MISTER TAPTOES TELLS HIS STORY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29246, 2 July 1960, Page 3

MISTER TAPTOES TELLS HIS STORY

Steps In Time. By Fred Astaire. Heinemann. 327 pp. Index. Fred Astaire introduces himself in his autobiography with engaging frankness. “I have been known in the past as difficult interview copy. In other words, just-a'.dull assignment.” The trouble has always been that people ask. such curious questions. “How many miles do you dance in a picture?" or “Why have you never married one of your dancing partners?” It is small wonder if the subject of such searching inquiry becomes unco-operJtive. In fact, Mr Astaire’s prose assumes the appearance of free verse, such is the earnestness of his . response to this treatment. “I hate to disappoint people, but there’s nothing I can do about it. “I’m sure there is a big misunderstanding anyway, about what sort of a guy I am. “I’m convinced the general idea is that I’m a suave Joe who just dances from' here to there. “A grinning goof and kind of a sucker for anything. “Too light-footed and lightheaded to know what it’s all about.”

After all that, Mr Astaire settles down and makes it quite clear that even during the most lively moments of a career that has sometimes been hectic, he has been a Close and shrewd observer of the passing show. His story began in the MiddleWest, in the .city of Omaha. Mr. Astaire, senior, was an Austrian, devoted to the brewery business. He liked to remark, “There are two kinds of Austrians—musicians and rascals. I, of course, am a musician.” His son has something of the same approach to life, as “Steps in Time” soon shows. Fred seems to have had a normal childhood. He. sternly resisted his sister, Adele’s, efforts to interest him in paper dolls, and paid no attention to the dancing classes she assiduously followed. He liked railroads, and when his mother was taking Adele to begin her Career in New York, he went along as well, “for the ride,” he adds. “As we boarded the Pullman I remember announcing quite loudly, ‘I don’t care if anybody else goes to New York as long as I do’!” However, when he arrived, he was surprised’W find that he, too, was ‘enrolled as a pupil in Claude Alvienne’s dancing school on Eighth avenue. In the same class was Harry Pilcer, famous in jiis day as Gaby Deslys’s partner, and also,for a solo dance which concluded with his falling down a staircase. Mr Astaire, however, was to exemplify a technique much more refined than this.

It was in a small theatre at Keyport, New 'Jersey, that- .the Astaires made their dancing debut. The local newspaper proclaimed, “The Astaires are the greatest child-act in vaudeville,- and Mr Astaire comments, “I think if two words had been added, “in Keyport,’ this might have been more accurate.”

However, by the time they were nine and seven years old respectively, they were seasoned troupers, travelling on circuit from one side of the continent to the other. Of this period the author remarks, “My mother usually, whisked Adele from the theatre as soon as our act was over. Adele returned to her paper dolls while I tried to further my ham education.”

Just before the First World War the Astaires were finding bookings hard to get. They had outgrown their original acts, and Fred was at what was called the awkward age. At Proctor’s Theatre they opened the bill and only lasted one night. This was the nadir of their career.

In fact they made no impression at all, until Aurelia Coccia, the dancer, took them in hand. He eliminated the comedy for the time being, afid worked up a straight song-and-dance act for them. Even so, progress was very slow until the Astaires began singing the early Gershwin and Irving Berlin songs. Then Fred had a really great success with Jerome Kern’s "They Didn’t Believe Me,” a number that' still appeals.

Just before the end of the war they were chosen ,to appear on Broadway. The show was a musical comedy, “Over the Top,” and the Astaires felt they had left vaudeville behind for ever. “Over the Top” was followed by “The Passing Show,” “Apple Blossoms,” and “The Love Letter,” all New York successes.

“For Goodness Sake,” renamed “Stop Flirting,” took them to London, and at the Shaftesbury Theatre, “Oh Gee Oh Gosh,” and “The Oompah Trot” brought the house down. “Adele made one of the greatest personal hits of any girl ever to appear in England.”

What followed is a matter of theatrical history. “Lady, Be Good!” in New York and London, was followed by "Funny* Face” and'then “Band Wagon.” After l Adele’s marriage tp Lord Charles Cavendish in 1932, ' she retired from the stage, and'it took Fred Astaire some time to resume his career with the usual liveliness and charm. In fact, “The Gay Divorcee” was a failure. Then in 1933 he married Phyllis ' Potter and went to Hollywood to make

his first film. He was on loan to the M.G.M. organisation, and appeared with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in “Dancing Lady,” which was an auspicious introduction to the vast motion-picture public. Success came almost immediately. Fred Astaire was chosen to partner Ginger Rogers in the R.K.O. musical, “Flying Down to Rio.”

When the picture started showing no-one expected any very marked reaction. “I knew I hadn’t yet scratched the surface with any real dancing on the screen. The numbers in ‘Rio’ were put together rather hurriedly, I thought, and I was not at all pleased with my work. I thought Ginger and I looked all right together, but I was under the impression that we weren’t doing anything particularly outstanding . in ‘The Carioca’.” All the same, overnight Fred Astaire had become a film star.

“Roberta,” “Top Hat,” and “Follow the Fleet” were musicals on an increasingly lavish scale, all of them adding to the popularity of the new dance combination. Altogether Fred Astaire made six pictures, one after another, with Ginger Rogers. They were all welcomed by the public with enthusiasm.

Of course, an artist like Mr Astaire has all the luck. He keeps going himself, . but has left a succession of rapidly ageing former partners behind him. When Ginger Rogers disappeared, Rita Hayworth happened to be just at the height of her dancing career. The “New York Post” said, “The older Fred Astaire gets the lighter he dances.”

Most of the great dancers, as they come and go, have been his partners. The names include Vera Ellen, Judy Garland, Jane Powell and, of course, Leslie Caron in “Daddy Long Legs." Recently he has taken leading parts in films with Audrey Hepburn and Cyd Charisse. “That Cyd! Wljen you’ve danced with her you stay danced with.”

The latest picture in which Astaire has been seen is “On the Beach.” This took him to Australia for filming and has recently been released in this country. At the present time, according to report, he is making a new career for himself in television. Needless to say he has found a charming dancing paring in Barrie Chase. As Mr Astaire’says, “I just dance.” That is the .remark with which “Steps In Time" concludes, and the author is now quite without the querulousness that marked his opening chapter. “Steps In Time” is a much more agreeable book than at first seemed likely.