Lecture 18.doc

Lecture 18 CREATEDATE 4/6/09 9:53 AM Fred Astaire ? dancer, not a singer Legendary performer as a dancer Excellent pianist Born in 1899 in Wichita, KS Father was a deserter from the Austrian Army Brother was his commanding officer Won?t hear much about father, but a lot about his mother She was stage mother Pushing him on the stage, like mothers forcing their daughters to do beauty pageants Was a good stage mother, saw they had talent Made sure they were well taught academically Wasn?t the kind that saw herself in them on stage Pushed them to be performers but didn?t push very hard Him and his sister became a vaudeville act ? successful Toured the Midwest, ended up on Broadway First hit ? on a show called ?Lady Be Good? George Gershwin Adele (his sister) was the star Appeared in 6-7 Broadway shows that were extremely popular Went to England, Adele fell in love, wanted to stay there and get married He thought his career was over ? did a few Broadway shows not as successful Went to Hollywood When filming he asked to always show him full figure, very little editing, and no changes in camera angles Lip syncing tap dancing ? stood on a board and followed the video so that they could get sound loud enough One of his first solos in the film ?Roberta? In his early films just a feature performer ? didn?t really have much to do with the plot ?Flying Down to Rio? ? film with Ginger Rogers ? the term Fred and Ginger meant dancing did a series of 11 pictures ? all are the same except one plot is the same but one ? they meet, they don?t like each other, then they like each other, then there?s a falling out and they don?t like each other, and then they really like each other for the last 5 minutes ?I?m Putting all My Eggs in One Basket? - song ?Top Hat, White Tie and Tails? ? one of his songs danced with Gene Kelly in a film called the Ziegfeld Follies some of his most famous dancing is by himself with some sort of prop