Eleanor Powell And Buttons – Lady Be Good (3:59)
(To view full screen click the link below.)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/rMbSxzQKiEiE
Eleanor Powell and Buttons doing a dance routine to the music of Lady Be Good from the 1941 film by the same name.
Eleanor Powell, The Greatest Female Dancer Ever.
“What we are is God’s gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God.”
Eleanor Powell
The Dancing Minister
Eleanor Powell was without peer among her dancing counterparts. For the better part of a decade, she was box-office gold, saving her studio, MGM, from bankruptcy with her winsome screen presence and show-stopping dance routines. Despite her film success, Powell had the shortest career of any major musical star, starring in only a dozen movies from 1935 to 1945. Nevertheless, she left a lasting legacy through her work onscreen and off. Primarily celebrated for her dazzling tap work, Powell was accomplished in ballet, acrobatics, ballroom, and jazz, combining elements of these into many of her routines. While her colleagues, including the great Fred Astaire, relied on choreographers for most, if not all, of their work, Powell choreographed her own dance numbers, which were always high in technical merit and creativity. As for Fred Astaire, among his many and storied partners, Eleanor Powell was the only one who could match his footwork. In fact, when the “Queen of Taps” was suggested as his leading lady in Broadway Melody of 1940, Astaire is said to have been unnerved at the thought of their pairing. Years, and many dancing partners, later, Astaire said that Powell “was in a class by herself.” But it was more than uncommon talent that set her apart.
Eleanor Powell was a woman of practiced faith whose Christian beliefs shaped her as an artist and a person. She acknowledged her talent as a God-given gift and her film career as a prelude to ministry. More on that later. As one of the brightest stars in the Hollywood firmament, Powell could have easily drifted into the narcissism so common among celebrities then and now. But even at the height of fame, she remained the charming “girl next door” whose gentleness, generosity, and caring were legend among friends and fans alike; in fact, many of her fans became life-long friends and pen pals who knew her affectionately as “Ellie.” Throughout Ellie’s life, her faith was central. It kept her chaste in an off-screen culture that reflected on-screen “pre-Code” values; it led her to retire from film at the pinnacle of her career to become a devoted wife and mother; it helped her endure a difficult 16-year marriage that eventually ended in divorce; it strengthened her and anchored her after divorce; and it inspired her advocacy for at-risk children, children with disabilities, and racial equality long before the national conscience was awakened to racial injustice.
Born on November 21, 1912, to a teenage mother in a fatherless home, Eleanor Powell entered the world under anything but auspicious circumstances. With her young mother working several jobs to make ends meet, Eleanor was raised by her maternal grandparents. While it is not clear where Eleanor’s early faith was formed, it is known that her family had a Quaker heritage, and that she regularly attended church. In an interview she gave after her screen retirement, Powell mentioned a Bible she had won as a child for perfect church attendance. As a young girl, Eleanor was pathologically shy with no interest in or, according to her, any natural talent for, dancing—as hard as that is to imagine considering the body of her work. In hopes of helping her socialization, Eleanor’s mother enrolled her in ballet and acrobatic dance. She took to both and quickly excelled. One day on a family trip to the beach, Eleanor’s playful acrobatics caught the eye of Gus Edwards, an Atlantic City club owner. Edwards recruited the 12-year-old to open for his dinner show. That led to other dancing gigs over the next couple of summers. . .
by Regis Nicoll
http://www.footnotesontap.com/LegendBiosPhotos/EleanorPowellPage.html
Eleanor Powell (34 Videos)
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