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The Birth of John Ewing Richter
He was born April 27th 1911 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. -
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Cole’s Artistic and Cultural Significance
Cole carved a distinct space for jazz dance in theater and film. Others soon followed in his wake, notably Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Michael Kidd, Alvin Ailey, Gower Champion, Peter Gennaro, and Michael Bennett. -
Profressional Debut
He makes his professional debut in 1930 after studying with the Denishawn Dance Company in New York -
He leaves Modern Dance
After starting off as a modern dancer he leaves it behind to become a commercial dancer in nightclubs. At the time this was completely unheard of. -
When he leaves Denishawn
His early training was Cecchetti and he left Denishawn to study with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, performing with them on Broadway in School for Husbands (1933) -
He gets fired and moves on
When Humphrey-Weidman fire him in 1934 for tardiness to rehearsals, Cole responded by teaming with his Denishawn colleague Alice Dudley in a cabaret act at New York’s Embassy Club. The act combined interpretive modern-dance style works with japonaiserie, and a Balinese work -
Again leads to failure
Just one year later the Cole-Dudley partnership dissolved in 1935. But Cole was on his way. -
Starts his own dance company
He eventually ends up starting his own dance company. By decade’s end, Jack Cole and His Dancers were headliners at the country’s premier nightclubs, significantly New York’s Rainbow Room and Slapsie Maxie’s and Ciro's in Los Angeles. -
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Sposored by Harry Cohn
Cole also kept pace with the legendary expletive- spewing of Harry Cohn, the cigar-chomping Columbia Studio boss who sponsored Cole’s dance group at the film studio in the 1940s -
Jack Cole Dancers are first hired
The Jack Cole Dancers were first hired by 20th Century Fox for a Betty Grable vehicle, Moon Over Miami (1941). He won the job for his ethnic dance expertise and not choreographic skill. -
The Wedding of a Solid Sender
first seen in Broadways’ Ziegfeld Follies of 1943. Photos show three women in skirts and three zoot-suited men leaping and jiving in a frenetic Lindy hop. Here Cole pulled popular dance into the performance realm. -
His movie career
Cole gained credibility and began to choreograph for movies by 1944. Nearly thirty films produced at Columbia, Fox, and MGM studios fill his resumé, some credited, others not. -
Sing, Sing, Sing
An all-male cast struts, leaps, and slides (on knees) to the blaring horns of the Benny Goodman band. Important venues for Jack Cole and his Dancers in this period were the Chicago’s Chez Paree and New York’s Latin Quarter. -
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Shows on Broadway
His most well-known shows included Alive and Kicking (1950), Kismet (1953), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Foxy (1964), Jamaica (1957), and Man of La Mancha (1965). Two that bombed, Magdalena (1948) and Carnival in Flanders, are remembered for their Jack Cole dance sequences, but are by and large lost -
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Marilyn Monroe
He went on to stage Monroe’s song-and-dance numbers in River of No Return (1954), There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), Bus Stop (1956), Some Like it Hot (1959), and Let’s Make Love (1960). -
His love with night clubs
Cole often returned to nightclubs throughout his career. He staged Jane Russell’s Las Vegas revue following her success in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and his December 1957 show for Ginger Rogers inaugurated the Copa Room cabaret at the Riviera, the infamous Havana hotel owned by crime boss Meyer Lansky -
Vincente Minnelli’s go-to candidate to play Randy Owen
a flamboyant and combative choreographer in MGM’s Lauren Bacall/Gregory Peck vehicle, Designing Woman. The film, which explores, fifties- style, the perimeters of gender roles, closes with Cole’s exhaustive martial arts solo, which unambiguously asserts his masculinity against a barrage of anti-gay slurs. -
Two Broadway failures
Deep disappointment visited Cole with the failure of the two musicals he both choreographed and directed, Donnybrook! and Kean, both in 1961. -
His Final Curtain Call
He past away on February 17 1974 -
Ends His careere Teaching
Cole ended his career as an instructor of modern dance technique and choreography at the UCLA Graduate Dance Center from 1972-74.
