I’m convinced this woman had shock absorbers in her hips. It’s incredible how little energy is transferred to her upper body while her feet are moving that fast. It’s so damn efficient and incredibly graceful.
Her teachers made her wear an Army Surplus belt and they tied sandbags to it (according to Wikipedia). They say it was the only way they could get her to "Feel the floor". What? An Angel like Ellinor can't feel the Floor? And you think Shirley Temple had rough.
True. Hollywood were not so kind to her. She evidently was too big for her tap shoes in their opinion. Ginger Rogers was lovely but Ms. Powell was a class above Ms. Rogers.
@@maudeboggins9834 She pretty much retired herself to be a Mom but her incredible talent carried her to the top of the entertainment world nevertheless.
Saw a story about a couple of cops who saved five ducklings from a sewer and re United them with mother duck. That got 6 thumbs down. Go figure some people
morlrd unfortunately we have always idiots around us. They just couldn’t express their inept thoughts on the Internet. But I do agree it’s getting worse now 😞♥️
She is absolutely amazing!!! There's no one like her, then or now. When she does those fast spins - OMG! I've never seen anyone else go so fast and long. What an incredible woman!
@@karmallama4686 Your are right ….Ann Miller does some fast spins. But Ann Miller needs the occasional support of both legs while "spinning" while Eleanor can spin at least 10 times standing in one spot using only one leg for support as seen in this number from Thousands Cheer. Big difference.
These grand overarching statements “single best tapper ever” are always untrue and ridiculously hyperbolic. What for? You could say “possibly the best rapper of her generation” “of Hollywood”. Etc. but “best tapper ever” Just makes it boring and useless. 🙄🥱🥱🥱
@@Alpha-Andromeda Fayard Nicholas said that and he is gone, so... He was referring to the extended "tap" era in American entertainment, dominated in film by Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Fayard and Harold Nicholas, Ann Miller, and others. Things changed when Bob Fosse and Bobby Van hit the stage. Nicholas felt that Powell was the best, and many agreed. I do not think you are certain of what you are talking about and are possibly having an "angry commenter" moment there.
I read somewhere that she is the only dancer who ever intimidated Fred Astaire! And while you're at it, look up "Begin The Beguine" from "Broadway Melody of 1940".
@@user-in9gx8zu4i He didn't want to collaborate with her anymore as she was too good. He wanted to be the one to shine in a duet, and with her that was impossible.
Yes, who knew she was this beautiful in color! And MGM waited until her contractual last film at the studio to film her in color. MGM should have filmed her in color way before she did this...her final MGM film appearance under her contract. Although MGM did hustle her back for one more appearance six years later which was also filmed her in color (Duchess of Idaho 1950).
Fred Astaire is one of my favorite dancers of all time; I once heard it said that Mr. Astaire made the remark he enjoyed dancing with Ms. Powell but not too often as she could out tap him. Hmmm
This was basically her nightclub routine, but even in her simplest numbers there is always a moment that stuns the spectator. Watch the movement of her right leg at 1:37- so fast it defies belief.
Her tap turns are indeed incredible. In fact, my tap dance instructor called her a "freak" because he felt that those ten tap turns were virtually impossible to do. No other tap dancer has ever done them. He was jealous because he couldn't do them himself.
@@jackanthony976 She was most proud of her pirouette-tap combinations, which was where ballet met jazz. She began by doing three at a time and got up to 22.
In the press packet for the Victory Caravan Tour of 1942, in which 30 Hollywood stars visited 12 cities to raise money for Army Emergency Relief and the Navy Relief Society during World War II, Eleanor Powell is quoted, “I can’t shoulder a rifle but if these machine gun taps of mine can help this magnificent cause in even a small way, I am thrilled to be able to do my share.” She wore this same outfit on stage during the tour and no doubt performed this same number.
Bob Fosse took the credit for bringing fluttery jazz hands to the screen in 'Kiss Me Kate'. At the start of this number, the self-choreographed Miss Powell uses them ten years earlier.
So, and the morale in armies immediately increases very much. And that's pretty understable - Eleanor dance for soldiers! She was amazing. I discovered her in this year and I'm really impressed by her grace and dance championship.
this is the highest quality clip ive ever seen of ellie p, looks like it was filmed last week!. that close up outro end, with the hand salute gesture thing, wow, never seen the like, best clip ive encountered on u tube since the dawn of time, thank u 4 keeping these gems from the halcyon days of silver screen alive into the future for all to enjoy, c;
Wow!!,!, How come I’ve never seen this before?? Loved tap dancing since I was little, my mum was a dancer before she married, she could still really move even when I was in my teens, this was a great clip to come across. I think that the talent and sheer determination of the people involved in show dancing shines through in this clip. Absolutely brilliant.. keep it comin👍👯♀️😲😀🤩😃
I have just recently discovered this amazing athlete, dancer, & woman who reminds me of what beauty and dance is all about....much thanks to you who have offered this
Eleanor Powell was so much more than the queen of tape, she could do it all. I wish she hadn't retired from the movies so soon, she had a lot more to give to her movie career
Eleanor herself stated that as far as film, she had said everything she had to say about tap. Thinking of something new to do with each film was becoming harder and harder. She did not want to repeat herself.
