Merry Christmas Eve Framers!

Judy Garland!

One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Judy Garland was a much-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals.

She was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in Minnesota, the youngest daughter of vaudevillians Frank and Ethel Gumm. Her mother, an ambitious woman gifted in playing various musical instruments, saw the potential in her daughter at the tender age of just 2 years old when Baby Frances repeatedly sang “Jingle Bells” until she was dragged from the stage kicking and screaming during one of their Christmas shows and immediately drafted her into a dance act, entitled “The Gumm Sisters”, along with her older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm. However, knowing that her youngest daughter would eventually become the biggest star, Ethel soon took Frances out of the act and together they traveled across America where she would perform in nightclubs, cabarets, hotels and theaters solo.

Her family life was not a happy one, largely because of her mother’s drive for her to succeed as a performer and also her father’s closeted homosexuality. The Gumm family would regularly be forced to leave town owing to her father’s illicit affairs with other men, and from time to time they would be reduced to living out of their automobile. However, in September 1935 the Gumms’, in particular Ethel’s, prayers were answered when Frances was signed by Louis B. Mayer, mogul of leading film studio MGM, after hearing her sing. It was then that her name was changed from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, after a popular ’30s song “Judy” and film critic Robert Garland. Judy’s career did not officially kick off until she sang one of her most famous songs, “You Made Me Love You”, at Clark Gable‘s birthday party in February 1937, during which Louis B. Mayer finally paid attention to the talented songstress.

Prior to this her film debut in Pigskin Parade (1936), in which she played a teenage hillbilly, had left her career hanging in the balance. However, following her rendition of “You Made Me Love You”, MGM set to work preparing various musicals with which to keep Judy busy. All this had its toll on the young teenager, and she was given numerous pills by the studio doctors in order to combat her tiredness on set. Another problem was her weight fluctuation, but she was soon given amphetamines in order to give her the desired streamlined figure. This soon produced the downward spiral that resulted in her lifelong drug addiction.

In 1939, Judy shot immediately to stardom with The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song, ‘Over The Rainbow’, earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette on 29 February 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Now growing up, Judy began to yearn for meatier adult roles instead of the virginal characters she had been playing since she was 14.

By this time, Judy had starred in her first adult role as a vaudevillian during WWI in For Me and My Gal (1942). In November 1943, Judy  began filming Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), which proved to be a big success. The director Vincente Minnelli highlighted Judy’s beauty for the first time on screen, having made the period musical in color, her first color film since The Wizard of Oz (1939). He showed off her large brandy-brown eyes and her full, thick lips and after filming ended in April 1944, a love affair resulted between director and actress and they were soon living together. Vincente began to mold Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in The Clock (1945), and it was during the filming of this movie that the couple announced their engagement on set on 9 January 1945.

But married life was never the same for Vincente and Judy after they filmed The Pirate (1948) together in 1947. Judy’s mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations toward people, especially her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She then teamed up with dancing legend Fred Astaire for the delightful musical Easter Parade(1948), which resulted in a successful comeback despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical. Afterwards, Judy’s health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, which caused her much distress.

On returning, Judy made In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which was also Liza’s film debut, albeit via an uncredited cameo. She had already been suspended by MGM for her lack of cooperation on the set of The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), which also resulted in her getting replaced by Ginger Rogers. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Judy was suspended yet again before making her final film for MGM, entitled Summer Stock (1950). At 28, Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM, and her second marriage was soon dissolved.

Judy signed a film contract with Warner Bros. to star in the musical remake of A Star Is Born (1937), which had starred Janet Gaynor, who had won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. She won a Golden Globe for her brilliant and truly outstanding performance as Esther Blodgett, nightclub singer turned movie star, but  Judy lost out on the Best Actress Oscar to Grace Kelly for her portrayal of the wife of an alcoholic star in The Country Girl (1954).

At age 41, she made her final performance on film alongside Dirk Bogarde in I Could Go on Singing (1963). She continued working on stage, appearing several times with her daughter Liza. It was during a concert in Chelsea, London, that Judy stumbled into her bathroom late one night and died of an overdose of barbiturates, the drug that had dominated her much of her life, on the 22nd of June 1969 at the age of 47.She is still an icon to this day with her famous performances in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), and A Star Is Born (1954).

