# Anyone like Fred Astaire? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632 "2009-06-03T21:40:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/41 "2009-06-07T03:20:33Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > As good a dancer as Kelly was, Astaire was better. Kelly was a better singer, actor and director than Astaire. Agreed to the first point. Astaire was seemingly effortless perfection. When he’s using props like a cane, note the perfect alignment of the cane with his body. That’s not an accident. I’d rather watch Donald O’Connor than Kelly any day. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/42 "2009-06-07T04:10:45Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > and the one where he dances on the walls and the ceilings. _Royal Wedding_, I think. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/43 "2009-06-07T05:26:19Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > One of my favorites is the shoemaker dance in The Barclays of Broadway (not sure I have the title exactly right). It’s very difficult to make it look like the shoes are dancing and the dancer is just getting carried along, and Fred nails it. I found [part of it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0r_jL5z_A&feature=related) on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/44 "2009-06-07T07:35:31Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Ginger Rogers had to do everything Fred Astaire did Performed virtuoso solo numbers? Choreographed? ---
**Author:** ![BarNord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BarNord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarNord)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/45 "2009-06-28T03:14:38Z")
I have been a huge Fred Astaire fan for years. Lately, I have been getting some of his films on DVD that I am not as familiar with, through an inter library loan. I recently saw the movie “Roberta”. I was so taken with the Astaire/Rogers dance called “I’ll be Hard to Handle” that I couldn’t stop playing it over and over. He never likes to repeat himself in his movies, and the dance was very innovative, to say the least. It made such an impression on me that when I got the next movie he made with Rita Hayworth called “You Were Never Lovelier”, it took me a while to enjoy the dance they did to the great song “I’m Old Fashioned”. But I soon was playing that over and over as well and loving it. In the other movie he did with Rita Hayworth, my favorite was when they danced to the Cole Porter song called “So Near and Yet so Far”. They did some amazing and beautiful hand and arm movements in the dance routine that fit perfectly to the music. That was one of the only dances where I didn’t watch Fred, but watched Rita. She was in her element on that one, kind of doing a slight rhumba with her hips to the beat, while Fred danced it straight. Barbara ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/46 "2009-06-28T06:22:33Z")
> [@BarNord](#): > > I have been a huge Fred Astaire fan for years. Lately, I have been getting some of his films on DVD that I am not as familiar with, through an inter library loan. I recently saw the movie “Roberta”. I was so taken with the Astaire/Rogers dance called “I’ll be Hard to Handle” that I couldn’t stop playing it over and over. He never likes to repeat himself in his movies, and the dance was very innovative, to say the least. It made such an impression on me that when I got the next movie he made with Rita Hayworth called “You Were Never Lovelier”, it took me a while to enjoy the dance they did to the great song “I’m Old Fashioned”. But I soon was playing that over and over as well and loving it. In the other movie he did with Rita Hayworth, my favorite was when they danced to the Cole Porter song called “So Near and Yet so Far”. They did some amazing and beautiful hand and arm movements in the dance routine that fit perfectly to the music. That was one of the only dances where I didn’t watch Fred, but watched Rita. She was in her element on that one, kind of doing a slight rhumba with her hips to the beat, while Fred danced it straight. > > Barbara Astaire occasionally intimated (without, perhaps, saying it outright) that Hayworth was his favorite dance partner, because she was a trained dancer and easy to work with. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/47 "2009-06-28T19:24:34Z")
My favorite Fred Astaire movie is [The Pleasure of His Company](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055307/), which has neither singing nor dancing. ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/48 "2009-06-29T01:52:49Z")
I love Fred astaire. My favorite movie with him in it is Holiday Inn. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Al\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@That\_Al\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Al_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/49 "2011-04-18T02:58:08Z")
Stage hands reposition it for sure, but this doesn’t answer with certainty how it works. Btw, 3rd time with all the doubles. There’s a cut as he spins just beret he does the trick again. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/50 "2011-04-18T13:55:54Z")
I liked him when he appeared on the original “Battlestar Galictica” as (possibly) Starbuck’s long lost father. He appeared because his grandchildren liked the show. One story about Astaire and Kelly that I love is how after the “Motown 25 year” TV special, Kelly brought a video tape recording to Astaire. The two watched in admiration Michael Jackson’s legendary performance. Two old pros admiring the new star, pointing out where he got this move and such. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/51 "2011-04-18T14:06:09Z")
My favourite [Gene Kelly](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aus1PA5-SyI) routine - tap dancing in roller skates, from “It’s Always Fair Weather”. I have a slight preference for Gene Kelly, but Fred Astaire was wonderful, and pushed the boundaries of the musical far beyond most people’s reach. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/52 "2011-04-18T14:26:02Z")
This was enjoyable. Until now I had only seen this bit done by Frankenstein’s Monster. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632/53 "2011-04-18T22:59:22Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > My take on this age old question: > > Fred Astaire always looked and sounded to me like he was about to fall over from hunger; there’s a certain effete weakness to his, um, affect, that it makes me vaguely uncomfortable watching him. A kind of “Auschwitz, The Musical” thing. > > On the other hand, Gene Kelly had really hot thighs. Agree strongly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-like-fred-astaire/498632.md?page=2)