Astaire follows her and a conversation about clouds and rainfall soon gives way to Astaire's rendering of this, one of Berlin's most prized creations.

It soon emerged that Fontaine couldn't dance, but Stevens persuaded Astaire not to replace her with Ruby Keeler.

Theater owner and womanizer Martin Cortland ( Robert Benchley ) enlists the aid of his manager Robert Curtis ( Fred Astaire ) to woo dancer Sheila Winthrop ( Rita Hayworth ) but is caught by his long-suffering wife Julia ( Frieda Inescort ), who hints that he's gone too far this time and his increasingly unbelievable alibies might soon be judged by " twelve strange men.

He withdrew from the film and encouraged Fred Astaire to come out of retirement to replace him.

It was a measure of his powers of persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire – who had insisted that his contract rule out any dancing, having long since retired – into performing a series of song and dance duets, evoking a powerful nostalgia for the glory days of the American musical film.

Fred Astaire was also coaxed out of retirement for Easter Parade and made a permanent comeback.

They make way for Astaire who strides confidently to the front of the stage and delivers the song, which features the famous line: " I'm stepping out, my dear, to breathe an atmosphere that simply reeks with class ," trading the occasional tap barrage with the chorus as he sings. The dance begins with Astaire and chorus moving in step.

For special praise, they have singled out her performance in " Waltz in Swing Time " from Swing Time ( 1936 ), which is generally considered to be the most virtuosic partnered routine ever committed to film by Astaire.

They followed up with several more shows, and of their work in The Passing Show of 1918 Heywood Broun wrote: " In an evening in which there was an abundance of good dancing, Fred Astaire stood out ...

Astaire attempted to drop out of the film Daddy Long Legs ( 1955 ), offering to pay the production costs to date, but was persuaded to stay.

Powell worked side by side with Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding ( 1951 ), when she was brought in to replace June Allyson, who had become pregnant, and then Judy Garland, who dropped out due to illness.

He was immortalized in the 1957 film Funny Face by the character Dick Avery ( played by Fred Astaire ), who asked, “ What ’ s wrong with bringing out a girl who has character, spirit, and intelligence ?”

After Shaw introduced the song to dance halls, MGM brought out the musical film Broadway Melody of 1940 in which Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced " Begin the Beguine ".

Fred Astaire and Hermes Pan working out a dance routine

While Astaire was trying to work out a series of steps for " The Carioca " number, it was suggested to him that Pan had a few ideas and Pan was invited over.

Kathryn Grayson replaced Melton and Astaire and Bremer were cut out altogether.

According to Astaire ’ s biography, he worked out all the numbers with Hayworth while rehearsing above a funeral parlour.

) According to film historian Robert Osborne, in specially-filmed introductions produced for Turner Classic Movies, it was Astaire who suggested to Kelly that the two take advantage of this potentially last-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform together, something Kelly had actually wished for out loud during his narration of the first That's Entertainment!

Kaye starred in several movies with actress Virginia Mayo in the 1940s, and is well known for his roles in films such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ( 1947 ), The Inspector General ( 1949 ), On the Riviera ( 1951 ) co-starring Gene Tierney, Knock on Wood ( 1954 ), White Christmas ( 1954, in a role originally intended for Fred Astaire, then Donald O ' Connor ), The Court Jester ( 1956 ), and Merry Andrew ( 1958 ).

In Ziegfeld Follies ( 1946 ) – which was produced in 1944 but not released until 1946 – Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire – for whom he had the greatest admiration – in the famous " The Babbitt and the Bromide " challenge dance routine.

and subsequently directed and co-starred with his friend Fred Astaire in the sequel That's Entertainment, Part II ( 1976 ).

" In particular, he wanted to create a completely different image from that associated with Fred Astaire, not least because he believed his physique didn't suit such refined elegance: " I used to envy his cool aristocratic style, so intimate and contained.

She is one of the few dancers or actresses who has danced with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev.

She also starred in the successful musicals Lili ( 1953 ), with Mel Ferrer ; Daddy Long Legs ( 1955 ), with Fred Astaire, and Gigi ( 1958 ) with Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier.

During development at the University of Plymouth, in conjunction with BAE Systems and Sumitomo Precision Products, the iBot was nicknamed Fred Upstairs ( after Fred Astaire ) because it can climb stairs: hence the name Ginger, after Astaire's regular film partner, Ginger Rogers, for a successor product.

