Dancing Urban Legends Revealed #2
Monday is “Grab Bag” day here at Entertainment Legends Revealed, with each Monday featuring a different area of the world of arts and entertainment (that is not featured on the other four days of the week, that is). They’ll eventually repeat, but for now, we’re still on the initial installments of each of the various “Grab Bag” legends!
This is the second in a series of examinations of legends related to the world of dancing and whether they are true or false.
This week is specifically about ballroom dancing!
Let’s begin!
DANCING LEGEND: Fred Astaire’s will stipulates that he never be portrayed in a film.
STATUS: Oddly True
Fred Astaire is likely the most famous ballroom dancer of the 20th Century, although he was a lot more than just a dancer. The American Film Institute named him the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time (somehow eight spots higher than John Wayne, which really doesn’t make any sense, but whatever).
Astaire is probably best known for his musical films, especially those where he danced with his dance partner of TEN films, Ginger Rogers.
Some of the hit films they did together include…
The Gay Divorcee…
Swing Time…
and Top Hat…
And of course, no one can forget Astaire’s famous “dancing on the ceiling” routine in Royal Wedding…
For a man who was so famous on the silver screen, Astaire made a curious demand upon his death in 1987. In the decade or so leading up to his death, Astaire had been turning down requests for “official” film versions of his life, and upon his death, Astaire went one better.
In his will, Astaire stipulated that he never been portrayed in a film.
He felt that he should be judged by his life, and his life only, and not what some filmmaker may wish to say about his life in a film.
Oddly enough, in 1997, his widow, Robin, allowed Dirt Devil to use digital technology to make it appear as though Astaire was dancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner.
Astaire’s daughter was aghast – she stated that she was ”saddened that after Fred’s wonderful career, he was sold to the devil” (as you might imagine, Astaire’s daughter is not a fan of her step-mother – a woman that I am pretty sure is younger than her).
While I believed the whole “will” part, I figured that SOME film must have just said, “Screw it, let’s see them sue us,” but surprisingly enough, I have not found any film feature Astaire as a character.
You know who this really hurt (and she – or her people – has said as much)?
Ginger Rogers.
You can’t very well do a Ginger Rogers bio-pic if you have no Fred Astaire in it, right?
Meanwhile, when she was given a tribute in the early 90s (she died in 1995), Astaire’s widow would not even clear the use of Astaire/Rogers footage for the tribute!
This is a weird, weird situation.
DANCING LEGEND: Jim Thorpe was a ballroom champion dancer.
STATUS: True
Awhile back, I wrote about the fact that, unbeknown to most of his biographers for decades before it was discovered, Jim Thorpe had played professional basketball for awhile in the 1920s.
Jim Thorpe was really one of the greatest athletes of the 20th Century.
A star of track and field (and Olympic Gold Medalist), Thorpe also played professional baseball, basketball AND football!!!
However, amusingly enough, Thorpe’s athletic dominance was not just reserved for competitive sports, he also dominated in, of all places, the ballroom!!
While there’s certainly a chance that Thorpe took ballroom dance in an attempt to help his footwork (football players have been known to take dance classes for that very reason, even as long ago as the 1920s, Knute Rockne had his players taking dance lessons, so it’s certainly a possibility), for whatever reason he danced, Thorpe was an excellent dancer.
And in fact, in 1912, he was the inter-collegiate ballroom dancing CHAMPION!
That same year, Thorpe won the Gold Medal in the Pentathlon and the Decathlon.
I wonder if the former victory helped in the latter?
DANCING LEGEND: Cyd Charisse’s legs were insured for a million bucks each.
STATUS: False
Cyd Charisse (born Tula Elice Finklea) sadly passed away last year.
The gorgeous dancer with the beautiful long legs was a screen starlet for a number of years.
Charisse danced with Fred Astaire in a few films, including…
Band Wagon…
and Silk Stockings…
She also danced with Gene Kelly in some films, including, perhaps most memorably, Singin’ in the Rain…
So she had the rare treat of dancing with two of the most notable ballroom dancers of the 20th Century, even though her background before this time was strictly ballet.
