Memo from a Dancing Master: transcript of a Fred Astaire interview in Picture Play magazine, 1940

A wee while ago I wrote a post about a fantastic interview with Fred Astaire that I discovered in an old copy of Picture Play magazine from May 1940.

I had a request from a reader (a big Astaire fan) for a transcript of the article. So ... here it is!


Memo from a Dancing Master

Interview with Fred Astaire
By Wilbur Morse, Jr.
In Picture Play magazine, May 1940

“You,” said the blond young lady with the black bow in her hair, “are only slightly less awkward than an elephant hobbled by a three-inch chain.

“Before you venture on the dance floor again, you should take a gymnasium course in co-ordination and … sit through the next five Fred Astaire movies nine times each!”

Even though the orchestra was playing her favorite tune, she flounced off the floor, picked up her coat from the table and paraded to the street as huffily as a pigeon picketing a peanut stand.

We parted at her door without the usual amenities and I walked morosely toward the East River. On the way to the pier from which I proposed to leap with a technique that if not graceful at least would merit tabloid headlines, I passed an all-night lunch stand. A draft of warm java would bolster my courage for the dire deed I contemplated. So I went in, and while brooding over my coffee, my eye fell on an early-morning newspaper paragraph announcing that Fred Astaire was in Manhattan for a few days on his way to a Florida vacation.

Maybe … maybe all was not as hopeless as I feared. Maybe, if he would only isten to my story–

“The first thing you want to realize is that dancing is fun, it’s not something to get all tense and strained and tied up in knots about. Dancing is a relaxation, not a drudgery!”

Fred Astaire leaned back comfortably on the green divan in the MGM office and eyed me, he petitioner for terpsichorean tutoring, and continued:

“The chief thing is self-confidence. Don’t be afraid to try anything. Try it and you find that it comes easier with each successive start.”

I asked Fred if he thought it best to practice new steps in the privacy of your best girl’s parlor or whether it was all right to experiment on the dance floor.

“Why not?” he answered. “Most people won’t notice you, anyway, and you’re apt to get going with a new or difficult step a lot more rapidly on the dance floor, where you feel you have to keep moving.

“However, one of my first rules is don’t be conspicuous. I mean that if everyone else is doing a quiet, modified fox trot, don’t go into an acrobatic jitterbug stomp. Not that jitterbugging doesn’t have its place. I’m half jitterbug myself–and definitely all for it.

“But let’s start from the very beginning. When you get up to dance, don’t grip your partner as if you were trying to get a jujitsu hold. You don’t strangle a golf club,” smiled the dancing star who is one of the film colony’s most enthusiastic golfers, “you grip it easily to get a free swing. The same thing applies to the proper way to hold a girl. Relax.

“Particularly, don’t hold the girl’s arm bent over backward, like a pump handle, so that she is thrown away back and off balance.”

“Where should your right hand be, on her shoulder or her waist?”

Fred jumped to his feet and motioned the mustachioed press agent to stand opposite him.

“Let’s see,” said Fred, and took a dancing pose. “Let me see where I hold a partner.” His right arm formed a curve. “Yes, that’s it. Just above the small of the back. Not too high, and especially not too low.

“Don’t start right out from the first step as if you were going to a fire, whirling, spinning and giving it everything you’ve got. Ease into it. Give your partner a little while to adjust herself to your style of dancing.

“And on the subject of spinning and whirling, beware of the spinner who doesn’t know when to stop. Spin if you must, three of four times. Girls say they like it, but don’t try for marathon records every time you turn.

“Keep one eye peeled on your course. There is no one more objectionable on the dance floor than the man who doesn’t watch where he is going and is continually bumping into other couples. But when, inadvertently, you step on your own partner’s foot, don’t go into a wordy apology. Chances are that a little later she’ll step on you, and then she’ll feel she has to apologize and that Gaston-and-Alphonse act could go on indefinitely.

“Don’t feel you have to keep up a flowing conversation every minute you’re on the dance floor. Save your sparkling line until you get back to your table.

“And don’t sing in your partner’s ear unless you have a very good voice. Even then, don’t!”

