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I'm Darcey Bussell. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:07 | |
I'm often asked who inspired me to dance. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:12 | |
It was the most stylish dancer on the planet. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:18 | |
Fred Astaire was dance magic, distilled into one man. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
Women longed to be in his arms. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
Yet this fabulous career nearly didn't happen. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
That's what interests me. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
Everyone knows Fred as the greatest ballroom dancer in the world | 0:00:36 | 0:00:40 | |
and yet it was never planned that way. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
Fred was not destined to be the dancer in the family. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
His mother only got Fred dancing to partner his sister Adele. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:51 | |
She was meant to be the star and, for 30 years, she was. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:57 | |
If there hadn't been an Adele Astaire, | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
there probably wouldn't be a Fred Astaire. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
He was literally following in his big sister's footsteps. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:08 | |
When Adele left the act to get married, it could have been the end. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:13 | |
Adele suddenly announced she was leaving showbiz behind. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
Everyone said, "Oh, poor Fred. What will he ever do without her?" | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
Even when he made it in Hollywood, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
Fred depended on the women he danced with to stay in the limelight. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
Most of all, Ginger Rogers. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
It's lightning in a bottle and that's what they were. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:36 | |
They were lightning in a bottle. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:38 | |
Dancing with Ginger, though, was not what Fred wanted. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:45 | |
Fred says, "What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers? | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
"I will not have it, Leland. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:51 | |
"I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her, or anyone else." | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
She drove him crazy. | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
She drove him absolutely insane. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
Audiences loved Fred's romantic dance duos, | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
while Fred spent his career trying to escape them. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
I'm wondering, deep down, | 0:02:11 | 0:02:13 | |
if Fred always felt he was in someone else's shadow? | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
From the 1930s, | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
Fred Astaire set the standard | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
for how every dancer and dance team should be. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:36 | |
He lifted the bar impossibly high. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
He invented incredible solo dance routines... | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
..and turned all his cinema dance partners into screen goddesses. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
Fred not only created all the dance steps... | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
..he connected with his partners unlike anyone else. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
He could even make a piece of furniture look good. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
This unique ability is something dancers today | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
are still striving for. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
I'm on my way to see a rehearsal with Janette and Aljaz | 0:03:22 | 0:03:27 | |
in a new production called Remembering Fred. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
# Heaven, I'm in heaven | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
# And my heart beats so that I can hardly see | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
# And I seem to find the happiness I seek | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
# When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek... # | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
We'll go into silhouette. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
# Cheek! # | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
In our world, lead and follow is such a big deal. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
-Incredibly important. -It's all that matters. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
And so we've been paying really close attention | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
to why he was so good at leading | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
and how he can make a woman know exactly what to do | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
and when to do it and at the right time to do it. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
It always, at whatever point you look at his stuff on film, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
it always looks like he's in total control, not just for himself, | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
but as a partnership, which is so hard to do. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
And make them look amazing. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
All of a sudden, I felt a lot of pressure then! | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
No, he's amazing. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:28 | |
I've seen you perform, darling. You've got all of that. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
I'm not Fred yet. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
HE WHISTLES AS METRONOME TICKS | 0:04:35 | 0:04:36 | |
Fred Astaire's amazing sense of rhythm | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
goes all the way back to childhood. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
His birthplace was Omaha, Nebraska... | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
..a town built on beer and railways, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
right in the middle of America. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
A very long way from the lights and dazzle of show business. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
It's said no matter how far he travelled, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:17 | |
there was one thing from Omaha Fred would always carry with him. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
All those Union Pacific trains passing through town | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
inspired Fred to make up dances, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
based on the rhythms of the railways. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
SLIDE GUITAR | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
Omaha, Nebraska, is an old-fashioned kind of place. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
Hi, Don! | 0:05:56 | 0:05:57 | |
The first thing I'm looking for is the house where, in 1899, | 0:05:57 | 0:06:02 | |
Fred Astaire was born. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:03 | |
It's on the outskirts of town on South Ten Street | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
and I have a photo of it from the time. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
Gosh, it's not what I expected. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
In this 1900 census, Fred is listed in this very house with his parents, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:35 | |
Adele, his sister, it says she is two years older, | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
but what's strange... | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
..is their name. It's not Astaire. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
It's Austerlitz. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:46 | |
Fred was born into an immigrant family. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
His father, Fritz Austerlitz, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
came all the way to Omaha from Austria in 1892. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
He met and married a local girl from a German family... | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
..Johanna, known as Ann. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
Like hundreds of thousands of other immigrant families, | 0:07:10 | 0:07:14 | |
they were making their way in America. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
At that time, one in four people in Nebraska spoke German | 0:07:21 | 0:07:26 | |
and many of them worked in the breweries. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
Local brewer and historian Bill Baburek | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
has found out how Fred's dad, Fritz, found a job... | 0:07:34 | 0:07:38 | |
..in Omaha's Storz Brewery, the biggest in the state. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:44 | |
-So I have some things to show you. -Oh, OK, great. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:46 | |
Here's an interior shot of the Storz Brewery. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
So that's about the same time that his father... | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
Fritz was working here? | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
Worked there, yes. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
