Name	Fred Astaire
Caption	in You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
Birth name	Frederick Austerlitz
Birth date	May 10, 1899
Birth place	Omaha, Nebraska,United States
Death date	June 22, 1987
Death place	Los Angeles, California,United States
Occupation	Actor, dancer, singer, choreographer
Years active	1917–1981
Spouse	Phyllis Livingston Potter (1933–1954) Robyn Smith(1980–1987)

Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz,

After the close of Funny Face, the Astaires went to Hollywood for a screen test (now lost) at Paramount Pictures, but were not considered suitable for films.

They split in 1932 when Adele married her first husband, Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish, a son of the Duke of Devonshire. Fred Astaire went on to achieve success on his own on Broadway and in London with Gay Divorce, while considering offers from Hollywood. The end of the partnership was traumatic for Astaire, but stimulated him to expand his range. Free of the brother-sister constraints of the former pairing and with a new partner (Claire Luce), he created a romantic partnered dance to Cole Porter's "Night and Day", which had been written for Gay Divorce. Luce stated that she had to encourage him to take a more romantic approach: "Come on, Fred, I'm not your sister, you know." The success of the stage play was credited to this number, and when recreated in the film version of the play The Gay Divorcee (1934), it ushered in a new era in filmed dance. Astaire later insisted that the report had actually read: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances". However, this did not affect RKO's plans for Astaire, first lending him for a few days to MGM in 1933 for his Hollywood debut, where he appeared as himself dancing with Joan Crawford in the successful musical film Dancing Lady.

On his return to RKO Pictures, he got fifth billing alongside Ginger Rogers in the 1933 Dolores del Río vehicle Flying Down to Rio. In a review, Variety magazine attributed its massive success to Astaire's presence: "The main point of Flying Down to Rio is the screen promise of Fred Astaire ... He's assuredly a bet after this one, for he's distinctly likable on the screen, the mike is kind to his voice and as a dancer he remains in a class by himself. The latter observation will be no news to the profession, which has long admitted that Astaire starts dancing where the others stop hoofing."

Having already been linked to his sister Adele on stage, Astaire was initially very reluctant to become part of another dance team. He wrote his agent, "I don't mind making another picture with her, but as for this team idea it's out! I've just managed to live down one partnership and I don't want to be bothered with any more." He was persuaded by the obvious public appeal of the Astaire-Rogers pairing. The partnership, and the choreography of Astaire and Hermes Pan, helped make dancing an important element of the Hollywood film musical. Astaire and Rogers made ten films together, including The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and Carefree (1938). Six out of the nine Astaire-Rogers musicals became the biggest moneymakers for RKO; all of the films brought a certain prestige and artistry that all studios coveted at the time. Their partnership elevated them both to stardom; as Katharine Hepburn reportedly said, "He gives her class and she gives him sex." First, he insisted that the (almost stationary) camera film a dance routine in a single shot, if possible, while holding the dancers in full view at all times. Astaire famously quipped: "Either the camera will dance, or I will." Astaire maintained this policy from The Gay Divorcee (1934) onwards (until overruled by Francis Ford Coppola, who directed Finian's Rainbow (1968), Astaire's last film musical). Hannah Hyam consider Rogers to have been Astaire's greatest dance partner, while recognizing that some of his later partners displayed superior technical dance skills, a view shared

Astaire was still unwilling to have his career tied exclusively to any partnership, however. He negotiated with RKO to strike out on his own with A Damsel in Distress in 1937 with an inexperienced, non-dancing Joan Fontaine, unsuccessfully as it turned out. He returned to make two more films with Rogers, Carefree (1938) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). While both films earned respectable gross incomes, they both lost money due to increased production costs and Astaire left RKO. Rogers remained and went on to become the studio's hottest property in the early forties. They were reunited in 1949 at MGM for their final outing, The Barkleys of Broadway.

1940–1947: drifting to an early retirement

in Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" from Broadway Melody of 1940]] In 1939, Astaire left RKO to freelance and pursue new film opportunities, with mixed though generally successful outcomes. Throughout this period, Astaire continued to value the input of choreographic collaborators and, unlike the 1930s when he worked almost exclusively with Hermes Pan, he tapped the talents of other choreographers in an effort to continually innovate. His first post-Ginger dance partner was the redoubtable Eleanor Powell — considered the finest female tap-dancer of her generation — in Broadway Melody of 1940 where they performed a celebrated extended dance routine to Cole Porter's Begin the Beguine. He played alongside Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn (1942) and later Blue Skies (1946), but in spite of the enormous financial success of both, was reportedly dissatisfied with roles where he lost the girl to Crosby. The former film is particularly remembered for his virtuoso solo dance to "Let's Say it with Firecrackers" while the latter film featured an innovative song and dance routine to a song indelibly associated with him: "Puttin' on the Ritz". Other partners during this period included Paulette Goddard in Second Chorus (1940), in which he dance-conducted the Artie Shaw orchestra.

He made two pictures with Rita Hayworth, the daughter of his former vaudeville dance idols, the Cansinos: the first You'll Never Get Rich (1941) catapulted Hayworth to stardom and provided Astaire with his first opportunity to integrate Latin-American dance idioms into his style, taking advantage of Hayworth's professional Latin dance pedigree. His second film with Hayworth, You Were Never Lovelier (1942) was equally successful, and featured a duet to Kern's "I'm Old Fashioned" which became the centerpiece of Jerome Robbins's 1983 New York City Ballet tribute to Astaire. He next appeared opposite the seventeen-year-old Joan Leslie in the wartime drama The Sky's the Limit (1943) where he introduced Arlen and Mercer's "One for My Baby" while dancing on a bar counter in a dark and troubled routine. This film which was choreographed by Astaire alone and achieved modest box office success, represented an important departure for Astaire from his usual charming happy-go-lucky screen persona and confused contemporary critics.

His next partner, Lucille Bremer, was featured in two lavish vehicles, both directed by Vincente Minnelli: the fantasy Yolanda and the Thief which featured an avant-garde surrealistic ballet, and the musical revue Ziegfeld Follies (1946) which featured a memorable teaming of Astaire with Gene Kelly to "The Babbit and the Bromide", a Gershwin song Astaire had introduced with his sister Adele back in 1927. While Follies was a hit, Yolanda bombed at the box office and Astaire, ever insecure and believing his career was beginning to falter surprised his audiences by announcing his retirement during the production of Blue Skies (1946), nominating "Puttin' on the Ritz" as his farewell dance.

After announcing his retirement in 1946, Astaire concentrated on his horse-racing interests and went on to found the Fred Astaire Dance Studios in 1947 — which he subsequently sold in 1966.

1948–1957: Productive years with MGM and second retirement

However, he soon returned to the big screen to replace the injured Kelly in Easter Parade opposite Judy Garland, Ann Miller and Peter Lawford, and for a final reunion with Rogers in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). He then went on to make more musicals throughout the 1950s: Let's Dance (1950) with Betty Hutton, Royal Wedding (1951) with Jane Powell, Three Little Words (1950) and The Belle of New York (1952) with Vera-Ellen, The Band Wagon (1953) and Silk Stockings (1957) with Cyd Charisse, Daddy Long Legs (1955) with Leslie Caron, and Funny Face (1957) with Audrey Hepburn.

During 1952 Astaire recorded The Astaire Story, a four volume album with a quintet led by Oscar Peterson. The album provided a musical overview of Astaire's career, and was produced by Norman Granz. The Astaire Story later won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, a special Grammy award to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance." Astaire further observes:

Working out the steps is a very complicated process — something like writing music. You have to think of some step that flows into the next one, and the whole dance must have an integrated pattern. If the dance is right, there shouldn't be a single superfluous movement. It should build to a climax and stop!"

With very few exceptions, Astaire created his routines in collaboration with other choreographers, primarily Hermes Pan. They would often start with a blank slate:

"For maybe a couple of days we wouldn't get anywhere — just stand in front of the mirror and fool around ... Then suddenly I'd get an idea or one of them would get an idea ... So then we'd get started ... You might get practically the whole idea of the routine done that day, but then you'd work on it, edit it, scramble it, and so forth. It might take sometimes as long as two, three weeks to get something going."

Frequently, a dance sequence was built around two or three principal ideas, sometimes inspired by his own steps or by the music itself, suggesting a particular mood or action. Many of his dances were built around a "gimmick", such as dancing on the walls in "Royal Wedding," or dancing with his shadows in Swing Time, that he or his collaborator had thought up earlier and saved for the right situation. They would spend weeks creating all the dance sequences in a secluded rehearsal space before filming would begin, working with a rehearsal pianist (often the composer Hal Borne) who in turn would communicate modifications to the musical orchestrators.

His perfectionism was legendary; however, his relentless insistence on rehearsals and retakes was a burden to some. When time approached for the shooting of a number, Astaire would rehearse for another two weeks, and record the singing and music. With all the preparation completed, the actual shooting would go quickly, conserving costs. Astaire agonized during the entire process, frequently asking colleagues for acceptance for his work, as Vincente Minnelli stated, "He lacks confidence to the most enormous degree of all the people in the world. He will not even go to see his rushes ... He always thinks he is no good." As Astaire himself observed, "I've never yet got anything 100% right. Still it's never as bad as I think it is."

Although he viewed himself as an entertainer first and foremost, his consummate artistry won him the admiration of such twentieth century dance legends as Gene Kelly, George Balanchine, the Nicholas Brothers, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Bob Fosse, Gregory Hines, Rudolf Nureyev, Michael Jackson and Bill Robinson. Balanchine compared him to Bach, describing him as "", while for Baryshnikov he was "".

Influence on popular song

Extremely modest about his singing abilities (he frequently claimed that he couldn't sing), Irving Berlin considered Astaire the equal of any male interpreter of his songs — "as good as Jolson, Crosby or Sinatra, not necessarily because of his voice, but for his conception of projecting a song." and Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer also admired his unique treatment of their work. And while George Gershwin was somewhat critical of Astaire's singing abilities, he wrote many of his most memorable songs for him. In his heyday, Astaire was referenced in lyrics of songwriters Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart and Eric Maschwitz and continues to inspire modern songwriters.

Astaire was a songwriter of note himself, with "I'm Building Up to an Awful Letdown" (written with lyricist Johnny Mercer) reaching number four in the Hit Parade of 1936. He recorded his own "It's Just Like Taking Candy from a Baby" with Benny Goodman in 1940, and nurtured a lifelong ambition to be a successful popular song composer.

Awards, honors and tributes

1938 — Invited to place his hand and foot prints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood.

1950 — Ginger Rogers presented an honorary Academy Award to Astaire "for his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures".

1950 — Golden Globe for "Best Motion Picture Actor -Music/Comedy" for Three Little Words.

1958 — Emmy Award for "Best Single Performance by an Actor" for An Evening with Fred Astaire.

1959 — Dance Magazine award.

1960 — Nominated for Emmy Award for "Program Achievement" for Another Evening with Fred Astaire.

1960 — Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for "Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures".

1961 — Emmy Award for "Program Achievement" in 1961 for Astaire Time.

1961 — Voted Champion of Champions — Best Television performer in annual television critics and columnists poll conducted by Television Today and Motion Picture Daily.

1965 — The George Award from the George Eastman House for "outstanding contributions to motion pictures".

1968 — Nominated for an Emmy Award for Musical Variety Program for The Fred Astaire Show.

1972 — Named Musical Comedy Star of the Century by Liberty, "The Nostalgia Magazine".

1973 — Subject of a Gala by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

1975 — Academy Award nomination for The Towering Inferno.

1975 — Golden Globe for "Best Supporting Actor", BAFTA and David di Donatello awards for The Towering Inferno.

1978 — Emmy Award for "Best Actor — Drama or Comedy Special" for A Family Upside Down.

1978 — Honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

1978 — First recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.

1978 — National Artist Award from the American National Theatre Association for "contributing immeasurably to the American Theatre".

1981 — The Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFI.

