Cyd Charisse - Who brought the beauty of bellet to the movies, Dies at 86
In the legendary MGM musical "Singin' in the Rain," a gorgeous woman is seen leaning into a chair wearing an electric green dress and puffing on a long cigarette holder. The first thing that hits the eye is a man's hat balanced on the tip of her green shoe at the end of the most magnificent leg ever to be seen on the silver screen. The camera travels up the leg - as do the eyes of Gene Kelly, who is hypnotized when he sees the tall, lean, sexy body of a dancer named Tula Ellice Finklea, better known to her movie fans as Cyd Charisse. This long-legged beauty who trained in classical ballet left her personal stamp on some of the greatest Hollywood movie classics ever made. She was partnered by the best, Kelly and Fred Astaire among them, and danced her way into the hearts of an audience who had no knowledge that dance could tell a story. Those who were not privileged to see her elegant grace on the big screen can rent the movie, or go to YouTube, and have themselves a real treat.
It was said a synonym for "legs" was Charisse. The viewer was hard put to extricate his eyes from Charisse’s absolutely perfect shape, from hip bone to toes, and the way she moved them was more a God-given blessing than as a result of training. She was a Texas girl who began ballet at age seven because she had polio and was very fragile. Her parents, who thought ballet would build her strength but did not think she was on her way to stardom, sent her to California for more intensive training. Soon she was invited to join the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and while on tour she married her first husband, Nico Charisse. After the birth of her first son she began her upward climb with minor movie roles in "The Harvey Girls," "’Til the Clouds Roll By," and "Ziegfield Follies," but no Charisse performance would equal her appearance with Astaire in the "Girl Hunt Ballet” number, Michael Kidd's spoof on detective stories in the movie musical "The Band Wagon." Here she is draped over a barstool covered head to toe in an unattractive cape until Astaire makes his entrance and spots her. She ever so slowly opens her cape, riveting her eyes on Astaire, and reveals her blood-red spangled sheath costume. Kicking one leg in his direction - well, the rest is movie history.
Left: Cyd Charisse
Her last major movie was "Silk Stockings" in which, reunited with Astaire, she played an aloof Soviet spy sent to Paris (the Garbo role in "Ninotchka") where she is charmed by Astaire, falls in love, and is flawlessly partnered, creating some memorable dance sequences. In the 1954 movie "Brigadoon," she had a leading dancing/acting role as Fiona (a Scottish lass doomed to live only one day every hundred years) who falls in love with a mortal she cannot have. By the late ‘50s the era of grand movie musicals was ebbing, and together with her second husband, singer Tony Martin, Charisse began a new and successful career in the nightclub circuit, especially in Las Vegas. Charisee finally received her long-awaited debut on Broadway as a replacement for Liliane Montevecchi in the role of the aging ballerina in "Grand Hotel."
In 2006, Charisse received the National Medal of Arts in the annual White House celebration. She lived the remainder of her life with her husband and their son Tony Martin, Jr. Perhaps no greater eulogy can define the era of Cyd Charisse than the words of Fred Astaire: "That Cyd! When you've danced with her -- you stay danced!"