Until a monster dancer joins her on stage — Jack Cole.

Choreographers, pay attention @ 1:43. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the way to make an entrance — on your knees!

Do you notice that Cole never fully stands up? See how he hugs the ground? Modern dance roots.  Layer on that the jitterbug moves he learned from the best — by dancing with ladies like Marie Bryant at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom.

You can see that Hayworth enjoys being partnered by him.

The men in the group are trained in Cole technique, the women not. That would come later.

Tonight and Every Night is a very fun, watchable movie, full of dance. The marvelous Marc Platt, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo guy, has a speaking role in it, and he dances as well. 

What a coincidence, Jerry Robbins’s sailor ballet “Fancy Free,” which led to On the Town (1949) and made possible all kinds of Americanisms in classical ballet, dates from 1944. Who imitated whom? I personally think of Cole as a greater innovator than Robbins, who was known for borrowing.  But lacking conclusive evidence, let’s just say that both dances were conceived during the War, when sailors were in the zeitgeist.

Like this? Read more:

• Rita Hayworth’s gown by John Singer Sargent
• Jack Cole invites you to a ball
• Jerome Robbins, ballet drill sargent

The silken jazz dancer, Marie Bryant (1919-1978), seen here jiving with the great Harold Nicholas, was, for a time, rehearsal assistant to Jack Cole. That’s interesting. Cole’s performance group was all white. It wouldn’t be otherwise. But he clearly relied on Bryant for special tasks. Asked what she did for Jack Cole, Bryant replied,  “I teach Betty Grable to shake her buns.”

I have long wondered what transformed Grable from a schmaltzy-waltzer into the bootie-shaking hottie of “No Talent Joe.” I naturally credited Cole. Now I think differently. Enter Marie Bryant.

_{Thank you, Wandering & Pondering for posting on Marie Bryant.}

“The designer Jean Louis, supposedly inspired by John Singer Sargent‘s famous portrait of the décolleté Madame X, created for Miss Hayworth a fetishistic black satin strapless gown, with elbow-length gloves, and the dance director Jack Cole devised the strip-tease routine in which she flung those gloves to her audience.

The director, Vidor, expected the filming of “Put the Blame on Mame” would be difficult, but he was pleasantly surprised the moment Miss Hayworth appeared. “She sauntered on the stage holding her head high, in that magnificent way she does,” he said, “stepping long like a sleek young tiger cut, and the whistles that sounded who have shamed a canary’s convention. She enjoyed very second of it. Then she did that elaborate difficult ‘Mame’ number in two takes.”"

Blurb taken from: City of Nets, A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s, by Otto Friedrich

We first watched a reenactment of an historical movie moment. An American actress, Michelle Williams, portrays a prior thespian, Marilyn Monroe, in her struggle to collaborate with Sir Laurence Olivier in the filming of “The Prince & the Showgirl.”

Kenneth Branagh plays Sir Larry in the bio-pic, and he nails his character so much better than Ms. Williams. So it all comes ’round; the Brit actor trumps Yank actor — nothing has changed whatsoever in 55 years!

From my studied perspective, “My Week with Marilyn” falls short, in its opening moments, in its meager attempt to replicate Jack Cole’s idiosyncratic choreography for Monroe. It gets Marilyn Monroe, singer/dancer, dead wrong, totally wrong, every step is wrong. Very sorry to report this~!

That brings us to the mother of all female impersonators, er … fine actors, Meryl Streep, whose visage fills the frames of “The Iron Lady,” a replication, down to facial tics, of the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher — undoubtedly fodder for Oscar©.

arts·meme has learned that in the sequel, now in development, the Iron Lady takes cooking lessons. Her instructor?  The Iron-Skillet Lady, Julia Child! That means Meryl Streep on screen in ever single solitary frame of the movie! We keenly await this ne plus ultra of bio-pics! Meryl and Meryl, on split screen. Negotiations under way for top billing …

Like this? Read more:

• Julia Child and my father

Enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkDimkiTMDA

Not primarily an MGM man (Kismet” twice: 1944, 1955, Les Girls 1957, Designing Woman 1957; still he was affiliated more with Columbia and Fox), Cole prevailed nonetheless in influencing the production’s design. The  evidence is the glowing pink light bathing the scene at 2:55. That’s Jack Cole. The guy saw dance in colors. He would ramp up that pink 100 degrees on his next assignment.

