Evening star., 1946-09-09


This was only one of many things
to be learned yesterday at the party
tossed for Vera Ellen at the Carlton
by her cinema sponsors, who think
very highly of her. She also has a
grandmother who never has seen
movie, once was a Rockette at
Radio City Music Hall ("I lost my
nine pounds and quit after three
weeks) and likes the smell of
cigarette smoke but can't smoke for
fear of losing her wind before she
reaches the applause step in a dance
routine.
Another thing to be learned from
vera-Ellen over the vichysoisse is
that dancers have an even rougher
time than singers in filmusicals.
Songs and actor do not get onto
the film at the same time, you
know, the singers laboring in a
recording studio to synchronize
words and lip movements. Well, tap
dancing is done by the same system.
When the routine is filmed, the
dancers wear felt pads on their
shoes, in order that the shiny floors
the scenic designer has dreamed up
will not be marked up. AS Vera
Ellen describes it, the subsequent
recording of the taps to go with
the dance is something on the
hectic side, especially when the
dancer goes into spin that is part
of the routine, while wearing head
phones to hear the music, mean
while trying to watch herself on
the screen.
Vera ELLEN almost became a
pianist, but her mother looked at
her one day during a practice ses-
sion and decided she'd never have
hands big enough for that sort of
thing. So mother put her daugh-
ter In dancing school at the age of
nine, and she's been going to dane
ing school ever since, off and on.
That necessity for keeping up with
q strenuous art, Vera Ellen says, is
probably the reason all movie dane
ers want, as she wants, to give that
UP some day for acting without the
dancing. Between pictures, dancer
can't relax, but must practice dane
ing. Things are different for dane
ers during the making of a film,
too. Everybody goes home at 6
O'Clock but me-" says Vera Ellen.
"I go at $50. If I've been wearing
q dance costume, I've got makeup
all over me that has to be creamed
of, then scrubbed with brush. Or
maybe I have a routine to practice"
It is, one gathers, life on the
rugged side.
Vera Ellen, of course, has not had
TO worry too. much about the dis
position Of her between-picture time
After The Kid from Brooklyn,
she went Immediately (on a loan
to goth Century-Fox) into Three
Little Girls in Blue" and stepped
from that right into Carnival in
Costa Rica" She was occupying
herself with the study of tipping,
shorthand and public speaking
after that, when a man from Fox
walked into the classroom and said,
you're going to Atlantic City for
a premiere'n "I can't" said Vera
Ellen. "I have tests" Well, movie
stars do as they're told, so Vera
Ellen came East.
She was in school, If you're
wondering. for the pure and simple
reason that she'd always wanted
to study those things but hadn't
had time because of her dancing,
after graduating from high school,
The dancer started her profess
sional life as Major Bowes anna
teur, appearing in Washington at
the Capitol Theater once upon a
time. The tour gave her a great
distaste for "the road" Mr.. Gold
wyn has such plans for her that
she probably will not have to go
touring with a vaudeville unit again
soon, however. She may even some
day surprise Russell Markert. He
Is the man who advised Vera-Ellen
against making any rash moves
the time she decided she was not
cut out for that Rockette work
you may get little more money
somewhere else right now (she was