Headlining at the Rainbow Room: Jack Cole and his Dancers
Sep
14
2011
Cafe Life in New York Jack Cole and His Dancers Featured in the Rainbow Room’s New Show (by) Malcolm Johnson The New York Sun, Saturday, May 18, 1942: The Rainbow Room’s new show, introduced this week, is a gay diversion highlighted by the colorful performance of Jack Cole and his Dancers. In fact there is ...
My favorite brother of seven, Matt Mattox 3
Last night at TCM Fest: my first big-screen viewing of Stanley Donen’s “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” Especially fun since Jacques d’Amboise was just in Los Angeles on a book talk. He spoke quite a bit about making the film. Indeed d’Amboise’s name, well-known considering he’s “just” a dancer, buzzed around the TCM Fest screening ...
Jack Cole dancer George Martin dies 5
Sad news. One of the last living connections to Jack Cole and a key member of Cole’s great brigade of film and nightclub dancers, George Martin, died in Atlanta on April, 6, 2011, we learned yesterday from Dancers Over 40. I met the Martins, George and Ethel, at a symposium on Cole last summer at ...
Jack Cole mosaic
Apr
7
2011
Photos say it best where the intense dancer/choreographer of film and nightclub, Jack Cole, is concerned. Here’s a little collection for your viewing pleasure. As for photo #6, what about Jack Cole and Gwen Verdon as a dancing duo? Absolutely superb . . .
A glimpse of Jack Cole coaching Monroe
In the photo at left (yes, from an ebay sale) choreographer Jack Cole rehearses Marilyn Monroe in “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” on the set of Let’s Make Love” (1960) Click on the photo for a better view. If you examine Cole’s head and shoulders, and Marilyn’s, you’ll see the difference between a trained dancer ...
Jack Cole’s top ten list 3
Film zany Michael Schlesinger enjoyed ribbing me with this ‘top-ten list’ he conjured for arts•meme: Top ten things choreographer Jack Cole liked about Christmas 10) Holiday spectaculars at Radio City Music Hall — boy, can them Rockettes kick or what? 9) People telling me how much they love “The Christmas Song.” (Oh, wait, sorry, that’s ...
Judy Garland doesn’t care, and I don’t care either! 1
I love the insouciant song written for vaudevillian Eva Tanguay in 1906, “I Don’t Care.” It’s my theme song. Here Judy Garland sings it in “I Don’t Care,” from “In the Good Old Summertime” (1943). The anthem is also the arts•meme theme song. They say I’m crazy Got no sense But I don’t care They ...
Ow! Betty Grable sizzles in Jack Cole choreography 2
Jack Cole and Betty Grable were both friends and colleagues. He called her “Thumper” and she matched his penchant for salty language. He kicked her sagging career into high gear and she relied on him. I love how she shakes it in this number, video below. It’s “How Come You Do Me Like you Do?” ...
Jack Cole’s modern-dance roots at the Pillow
Norton Owen, Director of Preservation at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshire Mountains, initiated a celebration of the jazz choreographer, Jack Cole in August. In the video below Owen, joined by dance historian Maura Keefe and southern California’s own Larry Billman (at 8:17), discusses Cole’s early career and clarifies his connection to the place ...