Everybody Dance
Today I saw part of The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I'd seen it once before. It happens to be my favorite one of their movies, which is odd, considering it's not one of their better-known ones. Don't get me wrong: what's not to love about Swing Time and Top Hat? But the Castle story actually has a plot (!), and a script (!!), and the romance between Fred and Ginger actually seems real (!!!).
I didn't know much more about the Castles than their name and the fact that they were dancers, before I saw this movie. But if the movie is correct (a big "if", that), they seem to have been the first mass-market celebrity endorsers. Products as various as chocolates, hats, and face cream bore their names. I find this fascinating--I'd no idea the madness (Thomas Kinkade furniture gallery?) had started so early on. And they introduced all kinds of dances (the Fox Trot!) and started the ballroom dance phenomenon that gripped America for decades.
Not to spoil the movie (consider this your spoiler) but Vernon dies in a plane crash at the end. It's very sad--partially because he'd survived war and was home at last, and partially because the couple seemed so much in love. They show the plane crash, which seems awfully realistic for the time period; I was surprised. The ending is a bit hokey, but the whole movie is so sweet that it doesn't matter. I was still crying over poor Ginger Rogers hearing the news by the time it ended.
After their first dance audition, their manager says, "Who would pay to see a man dance with his wife?" All day long the lyric from "Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)" has been in my head. Apparently it was written by Fred Fischer (or is it Frank Reyes?) in 1922: "I saw a man, he danced with his wife". I wonder, now, if that could mean the Castles? They went on a nationwide tour, apparently, just prior to World War I. (The song refers to Billy Sunday, too).
If anyone knows the answer to this, please comment and let me know. I'm terribly curious.
I didn't know much more about the Castles than their name and the fact that they were dancers, before I saw this movie. But if the movie is correct (a big "if", that), they seem to have been the first mass-market celebrity endorsers. Products as various as chocolates, hats, and face cream bore their names. I find this fascinating--I'd no idea the madness (Thomas Kinkade furniture gallery?) had started so early on. And they introduced all kinds of dances (the Fox Trot!) and started the ballroom dance phenomenon that gripped America for decades.
Not to spoil the movie (consider this your spoiler) but Vernon dies in a plane crash at the end. It's very sad--partially because he'd survived war and was home at last, and partially because the couple seemed so much in love. They show the plane crash, which seems awfully realistic for the time period; I was surprised. The ending is a bit hokey, but the whole movie is so sweet that it doesn't matter. I was still crying over poor Ginger Rogers hearing the news by the time it ended.
After their first dance audition, their manager says, "Who would pay to see a man dance with his wife?" All day long the lyric from "Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)" has been in my head. Apparently it was written by Fred Fischer (or is it Frank Reyes?) in 1922: "I saw a man, he danced with his wife". I wonder, now, if that could mean the Castles? They went on a nationwide tour, apparently, just prior to World War I. (The song refers to Billy Sunday, too).
If anyone knows the answer to this, please comment and let me know. I'm terribly curious.
posted by Violet at 9:34 PM
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