dirac

Thank you for this, cubanmiamiboy. It's a bit of Byron I wasn't familiar with and as a ballet fan I ought to have looked it up long ago!

Thanks, richard53dog, I was thinking that I'd read about Corelli being called that.

We have enjoyed them very much. Party on.

Allegra Kent is an interesting choice, vipa. (Not necessarily disagreeing.) Sylvie Guillem certainly qualifies as a game changer. Osipova may end up in that category as well.

Thanks, Quiggin. No doubt. Still, it would have been good manners to show up considering he had recently worked with them and probably under less cloudy circumstances they would have done. That's a wonderful quote and I hadn't heard it. Thanks.

Not something that can be said for many male opera stars (or female, for that matter). Of course, that might not be as true as it once was these days, when looks are just about everything.

I think "Joan" (or "JOAN") obliterated any trace of "Billie" as the years wore on at M-G-M. I've been reading a 1992 issue of Architectural Digest which focused on the homes of classic Hollywood stars. There's a photo in it of Crawford posed with Judy Garland at the latter's 1941 engagement party. Crawford is virtually unrecognizable from the person she still was 10 years earlier . . . and the change wasn't a function of age or changing hairstyles. There's a hardness of attitude in that photo that wasn't there before. As much as I enjoy and respect the classic Crawford era, which, for me, would be the Warner Brothers period between 1945 and 1952, I prefer the earlier Crawford period that corresponds with her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. There's still some softness there that would be going, going, GONE before too long. You can certainly prefer the post -1945 Crawford but her first and possibly best peak as a star was during the MGM years, per the earlier discussion on the same subject in the Garbo thread, where she was still doing interesting work as late as the very early Forties in 'Strange Cargo' and 'A Woman's Face.' Warners was the site of her spectacular comeback and for a few years after that she was a great success there - very tough for a female star to get back to the top after falling like that. She was never much of an actress per se although I quite like her Sadie Thompson (Crawford was as hard as nails at every stage although she was softer and sexier back then) and other roles. I would question if it's anything as dramatic as a road not taken and indeed if she had worked at one of the lesser studios she might only have gone the same way faster. (She may well end up being best remembered for a movie she didn't make at Warners or MGM, "Johnny Guitar" and back to Warners for "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?") I think Crawford has mostly dropped off the radar. Many of her movies have only buff appeal now and I suspect many people know her now chiefly as Christina Crawford's Monster Mom in book and film. And although she could be very good she was never really an actress.

sandik's link has a link to the catalog for Petterson's show, which has more color reproductions.

What a beautiful picture. Thank you for posting it. It does look familiar but I can't put my finger on it. I can't believe those wigs male dancers used to wear. Thank heaven for Nureyev.

True, perky, but I rather like the arbitrariness of "ten."

"Best Dancers" could incorporate many of those subcategories. It's clear, for example, that Jennings is using historical importance as one of his measures of a "best" dancer for some, not all, of his choices. It's like the Top Ten lists that critics in various fields produce at the end of every year. In a way it doesn't make sense to have one "Ten Best Movies" category but it serves a purpose in that it forces the maker of the list to make his choices and rankings and defend them.

Mme. Hermine mentioned on another thread that it’s Shelley’s birthday today, and while browsing for goodies about the poet I ran across this: Verses On a Cat Shelley also apparently once said:

Thanks, Mme. Hermine. Quotes from the great man.

One of the drawbacks, if you can call it that, of extreme longevity is that people tend to forget you're still around. I hope that Miller was in good shape for the last of those ninety-nine years. He saw many changes.

The concept seems a little surreal as well, what with the camera panning in and around the Neat Guys as they sing their wholesome tune. I think the first Miller-related song I must have heard was the Stan Freberg parody of "The Yellow Rose of Texas," which I used to hear on Dr. Demento. For reference, Miller's version here. I'm not into karaoke, either.

The show didn't last very long, apparently - only a few years. The change in musical tastes caught up with it, I expect. That clip is a stitch, miliosr.

You can't be sure, but you can take an educated guess. We know that enough knowledgeable people acknowledged Nijinsky as a great dancer and a genius to grant him that status and include him on such a list, in the same way you might include Edmund Kean on a list of greatest actors. Had Jennings wanted to include Pavlova (or even a later dancer like Fonteyn, who doesn't gain much on a lot of the video we do have), that would have been fair. It is sad that we have no film, but even if we did that film might be deceptive, because we wouldn't see Nijinsky as audiences saw him then. No, there's no "correct" list. I would say by making a choice and justifying it you are describing your own tastes as well as dancers and what you think is most important in a dancer. There may be some dancers around whom a consensus gathers but not many. Jennings doesn't go into time and geography but I don't think he looked far beyond the early 20th century.

Yes, Ray linked to an article by Rosen. It's the first post in this thread.

Somebody was certainly a-trolling for some syllables to make-a the lines scan. White ones, anyway, as you noted. It must be said that some observers didn't care for Miller's music (you can imagine Sinatra's opinion) and for each person tappin' his toes there was probably someone puttin' cotton in his ears.

Luke Jennings offers his nominees. The merits of such lists are debatable and certainly the merit of this one is, but I do give Jennings credit for sticking his neck out to make and defend his choices. Comments? (And don't be too hard on him unless you're willing to put forth a few suggestions of your own. )

Thanks, volcanohunter. Welcome to the board, Chenier631!

Precisely. Whatever was emanating from Mildred's mouth was at odds with the jawline. I like Mildred Pierce but I don't believe for one second that Joan-as-Mildred wouldn't have eaten Vida for lunch. Well, I probably should have qualified "big bowl of mush." Mildred is a big bowl of mush where Veda is concerned - the huge blind spot of an otherwise determined and canny businesswoman. The jawline is well deployed when Crawford says things along the lines of "I'lldoanythingforthosekidsdoyouunderstandanything..." Cheekbones had a special impact in black-and-white and both ladies had great ones.

Mitch Miller is now singing along with the choir invisible, having died at the age of 99. RIP. Related. Sibelius aside, Miller once induced the Chairman of the Board to record this.

These sound fascinating, chiapuris. We have a stand-alone thread on Larsson, here. Would love to hear your comments.