Friday, April 20, 2012

Friday Video: Astaire & Rogers 1933 dancing debut

Loretta reports:

My thanks to the FIDM Museum for this wonderful post about Fred Astaire's shoes.  It included not only a link to a fascinating interview with the great dancer, wherein he discusses his clothing choices in detail, but this clip from Flying Down to Rio—the first film in which Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire danced together.  They appear only for a short time, but the production is a great example of what musicals accomplished—with talented human beings and no computer special effects—in the 1930s.



Illustration:  Detail from City of New York Municipal Airports poster,  courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.      


Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle or square or X where the video ought to be.  To watch the video, please click on the title of this post.

6 comments:

  1. Superb! They don't make thenm like that any more!

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  2. There's some pretty steamy dancing going on there! Very cool. :-)

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  3. My favorite dancing couple! Thanks so much for the memory lane trip. I could watch them, and Gene Kelly dance all day long.

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  4. Comparing movies of today to those of the 30s & 40s is like comparing a hand-made Persian rug to ugly polyester indoor-outdoor "carpets".

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  5. Remember that Ginger did everything that Fred did, only backwards in high heels.

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