1982 — The Anglo-American Contemporary Dance Foundation announces the Astaire Awards "to honor Fred Astaire and his sister Adele and to reward the achievement of an outstanding dancer or dancers." The awards have since been renamed The Fred and Adele Astaire Awards.

1987 — The Capezio Dance Shoe Award (co-awarded with Rudolph Nureyev).

1987 — Inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY.

1989 — Posthumous award of Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

1991 — Posthumous induction into the Ballroom Dancer's Hall of Fame.

2000 — Ava Astaire McKenzie unveils a plaque in honor of her father, erected by the citizens of Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland.

2008 — Conference to honor the life and work of Fred Astaire at Oriel College, University of Oxford, June 21–24.

Built in 1905, the Gottlieb Storz Mansion in Astaire's hometown of Omaha includes the "Adele and Fred Astaire Ballroom" on the top floor, which is the only memorial to their Omaha roots.

Astaire is referenced in the 2003 animated feature, The Triplets of Belleville, in which he is eaten by his shoes after a fast-paced dance act.

Personal life

Politically, Astaire was a conservative and a lifelong Republican Party supporter. With Bing Crosby, George Murphy, Ginger Rogers and others he was a charter (founding) member of the Hollywood Republican Committee.

Always immaculately turned out, Astaire remained something of a male fashion icon even into his later years, eschewing his trademark top hat, white tie and tails (which he never really cared for) in favor of a breezy casual style of tailored sports jackets, colored shirts, cravats and slacks — the latter usually held up by the idiosyncratic use of an old tie in place of a belt.

Astaire married for the first time in 1933, to the 25-year-old Phyllis Potter (née Phyllis Livingston Baker, 1908–1954), a Boston-born New York socialite and former wife of Eliphalet Nott Potter III (1906–1981), after pursuing her ardently for roughly two years. Phyllis's death from lung cancer, at the age of 46, ended 21 years of a blissful marriage and left Astaire devastated. Astaire attempted to drop out of the film Daddy Long Legs (1955), offering to pay the production costs to date, but was persuaded to stay.

In addition to Phyllis Potter's son, Eliphalet IV, known as Peter, the Astaires had two children. Fred, Jr. (born 1936) appeared with his father in the movie Midas Run, but became a charter pilot and rancher instead of an actor. Ava Astaire McKenzie (born 1942) remains actively involved in promoting her late father's heritage.

His friend David Niven described him as "a pixie — timid, always warm-hearted, with a penchant for schoolboy jokes." Astaire was a lifelong golf and Thoroughbred horse racing enthusiast. In 1946 his horse Triplicate won the prestigious Hollywood Gold Cup and San Juan Capistrano Handicap. He remained physically active well into his eighties. At age seventy-eight, he broke his left wrist while riding his grandson's skateboard.

He remarried in 1980 to Robyn Smith, a jockey almost 45 years his junior. Smith was a jockey for Alfred G. Vanderbilt II.

Astaire died from pneumonia on June 22, 1987. He was interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. One last request of his was to thank his fans for their years of support.

Astaire has never been portrayed on film. He always refused permission for such portrayals, saying, "However much they offer me — and offers come in all the time — I shall not sell." Astaire's will included a clause requesting that no such portrayal ever take place; he commented, "It is there because I have no particular desire to have my life misinterpreted, which it would be."

Stage, film and television work

Musical films

Dancing Lady (1933)

Flying Down to Rio (1933)*

The Gay Divorcee (1934)*

Roberta (1935)*

Top Hat (1935)*

Follow the Fleet (1936)*

Swing Time (1936)*

Shall We Dance (1937)*

A Damsel in Distress (1937)

Carefree (1938)*

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)*

Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)

Second Chorus (1940)

You'll Never Get Rich (1941)

Holiday Inn (1942)

You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

The Sky's the Limit (1943)

Yolanda and the Thief (1945)

Ziegfeld Follies (1946)

Blue Skies (1946)

Easter Parade (1948)

The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)*

Three Little Words (1950)

Let's Dance (1950)

Royal Wedding (1951)

The Belle of New York (1952)

The Band Wagon (1953)

Daddy Long Legs (1955)

Funny Face (1957)

Silk Stockings (1957)

Finian's Rainbow (1968)

That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) (narrator and performer)

Performances with Ginger Rogers

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

Fred Astaire tribute site

Fred Astaire biography at AlsoDances.Net

Time.com: The Great American Flyer Fred Astaire:1899-1987

Time Magazine archive: Astaire essay by Richard Corliss

Astaire's religious views incl. many extracts from his biographers

Astaire or Kelly: A Generation Apart at Indian Auteur

Ava Astaire discusses her father's legacy. (BBC Television — Realplayer required)

"He's in Heaven ... " — In Memoriam Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire MP3 Download site]

Radio Interview — Fred Astaire — 1968

Links to photos of Astaire

"Fred Astaire and the art of fun": an essay on the Oxford Fred Astaire conference from TLS, July 16, 2008.

Category:1899 births Category:1987 deaths Category:American Episcopalians Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:American ballroom dancers Category:20th-century actors Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:American crooners Category:American choreographers Category:American people of Austrian descent Category:American actors of German descent Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:American film actors Category:American tap dancers Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:California Republicans Category:Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Burials at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame inductees Category:Actors from Omaha, Nebraska Category:RCA Victor artists Category:MGM Records artists Category:Vaudeville performers Category:American racehorse owners and breeders Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:Film choreographers

Name	Ginger Rogers
Caption	in Stage Door (1937)
Birth name	Virginia Katherine McMath
Birth date	July 16, 1911
Birth place	Independence, Missouri, U.S.
Death date	April 25, 1995
Death place	Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer, artist
Years active	1929–1994
Spouse	Jack Pepper (1929–1931)Lew Ayres (1934–1941)Jack Briggs (1943–1949)Jacques Bergerac (1953–1957)William Marshall (1961–1969)

Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.

During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner, in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. She also achieved great success in a variety of film roles, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940). She ranks #14 on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Stars list of actress screen legends.

Early life

Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, the daughter of William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer, and his wife Lela Emogene Owens (1891–1977). Ginger's parents separated soon after her birth, and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona (née Ball) Owens, in nearby Kansas City. Rogers' parents fought over her custody, with her father even kidnapping her twice. After the parents divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood.

Rogers was to remain close to her grandfather (much later, when she was a star in 1939, she bought him a home at 5115 Greenbush Avenue in Sherman Oaks, California so that he could be close to her while she was filming at the studios).

One of Rogers's young cousins, Helen, had a hard time pronouncing her first name, shortening it to "Ginga"; the nickname stuck.

When Rogers was nine years old, her mother married John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the name of Rogers, though she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth, Texas. Her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record. Ginger attended but did not graduate from Fort Worth's Central High School.

As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a schoolteacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage.

Vaudeville and Broadway

Rogers's entertainment career was born one night when the traveling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. She then entered and won a Charleston dance contest which allowed her to tour for six months, at one point in 1926 performing at an 18-month old theater called The Craterian in Medford, Oregon. This theater honored her many years later by changing its name to the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.

At 17, Rogers married Jack Culpepper, a singer/dancer/comedian/recording artist of the day who worked under the name Jack Pepper (according to Ginger's autobiography, she knew Culpepper when she was a child, as her cousin's boyfriend). They formed a short-lived vaudeville double act known as "Ginger and Pepper". The marriage was over within months, and she went back to touring with her mother. When the tour got to New York City, she stayed, getting radio singing jobs and then her Broadway theater debut in a musical called Top Speed, which opened on Christmas Day, 1929.

Within two weeks of opening in Top Speed, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in Girl Crazy by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, the musical play widely considered to have made stars of both Ginger and Ethel Merman. Fred Astaire was hired to help the dancers with their choreography. Her appearance in Girl Crazy made her an overnight star at the age of 19. In 1930, she was signed by Paramount Pictures to a seven-year contract.

Film career

1929-1933

Rogers's first movie roles were in a trio of short films made in 1929—Night in the Dormitory, A Day of a Man of Affairs, and Campus Sweethearts.

Rogers would soon get herself out of the Paramount contract—under which she had made five feature films at Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens—and move with her mother to Hollywood. When she got to California, she signed a three-picture deal with Pathé. She made feature films for Warner Bros., Monogram, and Fox in 1932 and was named one of fifteen "WAMPAS Baby Stars". She then made a significant breakthrough as "Anytime Annie" in the Warner Brothers film 42nd Street (1933). She went on to make a series of films with Fox, Warner Bros. ("Gold Diggers of 1933"), Universal, Paramount, and RKO Radio Pictures and, in her second RKO picture, Flying Down to Rio (1933), she worked for the first time with Fred Astaire.

1933-1939: Astaire and Rogers

Rogers was most famous for her partnership with Fred Astaire. Together, from 1933 to 1939, they made nine musical films at RKO: Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) (The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) was produced later at MGM). They revolutionized the Hollywood musical, introducing dance routines of unprecedented elegance and virtuosity, set to songs specially composed for them by the greatest popular song composers of the day.

Arlene Croce, Hannah Hyam and John Mueller all consider Rogers to have been Astaire's finest dance partner, principally because of her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty, and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire, a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences. Of the 33 partnered dances she performed with Astaire, Croce and Mueller have highlighted the infectious spontaneity of her performances in the comic numbers "I'll Be Hard to Handle" from Roberta (1935), "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and "Pick Yourself Up" from Swing Time (1936). They also point to the use Astaire made of her remarkably flexible back in classic romantic dances such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" from Roberta (1935), "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat (1935) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Follow the Fleet (1936). For special praise, they have singled out her performance in the "Waltz in Swing Time" from Swing Time (1936), which is generally considered to be the most virtuosic partnered routine ever committed to film by Astaire. She generally avoided solo dance performances: Astaire always included at least one virtuoso solo routine in each film, while Rogers performed only one: "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936). in the film Roberta (1935).]]

Although the dance routines were choreographed by Astaire and his collaborator Hermes Pan, both have acknowledged Rogers's input and have also testified to her consummate professionalism, even during periods of intense strain, as she tried to juggle her many other contractual film commitments with the punishing rehearsal schedules of Astaire, who made at most two films in any one year. In 1986, shortly before his death, Astaire remarked, "All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it, but of course they could. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No no, Ginger never cried". John Mueller summed up Rogers's abilities as follows: "Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began...the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable". According to Astaire, when they were first teamed together in "Flying Down to Rio", "Ginger had never danced with a partner before. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong." Astaire also had this to say to Raymond Rohauer, curator at the New York Gallery of Modern Art, "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."

Rogers also introduced some celebrated numbers from the Great American Songbook, songs such as Harry Warren and Al Dubin's "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)" from Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), "Music Makes Me" from Flying Down to Rio (1933), "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee (1934), Irving Berlin's "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and the Gershwins' "Embraceable You" from Girl Crazy and "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)" from Shall We Dance (1937). Furthermore, in song duets with Astaire, she co-introduced Berlin's "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936), Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields's "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance" from Swing Time (1936) and the Gershwins' "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from Shall We Dance (1937).

After 1939

After 15 months apart and with RKO facing bankruptcy, the studio hired Fred and Ginger for another movie called Carefree, but it lost money. Next came The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, but the serious plot and tragic ending resulted in the worst box office receipts of any of their films. This was driven, not by diminished popularity, but by the hard 1930s economic reality. The production costs of musicals, always significantly more costly than regular features, continued to increase at a much faster rate than admissions. Everyone agreed it was time to stop.

Both before and immediately after her dancing and acting partnership with Fred Astaire ended, Rogers starred in a number of successful dramas and comedies. Stage Door (1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough minded, theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn. In Roxie Hart (1942), based on the same play which served as the template for the musical Chicago, Ginger played a wise-cracking wife on trial for a murder her husband committed. In the neo-realist Primrose Path (1940), directed by Gregory La Cava, she played a prostitute's daughter trying to avoid the fate of her mother. Further highlights of this period included Tom, Dick, and Harry, a 1941 comedy where she dreams of marrying three different men; I'll Be Seeing You, an intelligent and restrained war time "weepie" with Joseph Cotten; La Cava's 5th Avenue Girl (1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family; and especially the sharp and highly successful comedies: Bachelor Mother (1939), where she played Polly Parrish, a shop girl who is falsely deemed to have abandoned her baby; and Billy Wilder's first Hollywood feature film: The Major and the Minor (1942), in which she played a woman who masquerades as a 12-year-old to get a cheap train ticket and find herself obliged to continue the ruse for an extended period. This film featured a performance by Rogers's own real mother, Lela, playing her film mother.

