Evening star., 1943-04-18
By Sheil0h Graham.
HOI VWOOD


With Cesar Romero due to enter
the United States Coast Guard,
there is practically no man left for
the girls to dance with in pictures
(and ouO. And studio bosses have
been reduced to hiring expert male
dancers to twirl and to serve as
background for the dancing ladies
of the screen. With every studio
dance -and-song crazy right now,
practically any boy who can dance
and is moderately personable can get
a glamour girl in his hands-and on
his feet.
For example, there's Don Loper
Hollywood A big hunk of the S.
100000 it took to make Lady i'll the
Dark" is invested in the dance per-
formed by Don with Ginger Rogers.
FOR his blue dance with Ginger
there were never less than lC0
electricians on the set-to create the
effect of dancing on clouds. For the
gold" dream. Loper shared Ginger
With Jon Hall. I've seen Jon swim
In pictures before, but I don't re-
member seeing him dance. For the
circus" dance, Ginger foots the
light fantastic with chorus OF 4-F
men! Anything goes as long as the
man can dance.
Janet Blair has no less an expert
than David Lichine as her partner
In Something to Shout About The
star of the Russian ballet, famous
for his leapings, does rumba with
Janet. 1t isn't set yet, but Lichine
may dance in "Tropicana' which
stars Ann Miller and Wac West. 1t
would be quite something to see
the slender Russian getting the
dance workout of his life with the
plump Miss West.
John Garfield, Of all people, has
been recruited to the ranks of male
dancers. He does spot of ballroom
stepping with all three of his lead
ing ladies in Escape to Danger
tformerly Fallen Sparrow Which
means he encircles Maureen o Hara,
Martha ODriscoll and Patricia
Morrison.
Surprise of Her Life.
No, Margo does not dance with
the leopard in The Leopard Man"
For a partner she has a pair of
castenets. This is Margo's first dance
chore in pictures, although that's
how she began her working life,
She went into drama to get away
from dancing Now she's going into
dancing to get away from drama.
Judy Garland gets one of the best
dancers in the country for her new
finale in Lily Mars Wal
ters, who danced with Betty Cradle
in the Broadway musical, "Du Barry
Was Lady" He was brought to
Metro os a dance instructor for film
spectacles. And then some one had
the bright idea-why not let the boy
rio his own stuff before the camera?
In addition to dancing with Judy in
the aforementioned film. Chuck ar
ranged the rodeo dance number for
Judy and Mickey Rooney in Girl
Crazy This has a chorus of 40
men and 40 girls Where did they
get the men? From the two big
colleges-U. S. c. and U. c. L. A. If
the boys are up on their grades they
are allowed to dance in pictures
lo,, Of 70
of $3.50. This gives them good
pocket money. and helps out the
studios with the shortage of men
headache.
Instead Of man to dance with,
Eleanor Powell gets rope in Il
Dood It." This rope number lasts
five minutes on the screen, although
it took Eleanor 10 weeks to learn it.
She has a chorus of 20 girls and a
couple of male rope twirlers for
better measure.
Fred Astaire is not the only man
who dances on the bar of the bar
room of his current picture Gene
Kelly is a bar dance in Private
Miss Jones'" In this one he has
been spared the necessity of dane
ing too much with leading lady
who cannot dance Kathryn Gray
SOM. And the ubiquitous Miss
Powell has been called in to help out
with solo.
Metro leaned over backward to
get Red SHELTON to dance in the
movie version of "Du Barry Was a
Lady" And with Lucille Ball, he
dances in bedroom, to little num-
ber titled Madame I Like Your
Crepe Suzettes." Gene Kelly is also
In the picture, and that's good dance
support for Lucille.
Spencer Tracy, who loathes dane