A lot of the "She's the better dancer" reviews are from early in their career together and make for a good story. In the later stage, Fred's discipline and hard work began to pay off as his ability was noted by audiences and critics. By the time she retired, he was generally considered the better dancer. Heywood Broun noted this as early as 1918. Modest Fred, who had a terminal case of the 'never good enoughs' perpetuated the "She was the better dancer" fiction throughout his life. However, it's clear that Adele, in addition to being a top-notch dancer, had that rare 'IT' quality that grabs audiences and excites adoration. But I join the chorus who lament the lack of ANY film of what the most celebrated performers of their time. We have vids of amateurs dancing throughout that period but only stills of Delly and Fred. I suspect some film was made of them but lost to history. Ah well . . .
As a youngster (20-21) in NYC in 1923-4, my dad became a friend of the Astaires and shared an apartment with them. He and Fred were the same size and shared clothes. When they were going to London, they asked Dad if he would like to come, and he shared the apartment on Old ark Lane with them for a year. After that he started school at UVa and got a PhD in English in 1934 (my birthday).
@@hipocampelofantocame That's wonderful! From what I've read, Adele and Fred cherished their friends but asking him to move to London with them indicates they-all must have been very close. And sharing clothes with Fred must have been a real treat because the Duke of Windsor, who was considered one of the best dressed men in the world, took Fred under his wing and taught him how to dress. When Fred returned to the U.S., he brought that sensibility with him and was considered one of the best dressed men in the U.S. and had a significant impact on American style for years. And fun fact; most of the non-costume clothes he wore in films were his own. Do you have any of Dad's memorabilia from that era?
@@YouzTube99: Yes, many letters and photos. Dad also knew their mother and visited her. My older sister had all of that stuff until she died, and now her son, also retired, has it all. Some of the personal letters were a bit racy. Dad loved London, and used to fly to Paris for fun (small, dangerous planes then).
The reviews of the Astaires' London openings of Broadway shows in the Roaring Twenties were an artiste's fantasy come true. The West End was getting its first big taste of jazz, tap, wisecracks and devouring it. Critics did not just applaud Adele, they foamed at the mouth and groveled. Within weeks the pair conquered high society from the Prince of Wales down. Yet the forever insecure Fred, whom Adele called 'Moaning Minnie', had turned to the British journalist Beverley Nichols just before publicity pictures were being taken for their West End debut and said: 'I wonder if London will like us... just a little bit?'
It's commendable and refreshing to know that Adele chose to be married and live her life away from fame and glamour that Hollywood Land undoubtedly would have given her. Fred who was quite a shy person chose to continually improve his seemingly inhuman dance skills and the rest as they say is history. How fortunate we are for his choice to continue his career and not to give up dancing after his sister went her own direction.
The funny thing is, Adele wasn't shy like Fred at all - she was the far bolder one of the pair, apparently she swore like a sailor and had a bawdy sense of humour, often saying things that made Fred blush! And there may be footage of her somewhere; apparently after Fred became a film star, she did a screen test and considered a similar career. Afterwards she decided that the test was terrible and wouldn't let it see the light of day. I think she was too intimidated by Fred's reputation; though she was supposedly the more talented one, he was always the more driven and technically adept dancer, a hard act to follow. Perhaps she was just content to leave that phase of her life behind; she had a life after dance but she still often socialized with Fred's movie star friends, so she had the best of both worlds.
@@fionatsang9353 After Adele's miscarriages left her unable to bear children, she considered starring in a British picture, 'Break the News', to be directed by Rene Clair. She would have been teamed with Jack Buchanan, an old friend who was often called Britain's answer to Fred. But she concluded she was too old to learn screen technique. She had always been lazy about rehearsing. Instead Delly coped with an alcoholic husband, worked hard for the war effort, had a happy second marriage after Frederick's death and made herself much loved in Ireland as the chatelaine of Lismore. She was always in close touch with Fred and would advise him on his dancing. PS: Adele did three days of filming for 'Break the News' but no footage has been found.
@@esmeephillips5888 that's good to know (about the happy second marriage, not the miscarriages and alcoholic husband part). I knew the gist of what happened to her but not that much detail; I have a book on both Astaires I've been meaning to read, looking forward to finding out more about her. If Fred's estimation of her is anything to go by, she was a fascinating character!
My mother saw them dance together on Broadway. She commented there was no equel to Adele as Fred's dancing partner. Oh how I wish I could have seen them dance together. Why isn't there even one little snippet of film of them dancing?
While Adele has no movies; she was well known to me, my father and my grandfather (in their generations) ..does no-one remember the song 'i'd rather charleston'? If not, you should. A Fred and Adele classic :)
What a shame that there is no filmed record of them dancing together. Given that they spent every day of their formative years together- they had to be amazing. Like the Nicholas Brothers- dancers whose artistry, brilliance, and timing- were perfectly in sync. We know how good Fred was- and he always gave her the highest praise.
Actually, there IS a bit of NEWS FOOTAGE of Fred with Adele Astaire but currently not released to the public by the researcher who found the dusty archive **frown**! Florenz Ziegfeld shouts for his dancers. Fred & Adele Astaire trot out along with Marilyn Miller. He then says, "I mean my other dancers, not my $10,00 a week dancers!" I understand Fred does a little spin with Adele & they all three dance off the stage. BTW, thanks for posting this BBC Tea Time clip. It's brilliant!