When Charisse passed away, a number of obituaries about her made reference to her legs, stating that MGM insured them for a million dollars each.
While it’s certainly a nice hook, I don’t believe it.
Charisse had said for years before her death in interviews that it was not true, that it was just a matter of MGM’s publicity machine coming up with an interesting hook (and clearly, it WAS an interesting hook, if people are still talking about it today).
MGM internal documents about Charisse during the time make no mention of such an insurance policy.
The amount of the insurance policy changes from telling to telling (I’ve seen between two and five million for the pair).
And, obviously, no one has ever found the supposed policy.
So I’m going with a “false” on this one. If anyone ever does find proof going the other way, I’d gladly change my answer!
Okay, that’s it for this week!
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com
Of course, Mr. Astaire’s will expresses his desire and has no legal weight.
…so how has said desire been enforced, then?
I’ve heard the “[body part] insured for a million dollars” story used for a lot of famous people, and I have no idea if any of them are true:
Jennifer Lopez – her butt
Dolly Parton – her boobs
Mary Hart – her legs
Hulk Hogan – his biceps (or “pythons”, as he called them)
Sure, it tells his wife (or whoever executes the estate) not to let anyone use his likeness in a film.
His likeness is still a property owned by the estate.
I always enjoy your columns on various subjects, but sometimes your editorializing takes me aback. Fred Astaire being ranked higher than John Wayne “doesn’t make sense?” Astaire was an award-winning dancer, singer, and choreographer who, when he became too old to dance to his own standard, turned to an equally successful career as a straight actor, which earned him further awards for non-musical performances. The man was not only talented and versatile, but considered a mensch by pretty much all of Hollywood (who presumably were among the AFI’s voters). John Wayne, on the other hand, pretty much played John Wayne in every film he ever made. A “star,” yes, but never considered, even in his own day, to be a great talent. He was also an outspoken racist, a womanizer, and kind of a d-bag. Considering the highly subjective nature of these lists, I’m still somewhat struck by the tone of indignation you’re expressing. Do you also think it was wrong for Wayne to have been outranked by Bogart, Grant, Brando, Gable, Fonda, Cagney, Tracy, Cooper, Peck, and Chaplin?
You said it yourself, Chris, Wayne was a “star,” and that’s what they were ranking – “Male Stars,” not how talented they were, just who were the biggest stars, and yes, it is absurd for Wayne to be below all of those fellows (some of them, sure, but not ALL of them), and it is particularly absurd for him to be eight spots behind Fred Astaire on a list of “Stars.”
Feel free to knock John Wayne, that’s cool with me. But come on, when it comes to Male Stars in Hollywood, Wayne was one of the very biggest of all-time, and a much bigger “star” than Fred Astaire. And I honestly mean that not as a shot at Astaire but at the list – it’s certainly not Astaire’s fault they were so off with their rankings.
Your assertion has compelled me to do a little homework, so let’s look at some numbers. Astaire starred in two films in his career which were the top-grossers for the years they were released. Wayne did that…never. Adjusted for inflation, one film Astaire starred in ranked among the top 100 domestic grossers, as compared to Wayne’s…none. Astaire made enough money for RKO in the 1930s that he received a percentage of the net, the only performer at the time allowed that treatment aside from Greta Garbo (who was by every account the definition of a star). Wayne- nope. Wayne of course undoubtedly made more money for his bosses overall than Astaire did- of course, he made over four times as many movies. But, even then, here are some interesting numbers: of the 11 films Astaire starred in where we have data for domestic gross (not counting cameos or movies where he played himself, like “That’s Entertainment”), Astaire averaged a domestic gross of $15,309,155 per film. To be fair, that’s undoubtedly skewed by “The Towering Inferno,” which was a blockbuster and more or less an ensemble film- so take it out, and his average drops to a meager $5,919,690 a film (for films we have data on). Compare that to an average of $6,551,871 a film for the 32 films of John Wayne’s that data exists for and Wayne looks good- until you remember that A. These numbers aren’t adjusted for inflation, B. That Wayne’s “star” years began over seven years after Astaire’s heyday and lasted 16 years after Astaire stopped making musicals (all higher-grossing years, inflation-wise), and C. I was unable to find box office data for the 80 or so B-movies Wayne starred in before his “breakthrough” in “Stagecoach”- and since they were not hits, they would surely lower Wayne’s overall average.
