Darcey Bussell: Looking for Fred Astaire

I'm Darcey Bussell.

I'm often asked who inspired me to dance.

It was the most stylish dancer on the planet.

Fred Astaire was dance magic, distilled into one man.

Women longed to be in his arms.

Yet this fabulous career nearly didn't happen.

That's what interests me.

Everyone knows Fred as the greatest ballroom dancer in the world

and yet it was never planned that way.

Fred was not destined to be the dancer in the family.

His mother only got Fred dancing to partner his sister Adele.

She was meant to be the star and, for 30 years, she was.

If there hadn't been an Adele Astaire,

there probably wouldn't be a Fred Astaire.

He was literally following in his big sister's footsteps.

When Adele left the act to get married, it could have been the end.

Adele suddenly announced she was leaving showbiz behind.

Everyone said, "Oh, poor Fred. What will he ever do without her?"

Even when he made it in Hollywood,

Fred depended on the women he danced with to stay in the limelight.

Most of all, Ginger Rogers.

It's lightning in a bottle and that's what they were.

They were lightning in a bottle.

Dancing with Ginger, though, was not what Fred wanted.

Fred says, "What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers?

"I will not have it, Leland.

"I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her, or anyone else."

She drove him crazy.

She drove him absolutely insane.

Audiences loved Fred's romantic dance duos,

while Fred spent his career trying to escape them.

I'm wondering, deep down,

if Fred always felt he was in someone else's shadow?

From the 1930s,

Fred Astaire set the standard

for how every dancer and dance team should be.

He lifted the bar impossibly high.

He invented incredible solo dance routines...

..and turned all his cinema dance partners into screen goddesses.

Fred not only created all the dance steps...

..he connected with his partners unlike anyone else.

He could even make a piece of furniture look good.

This unique ability is something dancers today

are still striving for.

I'm on my way to see a rehearsal with Janette and Aljaz

in a new production called Remembering Fred.

# Heaven, I'm in heaven

# And my heart beats so that I can hardly see

# And I seem to find the happiness I seek

# When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek... #

We'll go into silhouette.

# Cheek! #

In our world, lead and follow is such a big deal.

-Incredibly important.

-It's all that matters.

And so we've been paying really close attention

to why he was so good at leading

and how he can make a woman know exactly what to do

and when to do it and at the right time to do it.

It always, at whatever point you look at his stuff on film,

it always looks like he's in total control, not just for himself,

but as a partnership, which is so hard to do.

And make them look amazing.

All of a sudden, I felt a lot of pressure then!

No, he's amazing.

I've seen you perform, darling. You've got all of that.

I'm not Fred yet.

HE WHISTLES AS METRONOME TICKS

Fred Astaire's amazing sense of rhythm

goes all the way back to childhood.

His birthplace was Omaha, Nebraska...

..a town built on beer and railways,

right in the middle of America.

A very long way from the lights and dazzle of show business.

It's said no matter how far he travelled,

there was one thing from Omaha Fred would always carry with him.

All those Union Pacific trains passing through town

inspired Fred to make up dances,

based on the rhythms of the railways.

SLIDE GUITAR

Omaha, Nebraska, is an old-fashioned kind of place.

Hi, Don!

The first thing I'm looking for is the house where, in 1899,

Fred Astaire was born.

It's on the outskirts of town on South Ten Street

and I have a photo of it from the time.

Gosh, it's not what I expected.

In this 1900 census, Fred is listed in this very house with his parents,

Adele, his sister, it says she is two years older,

but what's strange...

..is their name. It's not Astaire.

It's Austerlitz.

Fred was born into an immigrant family.

His father, Fritz Austerlitz,

came all the way to Omaha from Austria in 1892.

He met and married a local girl from a German family...

..Johanna, known as Ann.

Like hundreds of thousands of other immigrant families,

they were making their way in America.

At that time, one in four people in Nebraska spoke German

and many of them worked in the breweries.

Local brewer and historian Bill Baburek

has found out how Fred's dad, Fritz, found a job...

..in Omaha's Storz Brewery, the biggest in the state.

-So I have some things to show you.

-Oh, OK, great.

Here's an interior shot of the Storz Brewery.

So that's about the same time that his father...

Fritz was working here?

Worked there, yes.

This would have been one of his cards, if you will,

-calling cards.

-Cos he was a salesman?

As a salesman. Yeah, he got a job as a salesman.

-That's brilliant.

