Profile of Eleanor Powell on Famous Like Me

Eleanor Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was an American actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.

Eleanor Torrey Powell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. A dancer since childhood, she was discovered at the age of 11 by the head of the Vaudeville Kiddie revue, Gus Edwards. When she was 17, she brought her graceful, athletic style to Broadway, where she starred in various revues and musicals. During this time, she was dubbed "the world's greatest tap dancer" due to her machine-gun footwork.

In 1935, the leggy, fresh-faced Powell made the move to Hollywood and did a specialty number in George White's 1935 Scandals which she later described as a disaster due in part to her accidentally being made up to look like an Egyptian due to a mix-up prior to filming her scene. The experience left her unimpressed with Hollywood. Nonetheless, she was signed by MGM soon after, which groomed her for her future stardom making minimal changes in her (non-Egyptian) makeup and conduct. She was well-received in Broadway Melody of 1936 (in which she was supported by Jack Benny and Frances Langford), and delighted 1930s audiences with her endless energy and enthusiasm, not to mention her stunning dancing.

Powell would go on to star opposite many of the decade's top leading men such as Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, Fred Astaire, George Murphy, Nelson Eddy, and Robert Young. Films she made during the height of her career in the mid-to-late 1930s co-starred these men and others and included Born to Dance (1936), Rosalie (1937), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Honolulu (1939), and Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). Most of these movies featured her amazing solo tapping, although her increasingly huge production numbers began to attract criticism. Broadway Melody of 1940, in which Powell starred opposite Fred Astaire, featured a brilliant musical score by Cole Porter. Together, Astaire and Powell danced to Porter's "Begin The Beguine", which is considered by many to have been the greatest tap sequence in film history.

In the 1940s, after being sidelined for many months following a gall stone operation, things changed somewhat for the worse, at least as far as Powell's movie career was concerned. 1941's Lady Be Good gave Powell top billing and a classic dance routine to "Fascinatin' Rhythm", but Robert Young and Ann Sothern carried the movie. The same happened with Red Skelton in Ship Ahoy (1942) and I Dood It (1943). She was signed to play opposite Dan Dailey in For Me and My Gal in 1942, but the two actors were removed from the picture during rehearsals and replaced by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Later, production of a new Broadway Melody film that would have paired Powell with Kelly was also cancelled.

She parted ways with MGM in 1943 after Thousands Cheer, in which she did a specialty number, and the same year married Canadian lead actor Glenn Ford. She danced in a giant pinball machine in Sensations of 1945 (1944), but this picture was a large disappointment, and Powell retired from the cinema to concentrate on raising her son, actor Peter Ford, who was born that year.

In 1950, Powell returned to MGM just once, to guest star in The Duchess of Idaho, starring Esther Williams. She divorced Ford in 1959, and that year started a highly-publicized nightclub career, maintaining her good figure and looks well into middle age. In her later years, she became interested in religion, and was actually ordained a minister of the Unity Church. She also hosted an Emmy Award-winning Sunday morning TV program for children entitled The Faith of Our Children (1953 - 1955). Her son, Peter Ford, was a regular on this show.

Powell was reintroduced to audiences in the popular That's Entertainment! documentary in 1974, and its sequels That's Entertainment Part II and That's Entertainment III which spotlighted her dancing from films such as Broadway Melody of 1940, Lady Be Good, and Born to Dance. In more recent years, however, most of Powell's films have lapsed into obscurity, with only Broadway Melody of 1940 currently available on DVD in North America as of 2005, although two of her production numbers from Broadway Melody of 1936 were included as bonus features on the 2002 special edition DVD release of Singin' in the Rain.

Eleanor Powell died of cancer on February 11, 1982 at the age of 69, and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.

Filmography

• Queen High (1930)
• No Contest! (1934) (short subject)
• George White's 1935 Scandals (1935)
• Broadway Melody of 1936 (1936)
• Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 12 (1936) (short subject)
• Born to Dance (1936)
• Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
• Rosalie (1937)
• Honolulu (1939)
• Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
• Lady Be Good (1941)
• Ship Ahoy (1942)
• Thousands Cheer (1943)
• I Dood It (1943)
• Sensations of 1945 (1944)
• The Great Morgan (1946)
• Screen Snapshots: Famous Hollywood Mothers (1947) (short subject)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Holiday (1948) (short subject)
• Duchess of Idaho (1950)
• The Faith of our Children (1955) (short subject)

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