Fred had several other commandments regarding small talk on the dance floor, and these, he said, applied to members of the chatty sex.

“Don’t,” Fred advised girls who would be popular, “ever tell a man who cuts in on you what a good dancer your last partner was. In fact, never tell any man he’s a good dancer. If he is, he knows it. If he isn’t, you make him all the more self-conscious.

“Don’t try to conduct a conversation with some other couple halfway across the dance floor. If you simply must, wait until you are within elbow distance.

“When you are getting up from your table to dance, don’t stop and go into lengthy greetings at another table, on your way to the floor, leaving your partner like a dead duck out there on the edge of the floor.”

These were several niceties that Fred insisted should be observed at private parties. When a girl refuses a dance to one man she should sit out the rest of that dance and not go right off to the floor in the arms of another more acceptable partner. A man, when he is cut in on, should not cut right back in until at least one other man from the stag line has broken in on the partner to whom he has surrendered his girl.

At proms and other parties, where the music is playing almost continuously, it is up to the girl just how many encores a couple should dance. “But,” cautions Fred, “the girl should suggest at reasonable intervals that they retire from the floor for a rest or intermission.”

Fred’s favorite music, he said, is a fast fox trot. He is not very partial to the waltz. “I guess I’m strictly a swing man,” he said.

I asked Fred if he had ever deliberately designed a dance for one of his pictures with an eye to its becoming a fad.

“Once,” he replied, “and then the results were disappointing. In ‘Carefree’, Ginger Rogers and I created the ‘Yam,’ thinking it might become popular. It was a comparably simple step in which I tried to get the beat of the drums,” and as he spoke he began to move across the narrow office floor in the rhythmic pattern of the “Yam,” a sort of pigeon-toed strut, step-step–step-step–step-step-step-step-step; a one-two, one-two, one-two-three-four-five count.

His heels beat a drumlike tattoo on the rug, his whole body moving straight ahead in an easy rhythm. “But”–and Fred resumed his seat–“all anyone seemed to remember of the dance was the end, in which I whirled Ginger over table tops and chairs for a flash finale. Several dancing teachers said, ‘How can Fred expect us to adapt a dance for ballroom which takes a whole stage for Ginger and himself to do?’

“As a matter of fact, there are not many dances originated on the screen which are picked up and adapted to ballroom use. Designed as spectacles they cannot be fitted into the confines of the ordinary floor.

“Ginger and I did two dances which were picked up somewhat, the ‘Carioca’ and the ‘Continental,’ and in my newest picture, ‘Broadway Melody of 1940,’ Eleanor Powell and I do a dance which may be adapted to ballroom dancing. It is our interpretation of the Beguine, a variation of the Cuban dance which Eleanor and I worked out for Cole Porter’s lovely tune, ‘Begin the Beguine.’ A lot of it is pretty involved, almost semiballet, but there are other steps in it which might do on the dance floor.

“The main thing about it is its unusual tempo, a modification of the rumba tempo that is becoming so popular these days. Any couple can create their own steps to it, the chief requisite being to get smoothness into the dance above all else.”

What his next dance creation would be, Fred could not tell. He has no immediate plans for his next production. His contract with RKO-Radio, where all the musicals in which he was costarred with Ginger Rogers were made, has terminated, and his ticket with MGM, where he just made “Broadway Melody of 1940” with Eleanor Powell and George Murphy, was for only one film. As a free lance, Fred hopes for better stories.

“Who,” I asked, “are the best dancers in Hollywood?”

Fred Astaire named Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Eleanor Powell and Ginger Rogers as the most graceful among the girls; Randolph Scott, James Cagney, Cesar Romero, and–surprise surprise!–Mickey Rooney as the best dancers who start with their left foot.

P.S.: Last night I took out the girl who wears the black bow in her hair and we went dancing again. This time we lingered at her door for the usual amenities. I guess my footwork has improved. Or maybe it was the autographed picture I gave her of Fred Astaire!

The Legend of Lindy Hop Swings Out: Frankie Manning passes away today

I've just heard that Frankie Manning passed away this morning, just a month shy of his 95th birthday.

Who is Frankie Manning?