-And he would've gone round to the various saloons

in town to sell the Storz beer.

As Fritz began to earn a decent wage...

Walk. Side. Together.

..Ann Austerlitz was ambitious for the children.

She wanted her daughter, Adele, and her son, Fred,

to move up the social ladder.

It was mum who struck upon a great idea

for the kids to learn to be dancers.

Local dance teacher Elizabeth Colclasure has discovered

how Ann took her children to dance class

to learn how to conduct themselves as Americans.

Why do you think it's so important for kids to learn to dance?

I think it's really important

just because it teaches them how to interact with each other.

it gives them confidence and it also teaches young children

how to be more like gentlemen and like ladies

and teaches them to respect one another.

Adele took to dancing instantly.

Fred, though, was very shy and would only dance

in partnership with his sister.

This is a lovely picture. This is of the mother, Ann, isn't it?

Yes, she always made sure she wanted to install into her kids

that they could be anything. She always put her children first.

She had a great vision, I think, for them and starting here in Omaha...

..putting them straight into dance class, at a very young age?

Yes, and starting out in Omaha,

just starting in a very small city

and starting right in the middle of, you know, the US.

And yet Nebraska was at the heart

of a growing movement for change in America.

The local beer industry, livelihood of so many,

faced an uncertain future.

It wasn't looking so good for the Austerlitz family.

This is a postcard that were put out by the prohibitionists.

Basically, kind of, as a scare tactic, if you will,

-and if you read it, Darcey, it is pretty brutal.

-Yeah.

"Whatever you do, remember the saloon keeper is after your children."

We were still a ways off from prohibition,

but, I think, those winds of change were kind of circulating.

They would soon start laying people off at the brewery.

Once again the family faced poverty.

Ann's plans for the children risked coming to nothing.

Fritz saw an ad for a dance school in Manhattan

that was looking for new pupils

and it was mother Ann who said,

"There's nothing here for Adele and Fred.

"Maybe there's a future in dancing."

She was prepared to drop everything and go with the children to New York.

In January 1905,

the journey of an unknown family called Austerlitz

began here at Union Station, Omaha.

Now a beautifully restored building

that speaks of Nebraska's past glories.

They were leaving their father behind,

hoping to dance their way to their dreams.

Aged barely six and eight, with their new stage names,

Fred and Adele Astaire.

It was here they departed with their mother

to start a brand-new life in New York.

Ann, Fred and Adele would travel 1,200 miles,

nearly three days by train,

to arrive right in the middle of Manhattan.

As a small boy from a small town,

Fred was shocked by the hustle and bustle.

So many people all crammed into one place.

Later, Fred wrote, "This trip was really a stab in the dark.

"We were going to New York without so much as a letter of introduction.

"My mother had never been there and she knew no-one."

Ann took Fred and Adele to the Alviene dance school,

a husband-and-wife business,

on 8th Avenue and 23rd Street,

close to music halls and a bowling alley.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Fred and Adele were taking their first steps into show business.

Just like kids today taking daily dance classes,

the first stage to becoming professional performers.

I think it's extraordinary to think

that Fred and Adele came from Omaha, Nebraska,

and arrived in New York of all places.

I mean, the change for them, what they could see and hear,

it must've been quite a shock.

Yeah, definitely a culture shock.

How amazing, so many more opportunities for them

to learn different styles of dance.

So many more doors open to them.

I know when our students come from smaller towns

and move to New York City,

they have these big eyes and taking everything in

and I think they just feel so much more inspired

because the world has really opened up to them.

It's not just a small little place any more.

Everything is here.

And also to notice the talent.

So they realise, "Oh, my gosh, we've got to pick it up here.

"We've got to get better."

They might have been the best in their dance class in a small town,

but now, you know, everyone, there's so many great dancers here.

But I think that can be inspiring, a little bit of competition.

Oh, yeah, perfect competition.

Exactly what they needed, at the right time.

The only way was for Fred and Adele to work their way up.

No performer got a look in on Broadway

unless they did their time in vaudeville,

the home of music hall and variety shows.

In the autumn of 1905,

Fred and Adele secured their first professional gig

on the other side of New York harbour.

A song and dance act arranged by their dance teacher

in the end-of-pier amusement show in Keyport, New Jersey.

Musical theatre expert John Kenrick has more information

on how Adele was a natural from the start.

Here's a photo of them in one of their first acts

and there's Fred dressed as the groom

and Adele dressed as the bride.