This would have been one of his cards, if you will, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
-calling cards. -Cos he was a salesman? | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
As a salesman. Yeah, he got a job as a salesman. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
-That's brilliant. -And he would've gone round to the various saloons | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
in town to sell the Storz beer. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
As Fritz began to earn a decent wage... | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
Walk. Side. Together. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:24 | |
..Ann Austerlitz was ambitious for the children. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
She wanted her daughter, Adele, and her son, Fred, | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
to move up the social ladder. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
It was mum who struck upon a great idea | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
for the kids to learn to be dancers. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
Local dance teacher Elizabeth Colclasure has discovered | 0:08:44 | 0:08:48 | |
how Ann took her children to dance class | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
to learn how to conduct themselves as Americans. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:56 | |
Why do you think it's so important for kids to learn to dance? | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
I think it's really important | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
just because it teaches them how to interact with each other. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
it gives them confidence and it also teaches young children | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
how to be more like gentlemen and like ladies | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
and teaches them to respect one another. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
Adele took to dancing instantly. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
Fred, though, was very shy and would only dance | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
in partnership with his sister. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
This is a lovely picture. This is of the mother, Ann, isn't it? | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
Yes, she always made sure she wanted to install into her kids | 0:09:28 | 0:09:34 | |
that they could be anything. She always put her children first. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
She had a great vision, I think, for them and starting here in Omaha... | 0:09:37 | 0:09:42 | |
..putting them straight into dance class, at a very young age? | 0:09:42 | 0:09:45 | |
Yes, and starting out in Omaha, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
just starting in a very small city | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
and starting right in the middle of, you know, the US. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
And yet Nebraska was at the heart | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
of a growing movement for change in America. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
The local beer industry, livelihood of so many, | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
faced an uncertain future. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:06 | |
It wasn't looking so good for the Austerlitz family. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
This is a postcard that were put out by the prohibitionists. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:20 | |
Basically, kind of, as a scare tactic, if you will, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
-and if you read it, Darcey, it is pretty brutal. -Yeah. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
"Whatever you do, remember the saloon keeper is after your children." | 0:10:26 | 0:10:31 | |
We were still a ways off from prohibition, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
but, I think, those winds of change were kind of circulating. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:41 | |
They would soon start laying people off at the brewery. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
Once again the family faced poverty. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
Ann's plans for the children risked coming to nothing. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
Fritz saw an ad for a dance school in Manhattan | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
that was looking for new pupils | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
and it was mother Ann who said, | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
"There's nothing here for Adele and Fred. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
"Maybe there's a future in dancing." | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
She was prepared to drop everything and go with the children to New York. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:18 | |
In January 1905, | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
the journey of an unknown family called Austerlitz | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
began here at Union Station, Omaha. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
Now a beautifully restored building | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
that speaks of Nebraska's past glories. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
They were leaving their father behind, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
hoping to dance their way to their dreams. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
Aged barely six and eight, with their new stage names, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
Fred and Adele Astaire. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
It was here they departed with their mother | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
to start a brand-new life in New York. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
Ann, Fred and Adele would travel 1,200 miles, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:13 | |
nearly three days by train, | 0:12:13 | 0:12:15 | |
to arrive right in the middle of Manhattan. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
As a small boy from a small town, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
Fred was shocked by the hustle and bustle. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
So many people all crammed into one place. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:41 | |
Later, Fred wrote, "This trip was really a stab in the dark. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:52 | |
"We were going to New York without so much as a letter of introduction. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:57 | |
"My mother had never been there and she knew no-one." | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
Ann took Fred and Adele to the Alviene dance school, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:09 | |
a husband-and-wife business, | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
on 8th Avenue and 23rd Street, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
close to music halls and a bowling alley. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
Five, six, seven, eight. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:19 | |
Fred and Adele were taking their first steps into show business. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
Just like kids today taking daily dance classes, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:34 | |
the first stage to becoming professional performers. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
I think it's extraordinary to think | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
that Fred and Adele came from Omaha, Nebraska, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
and arrived in New York of all places. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
I mean, the change for them, what they could see and hear, | 0:13:57 | 0:14:02 | |
it must've been quite a shock. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
Yeah, definitely a culture shock. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
How amazing, so many more opportunities for them | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
to learn different styles of dance. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
So many more doors open to them. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:13 | |
I know when our students come from smaller towns | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
and move to New York City, | 0:14:16 | 0:14:17 | |
they have these big eyes and taking everything in | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
and I think they just feel so much more inspired | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
because the world has really opened up to them. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
It's not just a small little place any more. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
Everything is here. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:30 | |
And also to notice the talent. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
So they realise, "Oh, my gosh, we've got to pick it up here. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
"We've got to get better." | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
They might have been the best in their dance class in a small town, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
but now, you know, everyone, there's so many great dancers here. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
But I think that can be inspiring, a little bit of competition. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
Oh, yeah, perfect competition. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:48 | |
Exactly what they needed, at the right time. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:50 | |
The only way was for Fred and Adele to work their way up. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
No performer got a look in on Broadway | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
unless they did their time in vaudeville, | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