Not sure if it was a related outtake (or the same) clip but I heard (years ago), that a PBS doc about the life and career of George Gershwin, featured a brief clip of Fred and Adele at the rehearsal of a George Gershwin musical. Gershwin himself was at the piano. The clip lasted mere seconds. Fred and Adele were not in the show, but had just stopped by to hang out and were playing around when the camera caught their spontaneous dance routine. I believe the documentary stated it was the only known film of the two of them together. Therefore, I figure it was the same clip/film? Otherwise, there would be two clips :)
It's very nice to have tributes like this wonderful one! A pity Adele isn't remembered. She was, in Fred's words, "the real dancer in the family". But she chose her way, and Fred, in my opinion, is one of the best, most elegant, charming, accomplished dancers of all times! He was such a delight on the dance floor! Once he said: "I make Love by dancing!"
As a huge Adele Astaire fan, it's a tragedy that there is no footage of her dancing. She was a fascinating person in her own right, apart from being Fred's sister.
Wow. This sounds so much like Fred's movie titled "Royal Wedding" where Fred and Jane Powell were siblings who danced but broke their act because they found someone to marry and they had to take their new responsibilities. Tom's(Fred) sister Ellen(Jane) also married an English lord. The only difference in real life is that Fred married much later and continued his dancing career after his sister stopped dancing. Now, I wonder what he thought of that movie's plot. He must've remembered Adele in Ellen.
Ginger Roger's was...in my opinion... just what Fred needed image-wise to start his new movie career in Hollywood (although from what I've read he didn't want to be part of another team) However...he was very lucky to have Ginger as part of his early movie career.. Not only was she beautiful and talented...but as Katherine Hepburn once said 'She gave him sex-appeal...and he gave her a more sophisticated image (class...which I think Ginger always had anyway!) Although Fred had originally balked at being part of another team...Hermes Pan in his book said when Ginger told RKO Execs in 1939 after 'The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle' that she wanted to pursue future non-musical films...Fred was very upset. In later years Fred said that they were very lucky to have had Ginger and that she really 'sold' their films.
Fred would have failed in Hollywood without Ginger. His first movie, with Joan Crawford, flopped. Ginger gave him the second chance, and made him look GOOD. She made it look like dancing with Fred was the best thing ever (and it likely was). Without her, he would have had a much tougher road to stardom. His talent would have got him there eventually, most likely, but Ginger made him into a leading man. Fred was always generous in crediting Ginger with a lot of their success. The idea that "they didn't get along" is studio propaganda, because the opposite is more likely to be true. They were friends their whole lives and are buried not far apart from one another.
@@lanecountybigfooters5716 Studying box office receipts, it is doubtful that the total of Astaire's film musicals was a profit at all. If he didn't have a star of the first rank above the title, his movies invariably lost money. A LOT of money. Ginger carried Fred at the box office and was by far the greatest star that RKO ever had.
She was more talented all around. But she got married. As they say, it's a pity there's no footage of her that exists. I highly recommend this excellent book on them - "The Astaires: Fred & Adele" by Kathleen Riley
I don’t see how anyone could be better than Fred Astaire, although I am sure his sister was also talented. There were many great female dancers during that era.
Though I would love to have seen her dance, I am pleased she found love, happiness, and fulfillment. Everything I have dug up appears to point to a happy life for her.
Yes and no. She was no quitter and made her own happiness. Married into minor royalty, she lost four babies - one still birth, twins who died shortly after birth, then a late second trimester miscarriage, too, and her first husband drank himself to death. They lived in the fabulous Lismore Castle in Ireland. After marrying her second husband, a decorated military hero, they moved to the US, where they happily lived in Arizona the rest of her life. Quite the fascinating life for a fascinating person. Her neice, Ava (Fred's daughter) loved Ireland so much that she moved there, too!
It's hard to speculate about what would have happened if Adele had not quit the stage. But an insight might have come from Claire Luce, who was Fred's London dance partner in "The Gay Divorce", just after she left. Luce declared to him: "You know Fred, I'm not your sister!". Fred's inventive, novelty choreography with Adele, by all accounts, was intense, clever, witty, humorous, imaginative, light, and fun...but failed to bring to his art, the dramatic power of human sexuallity. For this, Fred needed a Ginger. I suspect that Adele would not have worked out. Hence, perhaps it may be said, that Astaire's timeless later work was assisted by fate.
Perhaps "gravitas" is the better word, for what Fred's work with Adele lacked...and what his work with Rogers attained. But Adele was first, and she both inspired and shaped Fred's choreographic creativity and perfectionism, which he employed all his career, and which not only Ginger, but all his partners benefited from. Without Adele there would have been a diminished Fred, but likely the same would have been said, if she had not quit. Such fate, for Fred, meant new creative directions.
followthefleet1 I'm more optimistic than you are about how Fred and Adele could have worked artistically as a screen team ... BUT, I also wonder whether Adele would have liked working in films. By all accounts, she thrived on the energy of live performance, and one of her greatest strengths was her rapport with an audience. Chasing the perfect take, nailing it, and then preserving it suited Fred's working style down to the ground, but Adele might have found it wearing and draining. I have trouble picturing her doing forty-seven takes of anything. Had they stuck together as a partnership, perhaps they would have gone back to the stage, at least periodically.
And conversely, Ginger was perfect for Fred in beginning a film career, because she was willing to work hard; was tough minded; and consistently put up with the need for practice and multi-takes, as just part of her job. It's hard to imagine Adele in this new role.