         Rita Hayworth

” I was certainly a well-trained dancer. I’m a good actress: I have depth. I have feeling. But they don’t care. All they want is the image.”

 

Margarita Carmen Cansino was born on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo was a dancer as was his father before him. He emigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita’s mother met Eduardo in 1916 and were married the following year. Rita, herself, studied as a dancer in order to follow in her family’s footsteps. She joined her family on stage when she was eight years old when her family was filmed in a movie called La Fiesta (1926). It was her first film appearance, albeit an uncredited one.

Rita was seen dancing by a 20th Century Fox executive and was impressed enough to offer her a contract. Rita’s “second” debut was in the film Cruz Diablo (1934) at age 16. She continued to play small bit parts in several films under the name of “Rita Cansino” until she played the second female lead in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) when she played Judy McPherson. By this time, she was at Columbia where she was getting top billing but it was the Warner Brothers film The Strawberry Blonde (1941) that seemed to set her apart from the rest of what she had previously done. This was the film that exuded the warmth and seductive vitality that was to make her famous. Her natural, raw beauty was showcased later that year in Blood and Sand (1941), filmed in Technicolor. She was probably the second most popular actress after Betty Grable. In You’ll Never Get Rich (1941) with Fred Astaire, was probably the film that moviegoers felt close to Rita. Her dancing, for which she had studied all her life, was astounding.

After the hit Gilda (1946), her career was on the skids. Although she was still making movies, they never approached her earlier success. The drought began between The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Champagne Safari (1954). Then after Salome (1953), she was not seen again until Pal Joey (1957). Part of the reasons for the downward spiral was television, but also Rita had been replaced by the new star at Columbia, Kim Novak. After a few, rather forgettable films in the 1960s, her career was essentially over.

Her final film was The Wrath of God (1972). Her career was really never the same after Gilda (1946). Her dancing had made the film and it had made her. Perhaps Gene Ringgold said it best when he remarked, “Rita Hayworth is not an actress of great depth. She was a dancer, a glamorous personality, and a sex symbol. These qualities are such that they can carry her no further professionally.” Perhaps he was right but Hayworth fans would vehemently disagree with him. Rita, herself, said, “Every man I have known has fallen in love with Gilda and wakened with me”. By 1980, Rita was hit with Alzheimer’s Disease. It ravaged her so, and she finally died at age 68 on May 14, 1987, in New York City.

Let’s Stay Young Forever

The Famous Scene from Salome

Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in “You’ll Never Get Rich”

Happy Tuesday Framers! Today our dancing star is …..The King of Pop!

      Michael Jackson

“Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever.”

Michael Jackson was born Michael Joseph Jackson in Gary, Indiana on August 29, 1958, and entertained audiences nearly his entire life. His father Joe Jackson had been a guitarist, but was forced to give up his musical ambitions, following his marriage to Katherine (Scruse). Together, they prodded their growing family’s musical interests at home. By the early 1960s, the older boys Jackie, Tito and Jermaine had begun performing around the city; by 1964, Michael and Marlon had joined in.

A musical prodigy, Michael’s singing and dancing talents were amazingly mature, and he soon became the dominant voice and focus of the Jackson 5. An opening act for such soul groups as the O-Jays and James Brown, it was Gladys Knight (not Diana Ross) who officially brought the group to Berry Gordy‘s attention, and by 1969, the boys were producing back-to-back chart-busting hits as Motown artists (“I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Got to Be There,” etc.). As a product of the 1970s, the boys emerged as one of the most accomplished black pop / soul vocal groups in music history, successfully evolving from a group like The Temptations to a disco phenomenon.

Solo success for Michael was inevitable, and by the 1980s, he had become infinitely more popular than his brotherly group. Record sales consistently orbited, culminating in the biggest-selling album of all time, “Thriller” in 1982. A TV natural, he ventured rather uneasily into films, such as playing the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978), but had much better luck with elaborate music videos.