the home of music hall and variety shows. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:08 | |
In the autumn of 1905, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
Fred and Adele secured their first professional gig | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
on the other side of New York harbour. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
A song and dance act arranged by their dance teacher | 0:15:23 | 0:15:28 | |
in the end-of-pier amusement show in Keyport, New Jersey. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:34 | |
Musical theatre expert John Kenrick has more information | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
on how Adele was a natural from the start. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
Here's a photo of them in one of their first acts | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
and there's Fred dressed as the groom | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
and Adele dressed as the bride. | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
Apparently, from the very beginning, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
it was Adele who had that natural ability | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
to walk on stage and attract the audience's attention. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
Imagine what it would be like | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
if you are two siblings and one of you always gets the praise | 0:16:12 | 0:16:17 | |
and the other one, "Yeah, well, he's OK too." | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
That would drive you mad. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
And he adored his sister. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:24 | |
He loved seeing her succeed, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
but he naturally wanted a piece of that credit too, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
and his one way to do that | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
was to work like a dray horse and rehearsal was his strength. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:38 | |
In all their years in vaudeville, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
Fred never once got a better review than his sister. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
The only time he stood out was when he did something different. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
Aged nine, he decided to dance on pointe like a ballerina. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
Notice something else fascinating here. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:01 | |
He's wearing toe shoes. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
Well, that, I have to say, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:05 | |
is pretty unusual for a boy to be wearing toe shoes. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
What was the attraction of that? | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
Well, that was the sure thing. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:11 | |
That was the novelty of a boy wearing toe shoes. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
To this day it's an extraordinarily rare thing to find a boy | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
wearing toe shoes. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:19 | |
I don't know because I never studied ballet, this is your world, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
but I've heard from some of the dance majors I've taught | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
that a boy wouldn't dream of doing that except as a gag. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
This is a very early review of Freddie Astaire in April 1909, | 0:17:38 | 0:17:45 | |
the young toe dancer. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
And it says, | 0:17:48 | 0:17:49 | |
"One of the most remarkable toe dancers is now appearing on the vaudeville stage. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:55 | |
"Freddie is still a mere boy, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
"but his toe dancing is on a par with that of any dancer | 0:17:58 | 0:18:03 | |
"before the public." | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
Vaudeville, it gave you an education by doing | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
and you got out there and you toured 47-50 weeks a year. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:18 | |
You were lucky if you took a few weeks off in summertime. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
You performed wherever they booked you. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
You showed up every night, no matter what condition you were in. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
You had a fever, you got out and performed. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
You had the flu, you got out and performed. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
You had a broken leg, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:34 | |
you figured out a way to get out there on a cast and still perform. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
Because it was pay for play | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
and if you did not show up you didn't eat. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
It was hard graft for Fred and Adele for the best part of a decade. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:51 | |
It came to a point where Fred Astaire himself said | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
that they had played every chicken coop and rat trap in the country. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
But they were teenagers now? | 0:19:00 | 0:19:01 | |
They were but, by this point, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
they were ready to make a transition to something else. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:07 | |
In the few precious hours they were not performing, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
Adele focused on having fun. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
Fred was the creative one, devising the new routines | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
needed to drive things forward in their careers. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
Aged 17, he found inspiration in the heart of Harlem. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
African Americans were moving into the cities | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
and bringing a whole new style of dancing. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
When Fred Astaire was going up to the Cotton Club | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
and seeing these acts, he would see the dancers. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
They had a line of male tap dancers, | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
and there are these three sorts of movement | 0:20:00 | 0:20:02 | |
that become really important, and contribute to tap dance. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
And these are the dances that we called | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
buck dances, wing dances, and jigs. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
So buck dances are the dances, you're going to do this with me... | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
-OK. -You're going to dig down, dig down. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:18 | |
-So it's weight down? -Down. -Down to the ground. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
Down! That's it, yes. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:22 | |
And a buck dance. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
Oh, yeah, I can do this one. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
There you go. Yes, that's it. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
Love it! | 0:20:33 | 0:20:34 | |
Nice! Oh, my gosh. Was that like them all rolled together? | 0:20:40 | 0:20:43 | |
Well, that was more like a buck dance and a jig together. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:47 | |
Now, wing dances, though, are important, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
cos buck dances tend to be about the rhythm and the weight. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
But, in the wing dances, we're going to flap our body, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
-as though we have wings. -OK. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
So here, with the elbows. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
Like a chicken. Now try flapping your knees too. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
-OK. -There you go. Yes. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
So these wing dances become very much a part of tap dance. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
# Slap that bass, slap it till it's dizzy | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
# Slap that bass, keep the rhythm busy | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
# Zoom-zoom-zoom, misery has got to go... # | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
This number in Shall We Dance that he made later in his career, | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
where he's dancing, and he's among these African-American engineers | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
and they sing a song, and he's watching, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:27 | |
and then he joins in and he sings. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
# Learn to zoom-zoom-zoom, slap that bass! | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
# Da-da-da, dat-doo, dat-doo! # | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
But, then, as it goes into the dance break, | 0:21:36 | 0:21:38 | |
he takes off his jacket to kind of be in spirit with the workers. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
And he changes the beat, and the song goes from a kind of | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
upbeat happy song to a sort of soft-shoe rhythm. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