Apparently, from the very beginning,

it was Adele who had that natural ability

to walk on stage and attract the audience's attention.

Imagine what it would be like

if you are two siblings and one of you always gets the praise

and the other one, "Yeah, well, he's OK too."

That would drive you mad.

And he adored his sister.

He loved seeing her succeed,

but he naturally wanted a piece of that credit too,

and his one way to do that

was to work like a dray horse and rehearsal was his strength.

In all their years in vaudeville,

Fred never once got a better review than his sister.

The only time he stood out was when he did something different.

Aged nine, he decided to dance on pointe like a ballerina.

Notice something else fascinating here.

He's wearing toe shoes.

Well, that, I have to say,

is pretty unusual for a boy to be wearing toe shoes.

What was the attraction of that?

Well, that was the sure thing.

That was the novelty of a boy wearing toe shoes.

To this day it's an extraordinarily rare thing to find a boy

wearing toe shoes.

I don't know because I never studied ballet, this is your world,

but I've heard from some of the dance majors I've taught

that a boy wouldn't dream of doing that except as a gag.

This is a very early review of Freddie Astaire in April 1909,

the young toe dancer.

And it says,

"One of the most remarkable toe dancers is now appearing on the vaudeville stage.

"Freddie is still a mere boy,

"but his toe dancing is on a par with that of any dancer

"before the public."

Vaudeville, it gave you an education by doing

and you got out there and you toured 47-50 weeks a year.

You were lucky if you took a few weeks off in summertime.

You performed wherever they booked you.

You showed up every night, no matter what condition you were in.

You had a fever, you got out and performed.

You had the flu, you got out and performed.

You had a broken leg,

you figured out a way to get out there on a cast and still perform.

Because it was pay for play

and if you did not show up you didn't eat.

It was hard graft for Fred and Adele for the best part of a decade.

It came to a point where Fred Astaire himself said

that they had played every chicken coop and rat trap in the country.

But they were teenagers now?

They were but, by this point,

they were ready to make a transition to something else.

In the few precious hours they were not performing,

Adele focused on having fun.

Fred was the creative one, devising the new routines

needed to drive things forward in their careers.

Aged 17, he found inspiration in the heart of Harlem.

African Americans were moving into the cities

and bringing a whole new style of dancing.

When Fred Astaire was going up to the Cotton Club

and seeing these acts, he would see the dancers.

They had a line of male tap dancers,

and there are these three sorts of movement

that become really important, and contribute to tap dance.

And these are the dances that we called

buck dances, wing dances, and jigs.

So buck dances are the dances, you're going to do this with me...

-OK.

-You're going to dig down, dig down.

-So it's weight down?

-Down.

-Down to the ground.

Down! That's it, yes.

And a buck dance.

Oh, yeah, I can do this one.

There you go. Yes, that's it.

Love it!

Nice! Oh, my gosh. Was that like them all rolled together?

Well, that was more like a buck dance and a jig together.

Now, wing dances, though, are important,

cos buck dances tend to be about the rhythm and the weight.

But, in the wing dances, we're going to flap our body,

-as though we have wings.

-OK.

So here, with the elbows.

Like a chicken. Now try flapping your knees too.

-OK.

-There you go. Yes.

So these wing dances become very much a part of tap dance.

# Slap that bass, slap it till it's dizzy

# Slap that bass, keep the rhythm busy

# Zoom-zoom-zoom, misery has got to go... #

This number in Shall We Dance that he made later in his career,

where he's dancing, and he's among these African-American engineers

and they sing a song, and he's watching,

and then he joins in and he sings.

# Learn to zoom-zoom-zoom, slap that bass!

# Da-da-da, dat-doo, dat-doo! #

But, then, as it goes into the dance break,

he takes off his jacket to kind of be in spirit with the workers.

And he changes the beat, and the song goes from a kind of

upbeat happy song to a sort of soft-shoe rhythm.

And then he kind of plays with his body

and he does these fun, eccentric little dances.

And then he changes the beat to a really hard, fast,

sort of buck dance for the end.

It has a big flashy ending.

And he demonstrates what he can do with really strong, fast rhythm.

So the dance has three really distinct tempos.

As you are watching it, you might not even notice it

but it's how he organises rhythm.

To tell us a story, to give us the excitement,

to really share the dance with us

and the things that are possible inside of it.

Fred's sparkling dance routines and Adele's natural charm

gave the brother-sister act

the sophistication they needed for Broadway.

