#IT TAKES A THIEF FRED ASTAIRE PROFESSIONAL#

Adele Astaire was eight years old and Fred only five. The family set off by rail for the East Coast in January 1905.

#IT TAKES A THIEF FRED ASTAIRE PROFESSIONAL#

When the school’s owner informed the Austerlitzes that their children were true dance prodigies, Johanna was permitted to bring them to live in New York City, where top-flight instruction might lead to a professional career. In time, the distinct and complimentary natures of the Astaire children would make them ideal dance partners, with Adele emerging as the carefree, improvisatory partner and Fred the perfectionist and innovator. Initially, young Fred resisted the discipline of dance instruction to which his older sister Adele had taken more naturally. The son of Austrian immigrant Frederic 'Fritz' Austerlitz and his second generation Prussian-American wife Johanna 'Ann' Geilus, Astaire developed into a frail and deeply serious boy, whom his mother urged into dancing classes at the local Chambers Dance Academy with the hope that he might build a more athletic physique. Nominated for Academy Awards for his dramatic work in Stanley Kramer’s 'On the Beach' (1959) and Irwin Allen’s 'The Towering Inferno' (1974), an aging Astaire rode out the final third of his brilliant career as the elder statesman of American song and dance, who British writer Graham Greene called 'the nearest approach we are ever likely to have to a human Mickey Mouse.'įred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on in Omaha, NE. Coaxed out of retirement for MGM’s 'Easter Parade' (1948), Astaire went on to headline 'Royal Wedding' (1951), in which he danced seemingly weightless on walls and ceilings, and 'The Band Wagon' (1953) with Cyd Charisse. In later years, Astaire would take to the dance floor with a number of new partners, among them Eleanor Powell and Rita Hayworth, while also playing second banana to crooner Bing Crosby in the musical comedies 'Holiday Inn' (1942) and 'Blue Skies' (1946). The Astaire-Rogers films proved a tonic for an anxious nation during the Great Depression. A self-punishing perfectionist, Astaire hid his torturous process behind a mask of suave self-composure, playing the sardonic American graced with a distinctly European sensuality. After Adele’s retirement in 1931, Astaire tried his luck in Hollywood, pairing with Ginger Rogers at RKO for a total of 10 films, including 'Top Hat' (1935), 'Follow the Fleet' (1936) and 'Shall We Dance?' (1937).

With his older sister and dance partner Adele, vaudeville performer Fred Astaire became the toast of Broadway during the Jazz Age while partnering with composers George and Ira Gershwin to redefine American musical theatre.

It takes a thief fred astaire