September 14
Born Today:
Corporal Nelson Barclift
Dancer Nelson Barclift (1917-1993) studied at the Bennington School of Dance in 1937, with modern dance pioneers Martha Graham (1894-1991), Doris Humphrey (1895-1958), and Charles Weidman (1901-1975) and danced in musicals by Kurt Weill and Rodgers and Hart on Broadway. He joined the Army in 1942 and was posted to the Theatre Section. That same year, he choreographed Irving Berlin’s all-soldier musical This is the Army on Broadway, along with Sgt. Robert Sidney (1909-2008). The show was so popular, it was made into a movie in 1943, starring George Murphy (1902-1992).