They were hired by the Schubert Theatre

in a show called Over The Top in 1917.

Musicals are alive and kicking!

-Woo!

-Ha-ha!

Buried in the archives of the New York Public Library,

in its Billy Rose Theatre division,

are hundreds and thousands of theatre documents.

Archivist Doug Reside has found the playbills

from the Astaires' early years on Broadway.

So, Doug, in the 1920s, what was Broadway like?

So, the musical theatre was kind of frothy and goofy.

So these were popular shows?

As in that they were light entertainment?

Exactly! Light entertainments, yes.

You'll see, I mean, they are just, of course,

beginning performers at this point,

Beginning Broadway performers.

They are actually at the very bottom of the programme here,

Fred is listed second to last,

and Adele, who is listed simply as Adele, the character,

is the final character on this front page.

So they got good reviews for their performance.

There is a review here that said Fred Astaire

"has the great gift of being pleasantly awkward everywhere but in his legs."

And Adele is praised as well.

So their performances are well received,

but the show itself seems to have been a bit of a bore.

And was Adele getting better reviews than Fred?

Yes, in general, I think she was recognised

as the more polished performer.

They were a killer combination,

steadily making their way up to the top of the bill on Broadway

and top billing meant proper money.

They could earn as much as 500 a week,

10,000 today.

Enough to take a lease, with their mother, Ann,

on this Park Avenue apartment.

Still one of the most exclusive addresses in New York.

Adele remained the star performer,

yet the whole show depended on Fred.

Not only as ideas man and dance partner,

he managed the money, and the contracts.

I have a letter here that Fred wrote, which...

..he comes across very savvy...

"We ask you, now that business here is big,

"to please see that we receive our full salary on Christmas week.

"Can I assure you that this will be greatly appreciated."

Now, this obviously worked for Fred,

because by the time he was 20 he was driving his own baby Rolls-Royce.

Fred was always on the lookout for new opportunities.

He knew, from his childhood, success could vanish as quickly as it came.

Becoming true show business stars

would mean testing themselves in front of a wider audience.

In the spring of 1923

Adele was asked to star in London's West End,

where the theatre was booming.

Fred would go too, as Adele's partner, choreographer,

and, increasingly, her equal.

They were contracted for one show

and many more, if it was successful.

Fred later recreated this journey in his film, Royal Wedding.

-Isn't it wonderful?

-It sure is.

TELEPHONE RINGS

Hello?

Yes? Oh, sure.

Yes. Do come on up.

When they arrived at the Savoy Hotel,

Fred and Adele were whisked up to the roof

for a publicity photograph...

..in foggy London.

They stayed in the same riverside suite

where I'm meeting Kathleen Riley.

She's looked into how much rested on their London debut.

Kathleen, thank you so much for bringing all your goodies...

-It's a pleasure.

-..of the Astaires in London.

Now, was it make or break for them, to appear here?

Fred certainly thought so.

In fact, I've got this letter here, which is rather wonderful,

from when, shortly after they arrive in May 1923,

where he is writing home to his father, Fritz,

and it's so full of excitement, but anxiety at the same time.

So he says...

"Well, Pop, we are still all nervous about the opening

"and can't wait until it has passed.

"In front of the theatre, over the entrance,

"there is a great big sign with just our pictures enlarged to three times to life-size" - underlined -

"cut out figures.

"And also another with just our names, and it looks marvellous,

"but it scares us half to death."

And then you have to come up with the goods, don't you?

In fact, it's London that really makes them stars in the true sense.

This is a really crucial turning point in their career.

Their first show in London was called Stop Flirting.

No footage survives of Fred and Adele's West End premiere.

There is, however, a recording of the music.

This is from Stop Flirting.

And it's got this incredible name,

The Whichness Of The Whatness Of The Whereness Of The Who.

The Whichness Of The Whatness Of The Whereness Of The Who.

I've got it. Amazing!

Let's get it started.

Hope I'm doing this correctly.

Here we go.

# It's the whichness of the whatness

# Of the whereness of the who

# That explains most everything to us

# And you must admit the whole thing is ridiculously simple

# As well as simply ridiculous

# Don't forget it... #

Her voice, though, is quite, I mean, obviously the trend at that time.

Yes, it's very much of its period,

and it's quite shrill to our ears.

Partly the recording, of course, but it's very high.

In fact, it was described as "cooee soprano".

But it's very much in that style of

light operetta, it's not too jazzy, but it's...

