4 March 2013 FOOTWORK: THE STORY OF FRED AND ADELE ASTAIRE by Roxane Orgill and Stephane Jorisch, ill., Candlewick, 2007, 48p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-2121-6

"[Michael] Jackson, who had a thorough knowledge of the movie musical, revered Fred Astaire. He record[ed] in his memoir how thrilled he was when Astaire praised him. The old master even invited him over to his house, where Jackson taught the moonwalk to him and his choreographer Hermes Pan. (Astaire told Jackson that both of them, he and Jackson, danced out of anger -- an interesting remark, at least about Astaire.) But despite Jackson's awe of his predecessor, he never learned the two rules that Astaire, as soon as he gained power over the filming, insisted on: (1) don't interrupt the dance with reaction shots or any other extraneous shots, and (2) favor a full-body shot over a closeup. To Astaire the dance was primary -- his main story -- and he had it filmed accordingly."

-- Joan Acocella, "Walking on the Moon: Michael Jackson in Motion" from The New Yorker (2009)

"The Wedding Cake Act went over big in Keyport, New Jersey -- so big that it landed the children a spot on the big-time vaudeville circuit. Vaudeville was a kind of variety show. In 1906, there was no radio or television, and movies with sound hadn't been invented yet, so people went to vaudeville. For a quarter, they could see marvelous, impossible things. Joe Cook juggled while standing on a high wire. A man with no arms shuffled and dealt cards and played the violin -- with his feet. Eddie Foy smiled his crooked smile like a crescent moon turned on its side and sang 'Garden of Roses' in a cracked, winsome voice. There were trick bicyclists, talking dogs, a wrestling pony, and pigs playing seesaw. And Sandow, the strongest man in the world. He could hold out at arm's length two bicyclists, one in each hand.

"Twice a day, Fred and Adele went up onstage and did the steps Mr. Alvienne had taught them, and people clapped as if they had never seen anything like it. Afterward, Fred watched the rest of the show from the wings. He stood in the cold and spidery dark for hours and caught every wink, trick, and beat.

"At the end of the week, Fred, Adele, and Mother packed up their tubes of greasepaint, their wardrobe trunks, the two wedding cake [props], and a few belongings and traveled to another theater in another town."

It had to be a pretty intense dichotomy: On one hand, Fred Astaire and his sister Adele were kids in the spotlight receiving enthusiastic applause. On the other hand, they had no real friends except for one another. They lived what passed for their "normal" lives while traveling on steam trains in-between theaters with their mother, while their father stayed at home earning money from a brewery job. And that big break -- at least the money part of it -- always seemed to be somewhere not quite yet in sight.

Until, at last, it all changed for them big time.

FOOTWORK is the latest in Candlewick's republishing of their picture book biographies into a uniform, chapter-book scaled trim size. But it is a really interesting bio that I missed the first time around and am really happy to have gotten to read it now. Thanks to YouTube (search for Fred Astaire dancing), you can provide a visual demonstration to young readers as to why it might be worth their while to read about this iconic entertainer from the last century who made the leap from vaudeville to the big screen.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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