Eleanor Powell

Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was an American dancer and actress. A top dancing star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during Hollywood's Golden Age, she is best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films of the 1930s and 1940s. Her career spanned vaudeville, Broadway, and a series of movie musicals tailored to her talents, including *Born to Dance* (1936), *Broadway Melody of 1938* (1937), *Rosalie* (1937), and *Broadway Melody of 1940* (1940). She stopped making films in the mid-1940s, though she later appeared in specialty dance scenes, such as in *Thousands Cheer*. In the 1950s, she hosted a Christian children's TV show and eventually headlined a successful nightclub act in Las Vegas. She died of cancer at age 69. Powell is regarded as one of the most versatile and athletic female dancers of the studio era.

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Clarence Gardner Powell and Blanche Torrey Powell, her parents divorced when she was eleven months old. Raised by her mother and maternal grandparents, she was painfully shy as a child, unable to greet guests in her home. At age 11, her mother sent her to dance lessons to combat this shyness. She trained locally with Ralph McKernan in classical ballet and interpretive modern dance, and also studied acrobatics. While performing acrobatics on an Atlantic City beach, she was discovered by Gus Edwards of the Vaudeville Kiddie Review. At age 12, she began paid summer gigs for Edwards, starting at the Ritz Grill in the Ambassador Hotel. Though not a star, favorable reviews led to more opportunities and featured spots. Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, and her teacher McKernan suggested she aim for Broadway.

In 1927, Powell moved with her mother to New York City, taking a break from school. Signed by William Grady at the William Morris Agency, she booked club, vaudeville, and private party jobs, but her acrobatic specialty wasn't enough for Broadway. Realizing she needed to tap dance, she took ten tap lessons from Jack Donahue and Johnny Boyle—the only formal tap training she ever had. She disliked tap at first and had to be coaxed to return after her first lesson. She later said that around the seventh lesson it all clicked, like an algebra problem. To counteract her ballet and acrobatic tendency to pull away from the floor, Donahue and Boyle had her wear an army surplus belt with sandbags on each side, weighing her down and helping her engage with the floor as if playing an instrument. This grounded, smooth style became her trademark.

At 16, Powell toured the vaudeville circuit, sharing bills with the tap duo Buck & Bubbles. She was strongly influenced by John "Bubbles" Sublett, known as the "Father of Rhythm Tap," who brought tap into the heels and used unexpected rhythms. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who popularized a bouncy, Irish-influenced style, performed with Powell at private parties and elite New York clubs in the late 1920s, earning up to $500 a night. Robinson mentored her, teaching her his signature Stair Dance. Sublett's grounded, inventive style inspired Powell, who had recently "found the floor" herself. She named Sublett a main influence, and his syncopated footwork is evident in her own.

Powell's dance style fused ballet, acrobatics, and grounded taps. She moved smoothly through fast, complex footwork, barely leaving the floor, even for airborne tap steps like double pullbacks. She danced with natural, loose arms in a hoofing style, or with more technical port de bras, contrasted with energetic turns and high-flying movements.