ABSTRACT
The Nicholas Brothers were an extremely popular 20th-century African-American jazz tap duo, consisting of Fayard Nicholas and Harold Nicholas. During an era when Black performers were rarely seen on the silver screen, the Nicholas Brothers secured a five-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox, one of the major Hollywood film studios, based on their dynamic performance of the titular number in the musical Down Argentine Way. The number and its softening strategies inaugurated the Nicholas Brothers’ decade of high-visibility stardom, during which they navigated uncharted territory by balancing the expectations of white-owned Hollywood with the integrity of their dance style, technique, and identity as proud Black men. To proudly claim Black masculinity in 1940s Hollywood was no easy feat. This was an era of de facto segregation throughout the US, including white-owned Hollywood. Specifically, the Nicholases contended with the male stereotypes of the “buck” and the “coon”.
