Donald O’Connor, dancing up a storm
I’ve never been a big Donald O’Connor fan, but it’s about time I remedied that failing. This video (from the 1953 movie “Call Me Madam”) goes a long way towards converting me. It features Donald, supposedly drunk, making impossible moves with the easiest, most casual, most unstudied-seeming flair and grace, defiant of the laws of physics and the possibility of breaking his bones as things go crash! around him.
And what’s with his shoes and the balloons? Did he, a la Lotte Lenya in “From Russia With Love,” have a knife hidden in the front of each shoe?
Watch:
As I watched that, I thought “vaudeville.” And sure enough, O’Connor was the child of vaudeville performers and got his start in the business. He also had a history of alcoholism in real life, but sobered up in 1978.
O’Connor’s Wiki entry says vaudeville. But this obituary for O’Connor is far more specific, and states that although vaudeville played a part, so did the circus:
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was born on August 28 1925 in Chicago, the youngest of seven in a family of acrobats. His father, who died when Donald was nine months old, was a circus strongman and one of the best-known “leapers” in the business: his star turn involved jumping over four elephants. Donald’s mother was a bareback rider and high-wire star who, her son claimed, was back on the tightrope two days after his birth.
Donald made his first public appearance when he was three days old. At 13 months he was drawing a salary for his part in the family act – playing a beach ball as his brothers threw him around the stage. He spent the whole of his childhood touring America with his family.
His elder brothers taught him their act, which involved ice-skating, sharp shooting and acrobatics. “My mother worried about me because I was the baby,” he recalled, “she always wanted me to stay at the bottom of the pyramid so that I wouldn’t fall.”…
Touring the vaudeville circuit, he met Judy Garland, who became a lifelong friend; but, he said, “Judy and kids like Mickey Rooney were being ‘groomed’ for success, while I was just a vaudevillian. I didn’t audition, I only did one act and if they liked it they hired me.”
By the mid-1930s, vaudeville was all but dead and Donald, now 12, began to look for a new career.
At twelve. A new career. I guess he found one.
That performance by O’Connor makes clear just how underappreciated he was and remains. How many of today’s millennials could recognize and identify the name Donald O’Conner? How many of today’s stars could duplicate O’Connor’s performance? 40 years from now, how many will remember today’s stars?
Fame, it is a fleeting thing. Especially in a society that worships youth.
“Did he, like Lotte Lenya in
“Goldfinger,”From Russia With Love have a knife hidden in his shoe?”A small thing, but fixed it for you.
Bravissimo. More!
…always loved watching the sure stylistic fluidity of his dance movements. It was always deeper than just the choreography with Donald (not too obscure for this crowd lol).
You may enjoy watching this, too, for the “Donald History” component (it includes his tap teacher) Applied Mathematics (an early career, b/w clip).
Rehearsals must have been expensive. Those props had to break just right, or not at all.
Confusing Lotte Lenya with Honor Blackman? A small thing? Heresy!
“Confusing Lotte Lenya with Honor Blackman? A small thing?” [OlderandWheezier @ 5:18]
LOL!
Although the young Lotte Lenya was a “looker”, too. (Hope these links work—never tried this before).
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=young+lotte+lenya&view=detailv2&&id=7826DC12DA5D734C3DB8B7DDC095B72FD11A5330&selectedIndex=6&ccid=RtsWvWe6&simid=608019683675801678&thid=OIP.M46db16bd67bae5baed299895a39dea20H1&ajaxhist=0
In this one, she reminds me of the young Else Lanchester (Bride of Frankenstein).
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=young+lotte+lenya&view=detailv2&&id=F80C8C685341C0A44D2DD6A690CEE88D43217BB4&selectedIndex=5&ccid=fH9ryzXU&simid=608014568363001458&thid=OIP.M7c7f6bcb35d4263992550324647c1e04o1&ajaxhist=0
Don’t forget the Francis the Talking Mule series of movies! Here’s the trailer for one of them.
Oh, he was awful. I couldn’t stand seeing him when I was a child. Too swish? Effeminate? Can those words still be used?
If that’s his voice (meaning if he has not been voiced-over,) he’s a good singer too!
miklos:
I didn’t like him either. I thought he was wimpy. That’s why I started by saying I was never a big fan of his.
But I think this dance sequence is very, very impressive. And the song suits him–it plays off his wimpiness.
He has a tiny bit of a Danny Kaye vibe.
Oops! From Russia With Love.
Will fix.
This reminds me of radio legend Chuck Cecil who had a show called “The Swingin’ Years” interview Harry James who grew up with the carnival and who as soon as he could walk became an acrobat and contortionist but had to take up the trumpet because of some fall or accident. “…So there I was a ten year old out-of-work contortionist…”
It always seemed to me that Donald O’Connor was a very acrobatic dancer. His circus background certainly explains it. Here he is in Make Em Laugh from Singin in the Rain, one of my favorite O’Connor performances. See if you can watch this without smiling:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SND3v0i9uhE
Also, somewhat related, it looks like Ringling Bros. circus is shutting down after nearly 150 years. PETA partly to blame:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_RINGLING_BROS_CLOSING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-01-14-22-14-17
The man could MOVE !
(also BTW : if Rosa Kleb could use her feet like that, the whole Bond series would have ended after From Russia with Love).
He has a tiny bit of a Danny Kaye vibe.
neo: Indeed! I was surprised to see in the video above that O’Connor had brown hair. In my memory his hair is red. I’m sure that’s the Danny Kaye vibe.
I even went back to the “Make’em Laugh” bit from “Singin’ in the Rain” and Donald O’Connor’s hair is still brown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTkKLWW_myw
Funny, I always pictured him as a redhead also. He was given second banana roles. He definitely didn’t have the “leading man” chops.
Comparing photos of Kaye and O’Connor now, I see they have similar fox-like faces — high foreheads, strong cheekbones, pointed chins and beak-like noses.
Unless I put in some study time, I’m not sure I could reliably pick one from the other in a group of small b&w photos.
Ah, I love old movies.
And the sweeter world they came from. Yes, really.
Thanks for acknowledging Donald O’Connor. He is one of my family’s favorites.
Each time we watch “Make ‘Em Laugh” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SND3v0i9uhE) the entire family is rolling on the floor. How did he do it?
In re “Make ‘Em Laugh” — I read somewhere once that the scene took three days to film, and Donald O’Connor was utterly, physically exhausted afterwards (i.e. bedridden for a couple of days).
Then the film negatives were somehow damaged… and somebody had to go to Donald and ask him to do it all over again. So he swallowed hard and said “Sure”.