He brought joy to thousands of people, from the 1930s through to the 1980s, '90s and today. He pioneered a dance style (Lindy Hop) that gave Amercans something infectiuous, fun and exhilerating - and a dance style they could call their own.

Frankie Manning was born in 1914 and was one of the key personalities in the swing jazz movement of 1930s New York. He danced in the Savoy Ballroom in its heyday, he pioneered the famous 'air steps' (aerials) of Lindy Hop and performed with and choreographed for the famous Whitey's Lindy Hoppers dance troupe.

Frankie and Ann Johnson demonstrating an
over the shoulder air step in the Savoy Ballroom

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers in their defining moment, the dance scence

from the 1941 movie Hellzapoppin' - Frankie's wearing the overalls

Frankie toured the world with jazz artists Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Cab Calloway. He gave a command performance for King George VI in London in 1937. In 1942 a Life magazine cover story proclaimed the Lindy Hop as "America's national dance" and "this country's only native and original dance form" except for tap dancing.

Frankie never lost his enthusiasm for Lindy Hop and was dancing right up until his death, age 94. His 80th birthday ( in 1994) was commemorated by a weekend-long celebration in New York City ; his 85th culminated in a sold out party at New York's Roseland Ballroom, where a pair of his dance shoes were placed in a showcase along with those of dancers such as Fred Astaire.

Thousands of dancers who love vintage jazz and lindy hop are mourning Frankie's passing today. Known as known as the "Ambassador of Swing", he defined the popular entertainment of a generation in the 1930s and 40s, and then did it all over again in the 1980s and '90s.

His autobiography is available on Amazon.com - and it's on my personal reading list. Click the link below to get your copy and learn more about a man who defined the dance that defined a pivotal era in American music and culture.

Because diamonds are a Diamond Dame's best friend: lovely art deco treasures to drool over

One of my weaknesses is looking at Art Deco diamond jewellery on the internet.

Because a girl can dream, can't she?

I don't know how any gal could settle for a simple solitaire when these vintage pieces are so, so pretty...

Above is my current favourite – 1920's platinum and diamond (0.80 carats)
from ArtDecoDiamonds.com


1920's platinum and diamond (0.20 carat European cut) ring
from Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry

1930's platinum and old mine-cut diamond ring
from Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry

Diamond and platinum ring, central diamond approximately 3.4 cts,
circa 1925 from James Alfredson

White gold and diamond duet brooch that converts to two dress clips,
circa 1930 from Ritchies Auctioneers


Diamond and platinum bracelet (47 carats),
circa 1936 from James Alfredson

1930s and 1940s Cocktail Recipes

Throwing a fabulous 1930s or 1940s themed cocktail party and want to make sure the drinks list is up to scratch? Below is a list of popular cocktails that were served in the post-Prohibition years.

Note that cocktails from the 1930s and '40s were predominantly based on gin, rum, brandy or whiskey - vodka did not make an appearance (in American cocktails) until the 1950s.

Clark Gable and Constance Bennett imbibing
in the 1935 movie 'After Office Hours'

Sidecar
1 measure Cointreau
1 measure brandy/cognac
1 measure lemon juice
Shake with ice and strain into sugar-rimmed cocktail (martini) glass and garnish with a strip of lemon rind.

Gin Sour
2 measures gin
juice of half a large lemon
1 tsp caster sugar
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a short glass.

Gin Fizz
2 measures gin
juice of half a large lemon
1 tsp caster sugar
Soda water
Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar with ice until the sugar dissolves. Pour over ice in a highball glass and top up with soda water.

Orange Blossom
equal parts gin and fresh squeezed orange juice
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail (Martini) glass

Pink Lady
1.5 measures Plymouth gin (as opposed to the more common London Dry gin)
half measure grenadine
half measure heavy cream
quarter measure lemon juice
1 measure egg white
Dip the rim of a champagne saucer in grenadine and then in caster sugar to make a pink rim. Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into the glass, add a cherry garnish.

Whiskey Sour
1 generous measure of American whiskey
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp caster sugar
soda water
Mix lemon juice and sugar in a small tumbler with a three ice cubes until sugar is dissolved. Add whiskey and stir, then add a dash of soda water.