Her greatest skills were as a comedienne, and, as a master of the wisecrack, the deadpan, and the sidelong glance, she became well established as one of the major actresses of the screwball comedy era.

In 1941, Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 1940's Kitty Foyle. She enjoyed considerable success during the early 1940s, and was RKO's hottest property during this period. Becoming a free agent, she made hugely successful films with other studios in the mid-'40s, including "Tender Comrade" (1943), "Lady in the Dark" (1944), and "Week-End at the Waldorf" (1945), and became the highest-paid performer in Hollywood. However, by the end of the decade, her film career had peaked. Arthur Freed reunited her with Fred Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway in 1949, a delightful Technicolor MGM musical which succeeded in rekindling the special chemistry between them one last time.

Ginger Rogers's film career entered a period of gradual decline in the 1950s, as parts for older actresses became more difficult to obtain, but she still scored with some solid films. She starred in Storm Warning (1950), with Ronald Reagan and Doris Day, the noir, anti Ku Klux Klan film by Warner Brothers, and in Monkey Business (1952), with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, directed by Howard Hawks. In the same year, she also starred in We're Not Married!, also featuring Marilyn Monroe, and in Dreamboat. She played the female lead in Tight Spot (1955), a mystery thriller, with Edward G. Robinson. Then, after a series of unremarkable films, she scored with a great popular success, playing Dolly Levi in the long running Hello, Dolly! on Broadway in 1965.

In later life, Rogers remained on good terms with Astaire: she presented him with a special Academy Award in 1950, and they were co-presenters of individual Academy Awards in 1967, during which they elicited a standing ovation when they came on stage in an impromptu dance. In 1969, she had the lead role in another long running popular production of Mame, from the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the West End of London, arriving for the role on the Liner QE2 from New York. Her docking there occasioned the maximum of pomp and ceremony at Southampton. She became the highest paid performer in the history of the West End up to that time. The production ran for 14 months and featured a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth the Second. The Kennedy Center honored Ginger Rogers in December 1992. This event, which was shown on television, was somewhat marred when Astaire's widow, Robyn Smith, who permitted clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers to be shown for free at the function itself, was unable to come to terms with CBS Television for broadcast rights to the clips (all previous rights holders having donated broadcast rights gratis).

From the 1950s onwards, Rogers would make occasional appearances on television. In the later years of her career, she made guest appearances in three different series by Aaron Spelling; The Love Boat (1979), Glitter (1984), and Hotel (1987) which would be her final screen appearance as an actress.

Personal life

Rogers was an only child, and maintained a close relationship with her mother throughout her life. Lela Rogers (1891–1977) was a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer. She was also one of the first women to enlist in the Marine Corps, founded the successful "Hollywood Playhouse" for aspiring actors and actresses on the RKO set, and was a founder of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Mother and daughter had an extremely close professional relationship as well. Lela Rogers was credited with many pivotal contributions to her daughter's early successes in New York and in Hollywood, not to mention contract negotiations with R.K.O.

In her classic 1930s musicals with Astaire, Ginger Rogers, co-billed with him, was rightly paid less than Fred, the creative force behind the dances, who also received 10% of the profits. But she was also paid less than many of the supporting "farceurs" billed beneath her, in spite of her much more central role in the films' great financial success. This was personally grating to her, and had effects upon her relationships at RKO, especially with director Mark Sandrich, whose disrespect of Rogers prompted a sharp letter of reprimand from producer Pandro Berman, which Rogers deemed important enough to publish in her autobiography. Like many actresses of the time, Ginger Rogers fought hard for her contract and salary rights, and for better films and scripts. She also found it necessary to fight for respect and dignity as an actress, and against the type casting as just the studio's "dancing girl". She eventually succeeded in all these endeavors.

Rogers's first marriage was to her dancing partner Jack Pepper (real name Edward Jackson Culpepper) on March 29, 1929. They divorced in 1931, having separated soon after the wedding. In 1934 she married actor Lew Ayres (1908–1996). At a time when Rogers's career was skyrocketing and Ayres's career was faltering, they separated, and were amicably divorced seven years later. To add to Rogers's woes in 1934, she sued Sylvia of Hollywood for $100K for defamation. Sylvia, Hollywood's fitness guru and radio personality, had claimed that Rogers was on Sylvia’s radio show when, in fact, she was not.

In 1940, Rogers purchased a 1000-acre (4 km²) ranch in Jackson County, Oregon between the cities of Shady Cove and Eagle Point. The ranch, located along the Rogue River, supplied dairy products to nearby Camp White, a cantonment established for the duration of World War II. While not performing or working on other projects, she would live at the ranch with her mother.

In 1943, Rogers married her third husband, Jack Briggs, a Marine. Upon his return from World War II, Briggs showed no interest in continuing his incipient Hollywood career. They divorced in 1949. She married once again in 1953, a Frenchman, Jacques Bergerac, 16 years her junior, whom she met on a trip to Paris. A lawyer in France, he came to Hollywood with her and became an actor. They divorced in 1957. Her fifth and final husband was director and producer William Marshall. They married in 1961, and divorced in 1971, after his bouts with alcohol, and the financial collapse of their joint film production company in Jamaica.

Rogers was good friends with Lucille Ball — a distant cousin on Rogers's mother's side. Another friend, Bette Davis, had in common with Rogers a close maternal relationship. As early Hollywood actresses, all three shared a common interest in directing and producing. In fact, Ginger Rogers starred in one of the earliest films co-directed and co-scripted by a woman: Wanda Tuchock's Finishing School in 1934. In 1985, Rogers fulfilled a long-standing wish to direct by directing the musical Babes in Arms off-Broadway in Tarrytown, New York, when she was 74 years old. She appeared with Lucille Ball in an episode of Here's Lucy on November 22, 1971, where, with Lucie Arnaz, Rogers gave a demonstration of the Charleston in her famous high heels.

Rogers maintained a close friendship with her cousin, actress/writer/socialite Phyllis Fraser (whom she aided in a brief acting career), but was not Rita Hayworth's natural cousin as has been reported. Hayworth's maternal uncle, Vinton Hayworth, was married to Rogers's maternal aunt, Jean Owens.

In 1977, Rogers's mother died. Rogers remained at the 4-Rs (Rogers's Rogue River Ranch) until 1990, when she sold the property and moved to nearby Medford, Oregon. Her last public appearance was on March 18, 1995 when she received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award.

For many years, Rogers regularly supported, and held in-person presentations, at the Craterian Theater, in Medford, Oregon, where she had performed in 1926 as a vaudevillian. The theater was comprehensively restored in 1997, and posthumously renamed in her honor, as the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.

Rogers would spend winters in Rancho Mirage and summers in Medford. She died in Rancho Mirage on April 25, 1995 of congestive heart failure at the age of 83. She was cremated; her ashes are interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, with Lela's, and just a short distance from the grave of Fred Astaire.

She was a lifelong conservative and a member of the Republican Party.

She was also a Christian Scientist.

Portrayals of Rogers

No films have been made about Ginger Rogers, most likely because Fred Astaire stipulated in his will that no film representations of him were ever to be made. As Rogers' career history is inevitably linked to Astaire, it is unlikely an accurate portrayal could easily be made of her on film.

No portrayal was made of her in The Aviator (2004), in spite of the fact that many of her fellow actresses who, like her, dated Howard Hughes, were portrayed. According to Rogers' autobiography Ginger: My Story, published in 1991, Hughes was very intent on marrying her, and had proposed to her, until she discovered his infidelity and broke off the engagement.

Likenesses of Astaire and Rogers, apparently painted over from the Cheek to Cheek dance in Top Hat, are in the Lucy in the Skies section of The Beatles film Yellow Submarine (1968).

Rogers' image is one of many famous woman's images, of the 1930s and 1940s, to feature on the bedroom wall in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, a gallery of magazine cuttings, pasted on to the wall and created by Anne and her sister Margot while hiding from the Nazis. When the house became a museum, the gallery the Frank sisters created was preserved under glass. Rogers' image is one of the larger and more prominent, which clearly indicates her global and mass appeal amongst the youth of the time.

A musical about the life of Rogers, entitled Backwards in High Heels, premiered in Florida in early 2007.

Rogers was the heroine of a novel, Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak (1942, by Lela E. Rogers), where "the heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." The story was probably written for a young teenage audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.

References in Popular Music

Rogers is mentioned in the rap section of Madonna's "Vogue" (1990): "Ginger Rogers dance on air."