Ann Miller was also guilty of repeating her choreography from film to film..only the setting changed...but I didn't care...I was always thrilled to watch.
@@beautygirl9981 What does it mean when they say that Eleanor's film career "went down?" Checking the box office results from her last three films at Metro she always brought in a profit. Remember a film that made half a million profit in those days was a blockbuster. And as far as Eleanor being too masculine, well there is nothing masculine about her in this video. Sometimes she did play a character in a dance number which might have seemed to cross gender lines. But who cares? In today's world we are seeing that gender is indeed fluid and a woman can play a male character and a man can play a female character when dancing. Fred may have been a little too rigid in his outlook because there is no reason why a woman cannot hit the floor as hard as a man...look at the female flamenco dancers...they are fierce!!
She had a seven-year deal with MGM which was due for renewal in 1943. By then she would be over 30- old for someone who wanted to become a home-maker, according to the thinking of those days. She met her husband-to-be in '43, but he went off to the Marine Corps so she did 'Sensations of 1945' to fill in time; but after her own lonely upbringing as a shy, fatherless kid, she was determined to be a full-time mother. Besides she had had serious surgery in 1941, taking almost a year to recover. She might have found a new lease of life working with Gene Kelly, whose style was more in tune with hers than Fred's; but he was starting out and was afraid she would overshadow him. He wanted to steer away from tap, not his best shot, towards ballet. After three months of rehearsing for a 'Broadway Melody', he walked away and got himself loaned to do 'Cover Girl' with Rita Hayworth. Rita had shown in her two movies with Fred that she was more of a pupil- and Kelly was as much of a natural-born tutor as Astaire. Ellie was stranded. She had no other potential partner who could function as an equal except maybe George Murphy. She had created a solo number that could never be topped, 'Fascinating Rhythm'. Hers was an honorable retreat. This 'Thousands Cheer' routine was salvaged from the Kelly project. It was indeed routine for her, the sort of spot she did at concerts and in clubs. But being in color it gives on a hint of why she was chased fruitlessly by Al Jolson, Robert Taylor, Jimmy Stewart (who proposed), Clark Gable, Sid Luft et al. Her complexion was flawless, almost without make-up; her brown hair was glossy and her eyes a dazzling blue.
@@beautygirl9981 Not so sure it was a competitive reason. There was a grace and balance Fred Astaire had with Ginger Rogers that didn't come across as delicately when he danced with Eleanor Powell.
After her long illness and broken engagement in 1940-41, Eleanor Powell acquired a harder edge. The sexist criticisms of her 'dominating' and 'masculine' style made her double down on physical attack, feats of athleticism and insistent rhythmical drive. The prettier and fancier stuff, such as the balletic 'You Are My Lucky Star' or 'I Concentrate on You' with Fred Astaire, gave way to ferocious solos such as 'Matador'. She expected to quit by 1943-44, and she had no time to make concessions. And her face became a more subtle register of her movement. Ellie had always possessed a dazzling smile, and an obvious delight in her talent which communicated itself to besotted audiences. She had sometimes teased the camera, e.g, as Arlette in her first MGM part. But she had also confronted cinemagoers: staring them down, looking over her shoulder amid a complex move and looming into big close-ups in a way Fred, a full-figure dancer, avoided. That smile could almost seem like a snarl. Breaking the fourth wall is more marked here, one of her last solos at MGM. Her grin has become more teasing and satirical than ever, as if laughing at the whole set-up- being paid a fortune to do what she loved most in the world. There is also an unmistakable triumphalism, as if signaling with her eyes an awareness of supremacy in her field she was much too modest to talk about- especially from 2:00 onwards. Only comedians such as Oliver Hardy and Bing and Bob normally were allowed to let the audience in on the joke of acting, according to Hollywood conventions. Ginger Rogers and Ruby Keeler had never mocked the musical genre's glorious daftness overtly. But in this, as in her playing with sexual categories, Eleanor Powell was a trailblazer- Girl Power on legs The pity is that no other woman dancer followed her.
I imagine her command of her audience, and later the camera, was honed by years of dancing in nightclubs, where there is no fourth wall. In some numbers she almost leaps off the screen. So far as I know, Astaire never performed in a nightclub, and Kelly gave up on the idea after a disastrous debut.
