Fred Astaire was one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century.
Born in 1899, he and his sister Adele were child stars in American
vaudeville before moving into musicals in their late teens.
They became major Broadway stars and then in 1923 appeared for
the first time in Britain in Stop Flirting. They were
an immediate hit and settled into a West End run of 418 performances.
They returned to London throughout the 1920s with such shows
as Gershwin’s Lady be Good and Funny Face.
The Astaires were feted by Royalty and high society. Adele
at first received most praise for her vivacity and natural
comic
timing but her career ended in 1932 when she married into the
British aristocracy leaving Fred to go it alone. He took on
the first of what were to become his signature roles, as a
romantic lead with Claire Luce in Cole Porter’s The
Gay Divorce. Dancing to the haunting ‘Night and
Day’,
Astaire created the first of his famous romantic duets. Astaire
was not conventionally good looking but his ability to express
romance through movement was to make him an international star.
One critic said ‘He makes dance a vertical expression
of horizontal desire’.
His first major film Flying Down to Rio was released
during the London run of The Gay Divorce. Although
he was not the lead, audiences went wild over Astaire and his
partner Ginger Rogers. Astaire never appeared in a full stage
production again. With Ginger Rogers he went on to make ten
films including the classic Top Hat (1935) and Swing
Time (1936). His later partners included Judy Garland,
Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, Audrey Hepburn
and Leslie Caron.
Great songwriters of his day also wrote some of their greatest
songs for him – Irving Berlin (‘Cheek to Cheek’),
George Gershwin (‘They Can’t Take That Away From
Me’), Jerome Kern (‘The Way You Look Tonight’),
Cole Porter (‘Night and Day’) and Johnny Mercer
(‘One for my Baby and one more for the Road’).
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