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Cyd Charisse, 1921-2008
Filed under: In Memoriam Tagged: dance, in memoriam, movies, music, musicals
She had more famous roles, of course, but I love to think of her in the 1946 movie The Harvey Girls, starring a fiesty Judy Garland and a particularly fetching Ray Bolger. Charisse is one of the trainful (that’s the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe, to be exact) of gals who’ve come to civilize the west with starched shirtfronts and tender cuisine.
Charisse, in her first speaking role on film (according to a few web sources, anyway—feel free to correct me), plays Deborah, who back home was a dancer (of course), and here in rowdy Sandrock is a tall, dreamy, exceptionally graceful waitress who falls for the piano player at the local bordello (madam in chief: the proud, resplendently decked out, and lovelorn Angela Lansbury).
Anyway, there’s quite a bit of silliness involving steaks, snakes, horseshoes, and yokels unaccustomed to the pleasures of the waltz, but just try to resist Charisse singing (in the voice of Marion Doenges) “It’s a Great Big World” and dancing in the saloon for her sweetie. This one’s not about The Legs—they’re tucked under yards of fabric in the tidy Harvey uniforms (“Black shirtwaist, cuffs neat and trim/The apron must be spotless from the collar to the hem”)—but about her gentle voice, shy smile, and searching, wistful eyes. R.I.P., dancing lady.
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
I only knew her from Singin’ in the Rain, but that was plenty. Tula Ellice Finklea, you will be missed.