The Sensational Cyd Charisse

 When classic MGM musicals starring Cyd Charisse aired on local Los Angeles TV during my boyhood, my mother would stop what she was doing to watch her dance. Mom would constantly say, "Young women today should learn how to carry themselves like Cyd Charisse."

Would I have the same love for the MGM musical star that my mother had? Absolutely! During summer vacations and on weekends when I was allowed to stay up, I'd watch the sensational Cyd Charisse on the local CBS Late Show in 1955's IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER. That musical, like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and BRIGADOON, paired her with Gene Kelly. In it, she plays a sharp advertising executive involved with a live nighttime TV show. In order to coordinate a booking for the show, she has a meeting at a boxers' gym. She charms the guys with her sports knowledge. Here's the "Baby, You Knock Me Out" number.

Her lovely legs seemed to extend from the MGM soundstage in Culver City, California all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge. She made a guest appearance as the vamp in the "Broadway Melody" number Gene Kelly has in the 1952 MGM classic, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

1953's THE BAND WAGON directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Fred Astaire. This one is in the Top Three of my all-time favorite movie musicals. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's a wonderful look at the behind-the-scenes headaches, frustrations and funny bickering of a group of artists trying to put together a Broadway show. 

At first, the two stars of the show cannot stand each other. Eventually -- you guessed it -- they will fall in love and their show will be a big hit. The romance begins when they take a walk through Central Park. This number with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, to the tune "Dancing in the Dark," is one of the most beautiful numbers ever done in a classic Hollywood musical. It takes my breath away.

SILK STOCKINGS was a Cole Porter Broadway musical based on the 1939 MGM romantic comedy, NINOTCHKA, starring Greta Garbo. The Broadway musical starred non-dancers Don Ameche and Hildegard Knef. MGM purchased the property to reunite Charisse with Astaire. She played the serious Soviet Union diplomat on a strict assignment in France who is beguiled by what Paris has to offer. A "Silk Stockings Ballet" was added to the 1957 film adaptation to showcase Charisse.

Sophisticated. Sensual. Always elegant. The dancer whom Fred Astaire described in his autobiography as being "beautiful dynamite." The sensational Cyd Charisse.