Filmography

Features

{| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Title !! Date !! Director !! Co-Starring !! Notes |- | Young Man of Manhattan || 1930 || Monta Bell || Claudette Colbert, Norman Foster || The line, "Cigarette me, big boy" became a popular catchphrase during the 1930s after audiences heard Ginger Rogers repeat it throughout the movie. |- | Queen High || 1930 || Fred Newmeyer |||| |- | The Sap from Syracuse || 1930 || A. Edward Sutherland || || |- | Follow the Leader || 1930 || Norman Taurog || || |- | Honor Among Lovers || 1931 || Dorothy Arzner || Claudette Colbert || |- | The Tip Off || 1931 || Albert Rogell || || |- | Suicide Fleet || 1931 || Albert Rogell || || |- | Carnival Boat || 1932 || Albert Rogell || || |- | The Tenderfoot || 1932 || Ray Enright || Joe E. Brown || |- | The Thirteenth Guest || 1932 || Albert Ray || || |- | Hat Check Girl || 1932 || Sidney Lanfield || || Sidney Lanfield was the most frequent director on the Addams Family 1960s television show. |- | You Said a Mouthful || 1932 || Lloyd Bacon || Joe E. Brown || |- | 42nd Street || 1933 || Lloyd Bacon || Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell || |- | Broadway Bad || 1933 || Sidney Lanfield || || |- | Gold Diggers of 1933 || 1933 || Mervyn LeRoy || Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell || |- | Professional Sweetheart || 1933 || William A. Seiter || Norman Foster || |- | A Shriek in the Night || 1933 || Albert Ray || || |- | Don't Bet on Love || 1933 || Murray Roth || Lew Ayres || Ginger Rogers and Lew Ayres were married for seven years following this film. |- | Sitting Pretty || 1933 || Harry Joe Brown || || |- | Flying Down to Rio || 1933 || Thornton Freeland || Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Fred Astaire || The first of the Astaire-Rogers pairing. This is the only movie where Ginger Rogers is billed above Fred Astaire. |- | Chance at Heaven || 1933 || William A. Seiter || Joel McCrea || |- | Rafter Romance || 1934 || William A. Seiter || Norman Foster || |- | Finishing School || 1934 || Wanda Tuchock and George Nicholas || Beulah Bondi || |- | Twenty Million Sweethearts || 1934 || Ray Enright || Dick Powell || |- | Change of Heart || 1934 || John G. Blystone || Shirley Temple || |- | Upperworld || 1934 || Roy Del Ruth || Mary Astor || |- | The Gay Divorcee || 1934 || Mark Sandrich || Fred Astaire || |- | Romance in Manhattan || 1934 || Stephen Roberts || || |- | Roberta || 1935 || William A. Seiter || Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Randolph Scott || Lucille Ball has an uncredited appearance as a model. She had lines taken away from her since her character was supposed to be a French model and she could not perfect the accent. |- | Star of Midnight || 1935 || Stephen Roberts || William Powell || |- | Top Hat || 1935 || Mark Sandrich || Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball || |- | In Person || 1935 || William A. Seiter || George Brent || |- | Follow the Fleet || 1936 || Mark Sandrich || Fred Astaire, Randolph Scott, Lucille Ball || |- | Swing Time || 1936 || George Stevens || Fred Astaire || |- | Shall We Dance || 1937 || Mark Sandrich || Fred Astaire || |- | Stage Door || 1937 || Gregory La Cava || Katherine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Lucille Ball || |- | Having Wonderful Time || 1938 || Alfred Santell || Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lucille Ball, Red Skelton|| This used much of the same cast as Stage Door. |- | Vivacious Lady || 1938 || George Stevens || James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Hattie McDaniel || |- | Carefree || 1938 || Mark Sandrich || Fred Astaire, Jack Carson, Hattie McDaniel || |- | The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle || 1939 || H. C. Potter || Fred Astaire || |- | Bachelor Mother || 1939 || Garson Kanin || David Niven, Charles Coburn || |- | Fifth Avenue Girl || 1939 || Gregory La Cava || || |- | Primrose Path || 1940 || Gregory La Cava || Joel McCrea || |- | Lucky Partners || 1940 || Lewis Milestone || Ronald Colman, Jack Carson || |- | Kitty Foyle || 1940 || Sam Wood || Dennis Morgan, James Craig || Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress the first year that the Academy wasn't announcing the winners before the ceremony. She beat Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine, Martha Scott, and Katherine Hepburn for the award. |- | Tom, Dick, and Harry || 1942 || Garson Kanin || Burgess Meredith || |- | Roxie Hart || 1942 || William A. Wellman || Adolphe Menjou || |- | Tales of Manhattan || 1942 || Julien Duvivier || Henry Fonda, Cesar Romero, Rita Hayworth, Gail Patrick || |- | The Major and the Minor || 1942 || Billy Wilder || Ray Milland || Ginger Rogers campaigned hard for Billy Wilder and as a result this became his debut film. This remains one of Rogers' favorite movies. Near the end of the movie her real life mother, Lela Rogers, played her character's mother. |- | Once Upon a Honeymoon || 1942 || Leo McCarey || Cary Grant || |- | Tender Comrade || 1943 || Edward Dmytryk || || |- | Lady in the Dark || 1944 || Mitchell Leisen || Ray Milland, Warner Baxter || |- | I'll Be Seeing You || 1944 || William Dieterle || Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple || |- | Week-End at the Waldorf || 1945 || Robert Z. Leonard || Lana Turner || |- | Heartbeat || 1946 || Sam Wood || Adolphe Menjou || |- | Magnificent Doll || 1946 || Frank Borzage || David Niven, Burgess Meredith || |- | It Had to Be You || 1947 || Don Hartman and Rudolph Mate || Cornel Wilde || |- | The Barkleys of Broadway || 1949 || Charles Walters || Fred Astaire || Originally Rogers' role was meant for Judy Garland who had recently starred in the successful musical Easter Parade with Astaire. However she had to drop out of the project due to drugs and Rogers was sought as a last minute replacement. This is the only Astaire-Rogers film not released by RKO and filmed in color. |- | Perfect Strangers || 1950 || Bretaigne Windust || Dennis Morgan || |- | Storm Warning || 1950 || Stuart Heisler || Ronald Reagen, Doris Day || |- | The Groom Wore Spurs || 1951 || Richard Whorf || Jack Carson || |- | We're Not Married || 1952 || Edmund Goulding || Marilyn Monroe, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Victor Moore || |- | Monkey Business || 1952 || Howard Hawks || Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn || |- | Dreamboat || 1952 || Claude Binyon || || |- | Forever Female || 1953 || Irving Rapper || William Holden || |- | Black Widow || 1954 || Nunnally Johnson || Gene Tierney || |- | Twist of Fate || 1954 || David Miller || || This was released in Great Britain as "Beautiful Stranger." Rogers' husband at the time, Jacques Bergerac, appeared in the film. |- | Tight Spot || 1955 || Phil Karlson || Edward G. Robinson || |- | The First Traveling Saleslady || 1956 || Arthur Lubin || Clint Eastwood || |- | Teenage Rebel || 1956 || Edmund Goulding || || |- | Oh! Men, Oh! Women || 1957 || Nunnally Johnson || David Niven || |- | The Confession || 1965 || William Dieterle || Ray Milland || Also known as "Quick, Let's Get Married." |- | Harlow || 1965 || Alex Segal || || |}

Short subjects

A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929)

A Night in a Dormitory (1930)

Campus Sweethearts (1930)

Office Blues (1930)

Hollywood on Parade (1932)

Screen Snapshots (1932)

Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 (1933)

Hollywood Newsreel (1934)

Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3 (1936)

Show Business at War (1943)

Battle Stations (Narrator, 1944)

Screen Snapshots: The Great Showman (1950)

Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Great Entertainers (1954)

Television

The DuPont Show with June Allyson, as Kay Neilson in "The Tender Shoot" (October 18, 1959)

What's My Line? (1954, 1957, 1963)

The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom (1959)

Cinderella (1965)

Here's Lucy (1971)(episode 4.11)

The Love Boat (1979) (episodes 3.10 and 3.11)

Glitter (1984) (episode 1.3)

Hotel (1987) (episode 5.1) (final screen role)

References

Bibliography

Fred Astaire: Steps in Time, 1959, multiple reprints.

Arlene Croce: The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book, Galahad Books 1974, ISBN 0-88365-099-1

Jocelyn Faris: Ginger Rogers - a Bio-Bibliography, Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1994, ISBN 0-313-29177-2

Hannah Hyam: Fred and Ginger - The Astaire-Rogers Partnership 1934-1938, Pen Press Publications, Brighton, 2007. ISBN 978-1-905621-96-5

John Mueller: Astaire Dancing - The Musical Films of Fred Astaire, Knopf 1985, ISBN 0-394-51654-0

Ginger Rogers: Ginger My Story, New York: Harper Collins, 1991

External links

Ginger Rogers - Appreciations

Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Musical

Ginger Rogers biography from Reel Classics

John Mueller's 1991 New York Times review of Ginger: My Story

Photographs and literature

Category:1911 births Category:1995 deaths Category:People from Independence, Missouri Category:Missouri Republicans Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American Christian Scientists Category:American ballroom dancers Category:American film actors Category:American tap dancers Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:20th-century actors Category:Vaudeville performers Category:California Republicans Category:Burials at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery Category:People from Eagle Point, Oregon Category:People from Jackson County, Oregon

Name	Rita Hayworth
Caption	in a colorized publicty shot, 1946
Birth name	Margarita Carmen Cansino
Birth date	October 17, 1918
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Death date	May 14, 1987
Death place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, dancer
Years active	1934–1972
Spouse	Edward C. Judson (1937–1942)Orson Welles (1943–1948)Prince Aly Khan (1949–1953)Dick Haymes (1953–1955)James Hill (1958–1961)

Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as a great sex symbol, most notably in Gilda (1946). She appeared in 61 films over 37 years

Hayworth had two younger brothers: Vernon Cansino and Eduardo Cansino, Jr., both of whom served in World War II. Vernon left the US Army in 1946 with several medals, including the Purple Heart. He married Susan Vail, a dancer. Eduardo Cansino Jr. followed Hayworth into acting; he was also under contract with Columbia Pictures. In 1950 he made his screen debut in Magic Carpet.

Elisa Cansino, her aunt, ran a dancing school in San Francisco. Her nephew Richard Cansino, is a voice actor in anime and video games; he has done most of his work under the name "Richard Hayworth."

Barbara Leaming claims in her bio book, If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth (1989), that as a child and teenager, Hayworth was a victim of physical and sexual abuse by her father. Leaming also claims that through her life, Hayworth was never without a boyfriend for long, with her choice of partners becoming increasingly poor.

Marriages

Hayworth had five marriages, each of which ended in divorce within five years: :1) Edward Charles Judson (1937–1942); :2) Orson Welles (1943–1948, one daughter: Rebecca Welles (1944-2004)); including leading roles in successful, classic films like Gilda, she never received an Academy Award nomination. Nevertheless, Rita Hayworth is listed as one of the American Film Institute's Greatest Stars of All Time.

Legacy

One of the major fund raisers for the Alzheimer's Association is the annual Rita Hayworth Gala, held in New York City and Chicago, Illinois. Hayworth's daughter, Yasmin Aga Khan, has been the hostess for these events and a major sponsor of Alzheimer's Disease charities and awareness programs. Since 1985 they have raised more than US$42 million for the Association. The film I Remember Better When I Paint (2009) features a stirring interview with Hayworth's daughter describing how her mother took up painting while struggling with Alzheimer's and produced beautiful works of art.

Biographical Depictions

Actress Lynda Carter portrayed Hayworth in the television movie . Actress Veronica Watt also portrayed her in the film Hollywoodland.

Filmography

As Rita Cansino

Anna Case in La Fiesta (Short subject, 1926, Unconfirmed)

Cruz Diablo aka The Devil's Cross (Uncredited, 1934)

In Caliente (1935) (scenes deleted)

Under the Pampas Moon (1935)

Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)

Dante's Inferno (1935)

Paddy O'Day (1935)

Human Cargo (1936)

Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)

Rebellion (1936)

The Dancing Pirate (1936)

Old Louisiana (1937)

Hit the Saddle (1937)

Trouble in Texas (1937)

As Rita Hayworth

Criminals of the Air (1937)

Girls Can Play (1937)

The Game That Kills (1937)

Paid to Dance (1937)

The Shadow (1937)

Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938)

Special Inspector (1938)

There's Always a Woman (1938)

Convicted (1938)

Juvenile Court (1938)

The Renegade Ranger (1938)

Homicide Bureau (1939)

The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Music in My Heart (1940)

Blondie on a Budget (1940)

Susan and God (1940)

The Lady in Question (1940)

Angels Over Broadway (1940)

The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

Affectionately Yours (1941)

Blood and Sand (1941)

You'll Never Get Rich (1941)

My Gal Sal (1942)

Tales of Manhattan (1942)

You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)

Cover Girl (1944)

Tonight and Every Night (1945)

Gilda (1946)

Down to Earth (1947)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

The Loves of Carmen (1948)

Champagne Safari (1952)

Affair in Trinidad (1952)

Salome (1953)

Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)

Fire Down Below (1957)

Pal Joey (1957)

Separate Tables (1958)

They Came to Cordura (1959)

The Story on Page One (1959)

The Happy Thieves (1962)

Circus World (1964)

The Money Trap (1965)

The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966)

L'Avventuriero (1967)

I Bastardi (1968)

The Naked Zoo (1971)

Road to Salina (1971)

The Wrath of God (1972)

References

Further reading

Kobal, John. Rita Hayworth: The Time, the Place, the Woman (1977). ISBN 0-393-07526-5

McLean, Adrienne L. Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom (2004). ISBN 0-8135-3389-9

Morella, Joe and Epstein, Edward Z. Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth (1983). ISBN 0-385-29265-1

Peary, Gerald. Rita Hayworth: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies (1976). ISBN 0-515-04116-5

Ringgold, Gene. The Films of Rita Hayworth: The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (1974). ISBN 0-8065-0439-0

Roberts-Frenzel, Caren. Rita Hayworth: A Photographic Retrospective (2001). ISBN 0-8109-1434-4

External links

Category:1918 births Category:1987 deaths Category:American dancers Category:American film actors Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:American racehorse owners and breeders Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease

Category:Hispanic and Latino American people Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Torch singers Category:Vaudeville performers Category:20th-century actors

Name	Eleanor Powell
Caption	Eleanor Powell, 1938
Birth name	Eleanor Torrey Powell
Birth date	November 21, 1912
Birth place	Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
Death date	February 11, 1982
Death place	Beverly Hills, California, United States
Occupation	Actress/Dancer
Years active	1928–1953
Spouse	Glenn Ford (1943–1959)
Website	http://classicmoviefavorites.com/powell/

Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was an American film actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.

Early life

Powell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. A dancer since childhood, she was discovered at the age of 11 by the head of the Vaudeville Kiddie revue, Gus Edwards. When she was 17, she brought her graceful, athletic style to Broadway, where she starred in various revues and musicals. During this time, she was dubbed "the world's greatest tap dancer" due to her machine-gun footwork, and in the early 1930s appeared as a chorus girl in a couple of early, inconsequential musical films.

