Fred and Adele Astaire continue on their way to becoming big stars. They are offered their first opportunity to star in a performance by a man named Dillingham. They were to star in a play called The Bunch and Judy featuring an array of other famous and talented performers. This was their first experience as starts and their first with a true flop. The situation was made worse because they were the stars and often they were blamed for its disappointing performance. Critics luckily loved Dillingham and tried their best to stay positive in reviews. Fred commented on his thoughts as he headed backstage at the end of opening night saying, “There’s nothing worse than visiting a flop backstage. What can people say? ‘It was lousy’?” (98). The Astaires could do nothing but move on and hope that the next one would be better. They took some time off to regroup and were very distraught over the short run and failure of The Bunch and Judy.
They soon were contacted by a man named Alex Aarons. He wanted them to come to England and do a show in London. He thought they would be a hit in Europe. The Astaires were excited at the idea and eventually plans were made to bring them to London. They had a great time on the ship over and ended up performing, during a storm none-the-less. Dancing on the ship was not easy but ended up being hysterical. “At one point we fell and slid about fifteen feet. The attempts at recoveries were spontaneously hilarious” (104). While in England before the start of their show they soon realized that audiences there were much more verbal than in the USA, whether it was good or bad. This scared them but they soon fell in loved with the country.
This really reminded me of the whole hero quest pattern we were looking at and the journeys of life. Even though this is a true story it applies which I think is cool. The Astiares had to pull through a lot of hard things, some small others quite large. They did their best and never gave up or backed away from something that seemed hard. In the end they were rewarded but other trials will continue to present themselves. I think that no matter what life is a journey and the Astaires are a great example of working one hundred percent towards your dreams.
Astaire, Fred. Steps In Time. New York: HarperCollins, 1959.
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2 comments:
I am a little confused with the whole Dillingham situation. What I got out of it was that it was a flop but the critics liked it? Anyways it's good that they got another job. I like your thoughts with the hero-quest pattern. I think almost every living person has their own hero-quest pattern throughout their life. They meet many supernatural guides like their parents, coaches, teachers, that help them on their journey throughout life and the bumps and bruises on the way. Good job.
Good connection to class. I think that it would be a hard transition to Europe coming from the United States, especially because they had just had a flop. They must really be dedicated to their dream if they are willing to dance on a boat, in a storm.
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