Other films include The Hucksters ( 1947 ) with Clark Gable, Show Boat ( 1951 ), The Snows of Kilimanjaro ( 1952 ) with Gregory Peck, Lone Star ( 1952 ) with Clark Gable, Mogambo ( 1953 ) with Clark Gable and Grace Kelly, 1954's The Barefoot Contessa with Humphrey Bogart ( which some consider to be Gardner's " signature film " since it mirrored her real life custom of going barefoot ), Bhowani Junction ( 1956 ), The Sun Also Rises with Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn ( in which she played party-girl Brett Ashley ) ( 1957 ), and the film version of Nevil Shute's best-selling On the Beach with Peck and Fred Astaire.

There ensued a lifelong friendship with Berlin contributing to more Astaire films ( six in total ) than any other composer.

Of his experience with Astaire in Top Hat Berlin wrote: " He's a real inspiration for a writer.

At least my mother was there to support me in the confrontation with the entire front office, plus Fred Astaire and Mark Sandrich.

Later, Astaire and Pan presented Rogers with a gold feather for her charm bracelet, and serenaded her with a ditty parodying Berlin's tune:

Thereafter, Astaire nicknamed Rogers " Feathers " — also a title of one of the chapters in his autobiography — and parodied his experience in a song and dance routine with Judy Garland in Easter Parade ( 1948 ).

Astaire introduced a new style of dress that broke step with the spats, celluloid collars, and homburgs worn by aristocratic European-molded father-figure heroes.

The choreography, in which Astaire was assisted by Hermes Pan, is principally concerned throughout with the possibilities of using taps to make as much noise as possible.

Astaire sings it through twice and during the last phrase leaps into a ballet jump, accompanied by leg beats, and launches into a short solo dance that builds in intensity and volume progressing from tap shuffles sur place, via traveling patterns, to rapid-fire heel jabs finishing with a carefree tour of the suite during which he beats on the furniture with his hands.

Early tappers like Fred Astaire provided a more ballroom look to tap dancing, while Gene Kelly used his extensive ballet training to make tap dancing incorporate all the parts of the ballet.

" Astaire introduces the film's tap motif when he blasts a tap barrage at the somnolent members of a London Club.

Astaire incorporates this into his routine, first startling him with a tap burst then escorting him ostentatiously to the telephone.

For " Top Hat, White Tie and Tails ", probably Astaire's most celebrated tap solo, the idea for the title song came from Astaire who described to Berlin a routine he had created for the 1930 Ziegfeld Broadway flop Smiles called " Say, Young Man of Manattan ," in which he gunned down a chorus of men – which included teenagers Bob Hope and Larry Adler – with his cane.

In the first part of the solo which follows, Astaire embarks on a circular tap movement, embellished with cane taps into which he mixes a series of unpredictable pauses.

The career of the Astaire siblings resumed with mixed fortunes, though with increasing skill and polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines.

Together, Astaire and Powell danced to Porter's " Begin the Beguine ", which is considered by many to be one of the greatest tap sequences in film history.

In addition to Savion, Harold Nicholas, Fred Astaire, Gregory Hines, and Bill “ Bojangles ” Robinson went from drums to tap.

* Fred Astaire paid tribute to Bill Robinson in the tap routine Bojangles of Harlem from the 1936 film Swing Time.

The dance is a nostalgic celebration of love, in the form of a syncopated waltz with tap overlays-a concept Astaire later reworked in the similarly impressive " Belle of New York " segment of the " Currier and Ives " routine from The Belle of New York ( 1952 ).

* " Bojangles of Harlem ": Once again, Kern, Bennett and Borne combined their talents to produce a jaunty instrumental piece ideally suited to Astaire, who here-while overtly paying tribute to Bill Robinson-actually broadens his tribute to African-American tap dancers by dancing in the style of Astaire's one-time teacher John W. Bubbles, and dressing in the style of the character Sportin ' Life, whom Bubbles played the year before in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

Fred Astaire said this sequence, by the Nicholas brothers, was the finest piece of tap dancing ever filmed.

*" Begin the Beguine "-words and music by Cole Porter, sung first in an operatic style by Lois Hodnott ( who was also used to dub the vocals for screwball soprano Carmen D ' Antonio in the comedy audition sequence Il Bacio in the middle of the movie ) and later in a jazz style by The Music Maids, danced by Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, including a lengthy passage in which they tap dance with no musical accompaniment.

She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical category and won the Fred Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer for her tap dancing in the show.

In 1920 he gave lessons in tap dancing to Fred Astaire, who considered Sublett the finest tap dancer of his generation.

* " I Can't Be Bothered Now ": sung by Astaire while executing a tap solo with cane in the middle of a London street and escaping on a bus.

* " Put Me to the Test ": Astaire, Burns, and Allen comic tap dance with whisk brooms, a routine inspired by vaudeville duo Evans and Evans and introduced to Astaire by Burns, who quipped: " Gracie and I ended up teaching Astaire how to dance ".