@@partycentralsales Yes, from first to last she was a live-audience performer. Strange how after 'Night and Day' with Claire Luce, Fred shunned spectators except when obliged to do wartime shows for the troops, even having them shooed off the set and hesitating to dance socially. As David Thomson has written, Astaire seemed to dwell in a beautiful bubble. Ellie was a philanthropist who needed validation. I have compared her hold over a house with Jolson's, and like Al she loved to greet audiences in person- at Vegas she would go round tables shaking hands. Astaire was unsociable, Kelly a tyrant. The solitariness of Eleanor Powell did not arise from her character, but it could not be effaced : it was the burden of a unique talent and a passionate devotion to fulfilling it. No star of the Golden Age has more right to say, like Coriolanus, 'Alone I did it.' In general, the dominating influence of Broadway and vaudeville over musical Hollywood is part of what keeps movie musicals from losing their appeal when so much pompous prestige and message stuff has faded. Live TV entertainment before studio audiences gave the principle of playing to the spectator renewed 'stagy' vigor, whereas drama and (increasingly) sitcoms kept the fourth wall up. The onlooker felt, and still feels, more viscerally involved, at times hypnotized, by Golden Age musicals. Time after time commenters say how fresh they seem. Never was art so lightly worn. The in-jokes, the endless riffing on so-called flimsy and stylized plots, the play on resonances between those plots and the performers' perceived images, make your head spin when you begin to burrow below the slap-happy surface. And nobody riffed on them, and teased us, the way EP did.
You're seeing what's not there mate, though good writing style. She was a Christian and didn't snarl. She doesn't look harder here. She isn't staring anyone down. It's fake observations dressed up to look like clever insightful criticism.
@@esmeephillips5888 Kelly was no tyrant, he was very sociable, playful if competitive, and quite well liked. Again, fake information to provide you with a pithy contrast to EP.
From 0:37, a series of blasts from the horns which she matches with pelvic bumps. The whole routine is a tease for an all-male audience but this is blatant. Ellie's 'wholesome' image off screen was genuine, but it let her fly under the Production Code radar. It is worth watching the number just for her facial expressions. The raised eyebrow immediately before the end says it all. She liked to make men's tongues hang out.
Fabulous dancer and entertainer! This was in the middle of WWII. (1912-1982) From IMDb: "Eleanor Powell was born in 1912 in Springfield, Massachussetts, and got her professional start in Atlantic City clubs, from where she moved into in revue in New York at the Ritz Grill and Casino de Paris at the age of sixteen. She started her career on Broadway in 1929, where her machine-gun foot work gained her the title of world champion in tapping. In 1935 she came to Hollywood where she starred in the great MGM musicals in the late 1930s, establishing herself as a Queen of Ra-Ta-Taps. In spite of the fact that she was primarily a solo performer she also danced with Fred Astaire."
Not only was the great Eleanor Powell the most spectacular movie star/dancer of all time, she was also a lovely lady. As a youngster, I had the pleasure of getting to know her on a personal level, and such kindness as hers seems impossible to find around anymore !
@@tulsaguy9963 She married another famous movie star, Glenn Ford, and raised their son. Then the great Miss Powell wrote an Emmy - Award winning television show entitled " Faith Of Our Children !" She returned to show business in the 1960's with a grand night club comeback, bringing her great act across America !
Good to have that confirmed. Were you living in Beverly Hills? All my researches suggest that Peter Ford, with all due allowances for a son's devotion, was not far off the mark when he said 'She was a saint'.
Thank you@@esmeephillips5888. Actually I'm from the East Coast. As a teenager, I flew out to Las Vegas, and took a Greyhound Bus for the rest of the way out to beautiful Beverly Hills. The spectacular Miss Powell picked me up at my Hollywood Hotel, and showed me one of the most magical evenings of my life ! Yes, if I ever have the pleasure of meeting you in person, I'll tell you about Peter as well .
@@truthbetoldagain Hi, we are finishing a biography about Ellie and would love to speak with you! Can you possibly message me or provide a way to contact you? We also knew Ellie. Thanks for sharing your story!
Ya no hay de este tipo de bailarinas, simple por que ya no hay maestros del tap que lo enseñen cmo hace 70 años ¡¡¡ Simplemente es sexy, es femenina, es fantástica ¡¡
Eleanor Powell creo que es la mejor bailarina de claqué del cine musical, con grandes películas como La nueva melodía de Broadway 1940 con Fred Astaire con espectaculares números de baile como el begin de begin de Coole Porter quizá el mejor número de claqué de la historia del cine.
Likewise Fred Astaire specified in his will that no biopic should be made. That will probably block one in the second Mrs Astaire's lifetime, but who could reproduce the dances? We may have to wait until CGI is perfected.
@@johnboys4697 Update. Tom Holland has been announced for a biopic of Fred. Whether this means the inscrutable widow has relented IDK, but Fred was totally opposed to the idea, and it may require all the black arts of the editing suite to make mimicry of his art look credible. Hell, matching his singing will be tough enough. None of the great hoofers have been 'done'. They were lterally inimitable. Rene Zellweger as Judy showed a time near the end when she had hung up her shoes.
Perhaps I'm the odd one out, but I'm afraid that I wasn't fond of Ginger Rogers' dancing. Could never understand why Astaire and Rogers were paired together for so many movies. I just didn't see them connect. Mind you, as great a dancer as Astaire was, I never ever could see him as a romantic lead--even in the dance numbers--not just the actiing. But, K. Klein, you're right-- EP was the best at tap but my she could do everything. When I saw the video where she executes some serious roping whilst dancing at a furious rate, I could hardly believe my eyes.