Road to Hollywood

In 1935, the leggy, fresh-faced Powell made the move to Hollywood and did a specialty number in her first major film, George White's 1935 Scandals which she later described as a disaster due in part to her accidentally being made up to look like an Egyptian due to a mix-up prior to filming her scene. The experience left her unimpressed with Hollywood. Nonetheless, she was courted by MGM, but initially refused their offers of a contract. Reportedly, Powell attempted to dissuade the studio by making what she felt were unreasonable salary demands, but MGM agreed and she finally accepted. The studio groomed her for her future stardom making minimal changes in her makeup and conduct.

Film stardom

She was well-received in her first starring role in 1935's Broadway Melody of 1936 (in which she was supported by Jack Benny and Frances Langford), and delighted 1930s audiences with her endless energy and enthusiasm, not to mention her stunning dancing. According to dancer Ann Miller, quoted in the "making-of" documentary about That's Entertainment! III, MGM was headed for bankruptcy in the late 1930s, but the films of Eleanor Powell, particularly Broadway Melody of 1936 were so popular they made the company profitable again. Miller also credits Powell for inspiring her own dancing career, which would eventually lead her to become an MGM musical star a decade later.

and Eleanor Powell dance to "Begin the Beguine" in Broadway Melody of 1940.]]

Powell would go on to star opposite many of the decade's top leading men such as James Stewart, Robert Taylor, Fred Astaire, George Murphy, Nelson Eddy, and Robert Young. Films she made during the height of her career in the mid-to-late 1930s co-starred these men and others and included Born to Dance (1936), Rosalie (1937), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Honolulu (1939), and Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). All of these movies featured her amazing solo tapping, although her increasingly huge production numbers began to attract criticism. Her characters also often sang, but Powell's singing voice was usually (but not always) overdubbed (this would also happen to one of Powell's successors, Cyd Charisse). Broadway Melody of 1940, in which Powell starred opposite Fred Astaire, featured an acclaimed musical score by Cole Porter. Together, Astaire and Powell danced to Porter's "Begin the Beguine", which is considered by many to be one of the greatest tap sequences in film history. According to accounts of the making of this film, including a documentary included on the DVD release, Astaire was somewhat intimidated by Powell, who was considered the only female dancer ever capable of out-dancing Astaire. In his autobiography Steps in Time, Astaire remarked, "She 'put 'em down like a man', no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself."

Decline in popularity

Following Broadway Melody of 1940 Powell was sidelined for many months following a gall stone operation and things changed somewhat for the worse, at least as far as Powell's movie career was concerned. 1941's Lady Be Good gave Powell top billing and a classic dance routine to "Fascinatin' Rhythm", but Robert Young and Ann Sothern were the actual stars of the film. The same happened with Red Skelton in Ship Ahoy (1942) and I Dood It (1943), although in Ship Ahoy her character nonetheless played a central role in the story, and Powell's dance skills were put to practical use when she manages to tap out a morse code message to a secret agent in the middle of a dance routine.

She was signed to play opposite Dan Dailey in For Me and My Gal in 1942, but the two actors were removed from the picture during rehearsals and replaced by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Later, production of a new Broadway Melody film that would have paired Powell with Kelly was also cancelled.

She parted ways with MGM in 1943 after her next film, Thousands Cheer, in which she appeared only for a few minutes to perform a specialty number (as part of an all-star cast), and the same year married Canadian-born lead actor Glenn Ford. She danced in a giant pinball machine in Sensations of 1945 (1944) for United Artists, but this picture was a critical and commercial disappointment, Powell's performance overshadowed by what was to be the final film appearance of W. C. Fields. Powell retired from the cinema afterwards to concentrate on raising her son, actor Peter Ford, who was born that year (although she did appear in a couple of documentary-style short subjects about celebrities in the late 1940s). Overseas audiences did get to see one additional Powell dance performance in 1946, however, when the compilation The Great Morgan was released, which included a number that had been cut from Honolulu.

In 1950, Powell returned to MGM one last time for a cameo in Duchess of Idaho, starring Esther Williams. Appearing as herself in a nightclub scene, a hesitant Powell is invited to dance by Van Johnson's character, and she begins with a staid, almost balletic performance until she is chided by Johnson for being lazy. She then strips off her skirt, revealing her famous legs, and proceeds to perform a "boogie-woogie"-style specialty number very similar to the one she performed in Thousands Cheer seven years earlier. Williams, in her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid, writes of being touched watching Powell rehearsing until her feet bled in order to make her brief cameo as perfect as possible.

Later career: TV and stage

After Duchess of Idaho, Powell returned to private life. In May 1952, she emerged as a guest star on an episode of Four Star Revue with Danny Thomas and June Havoc. Around this time, she was ordained a minister of the Unity Church and later hosted an Emmy Award-winning Sunday morning TV program for youth entitled The Faith of Our Children (1953–1955). Her son, Peter Ford, was a regular on this show and would later find his own success as a rock and roll singer and as an actor. In 1955, Powell made her last-ever film appearance when she appeared in Have Faith in Our Children, a three-minute short film produced for the Variety Club of Northern California in which Powell asked viewers to donate to the charity. The short, which other than its title had no relation to the TV series, marked the only time Powell appeared on screen with Glenn Ford.

Powell divorced Ford in 1959, and that year, encouraged by Peter, launched a highly-publicized nightclub career, maintaining her good figure and looks well into middle age. Her live performances continued well into the 1960s. During the early 1960s she made several guest appearances on variety TV programs, including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace.

She made her final public appearance in 1981 at a televised AFI tribute to Fred Astaire, where she received a standing ovation.

Quote

"What we are is God's gift to us, what we become is our gift to God"

Death

Eleanor Powell died February 11, 1982 of cancer at the age of 69, and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.

Reintroduction

was Powell's first color film, and her last MGM film until 1950.]] Powell was reintroduced to audiences in the popular That's Entertainment! documentary in 1974, and its sequels That's Entertainment Part II (1976) and That's Entertainment! III (1994) and the related film That's Dancing! (1985) which spotlight her dancing from films such as Broadway Melody of 1940, Lady Be Good, and Born to Dance. She is one of only a few performers to be the subject of spotlight segments (as opposed to being included in a montage with other performers) in all four films. That's Entertainment! III is notable for including behind-the-scenes footage of her "Fascinatin' Rhythm" routine from Lady Be Good.

Powell's films continue to be broadcast on television regularly by Turner Classic Movies, with most released in the VHS video format in 1980s and 90s. North American DVD release of her work has been slower in coming. Aside from clips from her films being included in the aforementioned That's Entertainment! trilogy, plus clips that were featured in other releases such as the 2002 special edition DVD release of Singin' in the Rain, it wasn't until the 2003 DVD release of Broadway Melody of 1940 that a complete Powell film was released in the format. In February 2007, Warner Home Video announced plans to release a boxed DVD set of Eleanor Powell's musical films by year end. This did not occur; instead, on April 8, 2008 Warner released of a third boxed set in the Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory series, with nine films, four of which star Powell: Broadway Melody of 1936, Born to Dance, Broadway Melody of 1938, and Lady Be Good. The films are expected to be released in individual two film sets (the two Broadway Melody films in one set, Born to Dance/Lady Be Good on the other) later in the year.

Filmography

Features

Queen High (1930)

George White's 1935 Scandals (1935)

Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)

Born to Dance (1936)

Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)

Rosalie (1937)

Honolulu (1939)

Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)

Lady Be Good (1941)

Ship Ahoy (1942)

Thousands Cheer (1943)

I Dood It (1943)

Sensations of 1945 (1944)

Duchess of Idaho (1950)

Short Subjects

No Contest! (1934)

Screen Shapshots Series 15, No. 12 (1936)

Screen Snapshots: Famous Hollywood Mothers (1947)

Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Holiday (1948)

Have Faith in Our Children (1955)

Notes

References

Margie Schultz: Eleanor Powell: A Bio-Bibliography, Greenwood Press, 1994, ISBN 0-313-28110-6

External links

Official site

Photographs and literature

Category:1912 births Category:1982 deaths Category:Actors from Massachusetts Category:American film actors Category:American tap dancers Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:People from Springfield, Massachusetts Category:Vaudeville performers Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:20th-century actors

Name	Gene Kelly
Imagesize	225px
Caption	Kelly in 1986, by Allan Warren
Birth name	Eugene Curran Kelly
Birth date	August 23, 1912
Birth place	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Death date	February 02, 1996
Death place	Beverly Hills, California, United States
Occupation	Actor, dancer, singer, director, producer, choreographer
Years active	1938–1994
Spouse	Betsy Blair (1941–1957)Jeanne Coyne (1960–1973) (her death)Patricia Ward (1990–1996) (his death)

Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly (August 23, 1912February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer. Kelly was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters that he played on screen.

Although he is known today for his performance in Singin' in the Rain, he was a dominant force in Hollywood musical films from the mid 1940s until this art form fell out of fashion in the late 1950s. His many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical film, and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences.

Kelly was the recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors, and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute; in 1999, the American Film Institute also numbered him 15th in their Greatest Male Stars of All Time list.

Early life

He was the third son of James Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and Harriet Curran, who were both children of Irish Roman Catholic immigrants. He was born in the Highland Park neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and, at the age of eight, was enrolled by his mother in dance classes, along with his elder brother James. They both rebelled, and, according to Kelly: "We didn't like it much and were continually involved in fistfights with the neighborhood boys who called us sissies...I didn't dance again until I was fifteen." He thought it would be a good way to get girls.

In 1931, Kelly enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study economics where he joined the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. In 1937, having successfully managed and developed the family's dance school business, he moved to New York City in search of work as a choreographer.

Stage career

After a fruitless search, Kelly returned to Pittsburgh, to his first position as a choreographer with the Charles Gaynor musical revue Hold Your Hats at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in April, 1938. Kelly appeared in six of the sketches, one of which, "La Cumparsita", became the basis of an extended Spanish number in Anchors Aweigh eight years later.

His first Broadway assignment, in November 1938, was as a dancer in Cole Porter's Leave It to Me! as the American ambassador's secretary who supports Mary Martin while she sings "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". He had been hired by Robert Alton who had staged a show at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and been impressed by Kelly's teaching skills. When Alton moved on to choreograph One for the Money he hired Kelly to act, sing and dance in a total of eight routines. His first career breakthrough was in the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Time of Your Life, which opened on October 25, 1939, where for the first time on Broadway he danced to his own choreography. In the same year he received his first assignment as a Broadway choreographer, for Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe. His future wife, Betsy Blair, was a member of the cast. They began dating and married on October 16, 1941.

In 1940, he was given the leading role in Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, again choreographed by Robert Alton, and this role propelled him to stardom. During its run he told reporters: "I don't believe in conformity to any school of dancing. I create what the drama and the music demand. While I am a hundred percent for ballet technique, I use only what I can adapt to my own use. I never let technique get in the way of mood or continuity." It was at this time also, that his phenomenal commitment to rehearsal and hard work was noticed by his colleagues. Van Johnson who also appeared in Pal Joey recalled: "I watched him rehearsing, and it seemed to me that there was no possible room for improvement. Yet he wasn't satisfied. It was midnight and we had been rehearsing since eight in the morning. I was making my way sleepily down the long flight of stairs when I heard staccato steps coming from the stage...I could see just a single lamp burning. Under it, a figure was dancing...Gene."

Offers from Hollywood began to arrive but Kelly was in no particular hurry to leave New York. Eventually, he signed with David O. Selznick, agreeing to go to Hollywood at the end of his commitment to Pal Joey, in October 1941. Prior to his contract, he also managed to fit in choreographing the stage production of Best Foot Forward.

Film career

1941–1944: Becoming established in Hollywood

in Anchors Aweigh (1945)]] Selznick sold half of Kelly's contract to MGM and loaned him out to MGM for his first motion picture: For Me and My Gal (1942) with Judy Garland. Kelly was "appalled at the sight of myself blown up twenty times. I had an awful feeling that I was a tremendous flop" but the picture did well and, in the face of much internal resistance, Arthur Freed of MGM picked up the other half of Kelly's contract. After appearing in the B-movie drama Pilot #5 he took the male lead in Cole Porter's Du Barry Was a Lady opposite Lucille Ball. His first opportunity to dance to his own choreography came in his next picture Thousands Cheer, where he performed a mock-love dance with a mop.

