Nightlighters: Puttin' On The Top Hat

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." ― Voltaire

Time To Meet And Greet At The 6/8/2013 Dance (Page One)

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Did You Know? - Top Hat is a 1935 screwball comedy musical film in which Fred Astaire plays an American dancer named Jerry Travers, who comes to London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) to win her affection. The film also features Eric Blore as Hardwick's valet Bates, Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini, a fashion designer and rival for Dale's affections, and Helen Broderick as Hardwick's long-suffering wife Madge.

The film was written by Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor. It was directed by Mark Sandrich. The songs were written by Irving Berlin. "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" and "Cheek to Cheek" have become American song classics. It has been nostalgically referenced — particularly its "Cheek to Cheek" segment — in many films, including The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and The Green Mile (1999).

Top Hat was the most successful picture of Astaire and Rogers' partnership (and Astaire's second most successful picture after Easter Parade), achieving second place in worldwide box-office receipts for 1935. While some dance critics maintain that Swing Time contained a finer set of dances, Top Hat remains, to this day, the partnership's best-known work.

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Did You Know? - A top hat, beaver hat, high hat, silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat (sometimes also known by the nickname "topper") is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century. As of the early 21st century, it is usually worn only with morning dress or white tie, in dressage, as servants' or doormen's livery, or as a fashion statement.

The top hat is sometimes associated with the upper class, becoming a target for satirists and social critics. It was particularly used as a symbol of capitalism in cartoons in socialist and communist media, long after the headgear had been abandoned by those satirized. It was a part of the dress of Uncle Sam and used as a symbol of American monopoly power.

By the end of World War II, it had become a rarity, though it continued to be worn daily for formal wear, such as in London at various positions in the Bank of England and City stockbroking, or boys at some public schools.

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Did You Know? - The film earned RKO a profit of $1,325,000, making it the studio's most profitable film of the 1930s.

One of the productions that rescued RKO from bankruptcy (the other being King Kong.)

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
We gather together by the.... the.... old movies!

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Captivating to watch 75 years later

Did You Know? - In an Astaire-Rogers picture, the Big White Set — as these Art Deco-inspired creations were known — took up the largest share of the film's production costs, and Top Hat was no exception. A winding canal — spanned by two staircase bridges at one end and a flat bridge on the other — was built across two adjoining sound stages. Astaire and Rogers dance across this flat bridge in "Cheek to Cheek". Around the bend from this bridge was located the main piazza, a giant stage coated in red bakelite and this was the location for "The Piccolino".

This fantasy representation of the Lido of Venice was on three levels comprising dance floors, restaurants and terraces, all decorated in candy-cane colours, with the canal waters dyed black. The vast Venetian interiors were similarly inauthentic, reflecting instead the latest Hollywood tastes.

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
"Hello there... May I hold your drink??"

Did You Know? - Although Bernard Newman was nominally in charge of dressing the stars, Rogers was keenly interested in dress design and make-up. For the "Cheek to Cheek" routine, she was determined to use her own creation: "I was determined to wear this dress, come hell or high water. And why not? It moved beautifully. Obviously, no one in the cast or crew was willing to take sides, particularly not my side. This was all right with me. I'd had to stand alone before. At least my mother was there to support me in the confrontation with the entire front office, plus Fred Astaire and Mark Sandrich."

Due to the enormous labour involved in sewing each ostrich feather to the dress, Astaire — who normally approved his partner's gowns and suggested modifications if necessary during rehearsals — saw the dress for the first time on the day of the shoot, and was horrified at the way it shed clouds of feathers at every twist and turn, recalling later: "It was like a chicken attacked by a coyote, I never saw so many feathers in my life."

According to choreographer Hermes Pan, Astaire lost his temper and yelled at Rogers, who promptly burst into tears, whereupon her mother, Lela, "came charging at him like a mother rhinoceros protecting her young."

An additional night's work by seamstresses resolved much of the problem, however, careful examination of the dance on film reveals feathers floating around Astaire and Rogers and lying on the dance floor. Later, Astaire and Pan presented Rogers with a gold feather for her charm bracelet, and serenaded her with a ditty parodying Berlin's tune:

Feathers — I hate feathers

And I hate them so that I can hardly speak

And I never find the happiness I seek

With those chicken feathers dancing

Cheek to Cheek

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Visiting and meeting new friends

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
The dancers are poised to get to the floor the minute music begins

“Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.”