@ Channel Girl- Ann was a great tapist (I know, it's not a word): but I was not all that fond of her as an artist. But Eleanor Powell? I could watch her all day long--loved her style, artistry, demeanor--looks, the entire package. And besides, she still had a softness about her which I just adored. Yep, hard hitting with the taps but with that edge, as I said, of softness. She will forever be my number one pick among the ladies. As for the men, for me, the jury is still out. The Nicholas Bros. were spell binding for sure, Astaire was great, but somehow I just loved Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor better especially when they were dancing with their leading women. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert but dems r me druthers.
All Ginger cared about was what she was wearing. If you listen to her interviews or read her autobiography she rarely talks about dance as an art but concentrates more on the costumes she wore or the sets. Ginger admitted that she never took any professional dance training. I doubt she knew what to do in a ballet class.
This was her last performance under her seven year contract at MGM. Her contract was not renewed by mutual agreement with the studio. She starred in one further film at a different studio the following year and then did a one final performance on film six years later.
Why would any studio film the greatest tap dancer from the waist up? Strange. Check out what she said about Fred Astaire at his AFI salute, 1981. Gracious, charming, classy.
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So effortless, and with a beautiful smile all the while. My goshness she is so gorgeous!! A real treasure!
I’m convinced this woman had shock absorbers in her hips. It’s incredible how little energy is transferred to her upper body while her feet are moving that fast. It’s so damn efficient and incredibly graceful.
Her teachers made her wear an Army Surplus belt and they tied sandbags to it (according to Wikipedia). They say it was the only way they could get her to "Feel the floor".
What? An Angel like Ellinor can't feel the Floor?
And you think Shirley Temple had rough.
She was the best. Never seen anyone this good in my life. I loved tap class, no one can ever compare.
True. Hollywood were not so kind to her. She evidently was too big for her tap shoes in their opinion. Ginger Rogers was lovely but Ms. Powell was a class above Ms. Rogers.
@@maudeboggins9834 She pretty much retired herself to be a Mom but her incredible talent carried her to the top of the entertainment world nevertheless.
The greatest female tap dancer of all time, ever, How does this get 3 thumbs down?
In the world we now live in, the story "Fireman saves puppies" will get some thumbs down.
Saw a story about a couple of cops who saved five ducklings from a sewer and re United them with mother duck. That got 6 thumbs down. Go figure some people
Someone was trying to type with their heels.
From IDIOTS, and there are three more IDIOTS now.
morlrd unfortunately we have always idiots around us. They just couldn’t express their inept thoughts on the Internet. But I do agree it’s getting worse now 😞♥️
She is absolutely amazing!!! There's no one like her, then or now. When she does those fast spins - OMG! I've never seen anyone else go so fast and long. What an incredible woman!
Really? Ever seen Anne Miller
@@karmallama4686 Your are right ….Ann Miller does some fast spins. But Ann Miller needs the occasional support of both legs while "spinning" while Eleanor can spin at least 10 times standing in one spot using only one leg for support as seen in this number from Thousands Cheer. Big difference.
She rivals the women on figure skates
@@karmallama4686 Ann stole all of Eleanor Powell steps, but did them faster and used sex appeal to make her magic...
@@auagfinder6541 Zanuck had to build rinks for Sonja Henie. Eleanor did the same on hard floors.
Not "female" dancer: take it from Fayard Nicholas (who should know), she was the single best tapper ever.
Wonderfully generous compliment from one of the greatest tappers ever.
These grand overarching statements “single best tapper ever” are always untrue and ridiculously hyperbolic. What for? You could say “possibly the best rapper of her generation” “of Hollywood”. Etc. but “best tapper ever”
Just makes it boring and useless. 🙄🥱🥱🥱
@@Alpha-Andromeda Fayard Nicholas said that and he is gone, so...
He was referring to the extended "tap" era in American entertainment, dominated in film by Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Fayard and Harold Nicholas, Ann Miller, and others. Things changed when Bob Fosse and Bobby Van hit the stage. Nicholas felt that Powell was the best, and many agreed. I do not think you are certain of what you are talking about and are possibly having an "angry commenter" moment there.
@@michellelekas211 Agreed! Eleanor Powell was awesome! My mother used to tell me about Eleanor Powell.
YESSSSS. DEFINITELY!!
She is amazing. Fred Astaire said no other dancer good lay it down like Ellie. One of the best tap dancers of all time!
I read somewhere that she is the only dancer who ever intimidated Fred Astaire! And while you're at it, look up "Begin The Beguine" from "Broadway Melody of 1940".
@@elwoodblues9613 They're great together - it's a shame that it was the only film they made as a duo. She really is amazing.
@@user-in9gx8zu4i He didn't want to collaborate with her anymore as she was too good. He wanted to be the one to shine in a duet, and with her that was impossible.
e p the #1
@@passionfruitfruit Yeah, he even tried to say she was too tall for him.
So good to see this in colour. What a talent she was.