Dance detectives will note that Cole marched, er, waltzed across town, from Culver City to Pico Blvd, and created “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” at Fox in 1953. Smart dance maker, he built upon components (waltzing, tour jeté-ing women) from “The Merry Widow,” contemporizing them and adding Marilyn Monroe’s combustible va-va voom. Result: this time, it all clicked, he created a timeless masterpiece.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_aqOTVKebY

_{Thank you Larry Billman, for the MGM-ania.}

Like this? Read more:

• Balanchine invites you to a ball
• The latest from Leo the Lion
• Jack & Marilyn. No not Jack Kennedy, Jack Cole.
• Our entire Jack Cole thread here.
• Jack Cole Made Marilyn Move (Los Angeles Times)

It was a wild & crazy cruise. Robert Osborne, usually a pretty tamped-down guy, skipped the light fantastic through the casino with Eva Maria Saint in tow. In this amazing shot by TCM photog, Ted Pio Roda, Ms. Saint, one of the silver screen’s most enduring method actors, looks not one day older than when she co-starred with Brando in “On the Waterfront.”

Read my story about the folks who made TCM Classic Cruise happen — and those who signed on for it. Read it on The Huffington Post.

[The photo demonstrates why some photographers have a great eye. Click on it for detail.]

_{Photo credit: Ted Pio Roda/TCM}

Photo: Paulette Goddard having breakfast in bed aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth, 1940s. Looks good to us!

_{Thank you, Cruising the Past, for the image.}

Destinations: Key West and Cozumel.

Getting our letters of transit in order is a huge challenge — but unlike Claude Rains, we do not have the proprietor of Rick’s Café Americain pointing a gun at our belly.

Among the other correspondents on board the S.S. TCM (otherwise known as the Celebrity Millennium), film bio-guru, Scott Eyman and his Palm Beach Post colleague, Lynn Kalber.

TCM has programmed great on-board screenings, including a special theme, a focus on “Hitchcock Blondes,” with special appearances by Eva Marie Saint for “North by Northwest” and Tippi Hedren for “The Birds.”

Ernest Borgnine will be present for discussion after screening “The Poseidon Adventure.”

Beyond the actors, film director Norman Jewison will visit with us concurrent to a double-bill of The Thomas Crown Affair and In the Heat of the Night. That’s my personal favorite. Here is the events schedule, including screenings.

♣      ♣     ♣

I’m very pleased, for Jack Cole‘s sake, that the roster also includes two films associated with the great film choreographer. 

• Moon Over Miami,– Cole’s first Hollywood gig. (The Jack Cole Dancers appearance hit the cutting room floor, but the gig put Cole in front of a movie camera for the first time.)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Howard Hawks’s comic masterpiece, which would be nine million percent less fabulous sans Jack Cole’s brilliant choreography for Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe.

And, guess what dance people? The TCM program for the event mentions Jack Cole in both the film descriptions!!!

TCM hosts, Robert Osborne, just surfacing after a long work hiatus, and Ben Mankiewicz, will also be also on board.

Wish us happy sailing~!

_{Thank you, Casablanca expert Michael Schlesinger.}

In my next life, for your information, I do plan to look like Loy. I’ll be borrowing some of her cocky attitude — she had gobs to spare. Many thanks to My Love of Old Hollywood, from whom I plucked these photos of pre-”Thin Man” Myrna.

[[Show as slideshow]]

Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood | Evenings at the Barn | Hollywood Heritage | Dec 14

The evening is dedicated to celebrating Redgrave’s elegant and soulful dramatic range and her exquisite skill. Playwright/director David Hare, who will emcee, has created three film sequences, each with its own narrative, showing the depth and array of characters that Redgrave has inhabited.

A member of the distinguished Redgrave acting family, Vanessa rose to prominence in 1961, playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then, she has made dozens of stage appearances and has appeared in more than 70 films.

In addition to the Oscar she received for her supporting performance in “Julia” (1977), and her nominations for “Morgan!” (1966), “Isadora” (1968), “Mary, Queen of Scots” (1971), “The Bostonians” (1984) and “Howards End” (1992), Redgrave’s honors include Olivier, Tony®, Emmy®, Screen Actors Guild and Cannes Film Festival awards.

She stars in “Anonymous,” now in release, and the upcoming “Coriolanus.”  Redgrave is also appearing in the West End stage production of Driving Miss Daisy.

_{photo credit: john stoddart}