He achieved his breakthrough as a dancer on film, when MGM loaned him out to Columbia to work with Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl (1944), where he created a memorable routine dancing to his own reflection. In his next film Anchors Aweigh (1945), MGM virtually gave him a free hand to devise a range of dance routines, including the celebrated and much imitated animated dances with Jerry Mouse, and his duets with co-star Frank Sinatra.

Stanley Donen, brought to Hollywood by Kelly to be his assistant choreographer, received co-director credit for On the Town. According to Kelly: "...when you are involved in doing choreography for film you must have expert assistants. I needed one to watch my performance, and one to work with the cameraman on the timing..without such people as Stanley, Carol Haney and Jeanne Coyne I could never have done these things. When we came to do On the Town, I knew it was time for Stanley to get screen credit because we weren't boss-assistant anymore but co-creators."

(1952)]] It was now Kelly's turn to ask the studio for a straight acting role and he took the lead role in the early mafia melodrama: The Black Hand (1949). Gene Kelly as an Italian-American attorney? This expose of organized crime is set in New York's "Little Italy" the late 19th century, the Black Hand, a group which extorts money upon threat of death. In the real-life incidents upon which this film is based, it was the Mafia, not the Black Hand, who functioned as the villain. Even in 1950, however, Hollywood had to tread gingerly whenever dealing with big-time crime; it was easier (and safer) to go after a "dead" criminal organization than a "live" one.

There followed Summer Stock (1950) – Judy Garland's last musical film for MGM – in which Kelly performed the celebrated "You, You Wonderful You" solo routine with a newspaper and a squeaky floorboard. In his book "Easy the Hard Way", Joe Pasternak, head of one of the other musical units within MGM, singled out Kelly for his patience and willingness to spend as much time as necessary to enable the ailing Garland to complete her part.

There followed in quick succession two musicals which have secured Kelly's reputation as a major force in the American musical film, An American in Paris (1951) and – probably the most popular and admired of all film musicals – Singin' in the Rain (1952). As co-director, lead star and choreographer, Kelly was the central driving force. Johnny Green, head of music at MGM at the time, described him as follows:

"Gene is easygoing as long as you know exactly what you are doing when you're working with him. He's a hard taskmaster and he loves hard work. If you want to play on his team you'd better like hard work too. He isn't cruel but he is tough, and if Gene believed in something he didn't care who he was talking to, whether it was Louis B. Mayer or the gatekeeper. He wasn't awed by anybody and he had a good record of getting what he wanted".

An American in Paris won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and, in the same year, Kelly was presented with an honorary Academy Award for his contribution to film musicals and the art of choreography. The film also marked the debut of Leslie Caron, whom Kelly had spotted in Paris and brought to Hollywood. Its dream ballet sequence, lasting an unprecedented seventeen minutes, was the most expensive production number ever filmed up to that point and was described by Bosley Crowther as, "whoop-de-doo ... one of the finest ever put on the screen." Singin' in the Rain featured Kelly's celebrated and much imitated solo dance routine to the title song, along with the "Moses Supposes" routine with Donald O'Connor and the "Broadway Melody" finale with Cyd Charisse, and while it did not initially generate the same enthusiasm as An American in Paris, it subsequently overtook the earlier film to occupy its current pre-eminent place among critics and filmgoers alike. In December 1951 he signed a contract with MGM which sent him to Europe for nineteen months so that Kelly could use MGM funds frozen in Europe to make three pictures while personally benefiting from tax exemptions. Only one of these pictures was a musical, Invitation to the Dance, a pet project of Kelly's to bring modern ballet to mainstream film audiences. It was beset with delays and technical problems, and flopped when finally released in 1956. When Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1953, the film musical was already beginning to feel the pressures from television, and MGM cut the budget for his next picture Brigadoon (1954), with Cyd Charisse, forcing the film to be made on studio backlots instead of on location in Scotland. This year also saw him appear as guest star with his brother Fred in the celebrated "I Love To Go Swimmin' with Wimmen" routine in Deep in My Heart. MGM's refusal to loan him out for Guys and Dolls and Pal Joey put further strains on his relationship with the studio. He negotiated an exit to his contract which involved making three further pictures for MGM.

The first of these, It's Always Fair Weather (1956) co-directed with Donen, was a musical satire on television and advertising, and includes his famous roller skate dance routine to "I Like Myself", and a dance trio with Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey which allowed Kelly to experiment with the widescreen possibilities of Cinemascope. A modest success, it was followed by Kelly's last musical film for MGM, Les Girls (1957), in which he partnered a trio of leading ladies, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall and Taina Elg, fittingly ending, as he had begun, with a Cole Porter musical. The third picture he completed was a co-production between MGM and himself, the B-movie The Happy Road, set in his beloved France, his first foray in his new role as producer-director-actor.

1958–1996: Years of perseverance

Kelly did not return to stage work until his MGM contract ended in 1957, when in 1958 he directed Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play Flower Drum Song. to select his own material and create a modern ballet for the company, the first time an American received such an assignment. The result was Pas de Dieux, based on Greek mythology combined with the music of George Gershwin's Concerto in F. It was a major success, and led to his being honored with the Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the French Government.

]] Kelly continued to make some film appearances, such as Hornbeck in the 1960 Hollywood production of Inherit the Wind. However, most of his efforts were now concentrated on film production and directing. He directed Jackie Gleason in Gigot in Paris, but the film was subsequently drastically recut by Seven Arts Productions and flopped. Another French effort, Jacques Demy's homage to the MGM musical: Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967) in which Kelly appeared, also performed poorly. He appeared as himself in George Cukor's Let's Make Love (1960).

His first foray into television was a documentary for NBC's Omnibus, Dancing is a Man's Game (1958) where he assembled a group of America's greatest sportsmen – including Mickey Mantle, Sugar Ray Robinson and Bob Cousy – and reinterpreted their moves choreographically, as part of his lifelong quest to remove the effeminate stereotype of the art of dance, while articulating the philosophy behind his dance style. It gained an Emmy nomination for choreography and now stands as the key document explaining Kelly's approach to modern dance.

Kelly also frequently appeared on television shows during the 1960s, but his one effort at television series, as Father Chuck O'Malley in Going My Way (1962–63), based on the Best Picture of 1944 starring Bing Crosby, was dropped after thirty episodes, although it enjoyed great popularity in Roman Catholic countries outside of the United States. He also appeared in three major TV specials: New York, New York (1966), The Julie Andrews Show (1965), and Jack and the Beanstalk (1967) a show he produced and directed which returned to a combination of cartoon animation with live dance, winning him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program.

In 1963, Kelly joined Universal Pictures for a two-year stint which proved to be the most unproductive of his career so far. He joined 20th Century Fox in 1965, but had little to do – partly due to his decision to decline assignments away from Los Angeles for family reasons. His perseverance finally paid off with the major box-office hit A Guide for the Married Man (1967) where he directed Walter Matthau and a major opportunity arose when Fox – buoyed by the returns from The Sound of Music (1965) – commissioned Kelly to direct Hello, Dolly! (1969), again directing Matthau along with Barbra Streisand, but which unfortunately failed to recoup the enormous production expenses.

In 1970, he made another TV special: Gene Kelly and 50 Girls and was invited to bring the show to Las Vegas, which he duly did for an eight-week stint – on condition he be paid more than any artist had hitherto been paid there. He directed veteran actors James Stewart and Henry Fonda in the comedy western The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) which performed very well at the box-office. In 1973 he would work again with Frank Sinatra as part of Sinatra's Emmy nominated TV special Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. Then, in 1974, he appeared as one of many special narrators in the surprise hit of the year That's Entertainment! and subsequently directed and co-starred with his friend Fred Astaire in the sequel That's Entertainment, Part II (1976). It was a measure of his powers of persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire – who had insisted that his contract rule out any dancing, having long since retired – into performing a series of song and dance duets, evoking a powerful nostalgia for the glory days of the American musical film. Kelly continued to make frequent TV appearances and in 1980, appeared in an acting and dancing role opposite Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu (1980), an expensive theatrical flop which has since attained a cult following. In Kelly's opinion "The concept was marvelous but it just didn't come off." In the same year, he was invited by Francis Ford Coppola to recruit a production staff for American Zoetrope's One from the Heart (1982). Although Coppola's ambition was for him to establish a production unit to rival the Freed Unit at MGM, the film's failure put an end to this idea. In 1985, Kelly served as executive producer and co-host of That's Dancing! – a celebration of the history of dance in the American musical. After his final on-screen appearance introducing That's Entertainment! III in 1994, his final film project was the animated movie Cats Don't Dance, released in 1997 and dedicated to him, on which Kelly acted as uncredited choreographic consultant.

Working methods and influence on filmed dance

When he began his collaborative film work, he was heavily influenced by Robert Alton and John Murray Anderson, striving to create moods and character insight with his dances. He choreographed his own movement, along with that of the ensemble, with the assistance of Jeanne Coyne, Stanley Donen, Carol Haney, and Alex Romero.

There was a clear progression in his development, from an early concentration on tap and musical comedy style to greater complexity using ballet and modern dance forms. He especially acknowledged the influence of George M. Cohan: "I have a lot of Cohan in me. It's an Irish quality, a jaw-jutting, up-on-the-toes cockiness - which is a good quality for a male dancer to have." He was also heavily influenced by an African-American dancer Dancing Dotson, whom he saw at Loew's Penn. Theatre around 1929, and was briefly taught by Frank Harrington, an African-American tap specialist from New York. He also studied Spanish dancing under Angel Cansino, Rita Hayworth's uncle. Generally speaking, he tended to use tap and other popular dance idioms to express joy and exuberance – as in the title song from Singin' in the Rain or "I Got Rhythm" from An American in Paris, whereas pensive or romantic feelings were more often expressed via ballet or modern dance, as in "Heather on the Hill" from Brigadoon or "Our Love Is Here to Stay" from An American in Paris.

According to Delamater, Kelly's work "seems to represent the fulfillment of dance-film integration in the 1940s and 1950s". While Fred Astaire had revolutionized the filming of dance in the 1930s by insisting on full-figure photography of dancers while allowing only a modest degree of camera movement, Kelly freed up the camera, making greater use of space, camera movement, camera angles and editing, creating a partnership between dance movement and camera movement without sacrificing full-figure framing. Kelly's reasoning behind this was that he felt the kinetic force of live dance often evaporated when brought to film, and he sought to partially overcome this by involving the camera in movement and giving the dancer a greater number of directions in which to move. Examples of this abound in Kelly's work and are well illustrated in the "Prehistoric Man" sequence from On the Town and "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" from Take Me Out to the Ball Game. In 1951, he summed up his vision as follows: "If the camera is to make a contribution at all to dance, this must be the focal point of its contribution; the fluid background, giving each spectator an undistorted and altogether similar view of dancer and background. To accomplish this, the camera is made fluid, moving with the dancer, so that the lens becomes the eye of the spectator, your eye".

and assistant Jeanne Coyne in the NBC Omnibus television special Dancing is a Man's Game (1958)]] Kelly's athleticism gave his moves a distinctive broad, muscular quality, and this was a very deliberate choice on his part, as he explained: "There's a strong link between sports and dancing, and my own dancing springs from my early days as an athlete...I think dancing is a man's game and if he does it well he does it better than a woman." He railed against what he saw as the widespread effeminacy in male dancing which, in his opinion, "tragically" stigmatized the genre, alienating boys from entering the field: "Dancing does attract effeminate young men. I don't object to that as long as they don't dance effeminately. I just say that if a man dances effeminately he dances badly — just as if a woman comes out on stage and starts to sing bass. Unfortunately people confuse gracefulness with softness. John Wayne is a graceful man and so are some of the great ball players...but, of course, they don't run the risk of being called sissies." In his view, "one of our problems is that so much dancing is taught by women. You can spot many male dancers who have this tuition by their arm movements — they are soft, limp and feminine." He acknowledged that, in spite of his efforts — in TV programs such as Dancing: A Man's Game (1958) for example — the situation changed little over the years.