Yeah, it's very distinctive.

Their first night, is this their programme?

This is the programme for Stop Flirting.

They ended up, over its lifetime, doing 10,000 dances,

and Adele went through a pair of stockings each performance.

A pair of shoes a week...

That sounds like a ballet dancer!

The audience absolutely loved it, and the critics, of course,

the next day, I think it was The Times, actually, that said,

"Columbus may have danced for joy on discovering America,

"but how he would have cavorted if he had discovered Fred and Adele."

And another one was,

"Miss Astaire could dance the depression out of an undertaker."

If Adele still had the edge with reviews, Fred was standing out too.

Not least as a snappy dresser.

So, Darcey, I've got one more thing to show you, which is, perhaps,

my most treasured Fred possession.

One of Fred's very own hats.

-Wow.

-A straw boater.

It's gorgeous.

So he would have performed in this?

Yes, I think so.

I can imagine just doing that.

Tapping out the rhythm.

-Yeah.

-Might have to try it on.

Oh, yes. It fits!

It looks absolutely to the manner born.

-Should it be on the angle?

-Oh, yes, a jaunty angle.

Definitely, yes.

-Oh, excellent, I love it.

-Absolutely. The biz!

1920s London loved a good American song and dance act.

Fred and Adele were the toast of the town, invited to everything,

and one of their biggest fans was the royal family.

What was extraordinary was that the Prince of Wales, for example,

he loved coming to see, particularly, Stop Flirting.

Not only once, but, I mean, night after night.

The Prince of Wales,

we know that he was very attracted to everything American.

-He loved America.

-Yes, and, obviously,

meeting Adele and being very attracted to her as a performer,

and this beautiful woman that she was...

You have some letters that Adele and Fred

wrote back to their parents when they were performing here in London?

Yes. Adele tells the story.

This is 1923.

"Mother dear and Father dear, so happy to hear from you.

"Can't write each of you separately,

"because I've so many letters to write every day.

"I think the Prince likes me."

And then, at the bottom, she says,

"PS, remember, the Prince has rushed actresses before.

"But he has never invited them to meet his own friends, and to be informal."

I did hear that Adele was quite naughty.

She was quite a sort of raunchy figure.

I mean, she wasn't a shrinking violet by any means.

-She wasn't shy like Fred?

-No, not at all.

There is one story in which she was getting into a car, and she never wore any underwear.

No, really! Oh, my gosh, she was naughty!

And she said, "Oh, whoops! Somebody's just seen the ace of spades!"

Fred was better behaved than his older sister,

yet still caused royal hearts to flutter.

Fred was dancing with the Duchess of York, later the Queen Mother,

and she remembered it all her life.

She wrote to the Queen about it, saying, you know,

she remembered dancing in York House, you know, with Fred Astaire.

And she called him "delicious",

which was one of the Queen Mother's favourite words!

She said, "They are delicious, the Astaires."

London secured the international reputation

of Fred and Adele Astaire.

They were fixtures throughout the '20s,

with a string of hit shows.

Until, out of the blue,

something happened that would change everything.

By the early 1930s Adele was tiring of show business.

She was in love with the son of the Duke of Devonshire.

Stored deep in the theatre archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum

are some precious documents saved from that time.

Here it is, here's the file that we need to look at.

Thank you.

Here we have it. "Family wedding party, Duke's son marries dancer.

"Service in private chapel."

So, Adele makes the decision to marry Charles Cavendish.

It's a lovely secret.

Adele's husband to be, Charles,

his family must have been quite surprised

that he was going to marry this showgirl, this dancer.

Yes. And we've actually got a copy of a photograph here,

so you can see them all lined up, the wedding party.

Oh, my gosh, it does look like the royal family though, doesn't it?

Look at the bridesmaids.

Isn't that beautiful?

-There we have the bride and groom, and there's Ann.

-Oh, yes.

-Mum.

-And the best man, and the Duke.

But no Fred.

So that's odd.

Fred missed the wedding because he was finished with London.

His sister's aristocratic marriage meant the double act was over.

He was back on Broadway, this time in his own right.

Obviously, there was going to be a huge impact,

if Adele was stepping down from the stage,

she was such a big star in her own right, and their partnership...

The wonderful thing, actually, that Fred doesn't take a break at all.

He goes straight into his next career as a solo artist.

-He was ready for this, wasn't he?

-I'm sure he was.

I think the fact that he had been with the same partner, really,

all his life, suddenly, new challenges come.

