Word: ginger
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...about 35 years, from the 1922 Broadway show "For Goodness' Sake" (his first Gershwin musical) to the 1957 "Funny Face" (his last original film musical, also with songs by George and Ira). He danced for 10 years on Broadway with his sister Adele, and in 10 Hollywood movies with Ginger Rogers. But in his signature tune from the show and film "The Band Wagon" he sang, "I'll go by way by myself" (available on the CD "Fred Astaire at M-G-M"). His achievement was solitary and unique - extensive and varied enough for the most esteemed practitioners of high...
...FRED BEFORE GINGER...
...Stan Laurel. Thus the famous pronouncement on Astaire's first screen test: "Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little." But oh, how he danced! That was evident from his second film, "Flying Down to Rio" (1933), when he was paired with a perky chorine named Ginger Rogers. Between then and 1939 Astaire and Rogers made eight films - and movie history...
...FRED AND GINGER...
...Hepburn who said of Astaire-Rogers: "He gives her class. She gives him sex." Truth to tell, Fred gave Ginger more class than she gave him sex. Rogers was a showbiz cutie, just 21 when they were first paired (he was 33), and radiating healthy self-awareness more than eroticism; as Arlene Croce wrote in her vibrantly evocative critique "The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book," Ginger was "like a clever puppy who knows it's being watched." And, except metaphorically, there was no sex in their films; they typically played lovers who never got to kiss (except...