The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

By D AVI D FLOU RNOY AIRE SECRETS ?p£m& UNEASY lies the head that wears a crown!" A moth-eaten saying, I grant you; yet it tells quickly the success-story which today has all Hollywood a-buzz. The story of Fred Astaire. If you are surprised, so was I. Not at the thought of his wearing a crown, for the world knows that his wing-footed rhythm in "The Gay Divorcee" established Fred as the screen's premier dancing star — a King of Terpsichore. But that his crown might lie uneasy on so debonair a head, I never dreamed. Until I talked to the man himself. While Fred Astaire was making all three of his pictures — "Dancing Lady," "Flying Down to Rio," and "The Gay Divorcee" — he was not merely "uneasy," I learned. He was probably the most worried star in Hollywood. And that's why he was so good! ' , Moreover, despite his sensational success, he is still worried. / And that's why he will continue to be good! | It doesn't make sense, you say? Then suppose we start at the beginning. That is where Fred and I started, in his new dressing-room at RKO-Radio the other day. MPRESSED by his screen nonchalance, I was all set to meet a carefree young blade without a worry; a Fortune's Favorite without a care. When Fred appeared, his slim, wiry, perfectly-conditioned dancer's body clad in a spotless suit and a smile lighting his warm brown eyes, he looked the part. Not especially handsome, not "stagey," but friendly and "regular." He was born in the breezy burg of Omaha, Nebraska, on the twentysixth of a bleak November, about thirty years ago; his real name, Frederick Austerlitz. This, in spite of the fact that many of his admirers seem to think he's an Englishman. He told how his mother had taken him and sister Adele, one year older, to New York when he was six. How he picked up his first desire to dance while watching Adele's dancing lessons. That he was born with a Godgiven genius for it, he'd be the last one in the world to admit, I'm sure. He laughed over his first public appearance. "It wasn't dancing at all," said Fred, "but frightfully heavy drama. You see, Adele was producing, for a New York school entertainment, no less imposing a classic than Rostand's 'Cyrano de Bergerac' She was playing the title role, schnozzola and all. And I, because I was little brother and she couldn't get another heroine at the last minute, had to pinch-hit for the 'fair Roxanne.' After that I stuck to dancing, believe me!" So far, so good. I saw no sign of Astaire worry or unease. But by coincidence I found that worry on the part of his mother, over family finances, started Freddy (then aged eight) on the road to fame. Realizing the potential worth of her children's dancing ability, Mrs. Austerlitz took them to a Broadway theatrical agent. He got them a booking outside New York. A short time later, they were Orpheum Circuit headliners at $200.00 per week. The pair left the stage for several years during the awkward adolescent period, then "came back" without difficulty and, with Fred only seventeen, were featured on Broadway in Ed Wynn's musical show, "Over the Top." A long string of hits followed, including "Funny Face," "Smiles," "Lady Be Good," and "Band Wagon." While with the last-named show in London, Fred played command performances for the King, chummed with nobility, and acquired a racing stable, but lost not a whit of his democratic modesty. Adele, for her part, got married. Leaving her happily retired from the stage as the wife of Charles, Lord Cavendish, near London, Fred deter (Please turn to page 46) 28 Fred was a success be-fore he danced with Ginger Rogers in "The Gay Divorcee," but that film made him a new kind of success. The New Movie Magazine, May, 1935