Broadway melody of 1936 | eleanor powell

Broadway melody of 1936 | eleanor powell - George is given an audition opposite Clare. Once the nightmare is over, we're back to more agreeable matters. The wise viewer will fast-forward through this travesty with averted eyes. Powell is brutally man-handled by the male chorus and spends literally half the number with her skirt over her ears. Ashore" is a particularly gruesome example of this bizarre ritual.

Broadway melody of 1936 | eleanor powell - Because they didn't meet conventional standards for femininity, these performers were forced to "prove their womanhood" in crude and obvious ways. Martha Raye was probably the leader of the dyke brigade, followed very closely by Betty Hutton, with June Allyson trailing far behind. Powell, like a number of other female musical comedy performers, had a distinct masculine air about her. Eleanor Powell was the most famous female dancer in Hollywood, next to Ginger Rogers, but she lacked entirely Rogers' sex appeal. Fred and George are small-time hoofers, dreaming of making it on the Great White Way, currently ruled by Clare Bennett. Fred work in a big Manhattan dance hall where couples who want something a little different can get a formal wedding with all the trimmings. Fred Astaire, fresh from seven years of triumph at RKO, sometimes rode triumphantly atop the M-G-M juggernaut and sometimes was crushed beneath its wheels Broadway melody of 1936.