And then he kind of plays with his body | 0:21:59 | 0:22:00 | |
and he does these fun, eccentric little dances. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
And then he changes the beat to a really hard, fast, | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
sort of buck dance for the end. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
It has a big flashy ending. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
And he demonstrates what he can do with really strong, fast rhythm. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
So the dance has three really distinct tempos. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
As you are watching it, you might not even notice it | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
but it's how he organises rhythm. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
To tell us a story, to give us the excitement, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
to really share the dance with us | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
and the things that are possible inside of it. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
Fred's sparkling dance routines and Adele's natural charm | 0:23:01 | 0:23:06 | |
gave the brother-sister act | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
the sophistication they needed for Broadway. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
They were hired by the Schubert Theatre | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
in a show called Over The Top in 1917. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:20 | |
Musicals are alive and kicking! | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
-Woo! -Ha-ha! | 0:23:25 | 0:23:26 | |
Buried in the archives of the New York Public Library, | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
in its Billy Rose Theatre division, | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
are hundreds and thousands of theatre documents. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
Archivist Doug Reside has found the playbills | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
from the Astaires' early years on Broadway. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
So, Doug, in the 1920s, what was Broadway like? | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
So, the musical theatre was kind of frothy and goofy. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
So these were popular shows? | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
As in that they were light entertainment? | 0:23:57 | 0:23:59 | |
Exactly! Light entertainments, yes. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:01 | |
You'll see, I mean, they are just, of course, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
beginning performers at this point, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:04 | |
Beginning Broadway performers. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
They are actually at the very bottom of the programme here, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
Fred is listed second to last, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:10 | |
and Adele, who is listed simply as Adele, the character, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
is the final character on this front page. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
So they got good reviews for their performance. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
There is a review here that said Fred Astaire | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
"has the great gift of being pleasantly awkward everywhere but in his legs." | 0:24:25 | 0:24:30 | |
And Adele is praised as well. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:31 | |
So their performances are well received, | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
but the show itself seems to have been a bit of a bore. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
And was Adele getting better reviews than Fred? | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
Yes, in general, I think she was recognised | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
as the more polished performer. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
They were a killer combination, | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
steadily making their way up to the top of the bill on Broadway | 0:24:49 | 0:24:54 | |
and top billing meant proper money. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
They could earn as much as 500 a week, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
10,000 today. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
Enough to take a lease, with their mother, Ann, | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
on this Park Avenue apartment. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
Still one of the most exclusive addresses in New York. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
Adele remained the star performer, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
yet the whole show depended on Fred. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
Not only as ideas man and dance partner, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:37 | |
he managed the money, and the contracts. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
I have a letter here that Fred wrote, which... | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
..he comes across very savvy... | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
"We ask you, now that business here is big, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
"to please see that we receive our full salary on Christmas week. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
"Can I assure you that this will be greatly appreciated." | 0:25:53 | 0:25:57 | |
Now, this obviously worked for Fred, | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
because by the time he was 20 he was driving his own baby Rolls-Royce. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:04 | |
Fred was always on the lookout for new opportunities. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
He knew, from his childhood, success could vanish as quickly as it came. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:19 | |
Becoming true show business stars | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
would mean testing themselves in front of a wider audience. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
In the spring of 1923 | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
Adele was asked to star in London's West End, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
where the theatre was booming. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
Fred would go too, as Adele's partner, choreographer, | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
and, increasingly, her equal. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:50 | |
They were contracted for one show | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
and many more, if it was successful. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
Fred later recreated this journey in his film, Royal Wedding. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
-Isn't it wonderful? -It sure is. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
TELEPHONE RINGS | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
Hello? | 0:27:10 | 0:27:12 | |
Yes? Oh, sure. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
Yes. Do come on up. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:16 | |
When they arrived at the Savoy Hotel, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
Fred and Adele were whisked up to the roof | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
for a publicity photograph... | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
..in foggy London. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:30 | |
They stayed in the same riverside suite | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
where I'm meeting Kathleen Riley. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
She's looked into how much rested on their London debut. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
Kathleen, thank you so much for bringing all your goodies... | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
-It's a pleasure. -..of the Astaires in London. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
Now, was it make or break for them, to appear here? | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
Fred certainly thought so. | 0:27:57 | 0:27:58 | |
In fact, I've got this letter here, which is rather wonderful, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
from when, shortly after they arrive in May 1923, | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
where he is writing home to his father, Fritz, | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
and it's so full of excitement, but anxiety at the same time. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
So he says... | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
"Well, Pop, we are still all nervous about the opening | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
"and can't wait until it has passed. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
"In front of the theatre, over the entrance, | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
"there is a great big sign with just our pictures enlarged to three times to life-size" - underlined - | 0:28:23 | 0:28:30 | |
"cut out figures. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:31 | |
"And also another with just our names, and it looks marvellous, | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
"but it scares us half to death." | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
And then you have to come up with the goods, don't you? | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
In fact, it's London that really makes them stars in the true sense. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:49 | |
This is a really crucial turning point in their career. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:53 | |
Their first show in London was called Stop Flirting. | 0:28:56 | 0:29:01 | |
No footage survives of Fred and Adele's West End premiere. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:04 | |
