OCR Text |
Show HARLEM HOOFING INSPIRATION TOO DISTANT TO AID HOLLYWOOD ? ' -- '"-. . : ' . . . , ' .-.. ., . ' ELEANOR POWELL, one of the most popular pop-ular feminine dancing stars of the day, daneea through Walter WlacheU's guest eolaaaa today. Winchell, who is away oa vacation leave, will be gone for the remainder of July. Tomorrow, Clark Gable will take over Winchells (nest column. By ELEANOR POWELL . (M-G-M star who reeatly finished "Broadway Melod yoJS3a Dear Mr. W.: Two years in Hollywood have taught me that Broadway is the place of experience and Hollywood is the place of achievement. Broadway makes the hoofers and , Hollywood takes them. While I was sitting on the set the other day with Sophie Tucker, George Murphy and Buddy Ebsen, we quite naturally came to the subject of Broadway Broad-way and dancers. All three troupers agreed that the only way a hoofer can get into the profession is to pound the Broadwsy pavement, and how well do I remember the truth of this statement! Buddy worked as a soda-jerker in the Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania station by night and pounded the pavement by day, until Ziegfeld gave him a spot in "Whoopee." He admitted that Broadway made him wear out plenty of shoe leather, but at the same time gave him his chance for dancing fame. Sophie said nothing. She loved her Broadway and was just sitting by quietly in case it needed her defense. George remarked that Broadway had a psychological psycho-logical effect on not only hoofers, but everyone ln the theatrical profession. "Personally," he said, "it always seemed to me that everyone was under the effect of height in that man-made canyon. Everything was up. When the people wanted to see the sky, they had to crane their necks it was always overhead. The whole feeling was one of being in a narrow valley." "Why can't Hollywood produce hoofers?" asked Buddy. Nnn nf ujt rnulrl answer that nne. en we vMit It Eleanor Powell ... Tap star rapt, out a few notes for Winchell. to Johnny Boyle, when he walked on .the set 'The answer Is easy." he declared. "You can't bring Harlem to Holly-. Holly-. wood, that's the reason that Hollywood Holly-wood will never be the center of - dancing experience and creation. For Seventh avenue gives us the real inspiration for tap dancing." Johnny said that if Seventh avenue ave-nue didn't run Into Times Square ' from Harlem, then it might be a different story. Then Broadway might not be the dancing center of the world. 'The negro section of Memphis. .' Tenn., has just as many dancero and just as much rhythm as New York's ' Harlem, but there'a no outlet Into the white section of the town. Beal street just runs along in a straight line, until it turns into a cow path, without making one contact with the whites." And we all I Is tended to Johnny. We had listened to him eight years ago and found that hia sdvics was ."worthwhile. For Buddy, George and myself. In 1929, were members of a dancing school, run by Boyle and his partner, the late Jack Donahue, Dona-hue, who gave ma my first tap training. In our classroom. In the old Gallo .'theater in New York, at Broadway and Eighth, we were taught what . Johnny meant when he said that Harlem supplied the dancing in-'apiratlon. in-'apiratlon. Many of our former classmates at the dancing school are now in Hollywood, some as hoofers and ' others as straight actors. Ginger Rogers. Ruby Keeler, Dorothy Stone, 1 Jack Haley, Vilma Ebsen, Fred I Stone, Rudy Vallee, Miriam Hopkins, Hop-kins, Joe E. Brown, Arlene Judge and Frank McHugh were just a few, . Even the beloved Will Rogers came to the classes when be offered to take Fred Stone's place In the - letter's show after Fred had been ' injured in an accident He had to ' learn to dance, and his theatrical experience taught him that Broad-, Broad-, way was the place to do so. But Broadway's fame aa the ! school for experience is not con-. con-. fined to this country. From England Eng-land came Jack Hulbert and Jack 'Buchanan so they could go to our dancing school. Hollywood has taken actors, writers, writ-ers, producers, dancers, decorators and directora away from New York, . but when it cornea to trying to take away the . reputation of training hoofers, Broadway'a answer is the asms as a aong from your last picture, pic-ture, "No, No, You Can't Take That Away From Me." But none of us had an easy time n Broadway. The world'a greatest tap dancer. Bill Robinson, knows thst, for (Boyle said) "Ha didn't reach fame until he waa around 43. Then be appeared at the Palace in the sec- - ond spot and stopped the show. Before Be-fore that ha waa a member of the team of Cooper and Robinson, comedians, come-dians, who toured vaudeville." I can remember tramping along that theatrical aection of New York ' for months and months, armed with six years of intensive dancing traitv ing. trying to get a job. But no luck. I wasn't ons of Broadway's . daughters. Finally, I went to a Broadway dancing school, managed to get some of that Broadway dancing spirit, and I pounded the pavements no more. - Singers can be trained anywhere, .actors come from all parte of the -world, but Broadway ia the place . where bootblacks buck-and-wing for a nickel and atop the traffic And I guesa you know what I mean, Walter. Love, ELEANOR. |