Greetings ✨from Florida 🐬 Thank You 🙏 4/ Sharing 💕 this Gem 💎 I, recently watched his ✨interview on Sir Michael Parkinson’s ✨Show, and it was Great 👍 Informative, amusing and sorely missed ❤ I, like how he called his ✨ Sister …Dellie ❤
Let us remember this. They were siblings who could "echo" one another for that reason. She was perhaps unique to the other partners of his for that reason, which is not to say that his subsequent partners were not fine dancers. It's interesting that Adele leaves not footage of her in that same sense that a colored star named Florence Mills was also popular on Broadway but, like Astaire, left no known recordings of her. Mills was the godmother of Holiday, Horne, and Waters. And that's saying a lot because legend has it that Waters could be something of a witch sometimes.
Just yesterday,I was suddenly called by a man who claims to have the ONLY footage on record of Fred and Adele. I was shocked and excited. This fellow lives near to me, has a huge private collection of broadway footage, accumulated over a lifetime, knew my parent. My father, for his part, was a teenager who was awed by seeing Fred and Adele performing in Manhattan somewhere, very close to that part of NYC where he grew up dreaming of being a dancer. I will review this Astaire tape mucho pronto.
I read that Adele’s husband was an alcoholic who drank himself into an early grave. Fred begged her to come back to dancing but she wouldn’t. Supposedly Fred chose Barrie Chase as his dance partner because she reminded her of Adele.
What an interesting story. I've been to Chatsworth many times but never realised the connection to the Astaire family. I hope that Adele was happy. It would have been a very different lifestyle to the one which she'd known in her younger days.
I don't think Adele can have been particularly happy. Her three children with Cavendish, a girl and twin boys, died soon after birth. The year after their twins died, Cavendish died at age 38 of long-term acute alcoholism.
Saying 1000 times is equal to one time seeing How true this proverb of China is ! His dance indeed is a feast to the eyes Even Jackson said he followed this genius He was an active person on the stage Just like a little boy who is ever joyful After seeing him perform on stage I love to equal him with Michael Jackson. mvvenkataraman
Exactly!! It was a shuffle-off-to-Buffalo type of thing that only lasted about 10 seconds, from an Astaire documentary from 1980 called "Fred Astaire: Puttin' on his Top Hat." And, of course, you can't find the thing anywhere, now!!
For some reason young Fred Astaire's smile at 1:14 reminds me of A young Harold Nicolas in the Lucky Number routine. Similar hair-style too. A dancer's smile?
Lots of comments about the lack of video of Adele and Fred dancing together. Here is the only snippet available -- and Adele can barely be seen: czcams.com/video/-KMuKXP7-sM/video.html
I've seen the 10-second footage of Fred and Adele Astaire, and Marilyn Miller. It's all too short. Ziegfeld shoos them all off, and Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough come on (again, briefly). Was this on a Fred Astaire documentary, or a Gershwin one? I have a VHS tape of both somewhere, but don't remember which one has it. The Astaires made a screen test in 1928, I've read, but it's nowhere to be found. Now, that would be a real treasure. I suppose we can only dream of it.
would you watch the VHS tapes again to see wich has the 10 seconds on it and maybe upload it or something? I sooo want to see adele dance... even for a few seconds :/ or if you find the screen test...
TheCatMurgatroyd The screen test is lost to history, I think. The 10-second footage is less so, but I have it only on VHS, whether it be a PBS Fred Astaire documentary or a BBC show on Gershwin. That presents a problem with uploading (I don't have a video camera and can't shoot the TV screen). I believe the clip was the BBC show but can't guarantee this. In which case, it would be "George Gershwin Remembered" (available on DVD). I don't blame you at all for wanting to see Adele dancing, but this really was a brief showing that left me wanting more. Marilyn Miller and the Astaires dance on right to left, linked arm in arm, doing the same steps. They are shooed off the stage quickly, and they retreat in the opposite direction, doing the dance step and again arm in arm. The shot is a high one, apparently from the balcony. Let me poke around and see if I can't research this a bit. No promises! What I search for has a way of retreating in the opposite direction.
TheCatMurgatroyd More information from Kathleen Riley's fine book, "The Astaires: Fred and Adele." The brief clip with Adele dates from 1930 ("Backstage on Broadway"). The footage was shot from the side of the stage. Marilyn Miller partially obscured the Astaires. In what Riley called "an exceedingly meager glimpse," the dancers came on to a piano accompaniment, Ziegfeld told them to go ("I don't mean my $10,000-a-week dancers"), and after a very brief pause, they exited the way they came in. Riley said the "few tantalizing seconds" were shown on the PBS documentary "Fred Astaire: Puttin' On His Top Hat." I was incorrect in guessing the BBC-issued Gershwin tape and in mentioning Clark and McCullough (who were on another clip). Another book of mine said Adele's dancing was "never adequately filmed," and Riley wrote that no film record remains from which her work could really be judged. The PBS show might be on DVD, but I didn't see it on eBay at least (haven't tried Amazon). As I said, I can't upload VHS tape myself.
I doubt that Adele held her head far back in that ridiculous manner that they show in the reenactment clip. She was NOT a ballroom dancer. It is incredibly sad that there are no film clips of her dancing. I'm sure she was incredible.
denying us the privilege of seeing Adele Astaire on the dance floor is none other than LOVE, Love this is why i don't like you let alone Love you. jk How can i imagine someone being better than Fred, i so wish there was some footage of her dancing. If your the Lady of the Manor married to Lord Charles Cavendish living at Chatsworth House wouldn't you be throwing lavish parties and whatnot, that means the Ballroom had to have been the place where she would of gotten her groove on so did they not have any photographs or even video footage?
