Here’s a terrific clip of the Nicholas Brothers from ‘Orchestra Wives’ (1942) performing ‘I’ve Got A Gal From Kalamazoo’. Unfortunately the first minute and a half of this precious routine is wasted by having the brothers sing (or should I say lip-sync) the entire song. Hiring the Nicholas Brothers to sing and not dance is a little like hiring Liberace to act but not play the piano. (I’m sure there’s a better comparison but I’m tired and depressed today). Fortunately the two minutes of superb dancing that follows this more than makes up for the lost time, with the brothers indulging in some ‘walk-up-the-wall-and-backward somersault-landing on your feet’ stuff that Donald O’Conner did ten years later in ‘Singing In The Rain’. And then there are the moves late in the routine that, had computer generated effects existed back then, I would swear had been created via computer. People can’t really do that stuff without a little technological help, can they? Harold and Fayard could and did…