Did You Know? - Top Hat began filming on April 1, 1935 and cost $620,000 to make. Shooting ended in June and the first public previews were held in July. These led to cuts of approximately ten minutes, mainly in the last portion of the film: the carnival sequence and the gondola parade which had been filmed to show off the huge set were heavily cut.

A further four minutes were cut before its premiere at the Radio City Music Hall, where it broke all records, went on to gross $3 million on its initial release, and became RKO's most profitable film of the 1930s. After Mutiny on the Bounty, it made more money than any other film released in 1935.

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Oh oh.... What are they up to????

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
First on the floor... There should be a prize for that!

Did You Know? - Erik Rhodes' Italian characterization so offended the Italian government - and dictator Benito Mussolini in particular - that the film was banned in Italy. The same fate befell The Gay Divorcee the year before.

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
White jackets means its summer time

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Like floating on air

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself." ― Mikhail Baryshnikov

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
A great evening with friends

Did You Know? - Top Hat began filming on April 1, 1935 and cost $620,000 to make. Shooting ended in June and the first public previews were held in July. These led to cuts of approximately ten minutes, mainly in the last portion of the film: the carnival sequence and the gondola parade which had been filmed to show off the huge set were heavily cut.

A further four minutes were cut before its premiere at the Radio City Music Hall, where it broke all records, went on to gross $3 million on its initial release, and became RKO's most profitable film of the 1930s. After Mutiny on the Bounty, it made more money than any other film released in 1935.

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
The first Top Hat of the evening.... Looking good Jose

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
"Why yes mam... I also clean chimneys"

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Right out of the 30's....

Did You Know? - In an Astaire-Rogers picture, the Big White Set — as these Art Deco-inspired creations were known — took up the largest share of the film's production costs, and Top Hat was no exception. A winding canal — spanned by two staircase bridges at one end and a flat bridge on the other — was built across two adjoining sound stages. Astaire and Rogers dance across this flat bridge in "Cheek to Cheek". Around the bend from this bridge was located the main piazza, a giant stage coated in red bakelite and this was the location for "The Piccolino".

This fantasy representation of the Lido of Venice was on three levels comprising dance floors, restaurants and terraces, all decorated in candy-cane colours, with the canal waters dyed black. The vast Venetian interiors were similarly inauthentic, reflecting instead the latest Hollywood tastes.

 

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Explaining a new step is NOT easy

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Getting the low down

Did You Know? - Low Down - the real and unadorned facts

Nightlighters Putting On The Top Hat June 2013
Ted's camera was busy this evening

Did You Know? - Although Bernard Newman was nominally in charge of dressing the stars, Rogers was keenly interested in dress design and make-up.

For the "Cheek to Cheek" routine, she was determined to use her own creation: "I was determined to wear this dress, come hell or high water. And why not? It moved beautifully. Obviously, no one in the cast or crew was willing to take sides, particularly not my side. This was all right with me. I'd had to stand alone before. At least my mother was there to support me in the confrontation with the entire front office, plus Fred Astaire and Mark Sandrich."

Due to the enormous labour involved in sewing each ostrich feather to the dress, Astaire — who normally approved his partner's gowns and suggested modifications if necessary during rehearsals — saw the dress for the first time on the day of the shoot, and was horrified at the way it shed clouds of feathers at every twist and turn, recalling later: "It was like a chicken attacked by a coyote, I never saw so many feathers in my life."

According to choreographer Hermes Pan, Astaire lost his temper and yelled at Rogers, who promptly burst into tears, whereupon her mother, Lela, "came charging at him like a mother rhinoceros protecting her young."

An additional night's work by seamstresses resolved much of the problem, however, careful examination of the dance on film reveals feathers floating around Astaire and Rogers and lying on the dance floor Later, Astaire and Pan presented Rogers with a gold feather for her charm bracelet, and serenaded her with a ditty parodying Berlin's tune:

Feathers — I hate feathers

And I hate them so that I can hardly speak

And I never find the happiness I seek

With those chicken feathers dancing

Cheek to Cheek


The photographer was caught off duty (Courtesy of Ted)