my california friend's favourite photo at the exhibition yesterday was of fred astaire. i thought i'd find a lovely youtube clip of him for her. i watched him with ginger, with judy, with rita, with paulette goddard. then i came to this excerpt from 'broadway melody of 1940' (the clip is not faulty, after a few mins it runs normally) and remembered how much i loved eleanor powell. why? because she was not his dance partner, they were peers and she matched him step for step
o dear - warner brothers are claiming copyright infringement so this video is no longer available. i am so sorry (10th march)
here is her official fan site
here is the imdb bio
finally, a note from wiki:
"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 at the time the only female dancer 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.""
unfulfilled dream #17 - learn to tap dance
No "Backwards and in high heels" for this lady! That's Ginger Rogers' claim to fame, and it's no mean feat -- but wow. Thanks for this. I think we'll have to go rent the movie.
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