There is, however, a recording of the music. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
This is from Stop Flirting. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
And it's got this incredible name, | 0:29:12 | 0:29:14 | |
The Whichness Of The Whatness Of The Whereness Of The Who. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:17 | |
The Whichness Of The Whatness Of The Whereness Of The Who. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:21 | |
I've got it. Amazing! | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
Let's get it started. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:24 | |
Hope I'm doing this correctly. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
Here we go. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:30 | |
# It's the whichness of the whatness | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
# Of the whereness of the who | 0:29:32 | 0:29:33 | |
# That explains most everything to us | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
# And you must admit the whole thing is ridiculously simple | 0:29:36 | 0:29:41 | |
# As well as simply ridiculous | 0:29:41 | 0:29:43 | |
# Don't forget it... # | 0:29:43 | 0:29:44 | |
Her voice, though, is quite, I mean, obviously the trend at that time. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:48 | |
Yes, it's very much of its period, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:52 | |
and it's quite shrill to our ears. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
Partly the recording, of course, but it's very high. | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
In fact, it was described as "cooee soprano". | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
But it's very much in that style of | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
light operetta, it's not too jazzy, but it's... | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
Yeah, it's very distinctive. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
Their first night, is this their programme? | 0:30:16 | 0:30:18 | |
This is the programme for Stop Flirting. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
They ended up, over its lifetime, doing 10,000 dances, | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
and Adele went through a pair of stockings each performance. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
A pair of shoes a week... | 0:30:30 | 0:30:33 | |
That sounds like a ballet dancer! | 0:30:33 | 0:30:35 | |
The audience absolutely loved it, and the critics, of course, | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
the next day, I think it was The Times, actually, that said, | 0:30:39 | 0:30:42 | |
"Columbus may have danced for joy on discovering America, | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
"but how he would have cavorted if he had discovered Fred and Adele." | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
And another one was, | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
"Miss Astaire could dance the depression out of an undertaker." | 0:30:52 | 0:30:56 | |
If Adele still had the edge with reviews, Fred was standing out too. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:05 | |
Not least as a snappy dresser. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:07 | |
So, Darcey, I've got one more thing to show you, which is, perhaps, | 0:31:09 | 0:31:13 | |
my most treasured Fred possession. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
One of Fred's very own hats. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
-Wow. -A straw boater. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:22 | |
It's gorgeous. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
So he would have performed in this? | 0:31:26 | 0:31:27 | |
Yes, I think so. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
I can imagine just doing that. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
Tapping out the rhythm. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:34 | |
-Yeah. -Might have to try it on. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:36 | |
Oh, yes. It fits! | 0:31:37 | 0:31:38 | |
It looks absolutely to the manner born. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
-Should it be on the angle? -Oh, yes, a jaunty angle. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
Definitely, yes. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
-Oh, excellent, I love it. -Absolutely. The biz! | 0:31:46 | 0:31:49 | |
1920s London loved a good American song and dance act. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:03 | |
Fred and Adele were the toast of the town, invited to everything, | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
and one of their biggest fans was the royal family. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
What was extraordinary was that the Prince of Wales, for example, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
he loved coming to see, particularly, Stop Flirting. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
Not only once, but, I mean, night after night. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:24 | |
The Prince of Wales, | 0:32:25 | 0:32:27 | |
we know that he was very attracted to everything American. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
-He loved America. -Yes, and, obviously, | 0:32:31 | 0:32:33 | |
meeting Adele and being very attracted to her as a performer, | 0:32:33 | 0:32:38 | |
and this beautiful woman that she was... | 0:32:38 | 0:32:40 | |
You have some letters that Adele and Fred | 0:32:40 | 0:32:43 | |
wrote back to their parents when they were performing here in London? | 0:32:43 | 0:32:47 | |
Yes. Adele tells the story. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:48 | |
This is 1923. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:50 | |
"Mother dear and Father dear, so happy to hear from you. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
"Can't write each of you separately, | 0:32:54 | 0:32:55 | |
"because I've so many letters to write every day. | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
"I think the Prince likes me." | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
And then, at the bottom, she says, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:02 | |
"PS, remember, the Prince has rushed actresses before. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
"But he has never invited them to meet his own friends, and to be informal." | 0:33:05 | 0:33:09 | |
I did hear that Adele was quite naughty. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
She was quite a sort of raunchy figure. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
I mean, she wasn't a shrinking violet by any means. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:19 | |
-She wasn't shy like Fred? -No, not at all. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
There is one story in which she was getting into a car, and she never wore any underwear. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:26 | |
No, really! Oh, my gosh, she was naughty! | 0:33:26 | 0:33:28 | |
And she said, "Oh, whoops! Somebody's just seen the ace of spades!" | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
Fred was better behaved than his older sister, | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
yet still caused royal hearts to flutter. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
Fred was dancing with the Duchess of York, later the Queen Mother, | 0:33:45 | 0:33:49 | |
and she remembered it all her life. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:51 | |
She wrote to the Queen about it, saying, you know, | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
she remembered dancing in York House, you know, with Fred Astaire. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:59 | |
And she called him "delicious", | 0:33:59 | 0:34:00 | |
which was one of the Queen Mother's favourite words! | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
She said, "They are delicious, the Astaires." | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
London secured the international reputation | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
of Fred and Adele Astaire. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
They were fixtures throughout the '20s, | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
with a string of hit shows. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:23 | |
Until, out of the blue, | 0:34:28 | 0:34:29 | |
something happened that would change everything. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:33 | |
By the early 1930s Adele was tiring of show business. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:40 | |
She was in love with the son of the Duke of Devonshire. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:43 | |
Stored deep in the theatre archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum | 0:34:50 | 0:34:55 | |
are some precious documents saved from that time. | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
Here it is, here's the file that we need to look at. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:02 | |
Thank you. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:03 | |
Here we have it. "Family wedding party, Duke's son marries dancer. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:10 | |
"Service in private chapel." | 0:35:10 | 0:35:12 | |
So, Adele makes the decision to marry Charles Cavendish. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:17 | |
It's a lovely secret. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:19 | |
Adele's husband to be, Charles, | 0:35:19 | 0:35:21 | |
his family must have been quite surprised | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
that he was going to marry this showgirl, this dancer. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:27 | |
Yes. And we've actually got a copy of a photograph here, | 0:35:27 | 0:35:32 | |
so you can see them all lined up, the wedding party. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:34 | |
Oh, my gosh, it does look like the royal family though, doesn't it? | 0:35:34 | 0:35:37 | |
Look at the bridesmaids. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:39 | |
Isn't that beautiful? | 0:35:39 | 0:35:40 | |
-There we have the bride and groom, and there's Ann. -Oh, yes. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
