ELEANOR POWELL , AMERICAN DANCER,ACTRESS, BORN 1912 NOVEMBER 21

ELEANOR POWELL ,

AMERICAN DANCER,ACTRESS,

BORN 1912 NOVEMBER 21

Eleanor Powell Born November 21, 1912 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Died February 11, 1982 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer)


Birth Name Eleanor Torrey Powell
Nicknames The Queen of Tap Dancing
Ellie
Height 5' 5¼" (1.66 m)
Mini Bio (1)

Eleanor Powell was born in 1912 in Springfield, Massachussetts, and got her professional start in Atlantic City clubs, from where she moved into in revue in New York at the Ritz Grill and Casino de Paris at the age of sixteen. She started her career on Broadway in 1929, where her machine-gun foot work gained her the title of world champion in tapping. In 1935 she came to Hollywood where she starred in the great MGM musicals in the late 1930s, establishing herself as a Queen of Ra-Ta-Taps. In spite of the fact that she was primarily a solo performer she also danced with Fred Astaire and George Murphy. After her marriage she wasn't seen on the screen, except for a short number in the Duchess of Idaho (1950). After her divorce she started a short but successful night-club career.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Spouse (1)

Glenn Ford (23 October 1943 - 23 November 1959) (divorced) (1 child)








Trivia (17)
Mother of the actor Peter Ford.
In 1954, following a period of retirement, she was asked to host The Faith of Our Children (1953), a non-denominational religious program which featured appearances from film and sports stars. The show lasted three seasons and Eleanor received a regional Emmy Award for children's programming.
One of her earliest New York jobs was working with the legendary Bill Robinson in private shows (c. 1928) given at parties held in the palatial homes of New York's high society. This was by working with Robinson that Powell first discovered tap dancing.

With a preference toward ballet and acrobatics (notably her splits), she did not initially tap in her early career. In fact, she disliked the style which she considered lacking in grace. It was only when she lost a number of musical roles in New York because she could not tap that she realized the need to learn. Due to her aerial style, she was taught to tap by being forced to wear army surplus ammunition belts with sandbags attached to ground herself. She was taught by Jack Donohue who at time gave private lessons in tap, reportedly paying him $35 for a course of 10 lessons.
Her parents separated when she was 11 months and divorced when she was two. Her mother told Eleanor as a child that her father had died to protect them from outside scandal, but Eleanor's father reintroduced himself to Eleanor in 1935 during the Boston run of "At Home Abroad".
Took dancing classes as a child to overcome extreme shyness and social awkwardness.

Was acclaimed "The World's Greatest Feminine Tap and Rhythm Dancer" by the Dance Masters of America in the mid-1930s.
Due to her becoming a minister in the Unity church, her ashes are placed in a bronze replica of the bible. She was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery just a few steps down the hall from Rudolph Valentino, Peter Finch and several other great legends of film.
She was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1541 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 15, 1984.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 650-652. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002 (inaugural class).
Having been spotted playfully performing acrobatics on the beach while on vacation at Atlantic City, her first professional dancing job was at age 12 at the Ambassador Hotel in a Gus Edwards summer vaudeville revue. She was reportedly paid a total of $21 for performing three times a week.
Became the first specialty tapper to ever appear at Carnegie Hall.
After a public appearances was at the AFI Tribute to her film co-star Fred Astaire, she made her final public appearance in October 1981 for the National Film Society in which the Ellie Award was established for performances in filmed musicals.

Unlike most other film dancers of her day, Powell did not use a choreographer but devised all her own numbers. Consequently, although she danced with some of the best dancers of her era, his most memorable performances were in solos.
Following her death, she was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, in the Cathedral Mausoleum.
Although her singing voice was always dubbed in her movies, she did record 2 records in 1935 with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra; "You Are My Lucky Star" and "I've Got A Feelin' You're Foolin' (from "Broadway Melody of 1936, Victor 25158) and "Got A Bran' New Suit" and "That's Not Cricket" (Victor 25173). These showed that although she did not have an important trained voice, she did have a very pleasant one.
Personal Quotes (6)

A tap dancer is really a frustrated drummer.
I'd rather dance than eat.
On her later years as an ordained minister: I was married to Glenn Ford. But now I feel as though I'm married to God, and in the nicest, purest sense.
Whenever you hear the beat of my feet, it is really the beat of my heart saying, "Thank You and God Bless You!".
Commenting on her marriage to Glenn Ford: I filed on the grounds of mental cruelty and that's exactly what he gave me.
Once I was identified as a tap dancer that was it - because nobody had ever seen that kind of thing before. When I hit it, the off-beat was just coming in. This was the big new thing, and I used to practice all the time between shows.
Salary (1)
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) $1,250 per week

Filmography[edit source]
Features[edit source]
Queen High (1930)

George White's 1935 Scandals (1935)
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)
Born to Dance (1936)
Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
Rosalie (1937)
Honolulu (1939)
Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Lady Be Good (1941)
Ship Ahoy (1942)
Thousands Cheer (1943)
I Dood It (1943)
Sensations of 1945 (1944)

Duchess of Idaho (1950)