<p>Incredible!</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell Tap Dancing](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p3lPw3LmKQ&NR=1]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p3lPw3LmKQ&NR=1)</p>
<p>Ooooh - thank you! This is a clip from “That’s Entertainment” (the first one in the series). One of Astaire’s many gifts was that his partners never looked better than when they danced with him. Eleanor Powell was a phenomenal hoofer, but she can come across as being somewhat mechanical - not here.</p>
<p>I had to watch it twice. :)</p>
<p>frazzled1, I’m glad you liked it.</p>
<p>I like this sequence in Swing Time with Fred and Ginger Rogers.</p>
<p>Pick Yourself Up…</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Swing Time - Pick yourself Up](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDXZkBIxso4]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDXZkBIxso4)</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Swing Time - Rogers and Astaire](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ&feature=related)</p>
<p>Lovely! (10char)</p>
<p>Eleanor has always been my mom’s favorite female dancer. She raised me to know that Eleanor was always better than Ginger.</p>
<p>I actually prefer Ann Miller…she’s so darned aggressive!</p>
<p>My freshman is a competitive dancer and I go to lots of dance competitions where I see lots of really really talented dancers. As it turns out, many of the “great” movie dancers can’t hold a candle to some of the 12-18 year olds I see.</p>
<p>Here’s a factoid about those early dancers…</p>
<p>Take another look at the Fred/Eleanor/Ginger dances. The technology at the time couldn’t pick up the taps, partly because the play-back of the song covered the sounds and partly because the mikes weren’t very sensitive. So the dancers would film the dance, then go into the studio to re-record the taps. Because of the set-up in the studio, they could not spin or turn so they had to create the sounds without doing the <em>actual</em> dance. Amazing, isn’t it?</p>
<p>“Amazing, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>They are incredible.</p>
<p>Here is Ann Miller from Easter Parade.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Ann Miller’s Fast number from Easter Parade](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yS1e9zksJ8&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yS1e9zksJ8&feature=related)</p>
<p>From On The Town…</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Ann Miller - On the Town](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM4L38u5vpE&NR=1]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM4L38u5vpE&NR=1)</p>
<p>“On the Town” = my all-time favorite movie musical. Ann Miller - those legs!</p>
<p>An interesting factoid about her is that she signed her first contract at the age of 14, telling the studio she was 18 - so she was an unusual actress in that she lied about her age to make herself older than she actually was. She appeared in some 1930’s college-coed type of films when she wasn’t even old enough to drive a car!</p>
<p>Another neat factoid about “On the Town,” per a Gene Kelly biography I’ve read - it was one of the very first musical films to do extensive location shootings. The first number in the movie, “New York, New York,” was filmed at famous tourist attractions in Manhattan (Rockefeller Center, etc.). Jules Munshin, the sailor who isn’t Gene Kelly or Frank Sinatra, had a morbid fear of heights. When he’s singing his verse on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, you can see him hanging on to Kelly, Sinatra, or anything else he can grab. :)</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Gene Kelly Frank Sinatra - “New York, New York”](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v7QfCxuvLo]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v7QfCxuvLo)</p>
<p>The three of them are teamed again in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” which is another wonderful musical of that period. It’s fun to watch Frank Sinatra trying to keep up with Gene Kelly in the dance numbers.</p>
<p>frazzled1, I didn’t know that Jules Munshin story.
On the Town is one of my favorite movies.
I love your clip.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - gene kelly](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0sl4K93izg&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0sl4K93izg&feature=related)</p>
<p>By the tip of my finger, Gene Kelly has always been my favorite. I have been pretending to be him for over 35 years. My wife says no, but in my mind, I move just like him. 
(I move pretty well) :).</p>
<p>dstark, I give you major points for even trying! My husband isn’t much for dancing - I wonder what we’re going to do at the receptions when our three ds get married someday. </p>
<p>By the tip of my finger, I have to call Fred Astaire my favorite, though I love Kelly too, of course, and I’ll always stop whatever I’m doing to watch if one of their movies comes on TV. I remember some female film historian saying that you’d give your heart to Astaire, but you’d save your body for Kelly. And I’d be fine with that! ;)</p>
<p>“I remember some female film historian saying that you’d give your heart to Astaire, but you’d save your body for Kelly. And I’d be fine with that!”</p>
<p>I won’t go that far. :)</p>
<p>Obviously, I like Fred Astaire too.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Fred Astaire - The Way You Look Tonight](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPUAHTWQ6Ps&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPUAHTWQ6Ps&feature=related)</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Moses Supposes](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH_OKzzZhw8&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH_OKzzZhw8&feature=related)</p>
<p>I dance solo. ;)</p>
<p>It is in BW. Monaural. (Sunday afternoon TV in the 50’s.)
I can listen to them all day. Cole Porter, R & H, Gershwins, Irving Berlin.</p>
<p>“It is in BW. Monaural. (Sunday afternoon TV in the 50’s.)”</p>
<p>Thisoldman, I am not sure what you are getting at?</p>
<p>That was when I saw these shows. Three Stooges was M-F, 4:30.</p>
<p>Ok.
You are old. :)</p>
<p>That’s Entertainment opened in Philadelphia during the summer of 1974. My closest friends and I loved that movie; we saw it again and again–at least six or seven times, as I recall. It ran at the Sameric (formerly the Boyd), a magnificent old Art Deco movie palace with a fully-equipped stage. The Astaire-Powell segment was thrilling, because Astaire and Powell appeared to be dancing on that very stage in larger-than-life (albeit black-and-white) glory. At the end of the number, the movie theater audience always burst into spontaneous applause. Always.</p>
<p>Whenever I watch Astaire and Powell dance “Begin the Beguine,” I am instantly transported back to summer 1974 Philadelphia, to that fabulous movie theater, and to the company of some of the best friends I’ve ever had. That film clip has always given and will always give me a thrill. Thank you for posting it.</p>
<p>When I was a girl, I used to spend 2 wks every summer at my Grandmother’s apt in Larchmont, NY. She was cool with my staying up very late every night (I’m a night owl, baby) and put a little b&w tv in my room. The late, late show one summer showed all the Fred & Ginger movies. I’d never seen them before and was amazed! Fortunately, I wound up with a man who enjoys them too…I’ve recorded them, purchased them on VHS and now own them on DVD. They never get old.</p>