This is the Fred Astaire Memorial Page. I decided to make just a memorial page w/out the music one. I thought I should just leave the music site to a regular music thing.
But here is where I'd like most of the fans to be on, maybe send in artwork, poem, things like that. :-)
You may still add Mr. Astaire's music to your page since I of course would never delete the music site♥
Fred Astaire Memorial.
Dedicated to a man who was the epitome of class, modesty, dance, singing, acting, sweetness, perfectionism and most importantly a down to earth loving family man.
"I have no desire to prove anything by dancing. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. i just dance. I just put my feet in the air and move them around." -Fred Astaire
Early Life
Born Frederic Austerlitz Jr.
Frederick Austerlitz was born on May 10, 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska. Fred and Adele grew up dancing together in vaudeville, and were bonafide stars while still in their teens and twenties, with smash hits on the New York and London stages. When Adele left the theatre to marry in 1932, Fred went out on his own. He scored a major success in "The Gay Divorce" in New York and in London the following year.
Soon, however, Astaire agreed to test for films. One studio executive's report on this screen test has been quoted many times over the years, but it is still just too good to pass up here:
"Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances."
It is so amazing to see the impact Fred had made on so many people's lives. He helped dancing arise to a whole new level. He was the very few gentlemen who were left on this earth, and it's a shame to know he isn't with us anymore. However, that isn't true. He will always be in our hearts, and possibly with certain people who are horrible at thier tap dancing lessons(eh-em...like me for instance), and maybe he will help guide the help for us amature tap dancers spiritually. :)
Fred Astaire died in 1987 from pneumonia and was interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. So if I were you, I would go and see his grave! He is with his first wife(who I adore) Phyllis, his sister Adele and his parents. So you will get to see a whole line of Astaire's! I personally haven't gone yet but I have yet to go soon.
Adele Marie Austerlitz
Adele Astaire is mostly known as 'Fred Astaire's sister'. (To me, she was a completely different individual). Her real name was Adele Marie Austerlitz. Just like Fred, she changed her last name to Astaire. As later on, years later in vaudeville they became 'The Astaires'.
They both were born to Frederick Austerlitz who was Austrian and Joanna Gelius who was born in the US, but she had German decent. When Adele was just a mere five years old she had a successful vaudeville act with fred that developed into a celebrated adult stage career on Broadway and on the London stage. She was, in fact, the bigger star of the two during their time performing together, and was a special favourite of Britain's royalty. Ironic how Fred becomes a big star in the future to the world.
A funny fact I have learned about Adele was that she called fred "moaning minnie" due to his overly-perfectionism nature.
According to the memoirs of Richard McKenzie (husband of Fred's daughter, Ava), Adele, was playing Scrabble with fred when he noticed that she had started a word with the letters that began to spell a certain disgusting word. He protested at what appeared to be an emerging vulgarity, though Adele later told Ava, "I could have been spelling anything!" Adele was known to be a very outgoing, daring and she had a ribald personality. She was known to have a sailor's mouth in which at times Fred had to back her out of situations in which she spoke her mind to. She didn't often care about other people's emotions and spoke before her brain had the chance to think. Don't get me wrong, I love adele due to how she was and her outspoken 'woman can do what men can do' personality, she just wasn't emotionally aware like Fred was. He seemed to be the one all throught his life, by other peoples accounts, to be the one who was nurturing to people's emotions and sensative to them as well. He thought before he spoke, she didn't.
She passed away January 25, 1981 of a stroke in Phoenix Arizona. She is buried at the same cemetary Fred is buried at, next to him(I think she's next to him...), along with her mother and father.
Not sure what year but this was when she married Lord Cavendish in the early 30's, which made Fred to become on his own.
Fred's legs were insured for $1 million.
Phyllis Astaire
At a golf luncheon at the home of Mrs. Graham Fair Vanderbilt, he was introduced to Phyllis Potter, a fragile, gentle beauty who Astaire had noticed at the races at Belmont Park. This was the first chance he had to actually meet her and spend some time basking in her beauty and elegance. An added dollop of charm contributed to her appeal in the form of her inability to pronounce her "R's."
Later on When Fred asked Phyllis if he could call on her, she eventually invited him to her home to meet Peter. The couple's relationship blossomed and she came to see him in The Band Wagon, although accompanied by another (quite drunken) beau. Thereafter Astaire was determined to woo and win her and he began his courtship.
When The Band Wagon completed its New York run, it went on tour. Adele left the show in Chicago on March 5, 1932, for a lavish May 9th British wedding. When the musical revue finally closed on the road, Fred sailed to Europe. He stopped first to visit Adele and Charles in their 15th century Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland, before going to London, where Phyllis also conveniently happened to be at the time. He had received an offer from Dwight Wiman and Tom Weatherly to star in Gay Divorce on Broadway, a new Cole Porter show. However, with all of his energies on winning Phyllis' hand, he ignored the offer. When Phyllis finally accepted his marriage proposal, she said; "I think you should go back and investigate your future career. After all, if we are going to be married you'll have to work - won't you?"