He also sought to break from the class-conscious conventions of the 1930s and early 40s, when top hat and tails or tuxedos were the norm, by dancing in casual or everyday work clothes, so as to make his dancing more relevant to the cinema-going public. As his first wife, actress and dancer Betsy Blair explained: "A sailor suit or his white socks and loafers, or the T-shirts on his muscular torso, gave everyone the feeling that he was a regular guy, and perhaps they too could express love and joy by dancing in the street or stomping through puddles...he democratized the dance in movies."

Personal life

Kelly was married to Betsy Blair for 15 years (1941–1957) and they had one child, Kerry. Kelly divorced Blair in 1957. In 1960, Kelly married his choreographic assistant Jeanne Coyne, who had divorced Stanley Donen in 1949 after a brief marriage. He remained married to Coyne from 1960 until her death in 1973 and they had two children, Bridget and Tim. He was married to Patricia Ward from 1990 until his death in 1996.

Gene Kelly was a lifelong Democratic Party supporter with strong progressive convictions, which occasionally created difficulty for him as his period of greatest prominence coincided with the McCarthy era in the U.S. In 1947, he was part of the Committee for the First Amendment, the Hollywood delegation which flew to Washington to protest at the first official hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His first wife, Betsy Blair, was suspected of being a Communist sympathizer and when MGM, who had offered Blair a part in Marty (1955), were considering withdrawing her under pressure from the American Legion, Kelly successfully threatened MGM with a pullout from It's Always Fair Weather unless his wife was restored to the part.

Kelly died in his sleep on February 2, 1996, in Beverly Hills, California after a stroke – he had also suffered a stroke the year before. His body was cremated the same day and he had left instructions that there was to be no funeral and no memorial services.

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |1942 |For Me and My Gal |Harry Palmer | |- |rowspan=2|1943 |Du Barry Was a Lady |Alec Howe/Black Arrow | |- |Thousands Cheer |Private Eddie Marsh | |- |1944 |Cover Girl |Danny McGuire | |- |rowspan=2|1945 |Anchors Aweigh |Joseph Brady |Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor |- |Ziegfeld Follies |Gentleman in 'The Babbit and the Bromide' | |- |1947 |Living in a Big Way |Leo Gogarty | |- |rowspan=2|1948 |The Pirate |Serafin | |- |Words and Music |Himself | |- |rowspan=2|1949 |Take Me Out to the Ball Game |Eddie O'Brien | |- |On the Town |Gabey | |- |1950 |Summer Stock |Joe D. Ross | |- |1951 |An American in Paris |Jerry Mulligan |Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |- |1952 |Singin' in the Rain |Don Lockwood | |- |rowspan=2|1954 |Brigadoon |Tommy Albright | |- |Deep in My Heart |Specialty in 'Dancing Around' | |- |1955 |It's Always Fair Weather |Ted Riley | |- |1956 |Invitation to the Dance |Host/Pierrot/The Marine/Sinbad | |- |1957 |Les Girls |Barry Nichols | |- |1958 |Marjorie Morningstar | | |- |1960 |Let's Make Love |Himself | |- |1964 |What a Way to Go! |Pinky Benson | |- |1966 |Les Demoiselles de Rochefort |Andy Miller | |- |1974 |That's Entertainment! |Himself |(also archive footage) |- |1976 |That's Entertainment, Part II |Himself |(also archive footage) |- |1980 |Xanadu |Danny McGuire | |}

Stage

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Dates ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |November 9, 1938 - July 15, 1939 |Leave It to Me! |Secretary to Mr. Goodhue | |- |February 4, 1939 - May 27, 1939 |One for the Money |various roles | |- |October 25, 1939 - April 6, 1940 |The Time of Your Life |Harry | |- |September 23, 1940 - October 19, 1940 |The Time of Your Life |Harry | |- |December 25, 1940 - November 29, 1941 |Pal Joey |Joey Evans | |- |October 1, 1941 - July 4, 1942 |Best Foot Forward | |Choreography |- |December 1, 1958 - May 7, 1960 |Flower Drum Song | | Director |- |February 22, 1979 - April 1, 1979 |Coquelico | |Producer |- |July 2, 1985 - May 18, 1986 |Singin' in the Rain | |Original film choreographyNominated — Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography |}

Television

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |1958 |Dancing: A Man's Game |Himself |Omnibus |- |1962–1963 |Going My Way |Father Chuck O'Malley |(30 episodes) |- |rowspan=2|1965 |Gene Kelly: New York, New York |Himself | |- |The Julie Andrews Show |Himself | |- |1967 |Jack and the Beanstalk |Jeremy Keen, Proprietor (Peddler) |Emmy Award for Best Children's Program |- |1971 |The Funny Side |Himself |Series host |- |1973 |Frank Sinatra: Ol' Blue Eyes is Back |Himself | |- |1978 |Gene Kelly: An American in Pasadena |Himself | |- |1980 |Muppet Show |Himself | |- |1985 |North and South |Senator Charles Edwards | |- |1986 |Sins |Eric Hovland | |}

References in Popular Music

Gene Kelly appears mentioned on the rap section of Madonna's "Vogue" from 1990 next to stars from the Golden Age era of Hollywood like Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers or Marilyn Monroe

In the popular TV show Family Guy, Seth McFarlene reused the clip in Anchors Aweigh (film) with Gene Kelly and Jerry mouse dancing, and replaced Jerry with Stewie in the episode "Road to Rupert".

Notes

External links

The Gene Kelly Awards - University of Pittsburgh

Obituary, NY Times, February 3, 1996

Naval Intelligence File on Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly - An American Life - PBS

Le Site Français Gene Kelly

Le Club Français Gene Kelly

Category:1912 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Actors from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:American choreographers Category:American dancers Category:American film actors Category:20th-century actors Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:American film directors Category:American male singers Category:American tap dancers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:César Award winners Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Emmy Award winners Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:University of Pittsburgh alumni Category:Film choreographers

Name	Cyd Charisse
Imagesize	225px
Caption	Charisse in 1987, by Allan Warren
Birthname	Tula Ellice Finklea
Birthdate	March 08, 1922
Birthplace	Amarillo, Texas, U.S.
Deathdate	June 17, 2008
Deathplace	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Othername	Lily Norwood, Felia Siderova, Maria Istomina
Yearsactive	1943-2006
Occupation	Actress/Dancer
Spouse	Nico Charisse (1939–1947) 1 child Tony Martin (1948–2008) (her death) 1 child
Website	http://www.humorinthenews.com/cyd/

Cyd Charisse (March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer.

After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s. Her roles usually focussed on her abilities as a dancer, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; her films include Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953) and Silk Stockings (1957). She stopped dancing in films in the late 1950s, but continued acting in film and television, and in 1992 made her Broadway debut.

In her later years, she discussed the history of the Hollywood musical in documentaries, and participated in That's Entertainment! III in 1994. She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 2006.

Life and career

Early life

Charisse was born as Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela (née Norwood) and Ernest Enos Finklea, Sr., who was a jeweler.

During a European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939. They had a son, Nicky, born in 1942.

Career

The outbreak of World War II led to the break-up of the company, and when Charisse returned to Los Angeles, David Lichine offered her a dancing role in Gregory Ratoff's Something to Shout About. This brought her to the attention of choreographer Robert Alton — who had also discovered Gene Kelly — and soon she joined the Freed Unit at MGM, where she became the resident MGM ballet dancer.

Charisse was principally celebrated for her on-screen pairings with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. She first appeared with Astaire in a brief routine in Ziegfeld Follies (produced in 1944 and released in 1946). Her next appearance with him was as lead female role in The Band Wagon (1953), where she danced with Astaire in the acclaimed "Dancing in the Dark" and "Girl Hunt Ballet" routines. Another early role cast her opposite Judy Garland in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls.

in the "Broadway Melody Ballet" sequence from Singin' in the Rain]]

As Debbie Reynolds was not a trained dancer, Gene Kelly chose Charisse to partner him in the celebrated "Broadway Melody" ballet finale from Singin' in the Rain (1952), and she co-starred with Kelly in 1954's Scottish-themed musical film Brigadoon. She again took the lead female role alongside Kelly in his penultimate MGM musical It's Always Fair Weather (1956).

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, on June 16, 2008 after suffering an apparent heart attack. She died the following day, aged 86. After her death she was cremated and her ashes were interred on June 22, 2008, at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Culver City, California.

Honors

On November 9, 2006, in a private White House ceremony, President George W. Bush presented Cyd Charisse with the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities, the highest official U.S. honor available in the arts.

Filmography

Features:

Something to Shout About (1943)

Mission to Moscow (1943)

Thousands Cheer (1943)

Ziegfeld Follies (1945)

The Harvey Girls (1946)

Three Wise Fools (1946)

Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

Fiesta (1947)

The Unfinished Dance (1947)

On an Island with You (1948)

The Kissing Bandit (1948)

Words and Music (1948)

East Side, West Side (1949)

Tension (1950)

Mark of the Renegade (1951)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

The Wild North (1952)

Sombrero (1953)

The Band Wagon (1953)

Easy to Love (1953) (Cameo)

Brigadoon (1954)

Deep in My Heart (1954)

It's Always Fair Weather (1955)

Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956)

Silk Stockings (1957)

Twilight for the Gods (1958)

Party Girl (1958)

Black Tights (1960)

Five Golden Hours (1961)

Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)

Something's Got To Give (1962), unfinished

Assassination in Rome (1965)

The Silencers (1966)

Maroc 7 (1967)

Film Portrait (1973) (documentary)

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)

Warlords of Atlantis (1978)

Private Screening (1989)

That's Entertainment! III (1994)

Short subjects:

Rhumba Serenade (1941)

Poeme (1941)

I Knew It Would Be This Way (1941)

Did Anyone Call? (1941)

Magic of Magnolias (1942)

This Love of Mine (1942)

1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955)

Music videos

"I Want To Be Your Property" by Blue Mercedes (1988)

"Alright" by Janet Jackson (1990)

References

External links

The Cyd Charisse Appreciation Page

Famous Texans site

Archive of American Television

Legs - A tribute to Cyd Charisse

The Official Cyd Charisse Web Site

Photographs and bibliography

BBC obituary

CBC obituary

FOX obituary

NY Times obituary

Category:1922 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Actors from Texas Category:American dancers Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Ballets Russes dancers Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:People from Amarillo, Texas Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:American Jews Category:Jewish actors

Name	Cole Porter
Alt	Caucasian man in his thirties smiling and looking into the camera. He has a round face, full lips and large dark eyes, and his short dark hair is combed to the side. He is wearing a dark jacket, a white shirt and a black tie with white dots.
Caption	Cole Porter, composer and songwriter
Birth date	June 09, 1891
Birth place	Peru, Indiana, U.S.
Death date	October 15, 1964
Death place	Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Spouse	(her death)

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". He was noted for his sophisticated, bawdy lyrics, clever rhymes and complex forms. Porter was one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook. Cole Porter is one of the few Tin Pan Alley composers to have written both the lyrics and the music for his songs.

Life and career

Early years

, birthplace of Cole Porter]] Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, the only child of a wealthy Baptist family. Kate started Porter in musical training at an early age. He learned the violin at age six, the piano at eight, and he wrote his first operetta (with help from his mother) at 10. She falsified his recorded birth year from 1891 to 1893 to make him appear more precocious. His father, who was a shy and unassertive man, played a lesser role in Porter’s upbringing, although as an amateur poet he may have influenced his son’s gifts for rhyme and meter.

student]] J.O. Cole wanted his grandson to become a lawyer, and was rewarded by his grandfather with a tour of France, Switzerland and Germany. After graduating from Yale, Porter studied at Harvard Law School in 1913 (where he roomed with Dean Acheson). He soon felt that he was not destined to be a lawyer, and, at the suggestion of the dean of the law school, Porter switched to Harvard's music faculty, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Pietro Yon. Kate Porter did not object to this move, but it was kept secret from J. O. Cole.