Well, I suspect they really couldn't have teamed the brother and sister as romantic partnets. So Fred would still have needed Ginger Rogers to become a star. AndAdele would would have needed to find a partner as well I suspect.
poor Fred . dancer passed 34 legs are ripped up . God that bad work pass that age .sis was smart and out did him in life . can't say Fred get a f grade in life lol . he had a way harder life .he rank himself at # 5 best he seen . best woman and dancer to me was Eleanor Powell . born to dance ,film . far and away no human can come near her in that . people can only copy bits of her , and there were called stars , Fred rank her 1#. woman are not strong , when youth gos the power is not there to dance . Fred must of had great power to last so long .so he maybe the best dancer in that .happy for his sis
It's a pity theres no footish of Adele with Fred dancing .I would love to have seen them dance together especially being said Adele was the better dancer then Fred.that would have been interesting. Rest in peace to both of them .Amen .🕊🕊🦋🦋🙏🙏🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹💖💖💫💫
Asele did NOT want to dance on films, Adele NEVER would have put up with dancing in studios for hours and hours with blood in her shoes and still have a smile on her face and made it look easdy like Ginger Rogers did. Ginger had great stamina, and drive and gave her ALL in those dances, even to the point of never having chiildren for her career...her ambition was higher and stronger than Adeles..
So untrue. The very things which make a man a star make a woman a failure. Ingenuity, spontaneous, surprise etc. All negative for a woman. As a matrer of fact, Eleanor Powell was the big MGM dance star before Fred was signed by MGM. Shortly she was put out to pasture and Fred assumed that fabulous dressing room which contained the rehearsal room and dance stage. Astaire actually caused his sister Adele to quit. He admits it on a chat show. She was late to a performance, had been galivanting with friends. Fred whacked her across the face and told her never ever to do that again!
PS...I think the time had come anyway for Fred and Adele to go their separate ways...they were well into their 30's and a brother/sister dancing act probably wouldn't have appealed to Hollywood Producers.
Adele is supposed to have said "my gosh, I had no idea how sexy my little brother could be!" (or words along those lines. I'm sure you can find the exact quote somewhere on the lazy man's research tool, Wikip....oh hell, too bored to finish typing)
I would have liked to see them dance together but let's face it, they look a little incestuous in the photos. Part of Fred's charm as a dancer was that he was romantic and flirty while he danced with Ginger, Judy, Cyd etc. You shouldn't have that with a sibling! Adele getting married is probably what helped Fred achieve great success.
Adele made a horrible mistake. Cavendish was a terrible drunkard and died of alcoholism at age 38 (1944). All three of her children in the marriage died as infants. If she remarried, which she did, the will stipulated that the castle would go to a nephew of Cavendish. Adele moved back to the States and died in Arizona (1981). The British show here is not telling the whole story.
Did you really cut out the part about how she found fulfilment as a nurse during WWII and remarried in 1947 and got three step children she was fond of? You're not exactly telling the entire story either.
I doubt anyone in the world could have told Adele Astaire what to do! She was a firecracker. Probably why she and Ginger got along fabulously but with Phyllis not so much :)
Love ruins everything for young women. You effing forget about everything when you fall in love. I ruined all my early promising career as an actress (not a dancer, certainly) or a comedienne with my dormmate at SFSU when we both met some guys who we wound up splitting up with. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? (shrugs)
Yes, it seems that many women will give up their hard earned career for marriage...but yet men rarely give up anything when they marry. I just wonder if Adele thought it was worth giving up her career to live in a castle. After living the exciting challenging life of the stage and then to suddenly give it all up to live in a rather isolated castle. Was she bored out of her mind? content? No one will really ever know.
I don't think it's a good thing, if it means women don't get to express their creativity. The social pressure is always there - to forgo all artistic/business/outside life for domesticity. Huh, no thanks.
That's really a misstep that there's no known footage of Adele Astaire. That would indeed be a treat to see the siblings together.
A lot of the "She's the better dancer" reviews are from early in their career together and make for a good story. In the later stage, Fred's discipline and hard work began to pay off as his ability was noted by audiences and critics. By the time she retired, he was generally considered the better dancer. Heywood Broun noted this as early as 1918. Modest Fred, who had a terminal case of the 'never good enoughs' perpetuated the "She was the better dancer" fiction throughout his life.
However, it's clear that Adele, in addition to being a top-notch dancer, had that rare 'IT' quality that grabs audiences and excites adoration.
But I join the chorus who lament the lack of ANY film of what the most celebrated performers of their time. We have vids of amateurs dancing throughout that period but only stills of Delly and Fred. I suspect some film was made of them but lost to history. Ah well . . .
As a youngster (20-21) in NYC in 1923-4, my dad became a friend of the Astaires
and shared an apartment with them. He and Fred were the same size and shared
clothes. When they were going to London, they asked Dad if he would like to come, and he shared the apartment on Old ark Lane with them for a year. After
that he started school at UVa and got a PhD in English in 1934 (my birthday).
@@hipocampelofantocame That's wonderful! From what I've read, Adele and Fred cherished their friends but asking him to move to London with them indicates they-all must have been very close.
And sharing clothes with Fred must have been a real treat because the Duke of Windsor, who was considered one of the best dressed men in the world, took Fred under his wing and taught him how to dress. When Fred returned to the U.S., he brought that sensibility with him and was considered one of the best dressed men in the U.S. and had a significant impact on American style for years. And fun fact; most of the non-costume clothes he wore in films were his own.
Do you have any of Dad's memorabilia from that era?
@@YouzTube99: Yes, many letters and photos.
Dad also knew their mother and visited her.