In the 1990s, the downside as an 1980s pop phenomenon began to rear itself. Michael grew terribly child-like and introverted by his peerless celebrity. A rather timorous, androgynous figure to begin with, his physical appearance began to change drastically, and his behavior grew alarmingly bizarre, making him a consistent target for scandal-making, despite his numerous charitable acts. Two brief marriages — one to Elvis Presley‘s daughter Lisa Marie Presley — were forged and two children produced by his second wife during that time, but the purposes behind them appeared image-oriented. Despite it all, Jackson’s passion and artistry as a singer, dancer, writer and businessman are unparalleled, and it is these prodigious talents that will ultimately prevail over the extremely negative aspects of his seriously troubled adult life.

The First Moonwalk

Thriller!

He’s….well…Bad.

Fact about Mr. Michael Jackson

Shares with Carlos Santana the record for most Grammys won in one year, with eight.

First solo artist to generate four top ten hits on the Billboard charts on one album with “Off the Wall.”

First artist to generate seven top ten hits (USA) on one album with “Thriller.”

Until August 2011, he was the only artist in history to generate five #1 hits (USA) from one album with “Bad”. Katy Perry has since tied this record with her album “Teenage Dream”.

With Lionel Richie, co-wrote the song “We Are the World,” and was one of its performers.

His 1982 album “Thriller” is the biggest selling album of all time, with confirmed sales of over 51 million, and claimed sales of over 100 million copies worldwide.

His 1991 album “Dangerous” is one of the biggest selling album of all time, with over 20 million copies sold worldwide.

His 1987 album “BAD” is one of the biggest selling albums of all time, with over 20 million copies sold worldwide.

Jackson hired film director Martin Scorsese to direct the video for the “Bad” album’s title track.

His hit song “Bad” from 1987 was initially supposed to be a duet with fellow 80’s superstar Prince. Prince said in an interview that he did not wish to sing the line “Your butt is mine”.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 (as a solo artist).

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 (as a member of the Jackson 5).

Had a skin disease called vitiligo.

Diagnosed with lupus in 1984.

Copied his moon walk after mime Marcel Marceau in “walk-against-the- wind” pantomime techniques.

At his peak, Jackson was reportedly worth around $1 Billion.

Holds 10 different Guinness World Records.

1st May 2001: His video for “Thriller” was voted at #1 by VH1 on their countdown of the Top 100 Greatest Videos Of All Time. At #2 was “Like A Prayer” by Madonna.

Today we are featuring….Fred Astaire!

“People think I was born in top hat and tails.”

The son of an Austrian immigrant, Fred Astaire entered show business at age 5. He was successful both in vaudeville and on broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele Astaire. After Adele retired to marry in 1932, Astaire headed to Hollywood. Signed to RKO, he was loaned to MGM to appear in Dancing Lady (1933) before starting work on RKO’s Flying Down to Rio (1933). In the latter film, he began his highly successful partnership with Ginger Rogers, with whom he danced in 10 RKO pictures. During these years, he was also active in recording and radio. On film, Astaire later appeared opposite a number of partners through various studios. After a temporary retirement in 1945-7, during which he opened Fred Astaire Dance Studios, Astaire returned to film to star in more musicals through 1957. He subsequently performed a number of straight dramatic roles in film and TV.

A Scene from Swing Time

The Famous Dance on the Ceiling….yes, you heard me correctly. Dancing on a ceiling.

A coat rack, weights, parallel bars and Fred Astaire…

 

Facts about Mr. Fred Astaire…

Wore his trademark top hat and tails in his very first movie appearance, Dancing Lady(1933).

He was voted the 19th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Named the #5 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute.

He was voted the 23rd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.

One of the first Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978.

Ranked #73 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list.

Astaire disguised his very large hands by curling his middle two fingers while dancing.

His legs were insured for one million dollars.

While all music and songs were known to be dubbed (recorded before filming), his tap dancing was dubbed also. He “over-dubbed” his taps – recording them live as he danced to the previously recorded taps.

Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002 (inaugural class).

In December 2013, he was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.

Interred at Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, California, USA, the same cemetery where long-time dancing partner, Ginger Rogers, is located.