Some Fred Astaire please.

[sandik]

As well as the Croce books, I'd recommend John Mueller's "Astaire Dancing," which has some great analysis of key dance numbers as well as minutage of the film action. When he's not a big-shot professor of political science at Ohio State, he's a dance history scholar, and is working on a series of Astaire DVDs with commentary tracks. I'm not sure when they're due out, but I believe he's got a distributor in place, so that's something to keep eyes open for.

[sidwich]

Another good reference is John Mueller's "Astaire Dancing." Mueller's rather ... uh... opinionated (I don't think he thought *any* of the people who danced with Fred were good enough for him), but he does an extremely detailed analysis of pretty much every step Astaire ever did on film complete with corresponding frames.

[sandik]

Another good reference is John Mueller's "Astaire Dancing." Mueller's rather ... uh... opinionated (I don't think he thought *any* of the people who danced with Fred were good enough for him), but he does an extremely detailed analysis of pretty much every step Astaire ever did on film complete with corresponding frames.

We must have pulled our copies off the shelf at the same moment!

(my personal favorite -- Pick Yourself Up from Swing Time)

[papeetepatrick]

"Royal Wedding" must be mentioned, I think, because it includes two of his most iconic solos, the one with a hat rack and the one where he dances around the walls and ceiling of his room. I love Jane Powell, and their numbers together--especially "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life" (that must be the longest song title ever!)--are terrific. Great score by the perpetually underrated Burton Lane (who also wrote "Finian's Rainbow").

Definitely agree that Burton Lane is thoroughly underrated. The score for 'On a Clear Day You Can See Forever' is one of the best of all Broadway scores, and that idiotic movie version left out many of the best songs--'Wait Till We're Sixty-Five, 'On the SS Bernard Cohn,' 'Tosy and Cosh', and I think there's even only a little violin fragment of 'She Wasn't You,' the most beautiful song in the whole show--and Barbara Harris sounds better in all these songs, esp. 'Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here', a perfect gem, than The Greatest Star did. Well, she had big juggernaut going right then and there's the free market, etc., no way they weren't going to go with the big-selling commodity. (If I've got some of the song omissions wrong, correct me, because I'm not going to go through that one again just to get an A.)

Have to agree with dirac about 'Royal Wedding' not amounting to much though, and I never have been able to get into Fred dancing around the walls and ceiling. Earlier, sidwich mentioned 'Broadway Melody of 1940' wth Eleanor Powell--this just has some really beautiful dancing in it, and sweet Miss Powell is just a marvel.

[dirac]

Definitely agree that Burton Lane is thoroughly underrated. The score for 'On a Clear Day You Can See Forever' is one of the best of all Broadway scores, and that idiotic movie version left out many of the best songs--'Wait Till We're Sixty-Five, 'On the SS Bernard Cohn,' 'Tosy and Cosh', and I think there's even only a little violin fragment of 'She Wasn't You,' the most beautiful song in the whole show--and Barbara Harris sounds better in all these songs, esp. 'Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here', a perfect gem, than The Greatest Star did. Well, she had big juggernaut going right then and there's the free market, etc., no way they weren't going to go with the big-selling commodity. (If I've got some of the song omissions wrong, correct me, because I'm not going to go through that one again just to get an A.)

Have to agree with dirac about 'Royal Wedding' not amounting to much though, and I never have been able to get into Fred dancing around the walls and ceiling. Earlier, sidwich mentioned 'Broadway Melody of 1940' wth Eleanor Powell--this just has some really beautiful dancing in it, and sweet Miss Powell is just a marvel.

"Ring Out the Bells" was missing, too. Also, having Streisand as a mannequin clearly did not inspire Cecil Beaton to the heights.

I never really warmed to Eleanor Powell, but she is indeed a dazzling dancer and one of those stars who gives you the strong impression of being a thoroughly nice person.

It seems to me that any dance involving special effects tends to get more attention than it necessarily deserves. "Shoes with Wings On" from The Barkleys of Broadway is a good one, though.

[sidwich]

We must have pulled our copies off the shelf at the same moment!

Mine is thoroughly worn-out!

It's good to hear that Mueller's been working on DVD commentary. Astiare commentary has been sadly lacking, and I'd love to hear when he has to say.

"Royal Wedding" must be mentioned, I think, because it includes two of his most iconic solos, the one with a hat rack and the one where he dances around the walls and ceiling of his room.

Oh, come on... the best part of "Royal Wedding" is when Astaire and Jane Powell are sliding around the cruise ship trying to perform.

I don't think that "Royal Wedding" was anybody's best work (and Alan Jay Lerner says as much in his memoirs), but outside of the two Astaire solos, I do like Lane and Lerner's "Too Late Now." Even if you can barely see it for lack of lighting.

OACDYCSF has a gorgeous score, and I prefer Harris' version as well, but I must say Kristin Chenoweth did an excellent job in the concert version at NY Citycenter a few years ago. I think she still performs "Hurry! It's Lovely..." in concerts, and when she does it, she really has that inner glow of stardom.

I never really warmed to Eleanor Powell, but she is indeed a dazzling dancer and one of those stars who gives you the strong impression of being a thoroughly nice person.

I don't think MGM ever quite knew what to do with Eleanor Powell, either. She didn't fit into the Lana Turner/glamour girl mold, and all they seemed to be able to come up with is to set her tap-dancing on battle ships and toss her in the air. She's wonderful in her commentary at the AFI salute to Astaire, so very down-to-earth and "real."