My older sister had all of that stuff until she
died, and now her son, also retired, has it all. Some of the personal letters were a bit racy.
Dad loved London, and used to fly to Paris
for fun (small, dangerous planes then).
The reviews of the Astaires' London openings of Broadway shows in the Roaring Twenties were an artiste's fantasy come true. The West End was getting its first big taste of jazz, tap, wisecracks and devouring it. Critics did not just applaud Adele, they foamed at the mouth and groveled. Within weeks the pair conquered high society from the Prince of Wales down.
Yet the forever insecure Fred, whom Adele called 'Moaning Minnie', had turned to the British journalist Beverley Nichols just before publicity pictures were being taken for their West End debut and said: 'I wonder if London will like us... just a little bit?'
It's commendable and refreshing to know that Adele chose to be married and live her life away from fame and glamour that Hollywood Land undoubtedly would have given her. Fred who was quite a shy person chose to continually improve his seemingly inhuman dance skills and the rest as they say is history. How fortunate we are for his choice to continue his career and not to give up dancing after his sister went her own direction.
The funny thing is, Adele wasn't shy like Fred at all - she was the far bolder one of the pair, apparently she swore like a sailor and had a bawdy sense of humour, often saying things that made Fred blush! And there may be footage of her somewhere; apparently after Fred became a film star, she did a screen test and considered a similar career. Afterwards she decided that the test was terrible and wouldn't let it see the light of day. I think she was too intimidated by Fred's reputation; though she was supposedly the more talented one, he was always the more driven and technically adept dancer, a hard act to follow. Perhaps she was just content to leave that phase of her life behind; she had a life after dance but she still often socialized with Fred's movie star friends, so she had the best of both worlds.
@@fionatsang9353 After Adele's miscarriages left her unable to bear children, she considered starring in a British picture, 'Break the News', to be directed by Rene Clair. She would have been teamed with Jack Buchanan, an old friend who was often called Britain's answer to Fred. But she concluded she was too old to learn screen technique. She had always been lazy about rehearsing.
Instead Delly coped with an alcoholic husband, worked hard for the war effort, had a happy second marriage after Frederick's death and made herself much loved in Ireland as the chatelaine of Lismore. She was always in close touch with Fred and would advise him on his dancing.
PS: Adele did three days of filming for 'Break the News' but no footage has been found.
@@esmeephillips5888 that's good to know (about the happy second marriage, not the miscarriages and alcoholic husband part). I knew the gist of what happened to her but not that much detail; I have a book on both Astaires I've been meaning to read, looking forward to finding out more about her. If Fred's estimation of her is anything to go by, she was a fascinating character!
Not Frederick, Charlie, aka Lord Charles Cavendish.
My mother saw them dance together on Broadway. She commented there was no equel to Adele as Fred's dancing partner. Oh how I wish I could have seen them dance together. Why isn't there even one little snippet of film of them dancing?
I love stories like this.
While Adele has no movies; she was well known to me, my father and my grandfather (in their generations) ..does no-one remember the song 'i'd rather charleston'? If not, you should. A Fred and Adele classic :)
Moodymongul, do you have any reminscences that you could share?
What a shame that there is no filmed record of them dancing together. Given that they spent every day of their formative years together- they had to be amazing. Like the Nicholas Brothers- dancers whose artistry, brilliance, and timing- were perfectly in sync. We know how good Fred was- and he always gave her the highest praise.
There is a brief newsreel clip of them dancing together in 1930!
@@m.j.c.6969 can you insert a link to that clip please?
@@ashdallis6701 it's on CZcams now. Look up "Fred onstage 1930"
Actually, there IS a bit of NEWS FOOTAGE of Fred with Adele Astaire but currently not released to the public by the researcher who found the dusty archive **frown**! Florenz Ziegfeld shouts for his dancers. Fred & Adele Astaire trot out along with Marilyn Miller. He then says, "I mean my other dancers, not my $10,00 a week dancers!" I understand Fred does a little spin with Adele & they all three dance off the stage.
BTW, thanks for posting this BBC Tea Time clip. It's brilliant!
I'd give ANYTHING to see that footage! Has it been released publicly yet?
@@Anjuli50 Same!
Not sure if it was a related outtake (or the same) clip but I heard (years ago), that a PBS doc about the life and career of George Gershwin, featured a brief clip of Fred and Adele at the rehearsal of a George Gershwin musical.
Gershwin himself was at the piano. The clip lasted mere seconds. Fred and Adele were not in the show, but had just stopped by to hang out and were playing around when the camera caught their spontaneous dance routine. I believe the documentary stated it was the only known film of the two of them together.
Therefore, I figure it was the same clip/film? Otherwise, there would be two clips :)
I've seen that footage and Adele is largely hidden by Fred and Marilyn. As they dance off in step, someone shouts : "Wrong foot, Adele!" :))
It's very nice to have tributes like this wonderful one! A pity Adele isn't remembered. She was, in Fred's words, "the real dancer in the family". But she chose her way, and Fred, in my opinion, is one of the best, most elegant, charming, accomplished dancers of all times! He was such a delight on the dance floor! Once he said: "I make Love by dancing!"
"Can't sing," yet so many composers of that era wrote songs specifically for him. They knew he could deliver. He is one of my very favorite singers.
As a huge Adele Astaire fan, it's a tragedy that there is no footage of her dancing. She was a fascinating person in her own right, apart from being Fred's sister.
I remember watching them on TV as a little kid, and loving them.
