Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire dancing with his son Fred Jr. at their home in 1940. Fred Astaire made his movie debut as himself in Robert Z. Leonard’s musical dance movie for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ‘Dancing Lady’ (1933), co-starring in the leads, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. The movie also featured Franchot Tone, who would later marry Joan Crawford, Robert Benchley, the humourist and columnist and famous member of The Algonquin Round Table, and Vaudevillian Ted Healy ‘and his Stooges’ (“Curly”, “Moe”, and “Larry”, who would later become “The Three Stooges”). Nelson Eddy also made an appearance in the movie. What has always been a conundrum to me is why Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not snatch up the talented dancer and performer Fred Astaire, as one of their studio players, after having him appear in this movie. But Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s loss ended up being RKO Radio Pictures’ gain. RKO snatched up Mr. Fred Astaire, and the rest is history. He became one of the greatest movie stars that Hollywood ever created. Remembering the late, great Fred Astaire (10th May, 1899 - 22nd June, 1987) .