Sharon Skeel
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190654542
- eISBN:
- 9780190654573
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190654542.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Joan McCracken leaves the Littlefields to perform at Radio City Music Hall and eventually on Broadway. Catherine stages dances for the large-scale “American Jubilee” pageant at the World’s Fair in ...
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Joan McCracken leaves the Littlefields to perform at Radio City Music Hall and eventually on Broadway. Catherine stages dances for the large-scale “American Jubilee” pageant at the World’s Fair in New York in 1940. Her innovative bicycle ballet in the pageant is a tremendous hit. Al Jolson hires her for his comeback show on Broadway, Hold On to Your Hats. She is then enlisted to choreograph ice-skating routines for New York’s Center Theatre, which has been converted into an ice theater by Chicago entrepreneur Arthur Wirtz and his business partner, Olympic skating champion Sonja Henie. Wirtz soon installs Catherine as choreographer for Henie’s touring Hollywood Ice Revues as well. She takes her Littlefield Ballet on an eight-week national tour. She and Philip officially separate, although they remain friends and business associates. She and her Littlefield Ballet return to Chicago for the 1941 opera season. The company disbands after Pearl Harbor is bombed and many of Catherine’s male dancers, including Carl, enlist in the military.Less
Joan McCracken leaves the Littlefields to perform at Radio City Music Hall and eventually on Broadway. Catherine stages dances for the large-scale “American Jubilee” pageant at the World’s Fair in New York in 1940. Her innovative bicycle ballet in the pageant is a tremendous hit. Al Jolson hires her for his comeback show on Broadway, Hold On to Your Hats. She is then enlisted to choreograph ice-skating routines for New York’s Center Theatre, which has been converted into an ice theater by Chicago entrepreneur Arthur Wirtz and his business partner, Olympic skating champion Sonja Henie. Wirtz soon installs Catherine as choreographer for Henie’s touring Hollywood Ice Revues as well. She takes her Littlefield Ballet on an eight-week national tour. She and Philip officially separate, although they remain friends and business associates. She and her Littlefield Ballet return to Chicago for the 1941 opera season. The company disbands after Pearl Harbor is bombed and many of Catherine’s male dancers, including Carl, enlist in the military.
Sharon Skeel
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190654542
- eISBN:
- 9780190654573
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190654542.003.0014
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Catherine earns Sonja Henie’s trust and helps make her skating more balletic. She also adapts ballets to ice for the Center Theatre shows. She moves to Manhattan and dates barrel jumper Jimmy Caesar ...
More
Catherine earns Sonja Henie’s trust and helps make her skating more balletic. She also adapts ballets to ice for the Center Theatre shows. She moves to Manhattan and dates barrel jumper Jimmy Caesar for several years. She choreographs more Broadway shows, including Follow the Girls, a musical comedy starring Jackie Gleason and Russian ballerina Irina Baronova. Follow the Girls is a hit, but its revue-like formula will soon be eclipsed in popularity by the musical play genre as represented by Agnes de Mille’s Oklahoma! In 1944, Ballet Theatre revives Barn Dance. It is not successful, as the vogue for ballet Americana has begun to fade. The Littlefields open a studio in New York, where Dorothie teaches. Carl flies seventy combat missions as a pilot in World War II and receives medals for his heroism.Less
Catherine earns Sonja Henie’s trust and helps make her skating more balletic. She also adapts ballets to ice for the Center Theatre shows. She moves to Manhattan and dates barrel jumper Jimmy Caesar for several years. She choreographs more Broadway shows, including Follow the Girls, a musical comedy starring Jackie Gleason and Russian ballerina Irina Baronova. Follow the Girls is a hit, but its revue-like formula will soon be eclipsed in popularity by the musical play genre as represented by Agnes de Mille’s Oklahoma! In 1944, Ballet Theatre revives Barn Dance. It is not successful, as the vogue for ballet Americana has begun to fade. The Littlefields open a studio in New York, where Dorothie teaches. Carl flies seventy combat missions as a pilot in World War II and receives medals for his heroism.