Yes, who knew she was this beautiful in color! And MGM waited until her contractual last film at the studio to film her in color. MGM should have filmed her in color way before she did this...her final MGM film appearance under her contract. Although MGM did hustle her back for one more appearance six years later which was also filmed her in color (Duchess of Idaho 1950).
She had the most fabulous turns. She had a unique style with her arms that apparently allowed her to rotate faster. Oh the good old days!
My mother talked about her and what a terrific dancer she was. Can't believe people disliked this.
She’s a tap dancer. Yet, the camera cut off her feet !
Fred Astaire is one of my favorite dancers of all time; I once heard it said that Mr. Astaire made the remark he enjoyed dancing with Ms. Powell but not too often as she could out tap him. Hmmm
I love her faces she’s so confident and enjoy dancing also she makes things so easy
Talk about turning on a dime. Amazing balance and control. She can strut like no other. Total Perfection.
The woman screams beauty and greatness lord how I miss her. Her expressions and mannerism are enough to fall in love with.
Unfortunately, her husband Glenn Ford had other women in mind during their marriage. Eleanor filed for divorce on his birthday.
She was a brilliant dancer, but as a beauty she left much to be desired. By the way her legs were ugly.
@@robertschlosser9423 Get your prescription checked.
Never appreciated tap dancing, but this is on a higher level.
Same here!
Love that the guy introduced her as "America's greatest dancer" because she was plain and simple
Lololol that guy!!! Mickey Rooney lololol. Who's this girl anyway.
"The guy" is Mickey Rooney!
Her performance on Begin the Beguine with Astaire was legendary. I think she actually outshone him.
She did.
I agree. That might be part of the reason he didn't want to make another movie with her.
Best dancing ever!😮
Amazing. Her turns are incredible.
This was basically her nightclub routine, but even in her simplest numbers there is always a moment that stuns the spectator. Watch the movement of her right leg at 1:37- so fast it defies belief.
Her tap turns are indeed incredible. In fact, my tap dance instructor called her a "freak" because he felt that those ten tap turns were virtually impossible to do. No other tap dancer has ever done them. He was jealous because he couldn't do them himself.
@@jackanthony976 She was most proud of her pirouette-tap combinations, which was where ballet met jazz. She began by doing three at a time and got up to 22.
Classy, elegant, smooth, brilliant.
Her timing is impeccable!
My Lord, that outfit on her is stunning! One of my favorite clips of Eleanor by far! She was so extremely sexy and an exceptionally talented lady.
In the press packet for the Victory Caravan Tour of 1942, in which 30 Hollywood stars visited 12 cities to raise money for Army Emergency Relief and the Navy Relief Society during World War II, Eleanor Powell is quoted, “I can’t shoulder a rifle but if these machine gun taps of mine can help this magnificent cause in even a small way, I am thrilled to be able to do my share.” She wore this same outfit on stage during the tour and no doubt performed this same number.
Wish we could have defeated Hitler with tap dancing. Germans would have responded with polka, but to no avail.
Such confidence....such talent. She's having fun I had fun watching, thanks.
Bob Fosse took the credit for bringing fluttery jazz hands to the screen in 'Kiss Me Kate'. At the start of this number, the self-choreographed Miss Powell uses them ten years earlier.
Update: There are also jazz hands in the final number of 'The Ziegfeld Follies' (1944). It derives from minstrelsy.
And by Judy's male chorus in 'A Great Lady Has an Interview' from the same film.
Actually jazz hands go back farther than minstrels. They date back to pre-Mesopotamian tribal cultures.
what a legendary dancer. This was a time when Hollywood had real talent.
So, and the morale in armies immediately increases very much. And that's pretty understable - Eleanor dance for soldiers! She was amazing. I discovered her in this year and I'm really impressed by her grace and dance championship.
this is the highest quality clip ive ever seen of ellie p, looks like it was filmed last week!. that close up outro end, with the hand salute gesture thing, wow, never seen the like, best clip ive encountered on u tube since the dawn of time, thank u 4 keeping these gems from the halcyon days of silver screen alive into the future for all to enjoy, c;
My mum adored her, and now I know why
She was a fantastic dancer who deserves to have a much bigger imput in Hollywood's history.
Wow!!,!, How come I’ve never seen this before?? Loved tap dancing since I was little, my mum was a dancer before she married, she could still really move even when I was in my teens, this was a great clip to come across. I think that the talent and sheer determination of the people involved in show dancing shines through in this clip. Absolutely brilliant.. keep it comin👍👯♀️😲😀🤩😃
I have just recently discovered this amazing athlete, dancer, & woman who reminds me of what beauty and dance is all about....much thanks to you who have offered this
We can really enjoy the art of tap dancing when tapping is done to music. Why can’t other tap dancers understand this!
She's beyond brilliant. Nobody has ever come close to her dancing.
She puts the zing into amazing! A wonderful dancer.