-Mum. -And the best man, and the Duke. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:48 | |
But no Fred. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:50 | |
So that's odd. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:52 | |
Fred missed the wedding because he was finished with London. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
His sister's aristocratic marriage meant the double act was over. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
He was back on Broadway, this time in his own right. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:06 | |
Obviously, there was going to be a huge impact, | 0:36:06 | 0:36:09 | |
if Adele was stepping down from the stage, | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
she was such a big star in her own right, and their partnership... | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
The wonderful thing, actually, that Fred doesn't take a break at all. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:19 | |
He goes straight into his next career as a solo artist. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
-He was ready for this, wasn't he? -I'm sure he was. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
I think the fact that he had been with the same partner, really, | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
all his life, suddenly, new challenges come. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
And that's very significant. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
Yeah. Great. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:34 | |
And just as Adele met someone, so did Fred. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
A wealthy American divorcee called Phyllis Potter. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:50 | |
As we can see, Fred is actually courting Phyllis at this point. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:56 | |
Here it says, | 0:36:56 | 0:36:58 | |
"Mr Astaire, who is well-known in London as an actor and dancer, | 0:36:58 | 0:37:02 | |
"the brother of Lady Charles Cavendish. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:05 | |
"Mrs Potter's fortune is reputed at five million..." | 0:37:05 | 0:37:11 | |
-What! -So that is really about the equivalent of 150 million. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:15 | |
Oh, my! | 0:37:15 | 0:37:17 | |
So we are talking about huge wealth here. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:19 | |
And he obviously wasn't just getting to know her because of that? | 0:37:19 | 0:37:24 | |
No, I think, again, | 0:37:24 | 0:37:27 | |
it was a very happy relationship that was building up. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
And building up slowly, because she had to go through a divorce. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
He had met a woman who he would marry, Phyllis, | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
and was actually experiencing a serious adult romance | 0:37:41 | 0:37:44 | |
for the first time in his life. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:46 | |
Suddenly, he had a beautiful girl, a glamorous girl, | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
and it wasn't his sister any more. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:51 | |
Fred's personal life was changing. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
His professional life was changing, | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
and show business was changing. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:00 | |
The hub of the American entertainment industry was moving. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:10 | |
From Broadway on the east coast, to Hollywood on the west coast. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:14 | |
It was time for stage performers to make their way in a new medium. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:20 | |
In 1933, Fred was spotted by a talent scout for the movies. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:25 | |
And he only agreed to go | 0:38:26 | 0:38:28 | |
if Phyllis would join him on his next big adventure. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:32 | |
Hollywood, RKO specifically, came to him and said, | 0:38:33 | 0:38:36 | |
"Hey, do you want to come out and make some films?" | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
She was there to say, "Absolutely, | 0:38:38 | 0:38:40 | |
"and I'll be by your side while you do it." | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
And he would not go out there until they were married, | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
they got married, took the plane out to California | 0:38:46 | 0:38:48 | |
and started this new life. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
And she was his rock | 0:38:51 | 0:38:52 | |
as he made that crucial decision to take the big risk | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
and go from live performing to screen performing. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:58 | |
Sunshine, the golden age of Hollywood. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:16 | |
When you think of this, you think of Fred Astaire. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:18 | |
Yet his success on Broadway didn't guarantee success in the movies. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:25 | |
It almost didn't happen for Fred in Hollywood. | 0:39:26 | 0:39:28 | |
Fred came out to California | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
expecting to make it in his own right. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
Dreaming up all sorts of solo numbers for the big screen. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:42 | |
Audiences, however, were looking for romance. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:48 | |
RKO Pictures needed Fred Astaire to partner their rising star, | 0:39:49 | 0:39:54 | |
Ginger Rogers, | 0:39:54 | 0:39:55 | |
in a film called Flying Down To Rio. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
It was the depression. The bottom of the depression, | 0:40:00 | 0:40:03 | |
and RKO was a struggling studio, | 0:40:03 | 0:40:05 | |
and even the bigger studios were having a hard time. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
But then they made this musical, | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
this rather extraordinary, elaborate musical. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
When the film came around to their number, | 0:40:19 | 0:40:21 | |
this inventive little number called the Carioca, | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
and they started dancing, it was not just a debut of a new dance team, | 0:40:24 | 0:40:30 | |
it was the start of a love affair. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
You can see for yourself. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:37 | |
Oh, my gosh. This is absolute heaven, isn't it? | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
Their connection... | 0:40:44 | 0:40:45 | |
If anything, you'd think they'd been dancing together forever. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
-Yeah. -How natural they are. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:53 | |
There are some things you can't define | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
and this is one of them. They were lightning in a bottle. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
You couldn't recreate it, you couldn't invent it if you tried to. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:05 | |
What happened when RKO tried to contract Fred | 0:41:13 | 0:41:16 | |
for many more pictures? | 0:41:16 | 0:41:17 | |
Well, he was wary, to put it mildly. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
We have a paper trail, the details. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
Here's a letter, dated February 9th, 1934, | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
to his agent, the very famous agent, Leland Hayward. | 0:41:28 | 0:41:31 | |
Fred says, "What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers? | 0:41:31 | 0:41:36 | |
"I will not" - underscored not - "have it, Leland. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
"I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her, or anyone else. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:42 | |
"If that is the programme in mind for me, I will not stand for it." | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
These are strong words. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:46 | |
"I don't mind doing another picture with her but, as for this team idea, it's out. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:52 | |
"I've just managed to live down one partnership | 0:41:52 | 0:41:54 | |
"and I don't want to be bothered with any more. Fred Astaire." | 0:41:54 | 0:41:58 | |
That's a staggering letter. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:02 | |
I would never think he was that forthright, but, you're right, | 0:42:02 | 0:42:05 | |
he'd only just come from his partnership, from a child, | 0:42:05 | 0:42:09 | |
with his sister, Adele. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:11 | |
Yes, they had been enormously popular, enormously successful, | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
and when she left the act, the whole world said, | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
"What's poor Fred going to do now?" | 0:42:18 | 0:42:20 | |
You know, poor Fred. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
"She's the act. What is poor Fred going to do?" | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
And he had conquered that on Broadway. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
So now, it worked. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
He's a solo star, Fred Astaire. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
He goes out to Hollywood, | 0:42:34 | 0:42:35 | |
and they team him up with another young woman. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
So this was not anti-Ginger. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:39 | |
And he says here, he'll make another picture with her. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:41 | |
