To commemorate my latest interview with authors Paula Broussard and Lisa Royère (Episodes 59 & 60) whose new book "Eleanor Powell Born To Dance" is a loving and faithful tribute to one of Hollywood’s great dance icons - I've put together this entertaining trivia list featuring some fun facts about Powell's classic films for you to test your knowledge with. Enjoy!
Unlike most other film dancers of her day, Powell did not use a choreographer but devised all her own numbers. Consequently, although she danced with some of the best dancers of her era, her most memorable performances were in solos.
Although her singing voice was always dubbed in her movies, Powell did record 2 records in 1935 with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra; "You Are My Lucky Star" and "I've Got A Feelin' You're Foolin' (from "Broadway Melody of 1936, Victor 25158) and "Got A Bran' New Suit" and "That's Not Cricket" (Victor 25173). These showed that although she did not have an important trained voice, she did have a very pleasant one.
"George White's Scandals of 1935" was the first major film role for Powell , after having appeared in bit parts in a couple of other films.
Eleanor Powell was spotted in a Fox screen test by MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who, due to the grainy quality of the test, initially thought she was African-American. Once Fox cast her in “George White's Scandals”, MGM made its move to put her under contract.
Reportedly, Powell did not want to participate in the MGM film “Broadway Melody of 1936”, as she was slated for the non-dancing role eventually played by Una Merkel. Too much of a neophyte to confront the studio executives, she engineered her dismissal by politely demanding the lead role and an exorbitant salary, and she was shocked when the studio met her terms, paving the way for her meteoric film career.
Audiences never suspected that Eleanor Powell did not perform her own singing vocals because Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer linked her with ghost singer Marjorie Lane from the outset of her career. Lane had only one other film credit to her name, appearing on camera in a 1930 short subject. As such, her voice was unknown to movie audiences and, when matched with Powell's visual interpretation, it cemented the notion that Powell could sing as well as she danced, beginning with her very first film, “Broadway Melody of 1936” (1935).
M-G-M kept Marjorie Lane under contract solely to serve as Powell's voice double for “Born to Dance” (1936), “Broadway Melody of 1938” (1937) and “Rosalie” (1937). Further completing the illusion is the fact that Eleanor Powell provided her own singing voice for several numbers during the course of her career that did not require finessed singing (principally “Broadway Melody of 1940” [1940]), and some of her films required no vocals at all, such as “Honolulu” (1939), “Ship Ahoy” (1942) and “I Dood It” (1943). Decades later, with all of the studio's history at his disposal, not even Jack Haley, Jr. suspected Powell's dubbing history and the narration he wrote for “That's Entertainment!” (1974) professed that Powell was singing "Easy to Love" with James Stewart in “Born to Dance” (1936).
“Born To Dance” (1936) was Cole Porter's first musical for MGM.
Cole Porter picked James Stewart for the male lead in “Born To Dance” and later said he sang "Easy to Love" as well as any professional singer. A dubbing track was prepared with baritone Jack Owens, but it was decided that Stewart's tenor voice was perfect for the song. In “That's Entertainment!”, Stewart said, "The song had become a huge hit, even my singing wouldn't hurt it."
“Born To Dance” was the only film pairing of James Stewart and Eleanor Powell.
The film “Rosalie” (1937) was a "test" by M-G-M to see if the pairing of Eleanor Powell with Nelson Eddy might be as potent a box office draw as that of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, who ranked among the top ten at the time. Although the film's reception hardly qualified it as being a bomb, its big $2 million production budget kept it from being as profitable as most of Jeanette and Nelson's operatic outings.
To capitalize upon Powell's renown as a dancer, the film was retooled to allow her several showcase musical numbers, one of which is the title number with Powell dancing on top of a giant drum, one of the largest musical sequences ever filmed.
Over 100 West Point cadets appeared in “Rosalie”, and there are rumors that each one who took part in one dance number received a kiss from Eleanor Powell.
The electricity bill for the Drum Dance scene in “Rosalie” was, according to some rumors, in the neighborhood of $30,000. According to some sources 1,500 extras were used in the Drum Dance scene; making the costumes for them took almost a month.
For the film “Honolulu” (1939) Eleanor Powell's dance routines were given a mostly Hawaiian flavor.
“Honolulu” was the final film appearance of George Burns and Gracie Allen together.
Powell and Gracie Allen sing and dance together in a sequence featuring the titular song “Honolulu”.
“Broadway Melody of 1940” (1940) was planned to be shot in Technicolor, but made in black and white.
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. According to accounts of the making of this film, including a documentary included on the DVD release, Astaire was somewhat intimidated by Powell, who was considered the only female dancer ever capable of out-dancing Astaire.