She was the best of all time
by far the best female dancer that ever lived fantastic I could watch powel all day her turns with her legs amazing
so incredibly skilled
Eleanor Powell was so much more than the queen of tape, she could do it all. I wish she hadn't retired from the movies so soon, she had a lot more to give to her movie career
Eleanor herself stated that as far as film, she had said everything she had to say about tap. Thinking of something new to do with each film was becoming harder and harder. She did not want to repeat herself.
Ann Miller was also guilty of repeating her choreography from film to film..only the setting changed...but I didn't care...I was always thrilled to watch.
@@beautygirl9981 What does it mean when they say that Eleanor's film career "went down?" Checking the box office results from her last three films at Metro she always brought in a profit. Remember a film that made half a million profit in those days was a blockbuster. And as far as Eleanor being too masculine, well there is nothing masculine about her in this video. Sometimes she did play a character in a dance number which might have seemed to cross gender lines. But who cares? In today's world we are seeing that gender is indeed fluid and a woman can play a male character and a man can play a female character when dancing. Fred may have been a little too rigid in his outlook because there is no reason why a woman cannot hit the floor as hard as a man...look at the female flamenco dancers...they are fierce!!
She had a seven-year deal with MGM which was due for renewal in 1943. By then she would be over 30- old for someone who wanted to become a home-maker, according to the thinking of those days. She met her husband-to-be in '43, but he went off to the Marine Corps so she did 'Sensations of 1945' to fill in time; but after her own lonely upbringing as a shy, fatherless kid, she was determined to be a full-time mother.
Besides she had had serious surgery in 1941, taking almost a year to recover. She might have found a new lease of life working with Gene Kelly, whose style was more in tune with hers than Fred's; but he was starting out and was afraid she would overshadow him. He wanted to steer away from tap, not his best shot, towards ballet. After three months of rehearsing for a 'Broadway Melody', he walked away and got himself loaned to do 'Cover Girl' with Rita Hayworth. Rita had shown in her two movies with Fred that she was more of a pupil- and Kelly was as much of a natural-born tutor as Astaire.
Ellie was stranded. She had no other potential partner who could function as an equal except maybe George Murphy. She had created a solo number that could never be topped, 'Fascinating Rhythm'. Hers was an honorable retreat.
This 'Thousands Cheer' routine was salvaged from the Kelly project. It was indeed routine for her, the sort of spot she did at concerts and in clubs. But being in color it gives on a hint of why she was chased fruitlessly by Al Jolson, Robert Taylor, Jimmy Stewart (who proposed), Clark Gable, Sid Luft et al. Her complexion was flawless, almost without make-up; her brown hair was glossy and her eyes a dazzling blue.
@@beautygirl9981 Not so sure it was a competitive reason. There was a grace and balance Fred Astaire had with Ginger Rogers that didn't come across as delicately when he danced with Eleanor Powell.
The unique and never surpassed tap dancer !!!
Beautiful smile!
After her long illness and broken engagement in 1940-41, Eleanor Powell acquired a harder edge. The sexist criticisms of her 'dominating' and 'masculine' style made her double down on physical attack, feats of athleticism and insistent rhythmical drive. The prettier and fancier stuff, such as the balletic 'You Are My Lucky Star' or 'I Concentrate on You' with Fred Astaire, gave way to ferocious solos such as 'Matador'. She expected to quit by 1943-44, and she had no time to make concessions.
And her face became a more subtle register of her movement. Ellie had always possessed a dazzling smile, and an obvious delight in her talent which communicated itself to besotted audiences. She had sometimes teased the camera, e.g, as Arlette in her first MGM part. But she had also confronted cinemagoers: staring them down, looking over her shoulder amid a complex move and looming into big close-ups in a way Fred, a full-figure dancer, avoided. That smile could almost seem like a snarl.
Breaking the fourth wall is more marked here, one of her last solos at MGM. Her grin has become more teasing and satirical than ever, as if laughing at the whole set-up- being paid a fortune to do what she loved most in the world. There is also an unmistakable triumphalism, as if signaling with her eyes an awareness of supremacy in her field she was much too modest to talk about- especially from 2:00 onwards.
Only comedians such as Oliver Hardy and Bing and Bob normally were allowed to let the audience in on the joke of acting, according to Hollywood conventions. Ginger Rogers and Ruby Keeler had never mocked the musical genre's glorious daftness overtly. But in this, as in her playing with sexual categories, Eleanor Powell was a trailblazer- Girl Power on legs The pity is that no other woman dancer followed her.
I imagine her command of her audience, and later the camera, was honed by years of dancing in nightclubs, where there is no fourth wall. In some numbers she almost leaps off the screen. So far as I know, Astaire never performed in a nightclub, and Kelly gave up on the idea after a disastrous debut.
@@partycentralsales Yes, from first to last she was a live-audience performer. Strange how after 'Night and Day' with Claire Luce, Fred shunned spectators except when obliged to do wartime shows for the troops, even having them shooed off the set and hesitating to dance socially. As David Thomson has written, Astaire seemed to dwell in a beautiful bubble.
