Getta Load of 'Dem Gams!

I love musicals. Singing In The Rain, The Wizard of Oz, Kiss Me Kate, and My Fair Lady are all in my top 20 films of all time, and there are a slew of others I could watch again and again. Unlike many in my generation, I don't have a problem with someone stopping what they are doing and singing. We don't go to film for reality, after all.

Dancer Cyd Charisse died of a heart attack a couple of days ago. My childhood imagination was always taken by her and Ann Miller. They both seemed completely alien to me-more animal than human, with otherworldly coordination. In short, they were damn sexy!

Here's Cyd with Gene in Singing:


And Fred, in another great MGM musical, The Band Wagon:


As my dad would say, "That's when they had real dancing in movies."