Sazerac
Originally created by Antoine Amédée Peychaud in the 1830s in New Orleans, it's reportedly the first cocktail ever invented in America. A recipe for the Sazerac is listed inthe book Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em published in 1937.
6 measures rye whiskey
1 measure absinthe
few dashes of Peychaud's bitters
1 sugar cube (or a small amount of simple syrup)
Curl of lemon peel for garnish
Pack an old fashioned (lowball) glass with ice to chill it. In a second glass, muddle the sugar cube and bitters, then add the rye whiskey. Empty the ice from the first glass and pour the absinthe in and swirl around to coat the sides of the glass, then discard any excess absinthe. Pour the rye-sugar-bitters mixture into the absinthe-coated glass and garnish with a lemon peel.

Horse's Neck
1 lemon
2 measures dry gin, or bourbon/whiskey
dry ginger ale
Cut the entire rind from the lemon in one long spiral, and hang it from the rim of a tall glass so it dangles inside the glass. Add lots of ice and the gin or whiskey, then top up with ginger ale.

Bronx
A very New York cocktail from the early 20th century.
1.5 measures gin
three-quarters measure dry vermouth
three-quarters measure sweet red vermouth
juice of quarter of an orange
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail (Martini) glass, garnish with a slice of orange.

Gibson
half measure dry white vermouth
2.5 measures gin
2 cocktail onions
Pour vermouth and gin into a glass with ice, stir and let chill for 30 seconds. Skewer onions on a cocktail stick and place in a cocktail (Martini) glass so onions rest at the bottom. Strain vermouth/gin into the glass.

Planter's Punch
1 measure fresh lime juice
1 measure orange juice
2 measures dark rum
half measure grenadine
dash of bitters
chilled soda water or lemonade
Add lime, orange juice, rum and grenadine to a pitcher of ice and mix well. Fill a wide tumbler (e.g. fat tall glass) with ice and add a dash of bitters to the bottom. Strain the rum/juice/grenadine mixture into the glass and top up with soda water or lemonade. Garnish with peach slices.

Champagne Cocktail
1 sugar cube
2-3 dashes of bitters
quarter measure cognac/brandy
Champagne
Place the suagr cube in the bottom of a champagne flute, add the bitters and roll the sugar lump around to soak it up. Add brandy and top with champagne.

Mint Julep
One of the oldest cocktails of them all. It originated in the southern United States, probably during the eighteenth century.
2 measures bourbon (American whiskey)
8-10 fresh mint leaves
1 tbsp caster sugar
Muddle the mint and sugar in a tall glass (alternatively put mint, sugar and a dash of hot water in a short glass and grind together, then spoon into a tall glass over crushed ice). Add bourbon, top off with crushed ice, stir well and let stand to chill the drink and let the ice partially melt. Garnish with mint leaves.

Manhattan
2 and a quarter measures American rye whiskey
1 measures sweet red vermouth
Dash of bitters
Maraschino cherry to garnish
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail (Martini) glass, garnish with the cherry.

Sherry Flip
2 measures brown cream sherry
half tsp caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
grated nutmeg to garnish
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a small wine glass. Sprinke nutmeg on the surface.

Martini
1 measure gin
dash of sweet red vermouth
Mix gin and vermouth gently in a pitcher of ice, then strain into a cocktail (Martini) glass. Squeeze a twist of lemon rind over the surface to release essential oils on top of the drink. Add a green olive skewered on a cocktail stick.

Zombie
Legendary 1930s recipe created at Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Hollywood as a hangover cure and became popular at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.
1 measure white rum
1 measure light rum
1 measure dark rum
1 measure apricot brandy
1 measure pineapple juice
1 measure papaya juice
½ measure 151-proof rum
Dash of grenadine
Shake all ingredients other than the 151-proof rum with ice. Pour drink and ice into a tall glass and top with the high-proof rum.

Eat at Dan's

I've been doing some research about popular food from the 1920s and 30s and came across this newspaper ad for a new restaurant in Glendale, California, 23 January 1928.

