BUT
NO ONE COULD DO IT
AS WELL AS YOU
During
the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals, female
stars sometimes got so used to rehearsing a
difficult dance number with their
choreographer that, when the time came to
memorialize the dance on celluloid, they
would put their sore foot down and insist
that the choreographer be the guy to dance
with them on screen.
We've
got four of those
"The-Star-Dances-with-the-Choreographer" dances to
show you -- just as soon as you've looked at
what we've got spotlighted from our website
today:
First
up, from 1958's "Damn Yankees,"" is "Who's
Got the Pain,"" danced by Gwen Verdon and
her choreographer husband, Bob Fosse.
Verdon
was repeating a role that had won her a Tony
Award on Broadway (with Fosse choreographing
that show, too.)
Judy
Garland first met choreographer Charles
Walters when he did the choreography for
1943's "Presenting Lily Mars."
So
comfortable was Garland with Walters, that
she insisted he dance with her in the
"Broadway Rhythm" number.
That was just the first of several times she
publicly performed with him.
Later that year, Walters choreographed and
partnered with Garland in "Girl
Crazy."
And in 1951 -- for Judy Garland's legendary
live performances at the Palace Theater in
New York -- she said she couldn't do "A
Couple of Swells" on opening night unless
Charles Walters did it with her.
Here's "Broadway Rhythm" from "Presenting
Lily Mars":
Hermes
Pan choreographed a lot of Betty Grable
movies at 20th Century-Fox.
In their first collaboration, "The
Kindergarten Conga" from 1941's "Moon Over
Miami," Grable made it clear to the
higher-ups that it was Hermes Pan who was
going to dance with her in the movie.
In
the mid-1940's, seasoned nightclub performer
Jack Cole (along with his troupe of dancers)
was Columbia Pictures' resident
choreographer.
The
first time he worked with Rita Hayworth was
in 1945's "Tonight & Every Night."
They were so sympatico that Rita chose him
to dance with her in the "What Does An
English Girl Think of a Yank" number.
Cole went on to choreograph Hayworth in
"Gilda,"" and he was the genius behind
virtually every musical number performed by
Marilyn Monroe during her film career.
But, that was later. Here are Rita
Hayworth and Jack Cole at the
beginning:
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