Wow. This sounds so much like Fred's movie titled "Royal Wedding" where Fred and Jane Powell were siblings who danced but broke their act because they found someone to marry and they had to take their new responsibilities. Tom's(Fred) sister Ellen(Jane) also married an English lord. The only difference in real life is that Fred married much later and continued his dancing career after his sister stopped dancing. Now, I wonder what he thought of that movie's plot. He must've remembered Adele in Ellen.
Ginger Roger's was...in my opinion... just what Fred needed image-wise to start his new movie career in Hollywood (although from what I've read he didn't want to be part of another team) However...he was very lucky to have Ginger as part of his early movie career..
Not only was she beautiful and talented...but as Katherine Hepburn once said 'She gave him sex-appeal...and he gave her a more sophisticated image (class...which I think Ginger always had anyway!)
Although Fred had originally balked at being part of another team...Hermes Pan in his book said when Ginger told RKO Execs in 1939
after 'The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle' that she wanted to pursue future non-musical films...Fred was
very upset.
In later years Fred said that they were very lucky to have had Ginger
and that she really 'sold' their films.
Fred would have failed in Hollywood without Ginger. His first movie, with Joan Crawford, flopped. Ginger gave him the second chance, and made him look GOOD. She made it look like dancing with Fred was the best thing ever (and it likely was). Without her, he would have had a much tougher road to stardom. His talent would have got him there eventually, most likely, but Ginger made him into a leading man. Fred was always generous in crediting Ginger with a lot of their success. The idea that "they didn't get along" is studio propaganda, because the opposite is more likely to be true. They were friends their whole lives and are buried not far apart from one another.
@@lanecountybigfooters5716 Studying box office receipts, it is doubtful that the total of Astaire's film musicals was a profit at all. If he didn't have a star of the first rank above the title, his movies invariably lost money. A LOT of money.
Ginger carried Fred at the box office and was by far the greatest star that RKO ever had.
she didn't give up XD she retired when she got married, because she wanted to. She was extremely successful on broadway, she just never did movies.
She was more talented all around. But she got married. As they say, it's a pity there's no footage of her that exists.
I highly recommend this excellent book on them - "The Astaires: Fred & Adele" by Kathleen Riley
I don’t see how anyone could be better than Fred Astaire, although I am sure his sister was also talented. There were many great female dancers during that era.
Nice to know abit of Fred's history, I didn't know he had a sister lol
he is talented, he is awfuly adorable, funny and charismatic. If she was considered more of all that than him! whooof! it blows my mind!
Though I would love to have seen her dance, I am pleased she found love, happiness, and fulfillment. Everything I have dug up appears to point to a happy life for her.
Yes and no. She was no quitter and made her own happiness. Married into minor royalty, she lost four babies - one still birth, twins who died shortly after birth, then a late second trimester miscarriage, too, and her first husband drank himself to death. They lived in the fabulous Lismore Castle in Ireland. After marrying her second husband, a decorated military hero, they moved to the US, where they happily lived in Arizona the rest of her life. Quite the fascinating life for a fascinating person. Her neice, Ava (Fred's daughter) loved Ireland so much that she moved there, too!
But there are a few recordings of Fred and Adele singing with Gershwin at the piano available on CZcams, despite the lack of films.
I would have love to seen footage of Fred and Adele dancing .. Amazing negative comments about Fred first casting but then came Ginger Rogers
Ginger was FABULOUS!
Really fascinating. Thank you.
It's hard to speculate about what would have happened if Adele had not quit the stage. But an insight might have come from Claire Luce, who was Fred's London dance partner in "The Gay Divorce", just after she left. Luce declared to him: "You know Fred, I'm not your sister!". Fred's inventive, novelty choreography with Adele, by all accounts, was intense, clever, witty, humorous, imaginative, light, and fun...but failed to bring to his art, the dramatic power of human sexuallity. For this, Fred needed a Ginger. I suspect that Adele would not have worked out. Hence, perhaps it may be said, that Astaire's timeless later work was assisted by fate.
Perhaps "gravitas" is the better word, for what Fred's work with Adele lacked...and what his work with Rogers attained. But Adele was first, and she both inspired and shaped Fred's choreographic creativity and perfectionism, which he employed all his career, and which not only Ginger, but all his partners benefited from. Without Adele there would have been a diminished Fred, but likely the same would have been said, if she had not quit. Such fate, for Fred, meant new creative directions.
BTW...We also sadly have no film of Nijinsky.
followthefleet1 I'm more optimistic than you are about how Fred and Adele could have worked artistically as a screen team ... BUT, I also wonder whether Adele would have liked working in films. By all accounts, she thrived on the energy of live performance, and one of her greatest strengths was her rapport with an audience. Chasing the perfect take, nailing it, and then preserving it suited Fred's working style down to the ground, but Adele might have found it wearing and draining. I have trouble picturing her doing forty-seven takes of anything. Had they stuck together as a partnership, perhaps they would have gone back to the stage, at least periodically.
And conversely, Ginger was perfect for Fred in beginning a film career, because she was willing to work hard; was tough minded; and consistently put up with the need for practice and multi-takes, as just part of her job. It's hard to imagine Adele in this new role.
Nor a recording of the famous tenor Jean de Reszke, though there is a terrible clip purporting to be him.
Greetings ✨from Florida 🐬 Thank You 🙏 4/ Sharing 💕 this Gem 💎 I, recently watched his ✨interview on Sir Michael Parkinson’s ✨Show, and it was Great 👍 Informative, amusing and sorely missed ❤ I, like how he called his ✨ Sister …Dellie ❤
Thank you!
