Fascinating Rhythm - Eleanor Powell - Lady Be Good (MGM 1942) 

Bob....Great info!.. she also insisted early in her career that the Afro American piano players be shown in the movies.. quite a bound move for THAT era!! R.I.P. Ellie .....the greatest female tap dance of all time. IMHO.

Sou fã dessa atriz, talentosa demais. A rainha do sapateado.

She HATED the racism from her time period. She also become friends with some of the African-American entertainers of her time...Ethel Waters, Bill Robinson, etc.

I’m just discovering this very talented woman and humanitarian. My mom told me today was tap dancing day, and she hoped that Eleanor Powell was mentioned. I didn’t know her until I found this video!! Amazing dancer and to know she supported African American dancers in the business is a blessing too. I’m sure she was aware of the great contributions African Americans made to tap dancing, and Ms. Powell’s contributions are legendary too. Thanks for keeping her memory alive.

😉👍

Did Hermes dub Astaire’s taps? Or just others’?

I agree. Not Astaire's ideal partner but amazing.

@@jamessmithe5490 Even Astaire was intimidated by her & said he could not keep up no man could

I think the greatest dancer of all time!

and no cgi!

remember: without any computer and CGI crap

Great comment. In the age of cgi it’s good to be reminded of how much they worked back then to design, innovate, build train, and execute such lavish productions. I’m glad that they filmed the effort to produce such a feat!!! Eleanor is spectacular in the performance as well. Such a physical routine; especially the finale!

I half think she was way better than Astaire--- he needed a woman to complete his dancing-- Eleanor Powell needed only herself. Magnificient!

@@sherriefox8838 fwiw Fred Astaire once told Peter Ford, Eleanor's son, that his mother was better than him.

He had Ginger Rogers feet bloody and blistered in a film, can't remember which one, but he was a perfectionist and they were true performers and dedicated to their craft.

No she wanted the last take at 2

I don't know how I've never heard of her! She's insanely good! It's ridiculous! 😮😮😮😮 I'm amazed!!!!!

And the hardest work to take that to the highest level.

I agree 100% with all you say and concur.

Yes, interesting that you say that. She actually had a long time scar from indentations of top hats worn tightly during filming! The joys of being a star :)

and ginger Rogers

And fred Astaire from Wien/Erdberg/Vienna!!!!! Absolut High Class !!!!!!!!!😎

Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen, too!

Vera Ellen is amazing, one of my favorites, but she doesn't project sheer power like Eleanor Powell. Maybe Anne Miller is close. Her height and power and skill are crucial, because those qualities are saying essential things to women in the 1930s that they might not hear elsewhere. Thank you Eleanor!!!🦋🎵🎶🦋

Kelly wouldn’t dance with Ellie. She was too good. Hell he even had to ask the Nicholas bros to slow down.

No. She's the GOAT!

No she’s great

Imagine doing that over and over. Allegedly Berkeley had them working into the early morning hours and Eleanor's feet were literally bleeding, but (also allegedly) after she saw the finished film she thanked him.

I heard about Busby Berkeley and his perfectionism! It doesn't surprise me.

@@gregoryagogo Thanks for the info....Eleanor was also a perfectionist so I'm sure she understood.. all the great ones are!

Sort of? She did!

He said she was better than he was

Miller didn’t do her own choreography

She married Glenn Ford in the early 40s and gave up her career to be a wife and a mother. There's a documentary by their son on Netflix (I think it's Netflix, maybe HBO Max) in which he talks about growing up with famous parents. There's some great, but short, clips of color film taken of this number from behind the scenes. Fascinating!

@@TheJudyRoomVideos After she and Ford divorced, she went back on stage, from 1961-64, continuing her dancing. But she decided she was getting a little too old to keep it up the way she wanted (she was a perfectionist) and decided to retire for good.

Eléonore Powell était beaucoup plus tap dance que ginger, parceque plus rapide, donc elle arrivait à suivre Fred elle était unique et je n'en connais aucune Aujourd'hui capable d'en faire autant... point barre

Despite all today's technology (mostly computerized) they did amazing and creative things in the Golden Days of Hollywood. Like an answer to your question myself.

There is very, very brief behind-the-scenes color film footage of this dance number interspersed throughout the documentary “Peter Ford: A Little Prince,” available for rent on Amazon.com. Peter Ford was Eleanor Powell’s only child. The canes were mounted on two metal frames, which were pushed/rolled toward her face once she hit her final mark after she spun toward the camera.

@@partycentralsales thank u for the info!! i wish old hollywood had more behind the scenes footage. but they probably just didn’t wanna give up their secrets i suppose.

That's what MGM was all about. The best in EVERY craft working with the top stars.

i have so many questions 😭

i can see the men linking arms right as the camera zooms. that probably had to run up as soon as the camera passed them. i

It will cost you $1.99 on amazon to rent “Peter Ford: A Little Prince” to get a very brief behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the second part of this number, The footage is in color and shows that the camera was mounted on a boom above the dancers, at head level, and dollied back as she was flipped and then spun forward. Busby Berkeley is shown with a microphone, presumably shouting direction. The film clips of the number are interspersed throughout the entire 40-minute documentary. The tuxedo she is wearing was a light, powder blue. I sense, from your postings, an antipathy to Glenn Ford, so you might not want to indulge.

It's difficult to follow the drumsticks. First of all we're watching a digital copy of a film, two different types of visual mediums. The film was a frame by frame visual image done by chemistry on the film emulsion. The digital process copies the image with bits of 0's and 1's. it's copied into pixels. These old films are re-mastered then digitally photographed. While it "cleans" them up, it can do odd things with little details. If you play the dvd on the biggest tv you have, slow it down to the equivalent of frame by frame, you can see the drumstick in her left hand go up between the bass drum and the music stand about 2 ft. above the bandstand floor. The drumstick in her right hand does seem to de-materialize right in front of you. However, she throws it off at a lower angle across the black background of the bandstand. It first appears as a curved blur of three close fuzzy images just after leaving her hand. Then a split second later a little further out as one slightly curved blurred image against the black background. Where they both go after that is anyone's guess.

She threw them backwards

The concentration required is astounding.

Erm .... She was THE best ! Without question.

ron benoit. I read she only took 10 tap classes too. But she is still so good! I dont get it.

But from the time she was eight years old she studied ballet and gymnastics which formed her foundation.

While she didn't initially like tap of her era, when she learned it and integrated her own personal style to it, she ended up loving it! She thought of herself as a musician, a drummer, with her feet and loved tapping and sharing tap with others even when she was in her 60s.

Not one of the best. The best