Notable Feet: Adele Astaire
Before Fred there was Adele Astaire (1897-1981). She was the big sister who showed a passion and ability for dance at the age of five. Where she went, Fred followed, and that included Adele’s dance lessons at the Chambers Dancing Academy in Omaha, NE. Although he did not take dance lessons with Adele, Fred copied her movements at home. When their father, Frederic “Fritz” Austerlitz, became unemployed, Ann Austerlitz moved herself and the children to New York City. With her husband’s blessing, Mrs. Austerlitz hoped to find a vaudeville career for Adele and Fred.
Adele was 18 months older than Fred. Mrs. Austerlitz recognized Adele’s talent and saw an opportunity to leave their quiet, predictable midwestern life. Mr. Austerlitz took another job and sent money to his family in NYC so they could train and pursue careers as vaudeville performers. Adele was six years old.
In New York, Mrs. Austerlitz enrolled Adele and Fred in the dancing school of Claude Alvienne, who immediately recognized Adele’s talent and Fred’s stability. In 1905, Alvienne created a number especially for 6-year-old Fred and 8-year-old Adele. The dancing teacher arranged for them to perform in a vaudeville tryout theatre in Keyport, NJ.
They packed up two plywood wedding cakes, costumes and the children and took the train to Keyport to deliver their routine, “Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty,” to audiences that weren’t usually very nice. But Adele and Fred were well received. The Keyport newspaper reported: “The Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville.” Mama had dug into the names of her French relatives and changed the kids’ names from Austerlitz to Astaire, thinking it would fare better on a marquee.
What followed were years of steady work and regular pay for the children, and both parents became entrenched in marketing and managing their careers. Vaudeville veterans by 1912, as a brother-sister dance team at the turn of the century, the Astaires were a novelty and a pleasantry. Everywhere they traveled they were mostly greeted with good reviews and more work. Adele was a pretty 10-year-old, a dancer with real talent and had a spark of mischief about her that added to the routines. At one time during her vaudeville run, the Detroit Free Press said, “For sheer personality and charm, Adele Astaire outshines anyone who has appeared here in months.” When she matured, she exhibited genuine ability as a comedienne as she performed in show after show in vaudeville and on Broadway with her younger brother.
Once they were known as teenage vaudeville sensations, Broadway drew them in and they performed in 10 major shows together. By the age of 20, Adele was a successful vaudeville performer having toured all the great circuits in America. It was then that the Shuberts offered the siblings a contract to appear on Broadway.
Adele introduced many popular songs to Broadway audiences that made their way into the hearts and minds of moviegoers years later, including the Gershwin hit “’S Wonderful.” Soon the young pair was the toast of two continents as American and London stages clamored for them. It was while performing in “Funny Face” in London’s Palace Theatre that Adele would meet her first husband Lord Charles Cavendish.
After dancing most of her life, Adele played her last performance in 1932. She chose private life with her husband rather than journey into the world of “talkies” when the new movie musical took the world by storm in the early 1930s. Although she thought seriously about the movies after Fred’s success, she was happy with her life as a wife and mother.
Fred called his big sister “Delly.” She called him “Moaning Minnie” because he worried so much about perfection. They remained close and made a fascinating team that helped bring the performing arts to the forefront of global culture. She married twice and had three children. Adele died of a stroke at the age of 84 on January 25, 1981.
Resources: Astaire: The Man, The Dancer, Bob Thomas; St. Martin’s Press; New York; 1984. Fred Astaire, A Wonderful Life; Bill Adler; Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.; New York; 1987.