A style that cannot be duplicated
Let us remember this. They were siblings who could "echo" one another for that reason. She was perhaps unique to the other partners of his for that reason, which is not to say that his subsequent partners were not fine dancers. It's interesting that Adele leaves not footage of her in that same sense that a colored star named Florence Mills was also popular on Broadway but, like Astaire, left no known recordings of her. Mills was the godmother of Holiday, Horne, and Waters. And that's saying a lot because legend has it that Waters could be something of a witch sometimes.
Just yesterday,I was suddenly called by a man who claims to have the ONLY footage on record of Fred and Adele. I was shocked and excited. This fellow lives near to me, has a huge private collection of broadway footage, accumulated over a lifetime, knew my parent. My father, for his part, was a teenager who was awed by seeing Fred and Adele performing in Manhattan somewhere, very close to that part of NYC where he grew up dreaming of being a dancer. I will review this Astaire tape mucho pronto.
@Guy Veloz
And . . . ?
Mucho pronto must be up by now.
Just one movie, just one....or somebody who filmed them when they were together on Broadway....dreaming my life away but wouldn't it be grand?
I read that Adele’s husband was an alcoholic who drank himself into an early grave. Fred begged her to come back to dancing but she wouldn’t. Supposedly Fred chose Barrie Chase as his dance partner because she reminded her of Adele.
But she remarried and went on to have a very happy marriage by all accounts.
What an interesting story. I've been to Chatsworth many times but never realised the connection to the Astaire family. I hope that Adele was happy. It would have been a very different lifestyle to the one which she'd known in her younger days.
I don't think Adele can have been particularly happy. Her three children with Cavendish, a girl and twin boys, died soon after birth. The year after their twins died, Cavendish died at age 38 of long-term acute alcoholism.
DAMN !
Saying 1000 times is equal to one time seeing
How true this proverb of China is !
His dance indeed is a feast to the eyes
Even Jackson said he followed this genius
He was an active person on the stage
Just like a little boy who is ever joyful
After seeing him perform on stage
I love to equal him with Michael Jackson.
mvvenkataraman
Exactly!! It was a shuffle-off-to-Buffalo type of thing that only lasted about 10 seconds, from an Astaire documentary from 1980 called "Fred Astaire: Puttin' on his Top Hat." And, of course, you can't find the thing anywhere, now!!
But they were filmed from Paramount, apparently. So footage might turn up, who knows.
For some reason young Fred Astaire's smile at 1:14 reminds me of A young Harold Nicolas in the Lucky Number routine.
Similar hair-style too. A dancer's smile?
Lots of comments about the lack of video of Adele and Fred dancing together. Here is the only snippet available -- and Adele can barely be seen:
czcams.com/video/-KMuKXP7-sM/video.html
BBC tea time live magazine programme featuring topical stories and big name studio guests.
Well it is not too hard to find recordings of Adele Astaire's singing. Funny Face, for example
I've seen the 10-second footage of Fred and Adele Astaire, and Marilyn Miller. It's all too short. Ziegfeld shoos them all off, and Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough come on (again, briefly). Was this on a Fred Astaire documentary, or a Gershwin one? I have a VHS tape of both somewhere, but don't remember which one has it. The Astaires made a screen test in 1928, I've read, but it's nowhere to be found. Now, that would be a real treasure. I suppose we can only dream of it.
would you watch the VHS tapes again to see wich has the 10 seconds on it and maybe upload it or something?
I sooo want to see adele dance... even for a few seconds :/
or if you find the screen test...
TheCatMurgatroyd
The screen test is lost to history, I think.
The 10-second footage is less so, but I have it only on VHS, whether it be a PBS Fred Astaire documentary or a BBC show on Gershwin. That presents a problem with uploading (I don't have a video camera and can't shoot the TV screen). I believe the clip was the BBC show but can't guarantee this. In which case, it would be "George Gershwin Remembered" (available on DVD). I don't blame you at all for wanting to see Adele dancing, but this really was a brief showing that left me wanting more. Marilyn Miller and the Astaires dance on right to left, linked arm in arm, doing the same steps. They are shooed off the stage quickly, and they retreat in the opposite direction, doing the dance step and again arm in arm. The shot is a high one, apparently from the balcony.
Let me poke around and see if I can't research this a bit. No promises! What I search for has a way of retreating in the opposite direction.
***** oh okay... thanks anyway! I'll look too, maybe I find something...
Marvelous, unforgetable this duet, adele and fred!
TheCatMurgatroyd
More information from Kathleen Riley's fine book, "The Astaires: Fred and Adele." The brief clip with Adele dates from 1930 ("Backstage on Broadway"). The footage was shot from the side of the stage. Marilyn Miller partially obscured the Astaires. In what Riley called "an exceedingly meager glimpse," the dancers came on to a piano accompaniment, Ziegfeld told them to go ("I don't mean my $10,000-a-week dancers"), and after a very brief pause, they exited the way they came in. Riley said the "few tantalizing seconds" were shown on the PBS documentary "Fred Astaire: Puttin' On His Top Hat." I was incorrect in guessing the BBC-issued Gershwin tape and in mentioning Clark and McCullough (who were on another clip). Another book of mine said Adele's dancing was "never adequately filmed," and Riley wrote that no film record remains from which her work could really be judged. The PBS show might be on DVD, but I didn't see it on eBay at least (haven't tried Amazon). As I said, I can't upload VHS tape myself.
I doubt that Adele held her head far back in that ridiculous manner that they show in the reenactment clip. She was NOT a ballroom dancer. It is incredibly sad that there are no film clips of her dancing. I'm sure she was incredible.
