ON A PERSONAL NOTE
When I was a little girl, my Mom would always make Sunday’s “Old Movie Day.” We often watched Fred Astaire movies on Channel 13 (we didn’t have cable when I was really little…we had CBS, NBC, ABC and Channel 13 (the learning channel where we’d find good old movies and Sesame Street. Maybe there was another channel we had to get these movies…). All I know is that when the clock struck 2 PM on Sunday afternoon, & a Fred Astaire movie came on, it was time to dream, to fly, to get my top hat and my cane and soar to the moon with a bowl of popcorn on my lap, curled up next to my mother in her turquoise colored chenille robe.
Fred affirmed that there was no purpose in CUTTING CORNERS when it came to performance. He taught me what it looked like to be in love with something. He was in love with dance and I was in love with acting and storytelling (with a splash of Fred on the side). I am forever grateful for that lesson. Oh, those movies: Daddy Long Legs, Flying Down to Rio, Brother Can You Spare a Dime, Holiday Inn…watch any one of his movies and you’ll see the world in a whole new way! WATCH FRED as he DANCES, FLIES, DREAMS, CREATES! Oh, Fred!
ABOUT FRED ASTAIRE
Fred Astaire, original name Frederick Austerlitz, (born May 10, 1899, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.—died June 22, 1987, Los Angeles, California), American dancer onstage and in motion pictures who was best known for a number of highly successful musical comedy films in which he starred with Ginger Rogers.
Born: May 10, 1899, Omaha
Profession: Dancer
Died: June 22, 1987
Light on his feet, Fred Astaire revolutionized the movie musical with his elegant and seemingly effortless dance style. He may have made dancing look easy, but he was a well-known perfectionist, and his work was the product of endless hours of practice.
Astaire started performing as a child, partnering up with his older sister Adele. The two toured the vaudeville circuit before making it to Broadway in 1917. Among their many productions the brother-sister team starred in the 1927 George and Ira Gershwin musical Funny Face. For all his early success, though, career in the movies eluded Astaire. He had done a screen test, but he failed to attract any interest. A studio executive wrote at the time, "Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little” (Excerpt taken from https://www.biography.com/performer/fred-astaire).
QUOTE BY FRED ASTAIRE
“Do it big, do it right and do it with style.”
WHAT I WISH FOR YOU TODAY
Do something BIG. Do something RIGHT. Do it IN STYLE’!