So, as you can see, you’re absolutely right- Fred Astaire was never a big star.
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you simply are unaware of the impact movie musicals had from the 30s to the 50s, rather than biased against them in a macho, John Wayne-esque way. Or, maybe you thought “100 Top Male Hollywood Stars” meant “100 Top Hollywood Stars Preferred by Men?”
The Harris Poll began a poll in 1994 every year asking “Who is your favorite movie star?”
EVERY year since it began, John Wayne has been on the list. The ONLY dead celebrity on the list from year to year (I honestly don’t know who else has been on it every year, but at least the last seven years he’s been the only dead celebrity on the list and certainly the only dead celebrity to be on the list every year).
The 2009 poll had Wayne THIRD behind Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood. THIRD!! Tied with Will Smith, and ahead of Harrison Ford, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, etc.
And he’s been dead for thirty years!!
In 1995, he was #1 on the poll!!
And yet he’s the 13th Male Star of All-Time.
Thirty years after he dies, he’s the third most popular movie stars in America competing with LIVING stars, and yet he’s thirteenth among dead stars?
It’s absurd.
Why thank you, Chris.
That’s a reasonable argument, and I understand your point of view. Still, it’s useful to know that the AFI is made up cinephiles who pay for the privilege of membership, so their criteria probably has more to do with both artistic and financial impact than proletariat popularity, per se. My argument was never that John Wayne wasn’t a star- he was a very big one, and obviously continues to be. I was simply defending Astaire from your apparent belief that he WASN’T a “star.” If a “star” is someone whom people go out of their way to see at the movies, he certainly was one (I think I’ve shown), even beyond the artistic impact he made on the medium. Ultimately, as I said to begin with, ranking performers like the two of them, who may as well have existed on different planets, is futile and entirely subjective. I still don’t necessarily agree that Wayne was a “much bigger” star than a guy whose movies on more than one occasion were the biggest hits of their year of release, but that’s what makes beauty pageants.
Where did I assert that Astaire wasn’t a star?
I say that he’s “likely the most famous ballroom dancer of the 20th Century, although he was a lot more than just a dancer.”
Astaire’s great.
My point was really just what I said in the piece – that it doesn’t make sense to put Astaire eight spots higher than John Wayne on a ranking of “Top Male Stars of All-Time.”
By the by, we both know this means nothing, so I’m just doing it for a laugh, but speaking of their artistic impact, who has more Academy Awards (or nominations, even) for Acting, Wayne or Astaire?
That’s not really black and white (or fair)- for one thing, Astaire spread his career over films and television, (through most of the sixties and seventies his major output was on TV, since that was the medium that afforded him complete control), and, as I’ve already pointed out, Wayne made nearly four times as many films as Astaire did. Just in terms of statistics, Wayne has the edge (unless you count Astaire’s honorary award). But here’s the data:
Astaire:
Oscar Awards- 0 (though he got an honorary one in 1950)
Nominations- 1 (Best Supporting Actor- Towering Inferno)
Wayne:
Oscar Awards- 1 (for True Grit)
Nominations- 1 (Sands of Iwo Jima)
Two editorial notes: 1. It has widely been assumed that Wayne won his award for True Grit not based on his acting, but based on the fact that he had just recently announced a heroic comeback from lung cancer. Say what you want about him being a “star”- if you honestly think he was a better actor than Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, and Dustin Hoffman, my head will explode.
2. If you REALLY want to be fair, you’ll include…
The Golden Globes- Astaire- 2 wins plus 3 nominations and one honorary; Wayne- 1 win plus two honorary
BAFTAs (British Academy Awards)- Astaire, 1 win; Wayne, no wins or nominations
Emmys- Astaire, 2 wins; Wayne, no wins or nominations.