In 1915, Porter's first song on Broadway , "Esmeralda", appeared in the revue Hands Up. The quick success was immediately followed by failure: his first Broadway production, in 1916, See America First, a "patriotic comic opera" modeled on Gilbert and Sullivan, with a book by T. Lawrason Riggs, was a flop, closing after two weeks. although the Legion itself lists Porter as one of its soldiers

Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained lavishly. His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians, and a large surplus of recreational drugs." In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée eight years his senior, whom he married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter's homosexuality, Linda remained protective of her social status, and believing that classical music might be a more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband's talents, she tried to use her social connections to find him suitable teachers, including Igor Stravinsky, but was unsuccessful. Finally, Porter enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in Paris where he studied orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d'Indy. Meanwhile, Porter's first big hit was the song "Old-Fashioned Garden" from the revue Hitchy-Koo in 1919.

Marriage did not diminish Porter's taste for extravagant luxury. The Porter home on the rue Monsieur near Les Invalides was a palatial house with platinum wallpaper and chairs upholstered in zebra skin.

Unlike contemporaries such as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, Porter did not succeed on Broadway in his early years. Dismayed by his failures, he moved to Europe, living for some time in Paris and Venice on his family's and his wife's money. He was not idle, however, and continued to write. Many of the songs from this period would later be hits. He also wrote a ballet in 1923. In his autobiography, Musical Stages, Richard Rodgers relates an anecdote about meeting Porter in Venice during this period. Porter played Rodgers several of his compositions, and Rodgers was highly impressed, wondering why Porter was not represented on Broadway. Rodgers didn't realize that Porter had already written several shows that had flopped.

Middle years

Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway with the musical Paris (1928), which featured one of his greatest "list" songs, "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)". Continuing with this Gallic theme, his next show was Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), which included several popular numbers including "You Do Something to Me", "You've Got That Thing" and "The Tale of the Oyster". Finishing out the decade, opening on December 30, 1929, was Wake Up and Dream, with a score that included "What Is This Thing Called Love?"

He started the 1930s with another musical, The New Yorkers (1930), which included a song about a streetwalker, "Love for Sale". The lyric was considered too explicit for radio at the time, though it was recorded and aired as an instrumental, but the song has now become a standard. Next came Fred Astaire's last stage show, Gay Divorce (1932). It featured a hit that would become perhaps Porter's best-known song, "Night and Day". In 1934, Porter wrote what is thought by most to be his greatest score of this period, Anything Goes (1934). Its songs include "I Get a Kick out of You", "All Through the Night", "You're the Top" (perhaps his ultimate "list" song), and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow", as well as the title number. For years afterwards, critics would unfavorably compare most Porter shows to this one. Anything Goes was also the first Porter show featuring Ethel Merman, who would go on to star in five of his musicals. He loved her loud, brassy voice, and wrote many numbers that featured her strengths. Jubilee (1935), written with Moss Hart while on a cruise around the world, was not a major hit, but featured two songs that have since become part of the Great American Songbook, "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things". Red Hot And Blue (1936), featuring Merman, Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope, introduced "It's De-Lovely", "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)", and "Ridin' High".

Porter also wrote for Hollywood, including the scores for Born to Dance (1936), featuring "You'd Be So Easy to Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin", and Rosalie (1937), featuring "In the Still of the Night". In addition, he composed the cowboy song "Don't Fence Me In" for an unproduced movie in the 1930s, but it didn't become a hit until Roy Rogers and Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters, as well as other artists, introduced it to the public in the 1940s. Porter continued to live the high life during this period, throwing lavish parties and associating with famous people like Elsa Maxwell, Monty Woolley, Beatrice Lillie, Igor Stravinsky and Fanny Brice. Some of his lyrics mention his illustrious friends. Now at the height of his success, Porter was able to enjoy the opening night of his musicals; he would make a grand entrance and sit in front, apparently relishing the show as much as any audience member.

On October 24, 1937, Porter was riding horses with the Countess Edith di Zoppola and the Duke de Verdura at the Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, New York, when his horse rolled on him and crushed his legs, leaving him mostly crippled and in constant pain. He wrote songs for Les Girls (1957) with Gene Kelly. His final score was for a CBS color special, Aladdin (1958). Columbia Records issued a recording of songs from the program.

Eventually, his injuries caused a series of ulcers on his right leg. After 34 operations, it had to be amputated and replaced with an artificial limb in 1958. The operation followed the death of his beloved mother in 1952 and his wife's death from emphysema in 1954. Porter never wrote another song after 1958 and spent the remaining years of his life in relative seclusion.

Porter died of kidney failure on October 15, 1964, at the age of 73 in Santa Monica, California. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in his native Peru, Indiana, between his wife and father, even though Porter was not close with his father.

Tributes and legacy

In 1956, the album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook was released by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by a studio orchestra conducted and arranged by Buddy Bregman. The Swedish pop group Gyllene Tider recorded a song called Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång (That girl from the Cole Porter song) in 1982. In 1990 Dionne Warwick released an album called Dionne Sings Cole Porter. In that same year Red Hot + Blue was released featuring 20 Cole Porter songs recorded by artists such as U2, Annie Lennox and Shane MacGowan as a benefit CD for AIDS research. In country singer Jo Dee Messina's song "These Are the Days", the protagonist reveals that she sings old Cole Porter songs. John Barrowman, who played "Jack" in the 2004 film De-Lovely released "John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter," a collection of Cole Porter songs in October 2004. In 2004 jazz and electronica producer Billy Paul Williams released an album named The Porter Project. In 2008, pianist/vocalist Patricia Barber released The Cole Porter Mix, consisting of her take on 10 Cole Porter classics as well as three originals inspired by Cole Porter.

Judy Garland performed a medley of Porter's songs at the 37th Academy Awards, the first Oscars ceremony held following Porter's death. Porter's life was made into Night and Day, a very sanitized 1946 Michael Curtiz film starring Cary Grant and Alexis Smith. His life was chronicled more realistically in De-Lovely, a 2004 Irwin Winkler film starring Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda. The Cole Porter Festival is held every year the second weekend of June, in his hometown of Peru, Indiana. The festival fosters music and art appreciation by celebrating Porter's life and music. In 1980, Porter's music was used for the score of Happy New Year, based on the Philip Barry play Holiday. He is referenced in the song "The Call of the Wild" (Merengue) by David Byrne on his 1989 album Rei Momo. He is also mentioned in the song "Tonite It Shows" by Mercury Rev on their 1998 album Deserter's Songs. At halftime of the 1991 Orange Bowl between Colorado and Notre Dame, Joel Grey led a large cast of singers and dancers in a tribute to Porter marking the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. The program was called, "You'll Get a Kick Out of Cole".

The French Foreign Legion honors Porter with a portrait that hangs in the Legion's official museum. Porter was a Steinway Artist, which means that he chose to perform on Steinway pianos exclusively, and he owned a Steinway piano. Porter's piano is currently in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

In December 2010, Cole Porter's portrait was added to the Hoosier Heritage Gallery in the office of the Governor of Indiana.

Notable songs

Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted. Where the show was later made into a film, the year refers to the stage version. A complete list of Porter's works is in the Library of Congress (Complete List of Cole Porter works, and Cole Porter Collection at the Library of Congress).

(1916) See America First

(1919) Hitchy-Koo of 1919—"Old-Fashioned Garden"

(1928) Paris—"Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love"

(1929) Wake Up and Dream—"What Is This Thing Called Love?"

(1929) Fifty Million Frenchmen—"You Do Something to Me"

(1930) The New Yorkers—"Love for Sale", "I Happen to Like New York"

(1932) Gay Divorce—"After You, Who?", "Night And Day" (basis for film renamed The Gay Divorcee in 1934)

(1933) Nymph Errant—"Experiment", "The Physician", "It's Bad for Me"

(1934) Anything Goes—"All Through the Night", "Anything Goes", "Blow Gabriel, Blow", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "You're the Top"

(1934) Adios Argentina (un-produced)—"Don't Fence Me In"

(1935) Jubilee—"Begin the Beguine", "Just One of Those Things"

(1936) Red, Hot and Blue—"Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)", "It's De-Lovely"

(1936) Born to Dance (film)—"You'd Be So Easy to Love", "I've Got You Under My Skin"

(1937) Rosalie;"In the Still of the Night"

(1937) You Never Know—"At Long Last Love", "From Alpha to Omega", "Let's Misbehave"

(1938) Leave It to Me!—"From Now On", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"

(1939) Broadway Melody Of 1940—"Between You And Me", "I Concentrate on You", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "I Happen to Be in Love", "Begin the Beguine"

(1939) Dubarry Was A Lady—"Do I Love You?", "Well, Did You Evah!", "Friendship"

(1940) Panama Hattie—"Let's Be Buddies", "Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please"

(1941) You'll Never Get Rich (film)—"Dream Dancing", "So Near and Yet So Far"

(1941) Let's Face It!—"Everything I Love", "I Hate You, Darling"

(1942) Something for the Boys—"Could It Be You"

(1942) Something to Shout About—"You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To"

(1943) Mexican Hayride—"I Love You"

(1944) Seven Lively Arts—"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"

(1946) Around the World—"Look What I Found"

(1947) The Pirate—"Be a Clown"

(1948) Kiss Me, Kate—"Another Op'nin', Another Show", "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", "I Hate Men", "So in Love", "Too Darn Hot"

(1950) Out Of This World—"From This Moment On", "I Am Loved"

(1950) Stage Fright (film)—"The Laziest Gal In Town"

(1953) Can-Can—"I Am in Love", "I Love Paris", "C'est Magnifique"

(1954) Silk Stockings—"All of You", "Paris Loves Lovers"

(1955) High Society—"Mind if I Make Love to You?", "True Love", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", "You're Sensational"

(1956) Les Girls—"Ça, C'est L'amour", "You're Just Too, Too"

(1958) Aladdin (television)—"Opportunity Knocks But Once", "Come To The Supermarket (In Old Peking)"

A far more comprehensive list of Cole Porter songs, along with their date of composition and original show, is available online at the "Cole Porter Songlist Page".

Notes

References

Citron, Stephen. Noel & Cole: the Sophisticates (2005). Hal Leonard Corporation, ISBN 0-634-09302-9

Schwartz, Charles. Cole Porter, A Biography (1979). Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80097-7, pp. 114 and 269

Further reading

JX Bell, Cole Porter Biography (retrieved February 16, 2005).

Derbyshire, John (NRO columnist), "Oh, the Songs!" (indepth review of film De-Lovely), 2004-07-28, National Review Online (nationalreview.com), webpage: NationalReview-CP: explains Cole Porter's marriage.

Stefan Kanfer, (Winter 2003) The Voodoo That He Did So Well City Journal.

McBrien, William (1998). Cole Porter: A Biography. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-72792-2.

Ethan Mordden: Rock and Cole. The New Yorker, October 28, 1991, pp. 91–113.

Powell, Don: Music Producer, Playwright.

Rimler, Walter: A Cole Porter Discography, N. Charles Sylvan Company, 1995, ISBN 1-886385-25-4.

Schwartz, Charles: Cole Porter: A Biography (Hardcover and a Da Capo Paperback), May 1, 1979, ISBN 0-306-80097-7.

External links

Cole Porter

Cole Porter discography at Discogs

Cole Porter Birthplace & Museum

Cole Porter Online Archive

Gay Greats—Cole Porter

Cole Porter Festival

The Cole Porter Collection at Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University

Category:1891 births Category:1964 deaths Category:Songwriters from Indiana Category:American film score composers Category:American musical theatre composers Category:American musical theatre lyricists Category:Musicians from Indiana Category:Deaths from renal failure Category:Grammy Award winners Category:LGBT composers Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:People from Peru, Indiana Category:People from Santa Monica, California Category:American amputees Category:Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni Category:Scroll and Key Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Worcester Academy alumni Category:Yale University alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion