Barrie Chase and Fred Astaire

Ginger Rogers, Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell...Barrie Chase.  You may not recognize the name, but she was one of the best dance partners Fred Astaire had during his extraordinary film and television career.  In fact, "extraordinary" is a fitting adjective for her dance talent.  I've blogged about Barrie Chase before and I believe she merits another mention.  Astaire made entertainment headlines in the late 1950s with the number of Emmys he won for his excellent NBC special.  It was such a hit with viewers and critics that AN EVENING WITH FRED ASTAIRE was followed by ANOTHER EVENING WITH FRED ASTAIRE.  In these hit specials, his elegant partner was his friend, Barrie Chase.

Just like Gwen Verdon before she became a Broadway star, Chase was a chorus dancer in movie musicals whose dazzling style and charisma made her pop.  That little something extra just made her stand out.  Also like Verdon, she was the assistant to top choreographers while they created movie numbers.  She worked with Astaire's dear friend and longtime choreographer from his legendary RKO movies with Ginger Rogers, dancer Hermes Pan.  Chase also assisted Jack Cole.  Barrie Chase had fabulous legs and cheekbones the camera loved.  She had a jazzy hipster vibe without being calculated about it.  It was casual.  Effortless.  Part of her DNA.  Barrie Chase was just cool. There was also a sweet kookiness about her.  That quality is utilized in a non-speaking dance bit that's popular with many classic film fans.  Did you see IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD?  She was Sylvester's stone-faced, bikini-clad, beatnik girlfriend doing "The Twist" with him when his battle-ax momma (played by Ethel Merman) calls.

She's briefly in other films TCM viewers have seen but probably didn't realize.  She danced with Astaire in SILK STOCKINGS.  In its first number, "Too Bad We Can't Go Back To Moscow," she's the party girl in the gold lamé dress.  She's one of the nightclub girls in PAL JOEY and does ballet around Kim Novak's character as she's about to perform her first strip.  Barrie's a backstage chorus girl in THE OPPOSITE SEX, MGM's remake of THE WOMEN.  She's the brunette in the green robe with stars June Allyson and Joan Collins.

The strawberry blonde behind Barrie is future Oscar-nominee Carolyn Jones.

Like Astaire in 1959's ON THE BEACH, she also went dramatic.  She played Diane Taylor, beaten after being picked up by Robert Mitchum's Max Cady character in 1962's CAPE FEAR.

On his great NBC specials with Barrie Chase, Fred Astaire challenged and reinvented himself.  Hermes Pan did the choreography.  The stars danced to the music Astaire introduced in his iconic original screen musicals with Ginger Rogers.  They also put jazz standards and current pop music on the menu. They were quite a pair in the 1960s.

In 1964, Barrie Chase and the age-defying Fred Astaire starred in a made-for-NBC TV movie presented in a Bob Hope special. The stars played competing entertainment industry representative out to sign some of the same hot new show biz talents. In the end, they join forces and become business partners after dancing to the movie's title tune, "Think Pretty."

At Verbum Dei High School, the school I attended in the Watts section of South Central Los Angeles, one of my favorite teachers was my English Lit. teacher, Miss McConarty. In her youth, she had seen The Astaires perform on Broadway. Fred Astaire and his sister, Adele, were top Broadway musical stars in the 1920s and early 30s. She retired young and married a British lord. Fred went to Hollywood and made movie musical history. My hardcore Fred Astaire appreciation began when I was in elementary school. Of course, I had to ask Miss McConarty about having seen Fred Astaire dance on Broadway. I read in one book that his beloved sister, Adele, was the better dancer. Was that possible? Was that true? Miss McConarty smiled and replied, "She was." Wow.

I asked Miss McConarty who, of the women Fred danced with in films, had a style that came closest to Adele's.  She said, "Barrie Chase." So, in a way, Fred Astaire came full circle with Barrie Chase as his final dance partner.

On network TV from 1958 to 1968, Barrie Chase and Fred Astaire were one terrific team.