Ellie was a philanthropist who needed validation. I have compared her hold over a house with Jolson's, and like Al she loved to greet audiences in person- at Vegas she would go round tables shaking hands.
Astaire was unsociable, Kelly a tyrant. The solitariness of Eleanor Powell did not arise from her character, but it could not be effaced : it was the burden of a unique talent and a passionate devotion to fulfilling it. No star of the Golden Age has more right to say, like Coriolanus, 'Alone I did it.'
In general, the dominating influence of Broadway and vaudeville over musical Hollywood is part of what keeps movie musicals from losing their appeal when so much pompous prestige and message stuff has faded. Live TV entertainment before studio audiences gave the principle of playing to the spectator renewed 'stagy' vigor, whereas drama and (increasingly) sitcoms kept the fourth wall up. The onlooker felt, and still feels, more viscerally involved, at times hypnotized, by Golden Age musicals. Time after time commenters say how fresh they seem. Never was art so lightly worn.
The in-jokes, the endless riffing on so-called flimsy and stylized plots, the play on resonances between those plots and the performers' perceived images, make your head spin when you begin to burrow below the slap-happy surface. And nobody riffed on them, and teased us, the way EP did.
You're seeing what's not there mate, though good writing style.
She was a Christian and didn't snarl. She doesn't look harder here. She isn't staring anyone down. It's fake observations dressed up to look like clever insightful criticism.
@@esmeephillips5888 Kelly was no tyrant, he was very sociable, playful if competitive, and quite well liked. Again, fake information to provide you with a pithy contrast to EP.
9
From 0:37, a series of blasts from the horns which she matches with pelvic bumps. The whole routine is a tease for an all-male audience but this is blatant. Ellie's 'wholesome' image off screen was genuine, but it let her fly under the Production Code radar.
It is worth watching the number just for her facial expressions. The raised eyebrow immediately before the end says it all. She liked to make men's tongues hang out.
Eleanor just flouted the production Code on this one as this was her final film appearance under her MGM contract.
Love love love her!! Never ANYONE like her-- Beautiful talent!!!
💗💗💗
She was simply amazing! What a beauty and a class act!
under-rated beauty
Elegance, poise, grace.. and THEM legs.. Sophistication @its best.. DEFO, my fav female performer of all time.
She was simply the best dancer ever.
Good lord she’s a great tapper!
As a teenager in the '50s I saw many great tap stars, but she was the Queen of the females.
Fabulous dancer and entertainer! This was in the middle of WWII.
(1912-1982) From IMDb: "Eleanor Powell was born in 1912 in Springfield, Massachussetts, and got her professional start in Atlantic City clubs, from where she moved into in revue in New York at the Ritz Grill and Casino de Paris at the age of sixteen. She started her career on Broadway in 1929, where her machine-gun foot work gained her the title of world champion in tapping. In 1935 she came to Hollywood where she starred in the great MGM musicals in the late 1930s, establishing herself as a Queen of Ra-Ta-Taps. In spite of the fact that she was primarily a solo performer she also danced with Fred Astaire."
Fantastic ! Beautiful !
Great and sublime woman !
I love her...
They don't make talented Tap-Dancing movies like this anymore 🙂👍Great skills by Eleanor Powell
She does the 1940’s version of the Moon Walk!
AND FORWARDS AT THAT!!!!
Beautiful as well.
Not only was the great Eleanor Powell the most spectacular movie star/dancer of all time, she was also a lovely lady. As a youngster, I had the pleasure of getting to know her on a personal level, and such kindness as hers seems impossible to find around anymore !
TruthBe ToldAgain . What did she do after films?
@@tulsaguy9963 She married another famous movie star, Glenn Ford, and raised their son. Then the great Miss Powell wrote an Emmy - Award winning television show entitled " Faith Of Our Children !" She returned to show business in the 1960's with a grand night club comeback, bringing her great act across America !
Good to have that confirmed. Were you living in Beverly Hills?
All my researches suggest that Peter Ford, with all due allowances for a son's devotion, was not far off the mark when he said 'She was a saint'.
Thank you@@esmeephillips5888. Actually I'm from the East Coast. As a teenager, I flew out to Las Vegas, and took a Greyhound Bus for the rest of the way out to beautiful Beverly Hills. The spectacular Miss Powell picked me up at my Hollywood Hotel, and showed me one of the most magical evenings of my life ! Yes, if I ever have the pleasure of meeting you in person, I'll tell you about Peter as well .
@@truthbetoldagain Hi, we are finishing a biography about Ellie and would love to speak with you! Can you possibly message me or provide a way to contact you? We also knew Ellie. Thanks for sharing your story!
La amo...meravigliosa professionista...
Génial !! J adore!!!
Superb Supremacy Astonishing 💕🎶💕🎶🏄🥇🥂💃🏼😎🤸♂️🎼💗
1:37 gorgeous spin.
I just commented on that. She must have been quadruple-jointed.
Here’s a thank you for the manner in which this was shot. The low camera position so much better than most the way most dance sequences are filmed.
