An Evening with Fred Astaire Part 2/6

An Evening with Fred Astaire was a one-hour live television special starring Fred Astaire, broadcast on NBC on October 17, 1958. It was highly successful, winning nine Emmy awards and spawning three further specials, and technically innovative, as it was the first major television show to be recorded on color videotape. It was produced at NBC's Color City studios in Burbank, California.

Considered something of a comeback for the then 59-year-old Astaire, the special was his first starring role on television. It was directed and co-produced by Bud Yorkin and introduced Astaire's new partner Barrie Chase, whom he would later describe in Interview magazine in 1973 as perhaps his favorite dance partner.[1] The Jonah Jones Quartet and David Rose and his Orchestra provided the music, and the Hermes Pan Dancers appeared in the ensemble dance numbers. The announcer was Art Gilmore, who at the time was the voice of the Chrysler Corporation, the show's sponsor. Typical for advertising of the era, Chrysler's 1959 model year Forward Look cars featured prominently in the show; Astaire's final words were "I only hope the show is as good as the cars."

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Fred Astaire
• An Evening With Fred Astaire
• Barrie Chase
• Astaire
• Dancing

[johnyzero2000]

This dude was 59 when this special was made!? He moves like a 20 year old!

[theuofc]

This is simply wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing this rare gem. Barrie Chase with the GREAT Fred Astaire. Heavenly.

[edisonoside]

break my legs!

[tomservo56954]

@caraqueno I thought it was culturally acceptable for dancers to were more "revealing" clothing in performance than they or others did offstage, including hemlines higher than the norm of the time.

[caraqueno]

It goes to show how history gets rewritten as time goes by. This video shows Barrie Chase's hemline, which, conventional wisdom, said, was supposed to have been longer, but, here it is, October, 1958, and the hemline looks like those of the early to mid-'60's.