Dear Harriet Walter,
A few things about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers:
-I just found the song "The Whichness of the Whatness" as performed by Fred and his sister Adele on Youtube and it is basically dripping with awesome. The "aaaaaah!" noise kills me every time. I had no idea Adele's voice was so scary-high, but I got used to it. She was probably mostly affecting it anyway. Fashions and whatnot. Like Snow White. Ew. I wonder what she sounded like when she was speakin' like a normal person.
-If Fred and Adele were English, not siblings, and (as far as Adele goes) more reasonably pitched on the vocal front, they would be such a fantastic Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. For serious.
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| Look at them. Look at how fabulous they are. Look. |
-The slo-mo dream sequence dance that Fred and Ginger do after "Colorblind" in Carefree is the greatest thing ever.
-I've heard a few different versions of the fiasco that happened when Fred and Ginger were filming Top Hat and they had to do "Cheek to Cheek" and Ginger wanted to wear her freakish blue feathery thing as a gown and Fred was like "wtf no" (basically), but I have today found a favorite:
"Although Bernard Newman was in charge of dressing the stars, Rogers was very interested in dress design and make-up. For the 'Cheek to Cheek' dance routine, she wanted to use her own creation. Astaire (who normally approved his partner's gowns and suggested modifications, if necessary, during rehearsals) saw the dress for the first time on the day of the shoot, and was horrified at the way it shed, recalling later: 'It was like a chicken attacked by a coyote, I never saw so many feathers in my life.' Astaire lost his temper and yelled at Rogers, who burst into tears, where her mother 'came charging at him like a mother rhinoceros protecting her young.' An additional night's work by seamstresses fixed the problem. Later, Astaire presented Rogers with a gold feather for her charm bracelet, and serenaded her with a parody of Berlin's tune:
Feathers — I hate feathers
And I hate them so that I can hardly speak
And I never find the happiness I seek
With those chicken feathers dancing
Cheek to Cheek."
I have no idea if any of that is true, and I have serious doubts, but I don't even care. I would slaughter infants to be able to hear Fred sing that song.
-I don't normally care about clothes more than your average 18-year-old who's figuring out her tastes in apparel, and I don't even care about this particular dress that much, but the gown Ginger wears in "The Continental" (from The Gay Divorcee, which is lame except for the musical numbers) is definitely not black and white (if you compare it to Fred's clothes, you can tell) and I want to know what colors it was so badly I may go insane. I will be like a Lovecraft hero if Lovecraft heroes were fashionably-minded.
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| what is that. WHAT. |
-I want to own a tailored-to-fit-me replica of the "Colorblind" dress. And a flappy cloak. Possibly like the cape that goes with the "Never Gonna Dance" dress.
And then I want to stand on a breezy clifftop and be visually dramatic.
Okay, so this is way after you posted and very random, but here goes:
ReplyDelete1. Ginger's dress for the Continental was silver with teal accents. At least this is what I've read; if you watch you can see that her dress is iridescent, which gives the impression of silver.
2. Fred and Ginger are the greatest ever.
3. The feather dress incident is like legend now! I don't think it was nearly as bad as anyone makes it out to be, nor do I think Fred yelled at Ginger, and she didn't cry. But I do think she looks smashing in "Cheek to Cheek" which I also think is one of their best numbers, not for the dance (though it is gorgeous) but for the fact that the song expresses something I think was true for Fred: that in all the upheavals and chaos in the world, it really does come down to dancing with her, and he's exactly where he should be.
Oh, don't worry dear, I'm always happy to hear from people. Especially as it doesn't happen often. If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you, and if you blather obtusely at the abyss long enough it might say something back and so on.
ReplyDelete1: I will love you forever.
2: This is the whole and entire truth and also cannot be said enough.
3: Yeah, the version of the incident that I read and quoted smells of being both cooked up and overcooked. Not to mention I had to correct several errors in punctuation and grammar to make it presentable, which certainly doesn't help its case. I was mostly just charmed by the account of the parody-song, which probably isn't true either but is hilarious nonetheless.
Your interpretation of "Cheek to Cheek" is rad and inspiring and I am going to go find a Sharpie pen and write it on my forearm now. <3
Thank goodness someone has been able to say the colour of Ginger's dress she wore while dancing the continental. I'm happy with that. Thank you
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