And that's very significant.

Yeah. Great.

And just as Adele met someone, so did Fred.

A wealthy American divorcee called Phyllis Potter.

As we can see, Fred is actually courting Phyllis at this point.

Here it says,

"Mr Astaire, who is well-known in London as an actor and dancer,

"the brother of Lady Charles Cavendish.

"Mrs Potter's fortune is reputed at five million..."

-What!

-So that is really about the equivalent of 150 million.

Oh, my!

So we are talking about huge wealth here.

And he obviously wasn't just getting to know her because of that?

No, I think, again,

it was a very happy relationship that was building up.

And building up slowly, because she had to go through a divorce.

He had met a woman who he would marry, Phyllis,

and was actually experiencing a serious adult romance

for the first time in his life.

Suddenly, he had a beautiful girl, a glamorous girl,

and it wasn't his sister any more.

Fred's personal life was changing.

His professional life was changing,

and show business was changing.

The hub of the American entertainment industry was moving.

From Broadway on the east coast, to Hollywood on the west coast.

It was time for stage performers to make their way in a new medium.

In 1933, Fred was spotted by a talent scout for the movies.

And he only agreed to go

if Phyllis would join him on his next big adventure.

Hollywood, RKO specifically, came to him and said,

"Hey, do you want to come out and make some films?"

She was there to say, "Absolutely,

"and I'll be by your side while you do it."

And he would not go out there until they were married,

they got married, took the plane out to California

and started this new life.

And she was his rock

as he made that crucial decision to take the big risk

and go from live performing to screen performing.

Sunshine, the golden age of Hollywood.

When you think of this, you think of Fred Astaire.

Yet his success on Broadway didn't guarantee success in the movies.

It almost didn't happen for Fred in Hollywood.

Fred came out to California

expecting to make it in his own right.

Dreaming up all sorts of solo numbers for the big screen.

Audiences, however, were looking for romance.

RKO Pictures needed Fred Astaire to partner their rising star,

Ginger Rogers,

in a film called Flying Down To Rio.

It was the depression. The bottom of the depression,

and RKO was a struggling studio,

and even the bigger studios were having a hard time.

But then they made this musical,

this rather extraordinary, elaborate musical.

When the film came around to their number,

this inventive little number called the Carioca,

and they started dancing, it was not just a debut of a new dance team,

it was the start of a love affair.

You can see for yourself.

Oh, my gosh. This is absolute heaven, isn't it?

Their connection...

If anything, you'd think they'd been dancing together forever.

-Yeah.

-How natural they are.

There are some things you can't define

and this is one of them. They were lightning in a bottle.

You couldn't recreate it, you couldn't invent it if you tried to.

What happened when RKO tried to contract Fred

for many more pictures?

Well, he was wary, to put it mildly.

We have a paper trail, the details.

Here's a letter, dated February 9th, 1934,

to his agent, the very famous agent, Leland Hayward.

Fred says, "What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers?

"I will not" - underscored not - "have it, Leland.

"I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her, or anyone else.

"If that is the programme in mind for me, I will not stand for it."

These are strong words.

"I don't mind doing another picture with her but, as for this team idea, it's out.

"I've just managed to live down one partnership

"and I don't want to be bothered with any more. Fred Astaire."

That's a staggering letter.

I would never think he was that forthright, but, you're right,

he'd only just come from his partnership, from a child,

with his sister, Adele.

Yes, they had been enormously popular, enormously successful,

and when she left the act, the whole world said,

"What's poor Fred going to do now?"

You know, poor Fred.

"She's the act. What is poor Fred going to do?"

And he had conquered that on Broadway.

So now, it worked.

He's a solo star, Fred Astaire.

He goes out to Hollywood,

and they team him up with another young woman.

So this was not anti-Ginger.

And he says here, he'll make another picture with her.

He's attacking the idea of being part of a duo.

So what did the studio chief think of that?

Here's his response...

"Tell Astaire hold his water with regards to teaming.

"He is not yet ready to be star in his own right.

"Ginger Rogers seems to go rather well with him.

"We can all clean up a lot of money by keeping them together.

"Would be foolish not to."

These films were a gold mine.

For RKO, as they would have been for any studio.

The Gay Divorcee was their first starring film.

Followed by Top Hat, an even bigger hit.

Followed by Swing Time, one after another, after another.

No-one had a run of successes quite like this before.

Especially during the 1930s when people needed that lift.

