Tuesday Minute
No. 148 | August 17, 2010

Hoofing It

Our theme this week
The incomparable Fred Astaire

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   “Cheek to Cheek” / Top Hat (1935)

“Begin the Beguine”

“Begin the Beguine” was one of the most elaborate production numbers of Hollywood’s golden age.  MGM spared no expense for its fourth and final installment in the Broadway Melody series, but the most special of the effects were provided by the two stars, the incomparable Fred Astaire, in his first film after leaving RKO, and the equally extraordinary Eleanor Powell, often considered the finest of female tap dancers, and for good reason.  If you’d like to know why, just watch the clip below.  That may not be the beguine they’re doing, but it’s one hell of a dance.  Powell, by the way, was so good she apparently intimidated Astaire at first.  In his autobiography, Astaire said that she was “in a class by herself.”

Keep an eye on the fellow that joins them at the end of the routine.  That’s future senator of California, George Murphy.  Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger followed his lead, jumping from movies to politics, though  Murphy was likely the only pol ever who could keep step with Astaire and Powell.

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Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Norman Taurog, director
Jack McGowan, Dore Schary (story), Leon Gordon, George Oppenheimer (screenplay), writers
“Begin the Beguine”
Cole Porter, words and music
Bobby Connolly, Albertina Rasch, choreographers
Fred Astaire & Eleanor Powell

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Quote of note
“You know, you can wait and hope, but I’ll tell you:  you’ll never see the likes of this again.”
—Frank Sinatra, on the tap dancing of Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, That’s Entertainment! (1974)

…58…59…60.