dancING SIBLINGS By Toni Bentley

et’s talk about Fred. And his part- restore one’s faith in humanity should it, ners: Rita, Cyd, Paulette, Vera-Ellen, by chance, ever falter — or at least in one LNanette, the two Powells — Eleanor extraordinary human being’s capacity and Jane — Judy, Leslie, Audrey, numer- for beauty. “He is like Bach,” George Bal- ous couches and chairs, several tables anchine said. “Astaire has that same con- (dining and coffee), a British ceiling and centration of genius; there is so much of one supremely fortunate coat rack. But the dance in him that it has been distilled.” mainly, of course, there was the divine Astaire’s career in Hollywood had a less Ginger, always magnificently dressed, than promising start, with a screen test occasionally, as in “Top Hat,” by three or that elicited the now famous summation four well-endowed ostriches. (which Riley regards as apocryphal) from While the Hays Office in the mid-’30s was one of those ever reliable executives: in its most censorial early days, its enforc- “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Also dances.” But David O. Selznick was so charmed by Astaire, despite “his enormous ears and THE ASTAIRES bad chin line,” that he signed him anyway. Fred & Adele. The rest really is history. Ah, but to live in By Kathleen Riley. a world, as in Astaire’s films, where just Illustrated. 241 pp. around every corner lies a gleaming Art Oxford University Press. $27.95. Deco ballroom and invisible orchestra — just in case one feels like dancing. Riley performs the great service of giv- ers changing any plotline or dialogue from ing us the history before the history, of which they could squeeze sexual innuen- Fred and Adele, the biggest vaudeville do, they managed in their verbal vigilance and musical theater stars of their time. It’s to, myopically, overlook Fred Astaire’s du- a love story rarely told, of that between ets with Ginger Rogers, in which he dem- a sister and her brother, one bonded in onstrates clearly, concisely, even overtly, blood but cemented by hoofing. It’s also every move any aspiring lover might do the tale of one more relentlessly devoted well to adopt. Put down the Kama Sutra stage mother, who joins Rose Thompson and its impossible acrobatics, rent “The Hovick in that distinguished pantheon of Gay Divorcee” and watch Astaire seduce a ambitious bulldozers. resistant Rogers, transforming her from a Adele and Fred were born in Omaha. feisty, fast-talking, fast-walking, too-good- Their mother, Johanna Geilus, was a first- for-you dame into a dewy-eyed ingénue, generation American, her parents having slowed and silenced by love. emigrated from East Prussia in 1878. Their In the Cole Porter number “Night and father, Frederic Austerlitz, who went by Day,” Astaire pursues her about the dance Fritz, was born in Linz, Austria, in 1868, floor with the wit of changing rhythms, one year after his Jewish parents had sometimes syncopated, sometimes right converted to Catholicism, their pragmatic on the beat, sometimes pausing to breathe solution to anti-Semitism. The newborn the moment. He chases her, coaxes her, Stage partners: Adele and Fred Astaire in the 1920s. Their 27-year career together Fritz was baptized in the Catholic Church. mirrors her, challenges her, and goes hip began when he was 5 and she was 8. She was the undisputed star of the duo. Arriving at Ellis Island at age 24, Fritz to hip with her. He even spoons her, verti- had “theatrical yearnings and dandified cally. She isn’t sure, she turns away, she merized by the magician who just took her the exploits of this brother-sister team in ways” and dreamed of being a singer reconsiders, gives a little, gives a little on the ride of her life — bends over her glorious detail. And it becomes clear that it and musician. Moving to Omaha, he met more, then, overcome, bends backward suggestively, pulls back and says, “Ciga- was behind and beside, but never in front the spunky 15-year-old Johanna Geilus and surrenders completely to the rhythm, rette?” Mute and dazed, she declines. But of, Adele that Fred learned not only how at a Lutheran Church gathering, married the moment and the man. He flips her we need Paul Henreid to light one for us. to dance, but how to present a woman, her and eventually worked for the Storz around, catches her, sends her off spin- Yep, the Hays Office really did miss the honor her and make her glow. It is now a Brewing Company. A kind and loving fa- ning alone only to meet her, unexpect- dance. Thank