When times were tough, these movies gave people, not just escape...

..but they lifted their spirits and left them walking on a cloud.

Every now and again a musical comedy will still deliver some

of that old-time Hollywood magic.

Just as they did all those years ago.

I'm wondering how much Fred and Ginger

influenced the smash hit musical La La Land.

So, Mandy, was it inspired by the golden age of Hollywood?

Oh, 100%!

Every reference was from the golden age.

I mean, it was all Fred Astaire.

Was the couple inspired by Fred and Ginger?

We would sit and watch old Fred and Ginger numbers, you know?

The duet between Ryan and Emma that took place right here

is actually directly inspired by

"Isn't It A Lovely Day To Be Caught In The Rain?"

from Top Hat.

-I mean, we watched that thing 600 times.

-Oh, wow!

We would talk about why we liked the relationship

between the two of them, how it was told through dance.

Kind of the gesture

and how she was kind of sassy and cold at first,

and then she warmed up as they danced.

It's that story being told through the movements, isn't it?

Yes. Yeah!

It's lovely, because I can only see that is exactly what Fred Astaire

-was always trying to achieve.

-Yes.

Few cinema partnerships have been quite so playful

and romantic as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

No-one knows the inside story

of that relationship better than writer Jane Scovell.

Before Ginger died they spent time together

working on Ginger's autobiography.

The audience so much wanted them to be in love.

Yes.

I wanted them to be in love.

On the dance floor, I think they were very well suited.

Off the dance floor, they were very different.

She drove him crazy!

Ginger drove him absolutely insane.

You have to remember this is a man who started out being, well,

dominated is a good word, by his mother,

-then his sister.

-It's like the baton being passed.

Yes. It certainly wasn't going to go to Ginger!

Was there a sense of competition between Ginger and Fred?

Definitely!

I don't think she could ever get over the fact that it was Fred...

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

And that bugged her.

So, it should have been Rogers and Astaire?

Yes. One time I did ask Ginger, "Who is the better dancer?"

And Ginger thought a bit, and she said,

"Well, my taps are better than Fred's."

Whether that was true or not,

it must have been hard for Fred's wife, Phyllis,

seeing her husband in so many love scenes with another woman.

Do you think Phyllis got a bit jealous

about the relationship with Ginger?

Phyllis was not a showbiz woman.

She was a wife, and a mother,

and, you know, you protect your territory.

She would park herself next to the set, with knitting needles,

according to Ginger, and knit away, clickety clack, clickety clack,

and it drove Ginger crazy.

The run of successful films Fred and Ginger made together

required weeks of rehearsals each time.

Fred would often avoid rehearsing with Ginger.

He would send along a friend,

the exotically named choreographer Hermes Pan,

to take Ginger through the steps.

Someone close to Hermes knows how this unusual dance team

worked in practice.

Hermes would rehearse with Ginger, he was playing Fred,

and he would dance with Ginger

to teach the routine before she went and did it with Fred.

Yeah. So they'd...

He created it with Fred, and he was playing the girl, and then, gosh,...

-That's right.

-..multi-talented, and then he'd come

and teach it to Ginger, and play Fred?

Hermes Pan helped Fred devise dance numbers

for 17 of his 31 musical films.

They hit it off right away.

They just became good friends on Flying Down To Rio.

They worked together and were good friends from then on.

There was never any jealousy or one-upmanship

because all they wanted was to have a really great dance number

at the end and they were both into that.

In this long collaboration with Hermes, Fred could be free from the

constraints imposed by the Hollywood studios.

Sometimes they danced together just for fun.

So, we're going to see a little clip here.

Do you know what it's actually called?

Yes, it's Me And The Ghost Upstairs.

Just dancing by himself...

The freedom, yeah, it's lovely.

There he comes.

-And this is Hermes?

-There it is, yes.

So he's...

And he's supposed to be the female ghost that lives in the attic.

They had a lot of fun making this.

No, you have to dance with me!

Absolutely not.

Please, please!

The timing is so perfect.

They obviously know each other incredibly well.

Oooh!

-The old jitterbug!

-That's brilliant, yeah.

Oh, it's heaven.

You can tell it's a man, straightaway, because his legs,

they are so far apart under that skirt.

You can, yes. And just the way he moves, and his hands.

Just... One of the best things I've ever seen, actually.

By the 1950s, Fred's world in Hollywood was coming to an end.

Audiences were falling out of love with the big screen...

