msladysoul Posted April 20, 2003 Share Posted April 20, 2003 I saw Ruby Keeler for the first time last year, and couldn't get enough of her. She was the first dancing star. Her dancing by Movie Historians is put down. But the dancers in her time like Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell and Ginger Rogers were dazzled and admired her dancing. Fred Astaire regretted never dancing with her. I always wondered why she didn't dance with him, he dances with just about every female dancer Ginger Rogers, Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller, Vera Ellen, Rita Haywoth, Cyde Charrise, and others. I heard that Ruby was suppose to be in some of those dancing movies starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but Warner Bros wouldn't let her out of her contract. It would of been something to see them together. Ruby dances all over the place, she has a lot of rhythm, while Fred is more sophisticated and elegant. Gene Kelly and Ruby would of looked great together I think. Both so energetic. Ruby dancing is compared to military-style dancing. People said she was heavy-footed. I don't know but I enjoyed it because she was different and stylish. I guess that's why she made it her dancing was different and stylish. Ruby Keeler became famous in 42nd Street, so her dancing in the last dancing number 42nd Street, her so called heavy foot dancing went along with the music and the style of the songs. I'm sure if music was soft, she could be soft like in Golddiggers of 1933 in "In The Shadows" number. No one ever seen anything like it. I always thought it was the time era, that's why she danced like that, that's the only way tap-dances knew how to tap was heavy-footed in the early 30s until I saw Marilyn Maxwell did some great tap dancing in the movie "Sally" one of the first talkies. Marilyn's dancing looked like something Eleanor Powell would dance, she had a lot of rhythm also for it being 1930 when music didn't have as much rhythm. So Ruby's dancing certainly was different. James Cagney and Ruby does a great dance together in "Footlight Parade". I admire her dancing, she didn't try to copy anyone else. I guess Ruby Keeler was the old-time tap dancer when tap dancers would tap with wooden taps, but she could tap lightly, her best film and best dancing is considered "Colleen" which she does some light tap dancing, something you would see Ginger Rogers doing and Fred Astaire doing, so she had it in her. "Go Into Your Dance" starring Ruby and her then husband Al Jolson, she did some good dancing. Her dancing in the hit Broadway show No, No Nanette in her 60s did some of the best tap dancing that she ever did compared to her young days. I guess after people saw Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller, Ginger Rogers and their light tapping and elegance, they didn't care for her anymore. But that's what makes dancing wonderful, everyone has their own style, Ruby, Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller all dances different but great. Her acting is put down also, she was innocent and wholesome, because she looked innocent, but her acting was okay for the movies she was in, and she was rightly paired with Dick Powell. Her marriage to Al Jolson was always a joke to me. I liked to have seen Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler married, in those movies, there seems to be some attraction, but he ended up marrying Joan Blondell. Al Jolson and Joan Blondell is meant for each other, do you agree? Could any of you picture her paired with any other male stars of the 30s? Has anyone seen her movie "Colleen"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nedlato Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 I was watching a re-run of Ed Sullivan on public television last night, at one point in the show, Mr. Sullivan pointed out that Ruby Keeler was in the audience. She stood to recognise the applause-this was around 1968-1969, and she looked fantastic! I've always enjoyed those Busby Berkeley musicals FOOTLIGHT PARADE and 42nd STREET. She was a great talent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 Ruby Keeler was a class act. She was just perfect for those musicals of the 1930s as a struggling hoofer right out of Brooklyn and on to Broadway. With that Betty Boopish voice and sweet smile, cute as a button she was. And oh those dancing feet could not be beat. Mongo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickdimeo Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 What's the saying about Ruby, she danced like a cow with combat boots on? I thought Ruby was as cute as a button but her tap dancing and her acting was a whole nother story! She was just your basic backround chorus girl that got plucked out of obscurity when she married Al Jolsen. I don't think Ruby even had the ambition to be an actress. Nevertheless when she does her Shuffle Off to Buffalo, and 42nd Street number I always forgive her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviejoe79 Posted April 25, 2003 Share Posted April 25, 2003 I have to come to Ruby's defense - she was good. One of my all time favorites is "42nd Street," and she was perfect in it. Personally, I don't think she was a great actress, but she knew it, and didn't try to be, and for the parts she was playing, she was damn good. And as for her tapping - it was fine - just as good as anyone elses. One of my favorite numbers of hers is in "Ready, Willing, and Able," when she dances around a giant typewriter to the song "Too Marvelous for Words." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udprt Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 WOW! A Ruby Keeler discussion! I haven't posted to this site in a long time, but this is a subject I can't resist. I used to write many things in here that sound a lot like swngsoul's post--thank you for your perceptiveness, swngsoul! Ruby is my favorite star of all time, and definitely the most underrated, for reasons you suggest. Most people don't realize that she wasn't really a "tap" dancer in the Eleanor Powell sense, but a buck dancer (all the old ads for her club work refer to her that way). Buck dancing was done on wooden heels, and the taps had to be loud and aggressively struck. The dancer usually did not move around a lot, but stayed in one place, as on a nightclub floor. Ruby was very well known for her club work at Texas Guinan's spot in the '20s (The phrase "Give the little girl a big hand" was coined by Texas in reference to Ruby). Fred Astaire saw her there, and always wanted to perform with her (see his autobiography), but Ruby was deemed too American to play the British role in his "Damsel In Distress," a role for which she was strongly considered. Ruby was the personification of the military-style dancer, but she COULD tap, as "Colleen" well proves. If you haven't seen that one yet, you have a treat waiting for you; she does some great true tap dancing with the little-seen expert Paul Draper in it, and it has a hallmark comedy performance by Hugh Herbert. It will probably be shown again on TCM sometime; what probably won't is the only Keeler film I haven't seen, "Sweetheart Of The Campus," which she made for Columbia in the forties. She ostensibly made an actual song-and-dance performance with Dick Powell on "Ed Sullivan" in the fifties; I have no proof of that, but if you see it, let me know! What makes Ruby special is difficult to explain to those who don't appreciate her. I would say she is the queen of the ingenues, of which there were many. She charms in the exact opposite way that her poorly-chosen first husband Al Jolson does; he mugs as though he thinks he has more talent than anyone else in the world; she is self-effacing and unpretentious, as though she considers it a strange joke that anyone would want her to go into her dance, but she'll do it if it makes people happy. And it did, too, as "No, No, Nanette" proved so many years after her movie days (the 1972 Tony Awards show Ruby in extremely graceful form in her sixties, doing "I Want To Be Happy" on stage). Have you ever seen a more perfect on-screen couple than Ruby and Dick? Yet she was married to Jolson and he to Joan Blondell. (Jolson and Blondell would probably have made a better match.) There have been vague rumors over the years of a real-life Ruby-Dick romance (she moved next door to him shortly after her Jolson period) but who knows? All I know is that I love her dancing (she's like the girl-next-door in the Great Depression who goes out and wins the hearts of the world); I love her singing (her voice is so soft and restrained in her beautiful "Shadow Waltz" duet with Dick), and I love her acting (I'd never heard of her before when I first saw "42nd Street," but when Warner Baxter told her she was going out a youngster but coming back a star, her sincere reactions so dazzled me that I have been hooked on classic movies ever since), and I just love her! Enjoy her movies, and please come discuss them anytime. Ignore the "expert's" film books which reduce every performer to tangibles. Ruby has magic, the intangible that makes a true movie star, and she is still a star to a great many of us today. ud pert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolmsted23 Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 ud pert, it's so good to see you back on the boards again. You must indulge us with more of you wonderful posts--what a beautiful tribute you've written to our dear Ruby. Come more often--we miss you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udprt Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 Hello, L.O. Thanks for the words. I dropped out because this new format doesn't appeal to me, but with discussions like this one, I'll have to drop in more often. So nice to know that so many fans still recognize Ruby's special qualities. Talk to you soon! ud pert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alix1929 Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 I also thought Ruby had good onscreen chemistry with James Cagney. One of my all-time favorite dance routines is "Shanghai Lil" in FOOTLIGHT PARADE. It doesn't get much better than that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udprt Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Amen to that, Alix. Cagney was another great dancer who admired Ruby's talents. "Footlight Parade" is a great showcase for her--dancing on a bar in Oriental guise, doing synchronized swimming in "By A Waterfall," even doing a cute cat number called "Sitting On A Backyard Fence." She stumbles slightly in a little practice dance shot, which is curious; after the costs of the production numbers, I guess Warners wasn't going to waste any money on retakes. Incredibly fun movie, though. ud pert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bggalaxy Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 oops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daddysprimadonna Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Dang Udprt,that was good,and really articulated the essence of why we love Ruby Keeler. She's just so appealing,her movie characters are so of the times during the depression-"The show must go on",and the whole esprit de corp attitude. And she wore some of the cutest costumes,the big ruffled collars,and the darling little suspendered rompers for practicing routines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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