God. mostly lost art, hard-won equality having ther, he also became an alcoholic. He died edly, when she slows, pulls her in tight Rogers was Astaire’s best partner removed woman’s pedestal and left her at age 56, but not before doing all he could and takes her into a thrilling crescendo, (the coat rack vying for a close second), prevaricating in the ditch of parallelism. to support and advise on his children’s ca- then to a fantastically casual ending, as if though none, not even she, could match Fred Astaire, with his astounding physi- reers, and suffering the humiliation of be- to say, “That? Oh, that was nothing,” his him as a dancer — watch how he takes off cal abilities, didn’t just redefine the no- ing supported by those children. modesty after brilliance his most disarm- in his solos like Mercury in winged taps. tion of grace; he single-handedly (or, Frederic Austerlitz II, blue-eyed and ing charm. But it didn’t matter: they were good and more accurately, double-footedly) pushed blond-haired, was born May 10, 1899, two Astaire is our American Casanova cam- gorgeous and he did the rest. Hermes Pan, the concept further than anyone had be- years and eight months after his dark- ouflaged in tux and tails or sailor suit as Astaire’s longtime choreographic collabo- fore, or has since, on the great screen. eyed, dark-haired sister, Adele. He quickly a clean-cut gentleman, sometimes a naïve rator, said, “Except for times Fred worked While Gene Kelly sparred heroically in a followed his vivacious, mischievous sibling goof, zooming about in Hollywood musi- with real professional dancers like Cyd mighty battle with gravity — like Atlas, into the local dancing school, where his cal fluff. Good, solid, still funny fluff. As Charisse, it was a 25-year war.” So why he held the world aloft and you knew it — mother hoped the classes would strength- “Night and Day” closes Astaire lands Rog- did these women look like goddesses with Astaire simply sidestepped the fight and en her frail little boy. At age 4 he was found ers gently on a steep incline — she’s mes- Astaire? Because of Adele. actually came down upon gravity rather one day in a corner prancing about on his Adele? Yes, his sister, Adele. For the du- than trudging up it like most mortals. His tippy-toes in a pair of pointe shoes, beau- Toni Bentley danced with the New York ration of their astonishing 27-year partner- dancing in such classic films as “Swing tiful arches in evidence, a trick he would City Ballet for 10 years. A one-woman play ship, the longest in his life — it began when Time,” “Roberta” and “Shall We Dance” carry into his early vaudeville days. adapted from her book “The Surrender: Fred was 5 and Adele 8 — she was the un- provides not only an exhilarating expe- A teacher’s suggestion that the brother An Erotic Memoir” will open this fall at the disputed star of the duo. In her fascinating rience, but a purifying one that crosses and sister might have a stage career if Teatro María Guerrero in Madrid in a pro- new book “The Astaires,” the Australian the border of sheer entertainment into a properly trained was all that was needed duction by the Spanish National Theater. theater historian Kathleen Riley describes spiritual, moral realm. He can certainly for the eager Austerlitzes to board a train

32 PHOTOGRAPH FROM “THE ASTAIRES” BW PAGE

in January 1905, headed for New York and a week, plugging other people’s songs, was “a fellow of no mean foot,” he assert- tone: “Hers is not only the poetry of mo- stardom. Remarkable for young parents and the boys dreamed of George’s writ- ed that “a dance without skirts is to me tion but its wit, its malice, its humor.” to take such a risk based on so little — and ing a musical for Fred one day. “Lady, Be not a dance.” Way to go, George. Back in the States they signed to star on such little people — and to reap such Good!” (1924) and “Funny Face” (1927) When the Astaires crossed the pond in the first Broadway collaboration by stunning reward. were two of those dreams. for the first time, in 1923, to star in “Stop the Gershwin brothers, “Black-Eyed Su- Fritz returned to work in Nebraska During their last, and best, year in Flirting” at the Shaftesbury in London, san.” When the show premiered, happily while mother and children moved into a vaudeville, in 1917, the Astaires received their popularity kicked into a high gear renamed “Lady, Be Good!,” Alexander boardinghouse, and Fred and Adele began telegrams from both an agent for the Shu- from which it never descended — until