..and Fred's beloved wife Phyllis was battling lung cancer.

The prognosis was not good.

She was his strength.

She provided him with a wonderful home.

She provided him with stability,

with the kind of solid, quiet life

most other movie stars couldn't even pray for.

After two failed operations...

..Phyllis died on the 13th of September, 1954.

He mourned. He mourned deeply.

But he continued to do amazing work

in the years following Phyllis's death

and the death of the Hollywood musicals that had been his mainstay.

He didn't return to the stage, he moved on

and did some of the most brilliant work of his career.

Live television was the next big shift in the entertainment business.

Eight out of ten American households owned a television set in 1958,

and Fred Astaire would soon be appearing on their screens.

I'm meeting one of Fred Astaire's dance partners

to find out how he reinvented himself one very last time.

This time, it was his show and no-one else's.

So, I'm really happy, Barrie,

I found this, I don't know if you remember this.

It's a TV Guide, and look at you, my goodness, how beautiful,

with Fred Astaire on the front cover.

And, I have to say, there is a spectacular picture inside,

of you doing this lovely back bend.

-Oh, dearie me!

-Beautiful curve.

-Thank you.

This is the one with the back, here!

No, no. Oh, my goodness, that's stunning.

Gosh, I hope you had that framed, it's a fabulous picture.

No, I don't have anything framed.

Oh! That's stunning.

I would!

Is it true, at that time,

there was quite a lot of movie stars moving into television?

Well, they weren't making musicals, that's for sure.

They were too expensive, and so, they stopped doing them.

And so, if you wanted to work, I suppose, you went into television.

Television gave Fred the freedom he'd craved for so long.

It was his show, he chose his partners, he planned everything.

He got a release from 20th Century Fox for me to do the show.

He had said to me,

"I'm going to do this show, would you like to be on it?"

"Well, Fred, anything, I don't care, I'll bring you coffee, whatever!"

Aged 59, Fred was still at the top of his game.

I hadn't danced for a year before that show,

and he liked to rehearse, very often,

the number from beginning to end.

And I was winded!

And he wasn't.

The best thing, what I really liked, if every once in a while,

under his breath, he'd say, "Now you're dancing!"

Oh, that's so lovely!

And it was like a shot, you know, it was like a rimshot,

it would get to you.

An Evening With Fred Astaire went out in October 1958.

A one-hour colour special with backing dancers, a full orchestra,

and duets with Barrie Chase.

It was seen by 30 million people,

the first of five TV spectaculars.

It won nine Emmys.

1981, the AFI, the American Film Institute,

gave him their Life Achievement Award,

which is a very prestigious evening and a very glittery,

star-filled evening, here in Hollywood.

I think, significant recognition, it's easy to say.

And he was in very good company,

because they had gone to the best of the best

since they started giving this award.

The award was celebrating Fred's big screen career

and everyone was wondering if Ginger Rogers would turn up.

Ginger was not there that night,

which led to all sorts of speculation.

She sent a letter...

It was very cute, it was about that long,

and I couldn't read half of it,

because her handwriting was very fancy.

But I'm going to go home and study it when I get back.

I think there was a nice thing about it, that Ginger was going,

"This is your night, you don't need me," and I think she was actually

-doing him a favour.

-Well, I think you're right.

I think you're right.

Much as people would have loved seeing them together again

at that moment...

..it would have diminished the award,

which was for him, his career,

his achievements.

In front of the most important people in Hollywood,

Fred reminded everyone of how his career began.

My sister, Adele, was mostly responsible

for my being in show business.

She was the whole show, she really was.

Of all the vaudeville acts we had

and the musical comedies we did together, Delly was...

..the one that was the shining light,

and I was just there pushing away.

Then, all of a sudden, she got married,

I went on by myself, and...

..I did all that.

I didn't realise I did all that stuff.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

With a legacy of more than 30 major films,

a dozen stage plays and countless vaudeville appearances...

..Fred Astaire died, aged 88,

on the 22nd of June, 1987.

He asked to be buried in Oakwood Park Cemetery, Los Angeles.

The same resting place as his wife, his mother, and his sister.

He felt he owed everything to three women.

His mother gave him determination.

I think Adele gave him the competition he needed

to find his own way.

And I think Phyllis gave him that passion

that informed the rest of his career.

All his life, Fred wanted to be his own man,

not just a brother to Adele, or a dance partner to Ginger.

And yet it was the women who made him.

Without them, there might have never been a Fred Astaire.