The original Broadway production of "Lady Be Good" opened December 1, 1924 at the Liberty Theatre, where it ran for a then-impressive 330 performances. The film version utilized a completely new storyline and retained only two of the show's George and Ira Gershwin songs, "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Oh, Lady Be Good," both of which were featured decades later in MGM's “That's Entertainment, Part 2”(1976).
For Eleanor Powell's dance rendition of the song "Oh, Lady Be Good," MGM auditioned several dogs, but none were able to do the required tricks. Finally, Powell bought a dog from a prop man and trained it herself for several weeks so that the dance could be done as she wanted.
The title of the film”Ship Ahoy" (1942) was changed to "I'll Take Manila" because the Philippines had already fallen to the Japanese in the war. The ship's destination was changed from Manila to Puerto Rico, and the song "I'll Take Manila" was changed to "I'll Take Tallulah".
“Ship Ahoy” was the first of two films in which Powell and Skelton co-starred.
The movie includes a number in which Powell's character, communicates with US agent in the audience by tapping out a message in morse code.
Frank Sinatra made his second feature film appearance as a singer with Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra in the Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton musical comedy “Ship Ahoy”.
Eleanor Powell reportedly knocked herself out cold during rehearsals for the lariat dance in “I Dood It” (1943)
The title of the film “I Dood It” (1943) is from a catchphrase used by Red Skelton on his radio show when he was in character as the "Mean Widdle Kid".
“I Dood It” (1943) was the last of the three films co-starring Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell.
Powell parted with MGM in 1943 after the film, “Thousands Cheer”, in which she appeared only for a few minutes to perform a specialty number (as part of an all-star cast), and the same year married actor Glenn Ford.
Both Eleanor Powell's boogie woogie routine and Lena Horne's rendition of "Honeysuckle Rose" were interpolated into the film “Thousands Cheer” (1943) when MGM abandoned its production of "Broadway Melody of 1943" before it was completed. Ironically, that aborted project was to have co-starred Powell and Gene Kelly, both of whom appear in “Thousands Cheer” but not together.
“Thousands Cheer” (1943) was the first color film of Kathryn Grayson, Mary Astor, John Boles, Eleanor Powell, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sothern, Donna Reed, José Iturbi', Margaret O'Brien, Lena Horne, Bob Crosby, Kay Kyser, and just about everyone else who had not appeared previously in either “Best Foot Forward” or “Du Barry Was a Lady”.
United Artists’ “Sensations of 1945” (1944) was Eleanor Powell's final starring role in a movie. She retired to concentrate on raising her son, Peter Ford, who was born that year. After this, she would make only cameo appearances in films.
Billboard magazine (March 25th 1944 page 87, column 1) states that Eleanor Powell and electrician Phil Braun dreamed up one of the dance numbers in “Sensations of 1945” based on a pinball machine and worked on it for six weeks. When she would hit one of the pins, it would light up.
“Duchess of Idaho” (1959) marked Eleanor Powell's first film appearance in six years as well as her last film appearance.
Esther Williams reported that Powell had practiced her cameo's routine for “Duchess of Idaho” until her feet bled, claiming that it had to be perfect.
Powell was reintroduced to audiences in the popular “That's Entertainment!” documentary in 1974, and its sequels “That's Entertainment Part II” (1976) and “That's Entertainment! III” (1994) and the related film “That's Dancing!” (1985) which spotlight her dancing from films such as “Broadway Melody of 1940”, “Lady Be Good”, and “Born to Dance”.
According to dancer Ann Miller, quoted in the "making-of" documentary “That's Entertainment! III”, MGM was headed for bankruptcy in the late 1930s, but the films of Eleanor Powell, particularly “Broadway Melody of 1936”, were so popular that they made the company profitable again.
Authors Lisa Royère and Paul Broussard first met Powell in 1974 at the Gary Theatre - a tiny revival movie house on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood - which was showing a retrospective of her films. Royère felt an immediate connection with the star. Their friendship lasted until Eleanor’s death from cancer in 1982. In 2023, Royère and Broussard’s incredibly entertaining and well-researched book “Eleanor Powell Born To Dance” was published by the University Press of Kentucky for their Screen Classics series re-educating movie lovers of Powell's unique talent and restoring her place as one of the best dancers in Hollywood's history.
Eleanor Powell was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1541 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 15, 1984.
Trivia items from IMDB
To listen to my fascinating conversation with authors PAULA BROUSSARD and LISA ROYÈRE about their the new biography "Eleanor Powell Born To Dance" on my podcast - click on the links below. Enjoy!
Episode 59 - HERE
Episode 60 - HERE