Advertising was so much simpler back in the '20s - just the facts, ma'am! I think I prefer it to today's avant-garde right-brain 'what the hell does a gorilla playing the drums have to do with a bar of chocolate' marketing style.

"Special Steak Dinner 50c" - that's all I need to know.

The Fred Astaire Filmography Challenge: 1935's Roberta

I've had a bit of a hiatus with my Fred Astaire Filmography Challenge (watching all Fred Astaire musical films ever made), but last night I settled down on the couch with a cup of tea and a copy of Roberta from my Fred and Ginger box set.


I'll admit right off the bat that I didn't enjoy this movie nearly as much as other Astaire-Rogers offerings like Swing Time, the Gay Divorcee or even Flying Down to Rio. It follows standard Fred-and-Ginger-RKO-fare: the big white sets, the silly farcical sitcom circumstances, plus outlandish 1930s fashions – but for me something in this movie doesn't quite gel. The dialogue isn't quite as snappy as it should be, and Fred and Ginger's characters are both a bit lost in a sea of sub-plots. Plus, Ginger Roger's fake Polish accent drove me up the wall.


Roberta movie trailer

Here's a quick plot synopsis:

John Kent (Randolph Scott, who also appeared with Fred in "Follow the Fleet") is a former college football player and small-town hick who goes to Paris with his friend Huck Haines (Fred's character) and Fred's dance band, the Wabash Indianians. A Parisian cafe owner has booked the band for an engagement, but upon their arrival the contract is off because the cafe owner wanted native Indians, not a band from Indiana. At this point Fred and the boys try to woo the cafe owner by playing him a number by way of an on-the-spot audition - but I have to say the 'fake pipe organ' gag they do is so awful that I would have fired them too.

Broke and jobless, John and the band look up John's Aunt Minnie in hope of help. She owns a renowned high fashion dress shop which she runs with her assistant Stephanie (Irene Dunne). John of course falls in love with Stephanie and entaglements ensue later when his estranged snobbish girlfriend from America comes to Paris.

Meanwhile, Huck discovers his old flame Lizzie is in Paris masquerading as the "Countess Scharwenka", which is why we have to put up with Ginger's horribly annoying Polish-or-something accent throughout the film. She gets Huck's band an engagement at the nightclub where she sings (which turns out to be the same club that had fired the band previously for not being Indians).

Aunt Minnie dies unexpectedly and John inherits the shop, but he agrees to run it in partnership with Stephanie. When John's old girlfriend shows up (interested in a new start now that he's inherited a potential fortune in the dress shop), Stephanie and Sophie out-cat each other for John's interest, involving a sneaky move on Stephanie's part to ensure Sophie wears that dress.

All in all, the storyline revolved way too much around the John-and-Stephanie storyline and Fred and Ginger's characters seemed unecessary and even 'in the way' for most of the film. I found little to no chemistry between Fred and Ginger's characters, and when they decided to get engaged near the end of the film you're left wondering if the screenwriter must have thought "Crap, I'd better do something with these two minor characters, the film's almost over!"

The dancing and Fred and Ginger's singing numbers are alright, but nothing to write home about. My favourite was the "I'll be hard to handle" dance duet (after Ginger sings the song in her stupid accent). I do LOVE her cute high-waisted pantsuit outfit though.

Irene Dunne gets top billing in this film, and sings a number of times throughout the feature. I'm not a huge fan of her singing, so these warbly scenes were something I could have done without. The "I Won't Dance" song by Fred is the best of the film's musical offerings.

All in all I felt that Roberta lacked the spark, cohesiveness and dynamism of other Astaire-Rogers films - especially the ones featuring Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore as supporting players.

While not a terrible movie, it isn't one of their best. An interesting bit of trivia is that a young and blonde Lucille Ball (who was a contract player at RKO at the time) is one of the uncredited models in the fashion show finale of the movie, wearing the large, fluffy feather cape.

1920s Flapper makeup tutorial video

I'm on a bit of a 1920s flapper kick again, fueled by my practice for and silver-medalling in last night's Christchurch Lindy Hop Champs Solo Charleston Challenge.

I found this fantastic video tutorial of basic 1920s flapper makeup that is worth a gander.

