Jack cole

Jack Cole (1911-1974) was the most influential choreographer you’ve never heard of. As a dancer, choreographer and director, Cole’s relative obscurity today belies the major influence he had on stage and cinema musicals of the 1940s-50s and -60s. Considered the father of modern jazz dance, his many disciples became much more famous than their muse – Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune, Matt Mattox, and Alvin Ailey, among others. According to Agnes de Mille, “They all stole…

A top-gun choreographer in his time -- feared, respected, and awed -- Cole's enormous contribution is puzzlingly little known, even inside the dance world.

Recreates the atmosphere, and quotes from a review, from Jack Cole's nightclub days at Rockefeller Center's Rainbow Room, 1942.

Marilyn Monroe’s six-movie collaboration with Jack Cole began with 1953’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” the breakthrough film that made her a superstar. Yet the man behind the icon has been forgotten – an odd missing puzzle piece in view of Monroe’s staying power.

An afternoon symposium at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival will remember dancer/choreographer Jack Cole, August 14, 2010. arts·meme will attend.

Jack Cole

Old school Rehearsal

Marilyn with choreographer Jack Cole on the set of Let's Make Love, 1960.

Jack Cole (Jake), "Old Man Smith paid me the nicest compliment today. He said my C-Cup runneth over," Gaze magazine, August 1961.