Fred Astaire, sister Adele & Ginger Rogers

Adele (1896-1981) and Frederick Austerlitz (1899–1987) were born in Nebraska, children of Johanna Geilus and Fritz Aust­er­litz. Johanna was born in the U.S to Lutheran Ger­man imm­igrants from East Prussia and Al­sace. Fritz was born in Linz Austria to Jewish parents, and later the whole family converted to Cath­ol­icism. Fritz arrived in New York in 1893, then found brewery work in Omaha.

Adele became a young dancer and singer, and alth­ough Fred refused dance lessons, he eas­ily copied his sister's dancing and learned 3 musical instruments. So Johan­na started plan­ning a brother-sister act, common in vaudeville then, for her two children.

When Fritz suddenly lost his job, the family moved to New York in 1905 to launch the child­ren’s show business careers. Adele and Fred began train­ing at the Alviene Master School of the Theat­re and Acad­emy of Cult­ural Arts. Their mother suggested they change their name to Astaire, as Austerlitz sounded too German. Did Fred mind that he was a] Germanic on both parents’ sides and b] Jewish on one side? Did he know that Fritz’s brothers Otto and Ernst remained in Austria and were soldiers during WWI? Apparently there was a tacit family agreement to mention neither.

Fred and Adele Astaire in 1921 

Adele and Fred were taught dance, speaking and singing, prepar­ing to develop an act. Their first act was Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. In Nov 1905 their act debuted in Key­port New Jersey.

Their father's salesmanship rapidly landed Fred and Adele a major contract, playing the Orpheum Circuit of vaude­ville and cinemas in cities across the U.S. Even though Adele was older and taller, Fred wore a top hat (to increase his height) and the team was billed with Fred’s name first (to make him seem old­er). But eventually they decided to take a break from show business.

The career of the Astaire teens later restarted with more polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines. And they learned the tango, waltz and other popular ball­room dances from vaude­ville dancers. Then they appeared in Mary Pickford’s 1915 film, Fanchon, the Crick­et.

Young Fred was directing their music in 1916, just at the time he met George Gershwin who was working for the music pub­lisher Jerome Remick. Fred had been hunting for new music and dance ideas, so their meeting was a blessing to both their careers.

The Astaires had their first Broadway success with Over the Top (1917), a revue created for U.S and Allied troops. They continued with more shows, including The Passing Show of 1918. Audiences loved Ad­el­e, owing in part to Fred's good choreo­graphy. But by this time, Fred's dancing was beginning to sparkle as well.

In the 1920s, they appeared on both Broadway and the Lon­don stage. And whilst in London, Fred was keen to study piano at Guild­hall School of Music. As Astaire's tap dancing was recognised by then as among the best in the world, he was certainly multi-talented.

Eventually Fred and Adele enjoyed stage succes­s­es. In fact, London gave them a bigger welcome than New York, but it was in Lon­d­on in 1924 that they heard of their father’s illness. Their mother ret­urned to America and soon, during the London run of Stop Flirting, their father died.

They won popular acclaim in theatres on both sides of the At­l­antic for Jerome Kern's The Bunch and Judy (1922), George & Ira Gersh­win's Lady, Be Good (1924) and Funny Face (1927) and later in The Band Wagon (1931). Fred went on to star in 10+ Broad­way and West End mus­ic­als, making 31 musical films and recordings.

The siblings split in 1932 when Adele married Lord Charles Cav­en­d­ish, 9th Duke of Devonshire’s son. Fred achieved suc­cess on Broad­way and in London with The Gay Divorcee, while consid­er­ing a Holly­wood future. But the end of the long family part­ner­ship was difficult for Fred.

His most memorable dancing par­t­nership was with Ginger Rogers, with whom he co-starred in ten Hollywood musicals! Among their most not­able films, where As­taire took the genre of tap danc­ing to a new lev­el, were Top Hat (1935) and Shall we dance? (1937).

Astaire was very reluctant to become part of another dan­ce team! How­ever RKO noted the public appeal of Fred’s choreography and of Astaire-Rogers dancing, which helped make dancing an important element of the film musical.

Now working with Claire Luce, Fred created a dance duo for Cole Por­ter's Night and Day. Luce stated that she had to help him to take a more romantic approach. The success of the stage play, and the film version, The Gay Div­or­cee, ushered in a new era in dance. Recently found footage of Astaire per­form­ing in Gay Divorce in 1933 survives!

RKO lent him to MGM in 1933 for his Hollywood debut in the succ­essful musical film Dancing Lady, dancing with Joan Craw­ford. On his return to RKO, he was with Ginger Rogers in Dolores del Río’s Flying Down to Rio (1933). Ginger and Fred were so thrilling toget­her, they made 9 films at RKO, including The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937) and Care­free (1938). Most Astaire–Rogers musicals became subs­t­antial money-makers for RKO.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Top Hat (1935)

Fred in Top Hat, 1935

Instead of using dance as a mere spec­tacle as others had done, Astaire was determined that all song and dance routines in a film be integral to the plotline. Ast­aire films usually included a solo performance by Astaire; a comedy dance routine for two; and a romantic dance duo.

In 1933 Fred married Phyllis Livingston Potter, after Phyl­l­is’ div­orce; they went to Hollywood tog­ether, had 2 children and lived happily until Phyllis’ death from lung cancer

I am very grateful to The German Way & More.