I agree about "Pick Yourself Up' -- it's my all-time favorite thing (at the moment), and that's because it is such a turning point -- and a turning-point with several turning-points in it, such a LONG turning-point -- Ginger SMILES at him when she realizes he can dance, and it is like the sun coming out, and it has been built up to for so long, and with all that wonderful side-work with Helen Broderick and her club sandwich, and the owner of the dancing-school firing Ginger, and Fred saving the day -- silly as all the stuff at the very beginning of the movies is, with the cuffs on the pants, getting Fred out of the wedding to the girl we don't like, and all, but by the time we get to the big city the work-place Ginger is a thoroughly plausible dance-instructor modern working girl and the movie has become quite REAL, and the romance happens in the midst of all this quite plausible detail, including a little dance-school studio that's plausible as what it's supposed to be and also a wonderful place for their dance, complete with little fences to jump over.

That's a really good point. So much of what's great about Ginger Rogers is that she was both a good actress and a good (enough) dancer to make it all believable, no matter how implausible the plot of the movie.

The other thing that I really love about "Pick Yourself Up" is how after the whole rigamorale of Ginger trying to teach him to dance, the actual dance is completely constructed around the side-2-3-... side-2-3 step that she's been trying to teach him, and variations thereon. He even includes the walk across the studio! Sheer genius.

[bart]

This has been a fascinating discussion. I've seen just about everything that's been mentioned, but had never really thought about the possibility that Astaire's choreography, technique and partnering might be discussed using the same language we would use for classical ballet -- until I read this thread, especially Paul's statement:

... Hayward adds another dimension altogether -- she's like an orchid, just unbelievably beautiful, with a musicality of her own that's hard to describe but just astonishes you, like Suzanne Farrell's in a way -- her signature step is failli (which is suitable for a Latin dancer, it's such a Spanish step, Kitri is inconceivable without all her faillis) -- , she's in the air, and suddenly she's alighted in a lunge, croise, and there she stays for a glorious long moment, just settling down like a butterfly, such a luscious astonishing radiant moment of gathering clarity, and then she's off again...

I can see this beautifully as I read it. How about other evocations of the specifics of memorable Astaire movements?

P.S. I also love my memories of the Haywood partnership. Thanks, Paul, for legitimizing this for me.

[carbro]

. . . [Mueller]'s a dance history scholar, and is working on a series of Astaire DVDs with commentary tracks. I'm not sure when they're due out, but I believe he's got a distributor in place, so that's something to keep eyes open for.

I will! Thanks for this important alert!

I don't think he thought *any* of the people who danced with Fred were good enough for him. . .

I tend to agree.

It seems to me that any dance involving special effects tends to get more attention than it necessarily deserves. "Shoes with Wings On" from The Barkleys of Broadway is a good one, though.

Maybe because it's Fred multiplied!

Has anyone mentioned Follow the Fleet*? The boiler room dance ("Slap That Bass") is often overlooked -- but one of Fred's *GREATEST* solos. Cast includes Harriet Hilliard, later known as Harriet Nelson.

*Whoops! Thanks, dirac (directly below) for the correction.

[dirac]

The boiler room dance is indeed terrific -- it's in one of the less heralded Astaire-Rogers pictures, "Shall We Dance."

bart writes:

I've seen just about everything that's been mentioned, but had never really thought about the possibility that Astaire's choreography, technique and partnering might be discussed using the same language we would use for classical ballet

Astaire excited the interest of serious critics in dance and movies from the time he started working in pictures and although his sister was the stronger theatre personality, he had already been singled out as a virtuoso on the stage. His career is extraordinarily well documented; aside from the Croce and Mueller books already mentioned, he’s excited a great deal of comment and nearly all of it is interesting, including his own book and that of Ginger Rogers.

This may simplify matters somewhat. I can’t think, offhand, of any Astaire musicals to avoid. There are some that aren’t so great, and Second Chorus is downright poor, but all of them are worth seeing if you are interested in his career, and he himself is never bad, except perhaps in that ill-advised Spanish dance he performs with Ginger in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. In short, jllaney, you pretty much can’t go wrong here.

[dirac]

sidwich writes: I don't think MGM ever quite knew what to do with Eleanor Powell, either. She didn't fit into the Lana Turner/glamour girl mold, and all they seemed to be able to come up with is to set her tap-dancing on battle ships and toss her in the air.

Thank you, sidwich. I meant to comment on this earlier but I fear I am already yakking too much as it is. Powell was a little like Esther (‘Wet she’s a star, dry she ain’t’) Williams in that she was great when she was dancing but a wee bit dull everywhere else, and not withal a romantic dancer – a soloist, not a partner. This made her harder to cast and appropriate vehicles less easy to come by, perhaps. You can cast a male dancing star opposite a partner who’s not also a co-star, but this is less easy with a woman.

Also, Powell’s dancing was wonderful, but maybe a little monochromatic. Rogers is nowhere near as good a tap dancer as Powell, but her tapping manages to be energetic, charming, and feminine all at once; a neat hat trick and not one that Powell could manage.

Speaking of tap dancers, Ann Miller’s name hasn’t come up yet, so I mention her for the record, as she danced with Astaire in “Easter Parade,” playing the ambitious star who drops Astaire for solo fame, thus making room for Judy Garland.