Roller Skating in musicals

Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rodgers and Donald O'Connor set milestones in history of skating musicals with their outstanding performances. Onlineskating did some researches to make these memories revive. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performed in this piece. This scene is doubtless the oldest on skates since Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times". These two actors skate on old quads with a strap system which only rolled very badly. They start with a tap dance and continue with a ballet on quads. They act clumsiness which proves their incredible abilities on quads. A duo that deserves an honoured place in the history of musicals!

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1937: Shall we dance (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers)

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performed in this piece. This scene is doubtless the oldest on skates since Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times". These two actors skate on old quads with a strap system which only rolled very badly. They start with a tap dance and continue with a ballet on quads. They act clumsiness which proves their incredible abilities on quads. A duo that deserves an honoured place in the history of musicals!

Shall We Dance, released in 1937, is the seventh of the ten Astaire-Rogers musical comedy films. The idea for the film originated in the studio's desire to exploit the successful formula created by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart with their 1936 Broadway hit On Your Toes. The musical featured an American dancer getting involved with a touring Russian ballet company. In a major coup for RKO, Pandro Berman managed to attract the Gershwins – George Gershwin who wrote the symphonic underscore and Ira Gershwin the lyrics – to score this, their second Hollywood musical after Delicious in 1931.

Peter P. Peters (Fred Astaire), an American ballet dancer billed as "Petrov", dances for a ballet company in Paris owned by the bumbling Jeffrey Baird (Edward Everett Horton). Peters secretly wants to blend classical ballet with modern jazz dancing, and when he sees a photo of famous tap dancer Linda Keene (Ginger Rogers), he falls in love with her. He contrives to meet her, but she is less than impressed. They meet again on an ocean liner traveling back to New York, and Linda warms to Petrov. Unknown to them, a plot is launched as a publicity stunt "proving" that they are actually married. Outraged, Linda becomes engaged to the bumbling Jim Montgomery (William Brisbane), much to the chagrin of both Peters and Arthur Miller (Jerome Cowan), her manager, who secretly launches more fake publicity.

Peters and Keene, unable to squelch the rumor, decide to actually marry and then immediately get divorced. Linda begins to fall in love with her husband, but then discovers him with another woman, Lady Denise Tarrington (Ketti Gallian), and leaves before he can explain. Later, when she comes to his new show to personally serve him divorce papers, she sees him dancing with dozens of women, all wearing masks with her face on them: Peters has decided that if he cannot dance with Linda, he will dance with images of Linda. Seeing that he truly loves her, she happily joins him onstage.

1944: Pin Up Girl (Gloria Nord with the Skating Vanities)

Pin Up Girl is an US- American romantic musical. Betty Gable acts the hostess of the local USO cafeteria, Lorry Jones/ Laura Lorraine, in Missoula Missouri. She also plays a role as a singer and gives autographs to soldiers and provokes big excitement. The main part on quads is shown from minute 21:40 and lasts 4 minutes. This piece shows lovely moments with the Skating Vanities. In the middle of the scene you can see the superstar of this era: Gloria Nord. She's performing a solo and frees the stage for a typical duo of this time. This duo is presented by Tony Mirelli and Rose Piccola and they show an acrobatic masterpiece. The choreography is made by Gae Forster and Gloria Nord.

1953: I love Melvin (Donald O' Connor)

Donald O' Connor already acted in "Singin' in the rain". Some of you may remember the mystic scene "Make'em laugh", in which he presented all his artistic talents. How could it be different, regarding to his roots! He has been on stage for the first time only a few weeks after being born.One year later you could see him in "I love Melvin". He is sharing a scene with Noreeen Corcoranen and they sing "Life Has Its Funny Ups and Downs" together. He shows some tap dancing and other artistic performances on quads. The moment when he walks down the stairs after his tap dance performance let it look like his wheels wouldn't spin!

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