Woollcott wrote that Fred Astaire’s feet their studies at Alviene Master School of berts — resulting in a two-year Broadway Adele retired eight years later to marry and Gershwin’s music surely “were writ- the Theatre and Academy of Cultural contract — and the impresario Charles into British aristocracy. The show ran for ten in the same key.” “The Man I Love” Arts. Alviene tapped little Fred’s head one Dillingham, who presented them in “Apple 16 months and each performance included was created for Adele, but the elegiac day and said, “We’re going to make a big Blossoms” at his Globe Theatre (now the no fewer than 18 dances, a tour de force ballad was thought to slow up Act II and star out of you.” When Fred repeated this Lunt-Fontanne) in 1919. “We killed ’em in that left British critics reaching for bibli- was cut. It went on to quite a solo career, to his father, Fritz cried. Adele and Fred the first act,” Fred said, “and ‘panicked cal superlatives: “Nothing like them since recorded by Billie Holiday, Lena Horne had plenty of incentive to succeed. ’em’ in the third.” The score was by Fritz the Flood.” and Ella Fitzgerald, though alas never by They made their debut only months Kreisler, who played for their rehears- As the toasts of the town they cavorted Adele, its inspiration. Showbiz. later, in “The Wedding Cake,” an elabo- als. Of the Astaires’ performance in “For with Noël Coward, the Prince of Wales “Lady” was a sensation and ran for 330 rate 12-minute act designed for them, fea- Goodness Sake,” in 1922 (which featured (long before Mrs. Simpson) — he saw the performances on Broadway before mov- turing the children as bride and groom, their star turn in the show’s “nut” number, show 10 times — and the prince’s three ing to the West End for 326 more shows. each atop a huge wedding cake, Adele in “The Whichness of the Whatness”), a crit- brothers, who ushered the young Ameri- “Funny Face” followed, and Riley has white satin and Fred, yes, in a miniature ic raved, “Somewhere, sometime, uncovered evidence that while top hat, white tie and tails. Johanna knew perhaps there may have been George Gershwin and Adele that a less “foreign,” not to mention less a more charming juvenile team had a flirtation, it came to Jewish, name than Austerlitz was needed than Fred and Adele, but certain- nothing. “George loved all the for the stage, and thus her children be- ly not in the memory of anyone in girls,” Adele said in an inter- came “The Astaires,” after various trial the audience that filled the Lyric view, previously unpublished, runs as “The Austers,” “The Astiers” and Theatre.” “but absolutely I know he was “The Astares.” She, in turn, became Ann That same year, the “hard- impotent. . . . I would have had Astaire. Just in case this tale seems all too drinking, banjo-playing satirist” George except he wasn’t given prescient, Alviene might well have told all Ashton Stevens, “dean of Ameri- to women. And he wasn’t given his new students and their eager, paying can drama critics” and escort to to men either.” parents they would be “stars” — and be- Sarah Bernhardt, became one After a bomb called “Smiles,” sides, Fred returned in the second half of of a long list of distinguished the Astaires starred in the mu- “The Wedding Cake” as a lobster. intellectuals to fall in love with sical revue “The Band Wagon” The act was not a great success, but it Adele, some of whom took their in 1931. (The subsequent 1953 was the first of many spanning their child- adoration across the footlights. film with Astaire and Cyd Cha- hood. It took years of practice, new acts, Stevens made his declaration risse bore little resemblance new teachers and plenty of failure for in a subtle headline in The Chi- to the original.) It was to be them to acquire anything close to top bill- cago Herald-Examiner: “Falling Adele’s swan song before she ing. “My sister and I had to saw our way in Love With Adele Astaire. In retired from the stage, at 35, to through,” Astaire once wrote. They played Which It Is Told How the Well- marry Lord Charles Cavendish many one-night stands in “every rat trap Known Heart of Ashton Stevens and move into his 200-room, and chicken coop in the Middle West,” he Is Stricken by the Deftest of the one-bathroom (according to said, often receiving equal billing with Dancing Girls.” He went on to Adele) castle in Ireland. trained seals, dogs and illusionists. rhapsodize that “the pliant body Whether Fred would have a During these years Fred considered of Miss Astaire . . . assumes a