Oooh. What is this show?
denying us the privilege of seeing Adele Astaire on the dance floor is none other than LOVE, Love this is why i don't like you let alone Love you. jk How can i imagine someone being better than Fred, i so wish there was some footage of her dancing. If your the Lady of the Manor married to Lord Charles Cavendish living at Chatsworth House wouldn't you be throwing lavish parties and whatnot, that means the Ballroom had to have been the place where she would of gotten her groove on so did they not have any photographs or even video footage?
Well, I suspect they really couldn't have teamed the brother and sister as romantic partnets. So Fred would still have needed Ginger Rogers to become a star. AndAdele would would have needed to find a partner as well I suspect.
poor Fred . dancer passed 34 legs are ripped up . God that bad work pass that age .sis was smart and out did him in life . can't say Fred get a f grade in life lol . he had a way harder life .he rank himself at # 5 best he seen . best woman and dancer to me was Eleanor Powell . born to dance ,film . far and away no human can come near her in that . people can only copy bits of her , and there were called stars , Fred rank her 1#. woman are not strong , when youth gos the power is not there to dance . Fred must of had great power to last so long .so he maybe the best dancer in that .happy for his sis
It's a pity theres no footish of Adele with Fred dancing .I would love to have seen them dance together especially being said Adele was the better dancer then Fred.that would have been interesting. Rest in peace to both of them .Amen .🕊🕊🦋🦋🙏🙏🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹💖💖💫💫
Loved Fred and later Gene Kelley
And the second half of tbe twentieth century as well.
Could a woman in her mid 30's make it in hollywood in the 30's?
Mae West was 42 when she made her first movie
PLEASE IF ANYONE FINDS A FOOTISH OF ADELE AND FRED ASTAIR DANCING SHOW US.AND NO LOOK ALIKES .THANK YOU.
Asele did NOT want to dance on films, Adele NEVER would have put up with dancing in studios for hours and hours with blood in her shoes and still have a smile on her face and made it look easdy like Ginger Rogers did. Ginger had great stamina, and drive and gave her ALL in those dances, even to the point of never having chiildren for her career...her ambition was higher and stronger than Adeles..
The only known film of Fred and Adele dancing for a few seconds (also with Marilyn Miller) and Flo Ziegfeld. czcams.com/video/-KMuKXP7-sM/video.html
Great dancer! Loved the movies, hated the plots!
So untrue. The very things which make a man a star make a woman a failure. Ingenuity, spontaneous, surprise etc. All negative for a woman. As a matrer of fact, Eleanor Powell was the big MGM dance star before Fred was signed by MGM. Shortly she was put out to pasture and Fred assumed that fabulous dressing room which contained the rehearsal room and dance stage. Astaire actually caused his sister Adele to quit. He admits it on a chat show. She was late to a performance, had been galivanting with friends. Fred whacked her across the face and told her never ever to do that again!
PS...I think the time had come anyway for Fred and Adele to go their separate ways...they were well into their 30's and a brother/sister dancing act probably wouldn't have appealed to Hollywood Producers.
Adele is supposed to have said "my gosh, I had no idea how sexy my little brother could be!" (or words along those lines. I'm sure you can find the exact quote somewhere on the lazy man's research tool, Wikip....oh hell, too bored to finish typing)
a true dancing legend
there are many recordings of adele and fred singing. heres one:
czcams.com/video/Ki-QKxhbtbs/video.html
I would have liked to see them dance together but let's face it, they look a little incestuous in the photos.
Part of Fred's charm as a dancer was that he was romantic and flirty while he danced with Ginger, Judy, Cyd etc. You shouldn't have that with a sibling!
Adele getting married is probably what helped Fred achieve great success.
Maybe she wanted to give up the dancer's life and have some square meals.
Adele made a horrible mistake. Cavendish was a terrible drunkard and died of alcoholism at age 38 (1944). All three of her children in the marriage died as infants. If she remarried, which she did, the will stipulated that the castle would go to a nephew of Cavendish. Adele moved back to the States and died in Arizona (1981). The British show here is not telling the whole story.
I doubt she considered her choices a horrible mistake. She lived her life as she liked and even this clip states sage said she had no regrets.
Did you really cut out the part about how she found fulfilment as a nurse during WWII and remarried in 1947 and got three step children she was fond of? You're not exactly telling the entire story either.
I doubt anyone in the world could have told Adele Astaire what to do! She was a firecracker. Probably why she and Ginger got along fabulously but with Phyllis not so much :)
Adele Astaire may have been a great dancer ,unfortunately Fred was prettier ..
There is a few seconds of them, not so much dancing as shuffling off stage.
Love ruins everything for young women. You effing forget about everything when you fall in love. I ruined all my early promising career as an actress (not a dancer, certainly) or a comedienne with my dormmate at SFSU when we both met some guys who we wound up splitting up with. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? (shrugs)
Yes, it seems that many women will give up their hard earned career for marriage...but yet men rarely give up anything when they marry. I just wonder if Adele thought it was worth giving up her career to live in a castle. After living the exciting challenging life of the stage and then to suddenly give it all up to live in a rather isolated castle. Was she bored out of her mind? content? No one will really ever know.
I don't think it's a good thing, if it means women don't get to express their creativity. The social pressure is always there - to forgo all artistic/business/outside life for domesticity. Huh, no thanks.
l
This may be so but I think she knew it was over. They were cute as kids but dancing like that wouldn't work as adults.....Frank
More charismatic yes, more talented no. She didn't like to practice.