Decades Of Style: reinventing vintage sewing patterns for the modern gal

Subsequent to my previous post about Vintage Sew It Yourself, a sweet lady named Dotty (I love that name!) dropped me an email to tell me about the Decades of Style pattern company.

As it notes on their website: "If you've ever sewn with an original vintage pattern you know how daunting it is to face blank pieces of tissue paper." Too true - as wonderful as it is to get your hands on an original vintage pattern, you really have to know your onions to make heads of tails of it at the sewing machine.

That's where Decades of Style comes in - they faithfully re-create vintage patterns that are easier to follow, using familiar modern references symbols and full instructions.

I had a gander through their website and there are some nice patterns there - my fave is the 1930s Button Dress:

1930s Button Dress pattern by Decades of Style

At the moment there aren't heaps of patterns to choose from - only about 25 or so spanning the 1920s through 1950s. but hopefully they will be producing more. I'll be keeping my eye on the site for sure.

UPDATE 8 APRIL

I received another email from Dotty regarding the Decades of Style pattern company, who says:

"It is basically a one woman show, she adds about 4 to 6 patterns a year. She takes great pride in her patterns. I have made up several of them and they go together wonderfully."

What a fantastic effort the Decades of Style woman is going to! Please do visit the website and, even if you aren't keen to purchase a pattern, consider dropping her an email to say 'keep up the great work' - it's people like her that are keeping the wonderful Art Deco/Golden Era alive and kicking for us 'moderns'.

As good as a bought one - sewing your own vintage clothing

My recent trips to New York City and Melbourne proved somewhat fruitless in terms of vintage-style clothes shopping. In neither city did I find what I was looking for - cute, original, affordable, dance-able and well-detailed vintage style dresses that enticed me to purchase them. Sure, I found a few frocks, but nothing a-ma-zing with a reasonable price tag (and I know such things do exist - I've found them before!)

I think my lack of willingness to splash out on a garment that's just okay rather than utterly delightful is due, in part at least, to the fact that I've been taking sewing classes for a wee while. When I try on frocks in stores I now think to myself "I would have chosen a better fabric. I would have done a nicer hem. I don't think they've shaped the sleeves very well..." It's amazing how even a small bit of knowledge about garment construction makes one incredibly picky. Well, me anyway.

Websites like Retro Age Vintage Fabrics and What I Found Sewing Patterns are filling a niche for ladies who are into VSIY (vintage-sew-it-yourself). Or, if you prefer to touch and feel in person, you can do what I do and cruise the $3-a-metre bargain table at your local fabric store.

Vintage 1940s quadriga cloth available from Retro Age Vintage Fabrics

Gorgeous vintage 40s swing dress pattern from
What I Found Sewing Patterns
(If you buy this can I borrow it when you're done?)

I've already sewn a few basic dresses which have served well on and off the dance floor and cost less than $25 in materials. And in these economic times it just seems to make more and more sense to 'mend, make do, and make it yourself'. That way at least you get exactly what you want (in theory, depending on your sewing skills).

Sure, it takes me about 120 hours of neckache-inducing labour to create a nice dress versus 5 seconds to purchase one from a store, but it sure feels fantastic when an admirer says "I LOVE your dress! Wherever did you get it??" and you nonchalantly reply:

"Oh this? I made it myself." *tosses hair casually over one shoulder and files nails*

"What, this old thing?"
My latest creation - $9 of fabric and Vogue Easy Options pattern V8108

Whether you alter a thrift store bargain, sew from a pattern or create something entirely from scratch, the cliche is true: it really is rewarding to have made it yourself. What was once done out of necessity during hard times in the '30s and '40s is more and more a conscious choice for reasons beyond economics – the cutely quilted and embellishly embroidered worldwide 'Crafting Movement' now going on (see hot new publication World Sweet World for the latest take on crafting for a new generation) cites everything from gender politics to eco-ethics as the motivations for making your own stuff.

My own reasons for VSIY are somewhat less noble: to save cash and to eliminate the chances of someone else wearing the same outfit as me. If it advances women's interests and saves the planet, well that's good too.