Fred Astaire was once asked who was his favorite dance partner, in all his years performing. He didn’t want to answer (because he knew Ginger would probably be pissed and hurt) but finally he caved and said, “All right, I’ll give you a name. But if you ever let it out, I’ll swear I lied. It was Rita Hayworth.”
Hayworth and Astaire made two movies together, You’ll Never Get Rich (which was so popular that it led to the second film:) You Were Never Lovelier.
In You’ll Never Get Rich, Astaire plays Martin Cortland, a choreographer theater-manager who continuously gets into scrapes at the hands of his womanizing boss (played by Robert Benchley!). The boss uses Martin as a foil, a back-up, an alibi, sometimes without Martin’s knowledge or consent. There’s a running gag with a diamond bracelet, placed in various pockets. The situation gets so bad – with boyfriends waving guns around, etc. – that Martin joins the army. Then begins the boot-camp shenanigans which has an almost Stalag 17 slapstick quality. All along, Martin is drawn to Sheila (Hayworth), one of the dancers in the chorus. She’s involved with another man. But when she and Martin dance … the whole world and all its problems fall away. Can she trust him? Or is he just a trickster? Can she believe one word that comes out of his mouth?
This is the opening scene of the film (with a really fun credits sequence, the credits revealed on successive billboards along a country road), where the troupe rehearses a number and Martin scolds Sheila for doing it her own way.
Then they dance together. Astaire is a phenom, of course, and it is very difficult to take your eyes off of him when he moves. But Hayworth is equally as good. She’s got her own thing going. When she dances, her persona, her spirit, explodes off the screen.
Astaire biographer Charlie Reinhart said, of the pairing: “There was a kind of reserve about Fred. It was charming. It carried over to his dancing. With Hayworth there was no reserve. She was very explosive. And that’s why I think they really complemented each other.”
What I love about Hayworth’s dancing, especially in partnership, is:
1. Her awareness of them beside her. She’s always throwing glances, smiles, little expressions of delight, showing that she takes joy in what the two of them are creating together.
2. Her joy in herself. She’s ferocious and free.
Which leads me to this:
Rita Hayworth had a hard life and a pretty brutal childhood. She had been dancing from before she could even walk, practically. She had zero fun as a child. It was all work, work, work. Her father was her boss, her dance partner. Some of the stories of those early years are harrowing. She was basically an indentured servant to her dancer dad. The love of performing could have been crushed out of her in that environment. And maybe, on some level, it was. Maybe she would have much rather been a happy wife in a nice little home, without all that pressure on her. But this was the life she had, performing was all she could do.
Rita Hayworth, as a person, took almost no joy “in herself.” She said she had a horrible inferiority complex. She never believed in herself. Men loved her but often were befuddled and afraid when they realized just how MUCH she didn’t believe in herself, how tormented she really was. Orson Welles, no model husband, did love her, but he had no idea how to deal with/handle her. He was not alone. While she may not have been a happy person, what you see when you watch her dance is happiness in herself and her body, total freedom, and “explosive” self-expression. Rita Hayworth was a PRO.
When you watch her dance as an adult, it’s clear (elementary, Watson) that all those years of work paid off. You don’t get to be this good, you don’t get to a point where what you’re doing looks this EASY, without YEARS of hard work.
And let’s face it: it wasn’t easy to go toe-to-toe with Astaire. He was the best dancer in any room. Any gal who danced with him would be “shown up” within 1 second of any dance if she couldn’t keep up, hold her own. Watch how Hayworth leaps into that space powerfully. You want to watch the both of them.
Also, watch when she’s dancing with the whole chorus in the front row, later in the clip. There are 25 dancers onscreen. They’re all dressed alike, her included. But your eyes are drawn to her.
She was a star.
Sheila,
You are amazing. I don’t come across too many who see in Rita, what is so obvious to me. You are one of the rare few. I just wanted to let you know that your short little article is one of the best I have ever read. Thank you for your insight and wonderful observations of Rita Hayworth. :)
Brian – thank you! I love her so much.
I wrote the booklet for Criterion’s release of Gilda last year – so I did a much larger overview of her career (and the film) for Criterion, if you’re interested:
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3878-the-long-shadow-of-gilda
She just sparks off the screen!
I like this review and all what you’ve said. Thanks
Pretty cool. I always liked her. She was a great actress in her films. She was a great person in real life. I could tell that by the interviews I saw about her.
But I never knew she could dance like that. I was sent a video that was being passed around to cheer people up. I could see Fred Astaire dancing. I could see someone dancing with her, who was clearly keeping pace with Fred, which was astounding, as even Ginger was led around by Fred. I looked, and it looked like a young Rita Hayworth.
So I looked them up, which led me to this site.
Watching them dancing together was a real treat.
Roy – thanks for stopping by! Yes, she was a wonderful dancer – you’re in for a real treat if you do a deep dive into her musicals.
I also think that Hayworth was wonderful. But Astaire’s comment about her being his favorite partner was not based only on her dancing. There was an emotional aspect to it.
Fred had become good friends with Eduardo Cansino, Rita’s father, when they were both vaudeville stars. When reminiscing about his first rehearsal with Rita for “You’ll Never Get Rich,” Fred said, “I kept thinking how extraordinary it was to find myself about to play opposite my friend Eduardo Cansino’s lovely daughter, and I told her so. She laughed.”
He also said that Hayworth learned a new dance faster than anyone else he had ever worked with.