A Shot in the Dark: Herbie Nichols' "The Jazz Life"

A few weeks ago, I was searching for name variations on Herbie Nichols, and came across a "Jazz Life" column that I missed. While the other columns were credited to "Herbert H. Nichols", the author's name was mistakenly printed "Herbert L. Nichols". (Nichols' middle name was Horatio.)

The article, Nichols' second for the New York Age, centers mainly on Mary Bruce, the great Harlem dance teacher.

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Part One
Part Two

THE JAZZ LIFE

by Herbert H. Nichols

The New York Age

July 12, 1941 (p. 10)

After having seen the following acts perform on the stage you are likely to question yourself at times like this, "Who taught Katherine Dunham, Jeni Legon, Anise and Alan, Bill Robinson, Bill Bailey, Stump and Stumpy and other great performers their routines? Does such dancing, comedy and singing acts learn their parts easily, or is it a matter of long drawn-out schooling?" Many of us would like to know the formula they use for success.

We have quite a few dancing schools that are successfully filling the needs of aspiring stage folk. One of these schools is headed by dancing instructor Mary Bruce, who left Chicago about three years ago, and who has taken Gotham by storm with her dancing troupe ever since arriving here.

Many people, as we all know, have a natural flair for entertaining as dancers, comedians, singers etc. - apparently without the need of coaching from anyone. Few of us are in this class, thus, leaving plenty of room for the many vocal and dancing schools to continue showing a profit. In fact, we find there is a shortage of such schools at the present time.

In the jazz life, as in other fields of endeavor, you will find successful people and others that are not so successful. The former will have an easier time of everything than the latter. The little comforts are magnified a thousand fold. For instance, when one is undergoing the rigors of continuous travel, which is practically synonymous with show life. However, once a person decides to gather in the shekels, that person will want to get a good start by seeking instruction from some qualified source.

Teaching people how to perform for the stage is a pretty big business. It is so profitable that the services of different types of lawyers are often required in order to cope with the heavy bookkeeping involved in keeping far-flung physical properties in line. Experience has shown that whenever a dancing school attains a moderate degree of success the owner usually finds he is able to cash in on the publicity in various other ways.

Among aspiring chorines in Harlem the most widely known name is that of Mary Bruce. Judging from repeated engagements that she has had at the Apollo I would say that she has definitely made a hit with the public. Her troupe has had innumerable playing engagements elsewhere. They appeared at the New York World's Fair in a Michael Todd revue, also at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C.

Valentino Whitaker, the young star of the Mary Bruce revue, "Bobo, the Aladdin of Harlem," appears on the Jello radio program, seem destined for the big time. Again the credit belongs to Mary Bruce, who is now busying herself lining up a real opening for her current child star.

It would be difficult to find a truer personification of the jazz life than the capable Miss Bruce, danseuse and impressario.