career of his own after losing himself a liability to Adele, who was im- slanting partial paralysis which Adele was a subject of consid- pulsive, funny, lively and bursting with slays boredom where it sits.” erable conjecture in the press. charisma. “The girl seems to have talent,” Oh, my. Such proclamations do His first solo foray, in “Gay Di- one theater manager opined, “but the make one wonder what delights vorce,” with Claire Luce, was boy can do nothing.” Riley quotes a pas- have been lost to the annals of inconclusive, with one critic sage from the manuscript for Astaire’s theater criticism in the interven- contending, “two Astaires are autobiography, “Steps in Time,” in which ing decades since the erection of better than one.” Both his moth- he describes himself as “a small boy who that annoying fourth wall, a lame er and his sister were leading went through the motions conscientious- beard for bias prevention. skeptics, possibly for selfish ly, afraid he would forget his lines.” Years George Jean Nathan, editor with H. L. cans about town to all the trendiest clubs, reasons, and together waged a war against later Vincente Minnelli, who directed Mencken of The Smart Set and The Ameri­ where Fred was caught dancing an “inap- their beloved Fred’s even marrying a Astaire in “The Band Wagon,” said: “He can Mercury, went one further, choosing propriate” Charleston with Lady Edwina lovely, young divorced socialite, Phyllis lacks confidence to the most enormous to compare George Bernard Shaw’s play Mountbatten. When not dancing, the sib- Potter, on whom he had set his heart in a degree. . . . He always thinks that he’s “Back to Methuselah” to Adele’s dancing: lings endorsed shampoo, cold cream, pens, two-year pursuit. Adele went so far as to no good.” But lest Astaire’s propensity “If the purpose of theater is to entertain, toothbrushes, bronchial pastilles and say she wished her brother was gay, so he to endlessly rehearse be pathologized in then I say that the Astaire girl entertains shoes. “Astairia” was afoot. would never leave her, while Ann Astaire Freud’s armchair, it is well to remember twice as greatly as Shaw’s play.” Nathan J. M. Barrie asked Adele to play Peter monitored his every move — he was, ap- that Fred preferred to dance on that arm- proceeded to squire Adele around town, Pan (she couldn’t for contractual rea- parently, still living with her. chair, while most of us just sit. had an eight-month romance with her, sons), while P. G. Wodehouse, A. A. Milne, “Mother is so difficult at times,” Fred At age 14 Fred took on the musical re- followed her to Europe and dedicated his John Galsworthy, Hugh Walpole and Som- wrote to Adele in early 1933. “She’ll have sponsibilities for their act, frequenting book “The House of Satan” to her. The ro- erset Maugham became admirers and a fit I suppose if I get married to anybody Tin Pan Alley, where he met a 15-year-old mance ended when Adele found out that friends. Cecil Beaton likened Adele, “with within the next 10 years. I don’t know what George Gershwin in one of the cubicles at the “French ambassador” her lover was her large amusing head on a minute ex- she expects me to do — keep a couple of the music publisher Jerome H. Remick & meeting went by the name Lillian Gish. quisite little body,” to Felix the Cat, while tarts or play with myself. . . . I’m so tired Company. Gershwin was working for $15 While Nathan conceded that brother Fred another critic took a more existential Continued on Page 39

Illustration from “the astaires” 33 THE ASTAIRES Continued from Page 33

of sneaking in at night — having It is Riley’s biggest challenge all my telephone conversations to describe Adele’s electrifying listened to. . . . I don’t want to qualities, especially as she was, lose this girl.” Eventually, Adele indisputably, the “bigger star” and Ann accepted the inevitable, of the pair, the “lilac flame,” as and Fred married his beloved one critic wrote. “It was not Phyllis and moved to Hollywood, one dominant attribute but the where he danced a little. anarchic coexistence, in one pe- Eight months before the 1934 tite, sweetly brazen figure, of premiere of “The Gay Divor- a seeming mass of bewitching, cee,” Astaire sent a telegram opalescent contradictions,” Ri- to his agent, Leland Hayward: ley writes. “Underlying the ir- “WHAT’S ALL THIS TALK ruptive element of danger and ABOUT ME BEING TEAMED incorrigible gaiety . . . was a fun- WITH GINGER ROGERS? I damental vulnerability.” While WILL NOT HAVE IT LELAND. likely an accurate