He's attacking the idea of being part of a duo. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:45 | |
So what did the studio chief think of that? | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
Here's his response... | 0:42:48 | 0:42:50 | |
"Tell Astaire hold his water with regards to teaming. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:53 | |
"He is not yet ready to be star in his own right. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
"Ginger Rogers seems to go rather well with him. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
"We can all clean up a lot of money by keeping them together. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:04 | |
"Would be foolish not to." | 0:43:04 | 0:43:05 | |
These films were a gold mine. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:12 | |
For RKO, as they would have been for any studio. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:14 | |
The Gay Divorcee was their first starring film. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
Followed by Top Hat, an even bigger hit. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
Followed by Swing Time, one after another, after another. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:29 | |
No-one had a run of successes quite like this before. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:35 | |
Especially during the 1930s when people needed that lift. | 0:43:35 | 0:43:40 | |
When times were tough, these movies gave people, not just escape... | 0:43:40 | 0:43:46 | |
..but they lifted their spirits and left them walking on a cloud. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
Every now and again a musical comedy will still deliver some | 0:43:56 | 0:44:00 | |
of that old-time Hollywood magic. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:02 | |
Just as they did all those years ago. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:06 | |
I'm wondering how much Fred and Ginger | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
influenced the smash hit musical La La Land. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
So, Mandy, was it inspired by the golden age of Hollywood? | 0:44:22 | 0:44:26 | |
Oh, 100%! | 0:44:26 | 0:44:27 | |
Every reference was from the golden age. | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
I mean, it was all Fred Astaire. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:31 | |
Was the couple inspired by Fred and Ginger? | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
We would sit and watch old Fred and Ginger numbers, you know? | 0:44:34 | 0:44:37 | |
The duet between Ryan and Emma that took place right here | 0:44:38 | 0:44:42 | |
is actually directly inspired by | 0:44:42 | 0:44:44 | |
"Isn't It A Lovely Day To Be Caught In The Rain?" | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
from Top Hat. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:48 | |
-I mean, we watched that thing 600 times. -Oh, wow! | 0:44:48 | 0:44:50 | |
We would talk about why we liked the relationship | 0:45:18 | 0:45:20 | |
between the two of them, how it was told through dance. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:23 | |
Kind of the gesture | 0:45:24 | 0:45:25 | |
and how she was kind of sassy and cold at first, | 0:45:25 | 0:45:28 | |
and then she warmed up as they danced. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:30 | |
It's that story being told through the movements, isn't it? | 0:45:30 | 0:45:33 | |
Yes. Yeah! | 0:45:33 | 0:45:34 | |
It's lovely, because I can only see that is exactly what Fred Astaire | 0:45:39 | 0:45:42 | |
-was always trying to achieve. -Yes. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:44 | |
Few cinema partnerships have been quite so playful | 0:45:47 | 0:45:50 | |
and romantic as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
No-one knows the inside story | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
of that relationship better than writer Jane Scovell. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
Before Ginger died they spent time together | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
working on Ginger's autobiography. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:07 | |
The audience so much wanted them to be in love. | 0:46:09 | 0:46:12 | |
Yes. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:13 | |
I wanted them to be in love. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:17 | |
On the dance floor, I think they were very well suited. | 0:46:18 | 0:46:23 | |
Off the dance floor, they were very different. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
She drove him crazy! | 0:46:27 | 0:46:28 | |
Ginger drove him absolutely insane. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
You have to remember this is a man who started out being, well, | 0:46:31 | 0:46:35 | |
dominated is a good word, by his mother, | 0:46:35 | 0:46:39 | |
-then his sister. -It's like the baton being passed. | 0:46:39 | 0:46:42 | |
Yes. It certainly wasn't going to go to Ginger! | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
Was there a sense of competition between Ginger and Fred? | 0:46:45 | 0:46:49 | |
Definitely! | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
I don't think she could ever get over the fact that it was Fred... | 0:46:51 | 0:46:55 | |
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. | 0:46:57 | 0:46:59 | |
And that bugged her. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
So, it should have been Rogers and Astaire? | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
Yes. One time I did ask Ginger, "Who is the better dancer?" | 0:47:04 | 0:47:10 | |
And Ginger thought a bit, and she said, | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
"Well, my taps are better than Fred's." | 0:47:13 | 0:47:15 | |
Whether that was true or not, | 0:47:19 | 0:47:21 | |
it must have been hard for Fred's wife, Phyllis, | 0:47:21 | 0:47:24 | |
seeing her husband in so many love scenes with another woman. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:28 | |
Do you think Phyllis got a bit jealous | 0:47:29 | 0:47:32 | |
about the relationship with Ginger? | 0:47:32 | 0:47:35 | |
Phyllis was not a showbiz woman. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:38 | |
She was a wife, and a mother, | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
and, you know, you protect your territory. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:46 | |
She would park herself next to the set, with knitting needles, | 0:47:46 | 0:47:50 | |
according to Ginger, and knit away, clickety clack, clickety clack, | 0:47:50 | 0:47:55 | |
and it drove Ginger crazy. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:57 | |
The run of successful films Fred and Ginger made together | 0:48:01 | 0:48:05 | |
required weeks of rehearsals each time. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
Fred would often avoid rehearsing with Ginger. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
He would send along a friend, | 0:48:13 | 0:48:15 | |
the exotically named choreographer Hermes Pan, | 0:48:15 | 0:48:19 | |
to take Ginger through the steps. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:21 | |
Someone close to Hermes knows how this unusual dance team | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
worked in practice. | 0:48:31 | 0:48:33 | |
Hermes would rehearse with Ginger, he was playing Fred, | 0:48:33 | 0:48:37 | |
and he would dance with Ginger | 0:48:37 | 0:48:39 | |
to teach the routine before she went and did it with Fred. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:42 | |
Yeah. So they'd... | 0:48:42 | 0:48:43 | |
He created it with Fred, and he was playing the girl, and then, gosh,... | 0:48:43 | 0:48:50 | |
-That's right. -..multi-talented, and then he'd come | 0:48:50 | 0:48:52 | |
and teach it to Ginger, and play Fred? | 0:48:52 | 0:48:55 | |
Hermes Pan helped Fred devise dance numbers | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
for 17 of his 31 musical films. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:05 | |
They hit it off right away. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:10 | |
They just became good friends on Flying Down To Rio. | 0:49:10 | 0:49:13 | |
They worked together and were good friends from then on. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
There was never any jealousy or one-upmanship | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
because all they wanted was to have a really great dance number | 0:49:18 | 0:49:21 | |
at the end and they were both into that. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:23 | |
In this long collaboration with Hermes, Fred could be free from the | 0:49:26 | 0:49:30 | |
constraints imposed by the Hollywood studios. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:33 | |
Sometimes they danced together just for fun. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:36 | |
So, we're going to see a little clip here. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:41 | |
Do you know what it's actually called? | 0:49:41 | 0:49:43 | |
Yes, it's Me And The Ghost Upstairs. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:45 | |
Just dancing by himself... | 0:49:51 | 0:49:53 | |
The freedom, yeah, it's lovely. | 0:49:53 | 0:49:55 | |
There he comes. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:00 | |
-And this is Hermes? -There it is, yes. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:02 | |
So he's... | 0:50:02 | 0:50:04 | |
And he's supposed to be the female ghost that lives in the attic. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:07 | |
They had a lot of fun making this. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:08 | |
No, you have to dance with me! | 0:50:11 | 0:50:14 | |
Absolutely not. | 0:50:15 | 0:50:17 | |
Please, please! | 0:50:17 | 0:50:18 | |
The timing is so perfect. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:21 | |
They obviously know each other incredibly well. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:23 | |
Oooh! | 0:50:23 | 0:50:24 | |
-The old jitterbug! -That's brilliant, yeah. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
Oh, it's heaven. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:28 | |