In the year 1954 Phyllis complained of dizziness. X-rays revealed that Mrs. Astaire, a long time smoker, had lung cancer. Exploratory surgery was done on Good Friday, 1954, with friends David Niven and Hermes Pan waiting with Fred. After the initial surgery was completed, complications occurred and she went back for a second operation. She was eventually able to return home, but continued to receive radiation treatments five times a week.
Meanwhile, Fred reported to Fox for rehearsals on Daddy Long Legs. Roland Petit, a French choreographer whose first American film Hans Christian Andersen had been a success, was assigned to create the ballet sequences as Leslie Caron had been in his company and requested him. David Robel assisted Astaire on the non-classical dances.
In June, Phyllis returned to the hospital for another operation. She was allowed to come home, but never regained her strength. Astaire stopped attending rehearsals and stayed at her bedside. She slipped into a coma and on September 13, 1954, his beloved life-partner died.
Facing the future alone, the thought of returning to Twentieth-Century Fox seemed impossible to him. He tried to buy his way out of the contract, offering to pay for all of the production expenses so far. Astaire's intense sense of professionalism - and the memory that Phyllis had wanted him to make the film - made him report back for work. The first few weeks were difficult, with most of the time being spent on Leslie's ballets and requiring as little as possible from the grieving man. Caron remembered, "Fred used to sit down during a rehearsal and put his face in his towel and just cry". However, he continued with the film as it became one of his best named by critics. He still led on with his career, wonderfully and even though he lost his beloved and cherished wife, he still had his two children Fred Jr. and Ava. Whom he became more closer to after her death.
Personal Words out of the man himself.
"I have never had anything that I can remember in the business - and that includes all the movies and the stage shows and everything - that I didn't enjoy. I didn't like some of the small-time vaudeville, because we weren't going on and getting better. Aside from that, I didn't dislike anything."
On modern movies: "They tend to overdo the vulgarity. I'm not embarrassed by the language itself, but it's embarrassing to be listening to it, sitting next to perfect strangers."
"Of course, Ginger was able to accomplish sex through dance. We told more through our movements instead of the big clinch. We did it all in the dance."
"I had some ballet training but didn't like it. It was like a game to me."
"People think I was born in top hat and tails."
"The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any."
"It's nice that all the composers have said that nobody interprets a lyric like Fred Astaire. But when it comes to selling records I was never worth anything particularly except as a collector's item."
"Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually, she made things very fine for the both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success".
"I suppose I made it look easy, but gee whiz, did I work and worry."
"Dancing is a sweat job."
"I don't want to be the oldest performer in captivity... I don't want to look like a little old man dancing out there."
Some of his Dance Partners.
Rita Hayworth
Rita and Fred both had alot of chemistry and in my opinion, she was one of his best dance partners. She had class and was extremely beautiful. And her grace when they danced fit in perfectly with Fred's charm. They did two films together, You Were Never Lovlier and You'll Never Get Rich.
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was his most well known dance partner he danced with since they did 10 films together with countless dances. Flying Down to Rio(1933), The Gay Divorcee(1934), Roberta(1935), Top Hat(1935), Follow The Fleet(1936), Swing Time(1936), Shall We Dance(1937), Carefree(1938), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle(1939), after almost 9 to 10 years of not working together, they re-connected for the film The Barkleys Of Broadway(1949). The way they danced with eachother was naturally beautiful. Both of them lived two completely seperate lives privately yet were good friends.
Cyd Charisse
Cyd and Fred did two films together; The Bandwagon and Silk Stockings. Cyd was 5'9'' which I think was almost or actually was Fred's height so she mostly had to wear flats(as you see in the picture above) when she would walk next to him. Fred was very picky when it came to height. She was a very beautiful dancer and extremely gorgous. Very talented actress too.
Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly teamed up with Fred Astaire for a routine by George and Ira Gershwin called "The Babbitt and the Bromide". I once saw this performance, only once and I thought it was very funny. It was on YouTube, but unfortunatly, it was taken off. Gene has made a few comments about Fred, himself. :)
"There was no model for what I tried to do with dance...And the thing Fred Astaire and I used to bitch about was that critics didn't know how to categorize us. They called us tap dancers because that was considered the American style. But neither of us were basically tap dancers."
"If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I'm the Marlon Brando".
"Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat."
Fred worked with numerous other dance partners in other movies, and later on, I will add more.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed my lovely page dedicated to Fred Astaire. In the meantime I will get more information about him and post it here, but for now, the page is pretty much complete.♥
If you see how much of a perfectionist Mr. Daddy was with his dancing, that's how I am with this page. So please respect it♥ Thank you!
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Just a small little dedication♥♥♥
Truely will be missed.
4/4/79 - 1/22/08
