monkeys, and young runaways.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-05-17
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El mensaje de la muerte
Overview:
Genres: Crime Thriller Mystery
Original Language: es
Release Date: 1953-05-02
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The Pirate
Overview: A girl is engaged to the local richman, but meanwhile she has dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. A traveling singer falls in love with her and to impress her he poses as the pirate.
Genres: Music Romance Comedy Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-06-11
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Kid Millions
Overview: A musical comedy about a Brooklyn boy who inherits a fortune from his archaeologist father, but has to go to Egypt to claim it.
Genres: Music Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-11-10
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The Great American Broadcast
Overview: After WWI two men go into radio. Failure leads the wife of one to borrow money from another; she goes on, after separation, to stardom. A coast-to-coast radio program is set up to bring everyone back together.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-05-09
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Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood
Overview: Louis Gossett Jr. takes viewers through a special documentary celebration of the groundbreaking achievements of African-American performers and their contributions to Hollywood filmmaking. Spectacular film clips, rare behind-the-scenes footage, archival photographs and fascinating interviews chronicle nearly a century of tribulation and triumph. Gazing at the outstanding range of African-American stars on today's movie screens, it is hard to imagine a time when there were no black leading men or women, a time when all of the roles available for people of color were considerably less heroic than they are now. Social progress came in small steps on the silver screen, film by film, for equal visibility and dignity on the silver screen; now it is possible to honor their struggles, their talent and their sacrifices.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-02-10
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Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back
Overview: Maurice Hines, a charming, gay African-American entertainer navigates the complications of show business while grieving the loss of his more famous, often estranged younger brother, tap dance legend Gregory Hines.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-11-10
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Abbott and Costello Christmas Show
Overview: Christmas themed episode of the colgate comedy hour.
Genres: Comedy Family TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-02-22
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