Fred Astaire

[cookie]

http://www.city-journal.org/printable.php?id=3323

 

[puretxnxt]

Oh Fred! ::swoon:: they don't make them like him anymore.

 

[Feraud]

The anecdotes range from a summary judgment of Fred’s screen test—“Balding. Can’t sing. Dances a little”

There is hope for me yet.

 

[tortswon]

Astaire's jacket

I saw Fred Astaire's formal jacket at the Museum of the Moving Image. He was an incredibly tiny man. The way directors made him appear on screen in terms of his size shows the true magic of cinema

 

[Feraud]

I saw Fred Astaire's formal jacket at the Museum of the Moving Image. He was an incredibly tiny man. The way directors made him appear on screen in terms of his size shows the true magic of cinema

Was that the museum in Queens, NY?

 

[tortswon]

Museum of the Moving Image

The one in which I saw it was in London. Best, Sam

 

[Tomasso]

He was an incredibly tiny man.

While we was very lean, he actually stood around 5'9".

 

[dhermann1]

The word my mother always used was "cadaverous". She was not a fan, but I've always been. He was also a talented song writer. He had several hits.

 

[HadleyH]

You know, i will never,never understand why Graham Greene once called Fred Astaire:


"The nearest thing we are ever likely to get to a human Mickey Mouse" [huh]

 

[Doctor Strange]

Excellent article on Fred's youth and his long stage partnership with his sister Adele:

http://www.americanheritage.com/people/articles/web/20081028-Fred-Astaire-Adele-Astaire.shtml

Hadley - To understand that statement, you have to remember that there was a time (the early to mid-30s) when Mickey Mouse was not just incredibly popular with audiences, but was widely perceived by social critics and artists to be a brilliant new everyman character for the modern age: Chaplin's little tramp (also beloved by the literati for the previous decade) taken to another level of creativity. Walt Disney was widely heralded as a cinema genius the equal of Chaplin and D.W. Griffith... a position that would be solidifed in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - and then be slowly eroded over the following decades.

Anyway, what Greene meant was that Astaire's unique physical grace and humor conferred upon him some of the same quicksilver genius that Mickey Mouse was perceived to have at that time.

Footnote - See the outstanding 1936 cartoon "Thru the Mirror" (a rare solo outing for that period that doesn't include Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, etc.) for Mickey doing a top-hatted Astaire-style dance. Not surprisingly, Mickey - who can do anything, after all - can be very elegant!

 

[HadleyH]

Hadley - To understand that statement, you have to remember that there was a time (the early to mid-30s) when Mickey Mouse was not just incredibly popular with audiences, but was widely perceived by social critics and artists to be a brilliant new everyman character for the modern age

Anyway, what Greene meant was that Astaire's unique physical grace and humor conferred upon him some of the same quicksilver genius that Mickey Mouse was perceived to have at that time.

Thank you for the explanation Dr Strange!