Frederick Austerlitz was born on May 10, 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska to Frederic E. Austerlitz, an Austrian immigrant and traveling salesman, and his wife Ann Geilus Austerlitz. His sister Adele, older by eighteen months, showed a talent for dancing at an early age, and although only four years old, young Fred accompanied his sister to ballet school. In 1904, Mrs. Austerlitz moved with the children to New York where they were enrolled in a performing arts school run by Ned Wayburn, one of the pioneers of modern tap dancing. The following year Fred and Adele made their vaudeville debut on a stage in New Jersey as a miniature bride and groom, and began touring on the Orpheum circuit in an act called "Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty." Though Fred sporadically attended public school in New Jersey, most of his schooling came on the road under his mother's tutelage.
With the advent of World War I, the Austerlitz's anglicized their name to "Astaire" and the teenage brother-sister hoofers began to make the new name famous. In 1917 the pair made their Broadway debut in a musical revue called "Over the Top," and although the show itself didn't fare well, the Astaires received very positive notices. Though they seldom had any lines, Fred and Adele danced their way through a number of musical revues until in 1922 they were cast in "For Goodness' Sake" with songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Although they had sixth billing, they stole the show.
Throughout the 1920s, the Astaires danced their way to stardom by way of such triumphs as "Funny Face," "Lady, Be Good!" and "The Band Wagon." However in 1932, Adele retired from show business to marry Lord Charles Cavendish, and Fred was left to fend for himself. Because his sister was usually regarded as the better dancer of the two, and the plots of most of their shows together accommodated the fact that they were siblings in real life, Fred was not regarded as a much of a romantic leading man. In 1932 however, he struck out on his own with a new partner, Claire Luce, starring in Cole Porter's comedy musical "The Gay Divorce" in which he introduced the song "Night and Day." "The Gay Divorce" would be Fred's last stage musical.
That same year, anxious to escape his reputation as Adele's brother, Fred made a screen test for RKO and was signed by studio head David O. Selznick. Because RKO had no projects ready for him, Fred made his film debut on loan-out to MGM in DANCING LADY (1933) with Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. He had one number. He was next cast as an accordion player in a musical love-triangle story called FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933). His female counterpart in the film was an up-and-coming RKO contract player named Ginger Rogers, and after their one dance number together stole the picture from the three stars, Fred and Ginger became the silver screen's most popular dancing duo. Astaire and Rogers made a total of nine musicals together at RKO between 1933 and 1939, and though Ginger made several other comedies and solo musicals between her films with Fred, Astaire made only one film without Rogers -- DAMSEL IN DISTRESS (1937) with Joan Fontaine. It was the only film of his career to lose money at the box-office. More than just a dancer in his films with Rogers, Astaire proved himself an accomplished choreographer.
After they decided to go their own ways, Fred made several other pictures and then announced his retirement from the entertainment industry. It was short-lived however, and he returned to star in EASTER PARADE and FUNNY FACE among others. Fred later received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for the film THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974).
Fred's final film performance came in 1981 and was entitled GHOST STORY. He passed away due to pneumonia in Los Angeles, California on June 22, 1987 at the age of 88.
Fred and his sister Adele
Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911. Her family moved to Texas when she was a toddler because her father had found employment there. It wasn't long before Ginger's parents separated and she and her mother moved into a hotel. Her father, twice, kidnapped her, but both times she was returned to her mother. He received very little in visitation rights and Ginger only saw him sporadically thereafter. He died when she was 11 years old. She then moved with her mother to her grandparents in Kansas City, Missouri where Mrs. McMath managed to get Ginger in some advertising films. Now she was developing a taste for the cinema. Ginger's mother left her child in the care of her parents while she went in search of a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and later to New York City. Mrs. McMath found herself with an income good enough to where she could send for Ginger. Later, the two packed up and moved to Fort Worth, Texas where Ginger attended high school and appeared in the school productions, while her mother remarried. The theater became Ginger's passion. At the age of 14, she was also appearing in vaudeville acts which she did until she was 17. Now she had discovered true acting. She went to New York where she appeared in the Broadway production of "Top Speed." She did a superb job which began to encourage her to seek work in feature films. A screen test turned out well and she was off to the movies.
Her first film was in 1929 in A Night in a Dormitory (1930). It was a bit part, but it was a start. Later that year, Ginger appeared, briefly in two more films, A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929) and Campus Sweethearts (1929). The following year she began to get better parts in films such as Office Blues (1930) and The Tip-Off (1931). But the movie that enamored her to the public was Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). She did not have top billing but her beauty and voice was enough to have the public want more. One song she popularized in the film was the now famous, "We're in the Money". In 1934, she starred with Dick Powell in Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934). It was a well received film about the popularity of radio. Ginger's real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire and they were one of the best cinematic couples ever to hit the silver screen. This is where she achieved real stardom. They were first paired in 1933's Flying Down to Rio (1933) and later in 1935's Roberta (1935) and Top Hat (1935). Ginger also appeared in some very good comedies such as Bachelor Mother (1939) and 5th Ave Girl (1939) both in 1939. Also that year she appeared with Astaire in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). The film made money but was not anywhere successful as they had hoped. After that studio executives at RKO wanted Ginger to strike out on her own. She made several dramatic pictures but it was 1940's Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940) that allowed her to shine. Playing a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks, she played the lead role well, so well in fact, that she won an Academy Award for her portrayal. Ginger followed that project with the delightful comedy, Tom Dick and Harry (1941) the following year. It's a story where she has to choose which of three men she wants to marry. Through the rest of the 1940's and early 1950's she continued to make movies but not near the caliber before World War II. After Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) in 1957, Ginger didn't appear on the silver screen for seven years. By 1965, she had appeared for the last time in Harlow (1965/II). Afterward, she appeared on Broadway and other stage plays traveling in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. On April 25, 1995, Ginger died of natural causes in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83.
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