Sad news this evening that Cyd Charisse the ballet dancer who became one of the great dancing stars of MGM Musicals has died aged 86.

Born Tula Finklea - now there's a name to change from - in Texas, she joined the Ballet Russes at 13 and eventually found her way to Hollywood appearing in featured dance numbers in the 1940s.

Contracted to MGM it was in 1952 that she first captured the public's attention with her appearance in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN during the climactic "Broadway Melody" number when a hapless Gene Kelly tangles with her in a steamy nightclub pas-de-deux, she even cleans his glasses on her thigh!

Kelly enjoyed working with her so much they were later teamed together in the screen version of BRIGADOON and IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER where she also had a great number in a boxing club "Baby You Knock Me Out".

The year after SINGIN' IN THE RAIN brought her best showcase, opposite Fred Astaire in Vincente Minnelli's THE BAND WAGON. She played a star ballerina hired to appear in a Broadway show with one-time star Astaire who is resentful of her classical background. Of course they fall in love and how...
the DANCING IN THE DARK number is one of the loveliest dance routines from the MGM musicals, a stroll in a nocturnal (sound-staged) Central Park slowly turning into a swooningly romantic duet.

Choreographer Michael Kidd then paired them in the climactic dance routine "The Girl Hunt Ballet" with Astaire as a 'Mickey Spillaine'-type pulp fiction private eye trying to find his would-be assassin while also tangling with Charisse as both a sweet and innocent blonde girl and a sexy brunette night-club dancer.

Now I had selected a few shots of her as the night-club dancer but none of them compare to the actual footage... just watch them make screen magic - with Minnelli's wonderful eye for colour - with this fiercely cool and thrilling routine.... I LOVE this!


Despite appearing again with Astaire in the screen musical SILK STOCKINGS her years of stardom coincided with the end of the golden years of the MGM Musical and she turned to appearing in dramas such as PARTY GIRL and TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN.

In her later years she often appeared in shows with her singer-husband Tony Martin and she even appeared singing and dancing at the Victoria Palace in the 1980s in a revival of CHARLIE GIRL - a brave move bearing in mind she was invariably dubbed in her screen musicals!