Good actress who reminds me nostalgia I like the music Hall movies
what a delightful girl....
She had a dancer's body, that's for sure. Very slender and muscled.
I love the old movies.
Oh Eleanor! It's you I REALLY love!!! 😆
The guy next to him is jealous.
Old school entertainment was far better than the crap we have today
If there as ever been a better dancer i have yet to see her
Those legs & how smooth the hips move .!!!
Eleanor was the female Fred Astaire, and he the male Eleanor Powell.
Старые добрые фильмы, замечательные актёры.
Wow, what beauty and talent. Hmmmmmmm
Ya no hay de este tipo de bailarinas, simple por que ya no hay maestros del tap que lo enseñen cmo hace 70 años ¡¡¡ Simplemente es sexy, es femenina, es fantástica ¡¡
Andres Seyer: completamente de acuerdo con vos!! Es maravillosa!! :)
G.O.A.T.
Amazing!
Eleanor Powell creo que es la mejor bailarina de claqué del cine musical, con grandes películas como La nueva melodía de Broadway 1940 con Fred Astaire con espectaculares números de baile como el begin de begin de Coole Porter quizá el mejor número de claqué de la historia del cine.
WE MUST HAVE AN autobiography on her, but then again there's no one to play her!
Likewise Fred Astaire specified in his will that no biopic should be made. That will probably block one in the second Mrs Astaire's lifetime, but who could reproduce the dances? We may have to wait until CGI is perfected.
@@esmeephillips5888 hmmm
@@johnboys4697 Update. Tom Holland has been announced for a biopic of Fred. Whether this means the inscrutable widow has relented IDK, but Fred was totally opposed to the idea, and it may require all the black arts of the editing suite to make mimicry of his art look credible. Hell, matching his singing will be tough enough.
None of the great hoofers have been 'done'. They were lterally inimitable. Rene Zellweger as Judy showed a time near the end when she had hung up her shoes.
My, oh my!
Eleanor Powell the best tap dancer out there!
Doesn’t even break a sweat😲
So cute.. go head on sister!!
Beautiful 😘😘💙💞💖
She was the best!!!
Yes ginger had Fred but Eleanor was the best at tap.
Perhaps I'm the odd one out, but I'm afraid that I wasn't fond of Ginger Rogers' dancing. Could never understand why Astaire and Rogers were paired together for so many movies. I just didn't see them connect. Mind you, as great a dancer as Astaire was, I never ever could see him as a romantic lead--even in the dance numbers--not just the actiing. But, K. Klein, you're right-- EP was the best at tap but my she could do everything. When I saw the video where she executes some serious roping whilst dancing at a furious rate, I could hardly believe my eyes.
@ Channel Girl- Ann was a great tapist (I know, it's not a word): but I was not all that fond of her as an artist. But Eleanor Powell? I could watch her all day long--loved her style, artistry, demeanor--looks, the entire package. And besides, she still had a softness about her which I just adored. Yep, hard hitting with the taps but with that edge, as I said, of softness. She will forever be my number one pick among the ladies.
As for the men, for me, the jury is still out. The Nicholas Bros. were spell binding for sure, Astaire was great, but somehow I just loved Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor better especially when they were dancing with their leading women. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert but dems r me druthers.
All Ginger cared about was what she was wearing. If you listen to her interviews or read her autobiography she rarely talks about dance as an art but concentrates more on the costumes she wore or the sets. Ginger admitted that she never took any professional dance training. I doubt she knew what to do in a ballet class.
Boy could Eleanor Powell dance! I don't think she did many movies after this one.
This was her last performance under her seven year contract at MGM. Her contract was not renewed by mutual agreement with the studio. She starred in one further film at a different studio the following year and then did a one final performance on film six years later.
@@jackanthony976 Thanks. I think she became a minister and was married to Glenn Ford and divorced him later.
@@jackanthony976 Metro asked her to return when Peter was a toddler, but she felt she was through.
Goose bumps! 💚💛🧡
This is good
Yes she is incredible dancer
Saint Ace
Eleanor would have gone down well at you're all nighter Ian
Goodness me yes what a spinner just incredible so fast &long perfect head turn a marvel
Elinor Powell was absolutely amazing
Those shoes.😍
Incredible 🥰💋🥰✨👠👠👠👠👠
It gets those from people who have only seen this one video. They would change their tune if they watched all her movies
Let's make America great again.
Why would any studio film the greatest tap dancer from the waist up? Strange. Check out what she said about Fred Astaire at his AFI salute, 1981. Gracious, charming, classy.
I'm here just because of the legs!
Extremely beautiful legs, dancing wonderfully.
Talented beautiful woman.
Great like all of her routines
Wow!
Wow. They don't make them like that anymore
Que genia, son las películas que veía de chico con mis viejos, Fred Astaire, Rita Haiworth, Gene Kelly y muchos más. Gracias.
She was better than any of the men, in a class by herself.
The way those Hips move .!!!
At 1:39, one of those unbelievable lightning turns which were her trademark, as if she could revolve her left leg 360° at will.