So if you add up major performing awards, Astaire has five wins, four nominations, and two honorary awards, and Wayne has two wins, one nomination, and two honorary awards.
And you do want to be fair, right?
When I said “By the by, we both know this means nothing, so I’m just doing it for a laugh,” I really meant “we both know this means nothing, so I’m just doing it for a laugh.”
Oh, I know- just playing along. Just like I am when I say, “At least my guy can dance- yours couldn’t even walk properly.”
Bah, James Garner could take both of your guys in a fight, all while running the big con!
Guys, I love both Astaire & Wayne but I have to agree with Christopher on his defense of Astaire. During the years Fred Astaire worked as a film star, there was no Academy Award category for “musical/comedy” genre. Awards were directed to straight drama actors, not musicals. You’ll not find Judy Garland or Shirley Temple with one either. They only received honorary juvenile Academy Awards despite the mega-bucks they brought into the studio coffers in musicals. To right the wrong, the Academy awarded Fred Astaire an honorary award in 1950. Fred did not attend (He knew there wasn’t technically a category for what he did in film & always hated controversy) and fellow screen dancer, George Murphy, picked it up for him when Ginger Rogers presented it during award’s night. Gosh, Fred could dance, act, sing (introduced more popular hits in his day than many of today’s leading artists), write music, invent how musical dance should be filmed, play accordion, drums, and piano…all while being a darn good moral person and faithful family man. He was truly one talented artist. If not pulling RKO Studios out of bankruptcy, he should a least be remembered for his many remarkable and varied talents.
When Fred Astaire received an Emmy for his first TV special in 1958 (total: 9 Emmy’s), sour-grapes Ed Sullivan kicked up a big public stink, stating that there were no Emmy categories for musical/dance leads. Fred graciously offered to return his personal Emmy but the Emmy Award board would not hear of it. Ed, by his own making, ended up looking like a silly little diva among entertainment industry peers.
Last of all, know where John Wayne picked up that cute backside of a walk? Yep. It’s officially on record. ‘Duke’ Wayne admits to mimicking Fred Astaire’s walk. You’ll not spot ‘Duke’ doing it prior to Fred’s Hollywood entrance in 1933. Fred was well-known to have a loose-limb walk even when he wasn’t dancing. They say that people would just stop what they were doing to gaze upon Fred when he walked down a studio back lot. People describe that Fred could be deep in concentration yet his walk would have a decisive rhythm to it — a certain flair that just caught people’s attention. Fred Astaire was well-known as a very shy/humble man off stage. Astaire realized it caught people’s eye but stated he couldn’t help it… it was just the way he walked. Many stars tried to mimic Fred’s eye-catching walk but Duke Wayne made a success of getting the motion right, then tweaking it all for his own.
None of which has anything to do with Fred Astaire being a bigger star than John Wayne. It is not a knock on Astaire’s talents, which were vast. He just is not as famous and/or popular as Wayne. Again, Wayne is routinely voted as one of the most famous movie actors in the world….NOW. Now, in the year 2012, he is still voted as one of America’s most favorite actors, when put up against Will Smith, Tom Cruise, etc. Specifically, in the 2012 poll, Wayne fell from his 2011 ranking of #3 all the way down to #5 (Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks finished ahead of Wayne in 2012). Astaire is not as big of a star as John Wayne. Having Wayne so low on the list was a joke. And that is the point – that Wayne was slighted, not that Astaire is not great or anything like that, as he clearly is awesome. Just not as popular/famous as John Wayne (and surely not eight spots higher).
Quigley Publishing has a kept a list of the top ten Box Office stars, as determined by a survey of movie theater owners, annually since 1932. John Wayne has topped that list more often than any other actor ever. If you total up the 70-odd years this list has been kept, regardless of whatever weighting system you use to give points based on rank each year, Wayne is the #1 actor of all time. Fred Astaire, using the criteria described on the linked list, came in #75, and that was only as a pair with Ginger Rogers. Astaire never once made the list by himself.