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Showing posts with label Eleanor Powell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eleanor Powell. Show all posts

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Sunday Drive: Begin the Beguine

 One of my all-time favorite tunes, from MGM's Broadway Melody of 1940.  Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell were the top dancers of the time, and it shows.  Consider this:  there is no animation or special effects in this film.  All the music was performed by human beings on real instruments, and all the dancing was done by human beings who rehearsed and rehearsed for weeks on end until every step, every move was perfect. 

Computers hadn't been invented yet - hell, even transistors hadn't been invented.  There was no videotape. either - all that you see was created by light and sound on 35 millimeter film, which had to be bathed in chemicals before it could be projected and viewed.  A great collective work of artists in many fields, in front of and behind the camera.  Human creativity at its peak.  I'm afraid we will never see such a thing again. 

Part 1 is slow and languid as a tropical night:

Part 2 picks up the pace:

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Monday, November 17, 2025

One More Time!

It doesn't get any better than this.  Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell tap out a storm in Broadway Melody of 1940:

And here's Eleanor remembering that number in a tribute to Astaire, 1981:

Somewhere on YouTube is the same delightful clip of their dance, but set to "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies. I can't find it today, though. 

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Sunday, June 10, 2018

Sunday Drive: Begin the Beguine

From 1938, Artie Shaw and his orchestra performing what your Head Trucker thinks is the best big-band tune ever:  Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine":




But what is the beguine? The inimitable Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell may give you a clue in their delightful interpretation from Broadway Melody of 1940:




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