You can tell it's a man, straightaway, because his legs, | 0:50:34 | 0:50:37 | |
they are so far apart under that skirt. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:39 | |
You can, yes. And just the way he moves, and his hands. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
Just... One of the best things I've ever seen, actually. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
By the 1950s, Fred's world in Hollywood was coming to an end. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:17 | |
Audiences were falling out of love with the big screen... | 0:51:18 | 0:51:21 | |
..and Fred's beloved wife Phyllis was battling lung cancer. | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
The prognosis was not good. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:30 | |
She was his strength. | 0:51:33 | 0:51:35 | |
She provided him with a wonderful home. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
She provided him with stability, | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
with the kind of solid, quiet life | 0:51:41 | 0:51:43 | |
most other movie stars couldn't even pray for. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:47 | |
After two failed operations... | 0:51:53 | 0:51:55 | |
..Phyllis died on the 13th of September, 1954. | 0:51:57 | 0:52:01 | |
He mourned. He mourned deeply. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:08 | |
But he continued to do amazing work | 0:52:08 | 0:52:12 | |
in the years following Phyllis's death | 0:52:12 | 0:52:14 | |
and the death of the Hollywood musicals that had been his mainstay. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:19 | |
He didn't return to the stage, he moved on | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
and did some of the most brilliant work of his career. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
Live television was the next big shift in the entertainment business. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:32 | |
Eight out of ten American households owned a television set in 1958, | 0:52:32 | 0:52:38 | |
and Fred Astaire would soon be appearing on their screens. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:43 | |
I'm meeting one of Fred Astaire's dance partners | 0:52:44 | 0:52:48 | |
to find out how he reinvented himself one very last time. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:52 | |
This time, it was his show and no-one else's. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:04 | |
So, I'm really happy, Barrie, | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
I found this, I don't know if you remember this. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:15 | |
It's a TV Guide, and look at you, my goodness, how beautiful, | 0:53:15 | 0:53:19 | |
with Fred Astaire on the front cover. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:21 | |
And, I have to say, there is a spectacular picture inside, | 0:53:21 | 0:53:25 | |
of you doing this lovely back bend. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
-Oh, dearie me! -Beautiful curve. -Thank you. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:29 | |
This is the one with the back, here! | 0:53:29 | 0:53:32 | |
No, no. Oh, my goodness, that's stunning. | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
Gosh, I hope you had that framed, it's a fabulous picture. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
No, I don't have anything framed. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:39 | |
Oh! That's stunning. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:40 | |
I would! | 0:53:42 | 0:53:43 | |
Is it true, at that time, | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
there was quite a lot of movie stars moving into television? | 0:53:47 | 0:53:52 | |
Well, they weren't making musicals, that's for sure. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:54 | |
They were too expensive, and so, they stopped doing them. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:59 | |
And so, if you wanted to work, I suppose, you went into television. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:03 | |
Television gave Fred the freedom he'd craved for so long. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:12 | |
It was his show, he chose his partners, he planned everything. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:16 | |
He got a release from 20th Century Fox for me to do the show. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:21 | |
He had said to me, | 0:54:21 | 0:54:22 | |
"I'm going to do this show, would you like to be on it?" | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
"Well, Fred, anything, I don't care, I'll bring you coffee, whatever!" | 0:54:25 | 0:54:28 | |
Aged 59, Fred was still at the top of his game. | 0:54:31 | 0:54:35 | |
I hadn't danced for a year before that show, | 0:54:37 | 0:54:39 | |
and he liked to rehearse, very often, | 0:54:39 | 0:54:41 | |
the number from beginning to end. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:43 | |
And I was winded! | 0:54:45 | 0:54:46 | |
And he wasn't. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
The best thing, what I really liked, if every once in a while, | 0:54:51 | 0:54:55 | |
under his breath, he'd say, "Now you're dancing!" | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
Oh, that's so lovely! | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
And it was like a shot, you know, it was like a rimshot, | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
it would get to you. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:03 | |
An Evening With Fred Astaire went out in October 1958. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:12 | |
A one-hour colour special with backing dancers, a full orchestra, | 0:55:12 | 0:55:16 | |
and duets with Barrie Chase. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:19 | |
It was seen by 30 million people, | 0:55:19 | 0:55:21 | |
the first of five TV spectaculars. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:25 | |
It won nine Emmys. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:27 | |
1981, the AFI, the American Film Institute, | 0:55:35 | 0:55:39 | |
gave him their Life Achievement Award, | 0:55:39 | 0:55:41 | |
which is a very prestigious evening and a very glittery, | 0:55:41 | 0:55:45 | |
star-filled evening, here in Hollywood. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:47 | |
I think, significant recognition, it's easy to say. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:54 | |
And he was in very good company, | 0:55:55 | 0:55:56 | |
because they had gone to the best of the best | 0:55:56 | 0:55:59 | |
since they started giving this award. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:01 | |
The award was celebrating Fred's big screen career | 0:56:04 | 0:56:08 | |
and everyone was wondering if Ginger Rogers would turn up. | 0:56:08 | 0:56:12 | |
Ginger was not there that night, | 0:56:12 | 0:56:14 | |
which led to all sorts of speculation. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:17 | |
She sent a letter... | 0:56:17 | 0:56:18 | |
It was very cute, it was about that long, | 0:56:18 | 0:56:20 | |
and I couldn't read half of it, | 0:56:20 | 0:56:22 | |
because her handwriting was very fancy. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
But I'm going to go home and study it when I get back. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:28 | |
I think there was a nice thing about it, that Ginger was going, | 0:56:28 | 0:56:31 | |
"This is your night, you don't need me," and I think she was actually | 0:56:31 | 0:56:35 | |
-doing him a favour. -Well, I think you're right. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
I think you're right. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:39 | |
Much as people would have loved seeing them together again | 0:56:39 | 0:56:41 | |
at that moment... | 0:56:41 | 0:56:43 | |
..it would have diminished the award, | 0:56:44 | 0:56:47 | |
which was for him, his career, | 0:56:47 | 0:56:49 | |
his achievements. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:51 | |
In front of the most important people in Hollywood, | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
Fred reminded everyone of how his career began. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:01 | |
My sister, Adele, was mostly responsible | 0:57:01 | 0:57:05 | |
for my being in show business. | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
She was the whole show, she really was. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:10 | |
Of all the vaudeville acts we had | 0:57:10 | 0:57:12 | |
and the musical comedies we did together, Delly was... | 0:57:12 | 0:57:14 | |
..the one that was the shining light, | 0:57:15 | 0:57:19 | |
and I was just there pushing away. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
Then, all of a sudden, she got married, | 0:57:22 | 0:57:24 | |
I went on by myself, and... | 0:57:24 | 0:57:26 | |
..I did all that. | 0:57:27 | 0:57:28 | |
I didn't realise I did all that stuff. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:30 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:57:33 | 0:57:34 | |
With a legacy of more than 30 major films, | 0:57:48 | 0:57:51 | |
a dozen stage plays and countless vaudeville appearances... | 0:57:51 | 0:57:56 | |
..Fred Astaire died, aged 88, | 0:57:57 | 0:58:00 | |
on the 22nd of June, 1987. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:04 | |
He asked to be buried in Oakwood Park Cemetery, Los Angeles. | 0:58:06 | 0:58:10 | |
The same resting place as his wife, his mother, and his sister. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:17 | |
He felt he owed everything to three women. | 0:58:19 | 0:58:23 | |
His mother gave him determination. | 0:58:23 | 0:58:26 | |
I think Adele gave him the competition he needed | 0:58:26 | 0:58:29 | |
to find his own way. | 0:58:29 | 0:58:31 | |
And I think Phyllis gave him that passion | 0:58:31 | 0:58:34 | |
that informed the rest of his career. | 0:58:34 | 0:58:37 | |
All his life, Fred wanted to be his own man, | 0:58:43 | 0:58:47 | |
not just a brother to Adele, or a dance partner to Ginger. | 0:58:47 | 0:58:51 | |
And yet it was the women who made him. | 0:58:51 | 0:58:55 | |
Without them, there might have never been a Fred Astaire. | 0:58:55 | 0:58:57 |