1.18 - School Recitals and Vaudeville Debut
Astaires Take the Stage for First Time
As the summer of 1905 proceeded and their lessons in dancing and acting at the Alviene School continued, the Astaires performed in private recitals with other dramatic and dancing skits from fellow pupils. In his autobiography Fred recalls first a performance with Adele in scenes from Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, with Adele portraying Cyrano and Fred, because he was three inches shorter, as Roxanne, done up in a blond wig and a satin dress rented from a costume company (Astaire 19). Rostand’s Cyrano had debuted in Paris in December 1897, so the script was barely eight years old when the Astaires were doing scenes from the verse play written in rhyming couplets. It had first been performed in New York in October 1898 in a production starring Shakespearean actor Richard Mansfield at the Garden Theatre at 27th Street and Madison Avenue. (Fred and Adele would appear with Mrs. Mansfield 20 years later at the first anniversary party of the Episcopal Actors Guild.) Mansfield would return in November 1899 for a revival. In November 1900, again at the Garden Theatre, the lead roles would be performed by Benoit Constant Coquelin, the French actor who had originated the role of Cyrano, and Sarah Bernhardt as Roxanne.
The next school recital recalled by Astaire was the dress rehearsal for what would become their vaudeville act for the next two years: “The Wedding Cake Act.” Alviene had devised an elaborate bride-and-groom number, with Adele in a white satin wedding dress and Fred in full evening dress with a top hat. They danced on two 6-foot wide, 2-foot high wedding cakes, equipped with flashing electric lights and bells that could be played by hands and feet. After playing the old tune “Dreamland Waltz” with their toes, Adele ran off for a costume change, while Fred did a buck and wing on his toes. Adele returned for her own solo. After another quick costume change, Adele returned dressed as a glass of champagne and Fred as a lobster, playing more tunes on the bells with their hands and feet. The cakes were built by T.B. (“Bernie”) McDonald, whose McDonald Construction Company focused on set construction and design for large and small productions (Astaire 30). The company was founded by his father, Albie McDonald Sr., who originally had offices in the Grand Opera House on 23rd Street (White 42).
There were several tunes going by the title “Dreamland Waltz” during this time. The oldest seems to have been published in 1872 by Ira C. Stockbridge, another by Charles Kinkel in 1876, one by E.M. Dale in 1882, and a German tune “Dreamland Valse” by R.E. Batho in 1874. Other compositions with the same title, such as “Dreamland Waltz” Op. 270 by Julius Fucik (“the Czech Sousa,” best known for the “Entrance of the Gladiators”) and “Dreamland Waltzes” by William Christopher O’Hare, were probably written after 1905. O’Hare’s title was published as sheet music in 1909 and appears to be inspired by Coney Island’s Dreamland amusement park. Another possibility is a tune called “Dreamland Waltzes,” credited to Loula A. Gates and published in 1905. Of these, Kinkel’s was the best known and the most likely tune. It was a relatively short piece, so there must have been at least three other tunes in what Astaire remembers as a 12-minute act (Astaire 20), which was the standard length for a vaudeville turn.
Astaire remembers the first professional public performance of this act coming in the autumn of 1905 at Keyport, NJ, a small coastal town south of Staten Island. Their complicated stage equipment would probably have been shipped to a theater at the Pavilion Beach[i], an amusement park that had opened in 1903 (Riley 26). The Astaires would have taken the Ninth Avenue El to the Cortland Street station and then walked one block to the New Jersey Central ferry at Liberty Street (Pier 16), crossed the North River to Newark and then taken the New York, Atlantic Highlands branch railroad passing through Elizabeth, Elizabeth Port, Perth Amboy, South Amboy, Matawan and finally Keyport and then boarded a streetcar to the Pavilion Pier at the ocean front. Astaire remembers arriving by 8:30 a.m. on Monday, so they would have likely left on Train 331 at 5:50 a.m. arriving at Keyport by 7:25 a.m. (The return trip would have been on Train 320, leaving Keyport at 4:35 p.m. and arriving back in Manhattan at 6 p.m.[ii] (The Official Guide of the Railways 412). It would have been a long day for both Ann and the children, starting with the unpacking and set-up of the complicated stage equipment, working out lighting cues with the electrician and rehearsal with the orchestra. Astaire remembers there being only three other acts on the 3 p.m. matinee bill and that they were the opening act, usually reserved for the weakest, untried acts and those with the most complex staging (Astaire 22).[iii]
SOURCES
Astaire, Fred. Steps in Time. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959.
Billman, Larry. Fred Astaire: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Green, Stanley. Starring Fred Astaire. New York: Dood, Mead, 1973.
Official Guide of the Railways, The. New York: National Railway Publications Co., 1905.
Riley, Kathleen. The Astaires: Fred & Adele. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Satchell, Tim. Astaire: The Biography. London: Hutchinson, 1987.
[i]Satchell (Satchell 20) calls it the Pier Theatre, while Billman (Billman S1) calls it simply Pavilion Beach.
[ii]There was also a last train leaving at 7:26 p.m. and arriving at 8:52 p.m., which would have made for an extremely long day.
[iii]According to Billman (p.40) this was a split-week (3 day?) engagement for which they were paid $50, so it is possible that they did not take early and late trains from Manhattan but stayed in a NJ boardinghouse.