Evening star., 1942-10-01

feet grace of Eleanor Powell. Is one
of the hottest prospects on the Bur-
bank lot today because she can
dance exactly like George M. Cohan.
1t all started in St. Louis and led,
of course, to Hollywood, where Har-
riett now holds down one of the
strangest jobs in town where
strange jobs are almost normal.
To begin with, using the movies
own fashback technique, Harriet
was dancing in st. Louis cafes and
night clubs, "hoofing," as she calls
it, and doing very well for 16-year-
old when one of the stars of the
Imperial Ballett School of Moscow,
George Milenoff, said "bah!" to her.
The "bah!" meant, in Milenoff's
opinion that she was wasting her
time on time steps and should study
ballet. This led to- Havana, where
the Russian became maestro Of the
famous Sociedad Pro-Arte, and
that's where Harriet learned all
about Russian dancing.
When she returned to the United
States and got her filing at Holly
wood career, she was an unusually
equipped girl-she could either bal
let or tap, or mix 'em up so fast you
could hardly tell the difference.
In Yankee Doodle Dandy" it was
Harriet who modelled the George
M. Cohan dance routines for James
Cagney. Johnny Boyle, the Broad
way specialist who knew the Cohan
routines to his finger tips but had
broken ankle, literally gave Harriet
the steps with his fingers. She
translated them into action. Then
Cagney picked them up and learned
them with all the expertness you
witnessed in the screen production.
1t was the same thing on The
Hard Way" another picture in
which dancing was important Har-
riett set up the stepping routines
| first under LIE Roy PrinZ. Holly
woods famous dancing master, and
then Joan Leslie, star of the picture,
learned them.
Now. just for variety, Harriet is
appearing in The Desert Song"
and doing her own dancing. Fer
the sake of even more variety, sine
| does a French can-can routine that
preview witnesses declare will knock
the customers and possibly the Hays
office boys right out of their seats.
Harriet was born in Oklahoma
City and, as you might suspect
from the name, is SWede Her
father H. A. Olson. Oklahoma City
businessman, is a conservative gen.
tleman who wants no part OF Holly
wood. He has never ceased to be a
little astonished by the success of
his Russian-dancing, Spanish
speaking offspring.
In Havana Harriet not only
danced ballerina parts-you know.
way up on her toes-but did char
acter and male parts Those she
enjoyed best of all. Meanwhile she
learned front" back" left
right" and vast number of dane
| ing terms in Spanish. She came
home i'll from Havana, spent year
wondering if she would ever dance
again. recovered, did dance again
and tried Hollywood. Didn't know
a soul in the place. just appeared
out of thin air. walked into casting
directors office and said she wanted
to dance. Probably no newcomer
ever cracked the supposedly IRON
clad gates to movietown with quite
the simple ease that she did.
She resembles Zorina, especially
with those long, slim legs. Ballet
dancers tend to have knotty, heavily
muscled legs. Harriet explains how
she-and you, too, if you're going in
for ballet-can keep 'em slim.
Heavy woolen tights for work.
outs, then soak in alcohol. Result
is she looks as frail as Veronica
Lake but can 60 six to eight hours
of straight dancing without a stop.
Dance directors still make mis-
|