assessment of . . . I’VE JUST MANAGED TO Adele’s appeal, and not too over- LIVE DOWN ONE PARTNER- blown at that, this does illustrate SHIP AND I DON’T WANT TO one of the interesting questions BE BOTHERED WITH ANY about criticism in general and MORE.” He went on, bothered or academic books in particular. not, to make nine more movies Riley’s book suffers, though her brother in her soubrette so- with Rogers, thereby putting on not egregiously, from the rather prano — she sounds like an un- celluloid the best dancing filmed humor­less, linear reportage — trained Gertrude Lawrence, her to date. the laundry-list narrative — and British contemporary — with Adele’s marriage was unhap- the slightly defensive tone of so “I love your funny face, / Your py and resulted in the stillborn much academic writing, in which sunny, funny face,” she lingers death of a daughter and twins, being correct is clearly more val- on the word “love” with such followed by a miscarriage, along- ued than being interesting or, God high-pitched, childlike ardor that side the devastating progression forbid, entertaining, and resisting one feels the force of the brother- of her husband’s acute alcohol- interpretation is preferred above sister love story Riley tells con- ism. Lord Cavendish, eventually such vulgarities as outright dec- solidated into sheer, albeit rather an invalid in his own castle, died laration. (For unsurpassed writ- tremulous, sweetness. AD in 1944, age 38. The following ing and out-on-a-limb — a good Riley’s book makes clear that year Irving Berlin asked Adele to place to be with Astaire — assess- during those three decades of return to the stage to play Annie ment, see Arlene Croce’s “Fred dancing with Adele, Fred was Oakley in “Annie Get Your Gun,” Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book.”) driven, in part, by the belief that but Adele declined and remarried But Riley is also generous with he was “a detriment to my sis- instead. (Hello, Ethel Merman.) the quotations of those who were ter,” and thus honed his craft on During the war years she volun- there. George Jean Nathan liter- so many levels, devising new lev- teered in London at the Ameri­ ally takes the cake, calling Adele els in the process, that he became can Red Cross, dancing with the “as unconscious as a peach short- a creature, like Mayakovsky’s troops and writing letters for the cake, as careless about it all as a “cloud in trousers,” beyond his wounded G.I.’s to send home, United States senator’s necktie.” sister’s obviously radiant, though signing them, in a moving show Ah, yes, those ever-present care- possibly only-of-her-time, talent. of how her fame had receded, less senatorial ties. Despite his While Adele charmed them in the “Adele Astaire, Fred’s sister” — somewhat compromised position spotlight, her brother became an and there she will always remain, as her suitor, Nathan brings out- artist of the highest order. “Fred’s sister.” rageous wit to his furious praise. When Astaire was given a But one can also feel his passion, Life Achievement Award by the and a madcapness matching American Film Institute, in 1981, Adele’s. She is “a dozen Flores- he was 81 years old. As he took tan cocktails filtered through the stage a single ring shone on silk,” “a figure come out of Degas his elegant hands: the gold sig- to a galloping ragtime tune.” net pinky ring that Adele had While there is, sadly, no foot- given him in London over 50 age of Fred and Adele dancing years earlier. This ring can be together, there is one other way, seen in virtually all his films, cir- besides Nathan’s glorious flur- cling his finger as he circles the ries, to reach back in time and waists of one beautiful woman touch her, via a handful of au- after another. “My sister, Adele,” dio recordings of the Astaires he said in his unscripted speech, singing, made in the late 1920s. “was mostly responsible for my In “Funny Face” — written for being in show business. She was them — they sing to each other, the whole show, she really was. starting with Fred: “You’ve In all the vaudeville acts we had got all the qualities of Peter and the musical comedies we did Pan / . . . You’re a cutie / With together, Delly was the one that more than beauty / You’ve got was the shining light and I was such a lot of / Personal-i-T-N-T.” just there pushing away.” Just When Adele counters back to pushing away. Like Bach. h

Photographs from “The Astaires”: above, from photofest (1927); top, courtesy of antoine Dutot Museum and Gallery (1911) 39