This is another research paper from college! Hopefully you can find some use or learn something from it!
I apologize it is not my best work because The Art Institute of Las Vegas wasn’t a highly educated university. However, I did put effort in my work most of the time, even though I didn’t have to.
One thing I appreciate in film are long takes. Fred Astaire believed dance scenes had to be long takes and long shots, which I appreciate! So, for an American Film History class in March 2012, I decided to write one on him. Hope you are able to enjoy it or learn something from it!
To see the papers that I have manage to find, check out the research papers!
Fred Astaire: Dancing through It All
“I have no desire to prove anything by dancing. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance. I just put my feet in the air and move them around.” One would never think the man who has hundreds of dance sequences filmed and over 130 dance studios bearing his name would say such a thing, but Fred Astaire danced his way from the vaudeville stage to the Academy Awards.
Born on May 10th, 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska, Fred Astaire (bord Fred Austerlitz) was introduced to dancing through his sister, Adele. He initially was resistant to dancing. They traveled together for over 25 years, and he learned a lot from watching his sister. His Broadway debut was with her in 1917 (Driver 132). She retired after getting married in 1932, but he kept going and achieved success in New York and London (themave.com).
Another major influence on him was Vernon Castle. Unfortunately, Vernon was killed accidently while training during the First World War (Driver 35). Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ final movie for RKO was The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (Nadel 70). After his first Hollywood screen test, it was noted that he “Cant act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little” (Driver 132).
Dance: The Body’s Artistic Statement
Astaire believed a dance is the body’s artistic statement. His dance scenes stuck out from others because he deeply believed routines should both capture the full body of the dancers and also be extremely limited in cuts. Finding even the smallest mistakes in Astaire’s in one of his more than two hundred dance numbers are fuew and far between (Nadel 153). When it came to Bubsy Berkley’s camerawork, Astaire was quoted saying, “Either the camera will dance, or I will; but the both of us at the same time – that will not work” (Driver 126). Each one of his thirty one films includes three to five great dances (Nadel 319).
Astaire’s most memorable work was with dance partner Ginger Rogers, who once said of him “It was the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me, being teamed with Fred: he was everything a little starry-eyed girl from a small town ever dreamed of” (fredastaire.com). Rogers and Astaire first appeared together in Flying Down to Rio, and although they didn’t star in the film, it launched nine more films they would star in together, all but one in the 1930’s.
The musical itself didn’t receive great reviews, but the “Carioca” number from Astaire and Rogers was the highlight of the film. They each had their own dance styles that complimented each other and came from both Broadway and vaudeville backgrounds (Driver 129.) His musicals were RKO’s only consistent moneymaker from 1934 to 1938 (Thompson 19). He costarred with many other dancers and actors such as Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller, Judy Garland, and Rita Hayworth. He only had one scene with the other great Hollywood dancer, Gene Kelly, in Ziegfeld Follies.
Fred Astaire’s Favorite Partner
When Astaire was asked who his favorite partner was, he replied with “Bing Crosby.” This saved him from having to pick from one of his many female partners (Prigozy 113). In their first film, Holiday Inn, Crosby and Astaire were already established stars. This lead to the casting of two virtually unknown female actressses Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale. During the filming of their second film, Blue Skies, Astaire announced it was going to be his last film, but he joined the cast for the film Easter Parade (Prigozy 108). He then did 10 more musicals.
Besides being known for dance, Astaire excelled in other works. During World War 2, he flew with Crosby to Cherbourg, France to entertain troops (Prigozy 144). He has an accomplished list of awards, and even received an honorary Academy Award in 1949 for his work in Hollywood. When the musical started to lose its steam, Astaire realized that he needed to change his position in films if he wished to keep working. He became a dramatic actor and even earned an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the 1974 film The Towering Inferno. He also won two other Golden Globes, one for Three Little Words and the Cecil B. DeMille Award and three other nominations. His work in television earned him three Emmy nominations, two of which he won for “A Family Upside Down” and “An Evening with Fred Astaire.”
No True Natural Dancer?
It should be no surprise Fred Astaire branched out to the public with his talent, claiming, “…all good dancers I have known are taught or trained.” Fred Astaire dance studios are spanned across 25 states with 139 locations, the first opening in New York City in 1947. Like Astaire, they offer many different varieties of dance, from Ballroom to Swing (fredastaire.com). Part of the reason it has been successful was the willingness of the company to conform to society. They incorporated rock dances in ballroom dance curriculum and the formalized movements of the torso taught in jazz dance classes to work with the rock dances (Nadel 75).
With all of his accomplishments in dance and film, Fred Astaire is all but forgotten. He passed after a battle with pneumonia in June of 1987. Before his passing, it is said that Michael Jackson was invited to Astaire’s home to teach him and legendary choreographer Hermes Pan the moonwalk and trade notes (Driver 240). Fellow dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov said of him, “No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.”
Works Cited
Driver, Ian. “A Century of Dance: A Hundred Years of Musical Movement, from Waltz to Hip Hop.” Heron Quays: Cooper Square Press, 2001. Print.
Fred Astaire Franchised Dance Studios. Fred Astaire Dance Studios, Inc, 2010. 3 Mar 2012.
Nadel, Myron, and Strauss, Marc. “The Dance Experience: Insights Into History, Culture, and Creativity.” Hightstown: Princeton Book Company, 2003. Print.
n.p. “Fred Astaire” The Mave. Web. 3 Mar 2012. <http://www.themave.com/Astaire/>
Prigozy, Ruth and Raubicheck, Walter. “Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture.” Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2007. Print.
Thompson, Kristin, and Bordwell, David. “Film History: An Introduction.” New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
If you found this helpful or entertaining, please consider your support to BLoafX.com at the support page. Links to Amazon on this site are linked to my affiliate account with Amazon. Any link you click to Amazon that results in a purchase will generate a percentage to me.
Please subscribe to my blog. Every time I get a blog post, you’ll get an email notification! It’ll be a variety of posts, so maybe you’ll learn or see something new often! Thank you for your support!