It’s George Gershwin’s birthday! Here’s the funhouse dance sequence from “A Damsel in Distress” (1937) – Fred Astaire, George Burns, and Gracie Allen monkey around in a barrel, on a lazy susan, down a slide, and opposite their distorted reflections – including some rather Milhaud-like bitonality in the funhouse mirror dance!
Astaire had known Gershwin for years. He and his sister, Adele, headlined two Broadway musicals – “Lady Be Good!” (1924) and “Funny Face” (1927) – by George and his brother, Ira. Adele married in 1932 and retired from show business. Fred later starred not only in “A Damsel in Distress,” but also in the silver screen musical “Shall We Dance”(1937), both at least partially scored by Gershwin.
Here are a couple of fascinating documents, set down in 1926, of Fred and Adele singing with Gershwin at the piano.
Four months before the release of “A Damsel in Distress,” Gershwin died of a brain tumor at the age of 38. Reportedly, his last words were… “Fred Astaire.”