Category Archives: Artist Heroes

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: Heroic Dancing Virtuosos

Artist Heroes, Celebrity Heroes,

By Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals

One popular genre of hero stories focuses on the tale of the buddy heroes.  These are heroes who pair up, enjoy great chemistry, display friendly friction, and perform heroic acts together that they could not perform individually.  Buddy hero stories have long graced the silver screen, television, and novels.  Examples include Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Thelma and Louise, Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey, The Hardy Boys, Tango and Cash, and The Blues Brothers.  Buddy hero stories differ from hero-sidekick stories in that buddy heroes are equals with complementary skill sets.  With buddy heroes, there is no dominant star; each is a force, and working together they can produce magic.

In the performing arts, perhaps no pair of heroes was more dominant and more revered than the dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  As with many buddy heroes, Astaire and Rogers were an unlikely pair.  Astaire was balding, less than handsome, and somewhat awkward as an actor.  His dancing, however, was poetry in motion, astonishing in its rhythm and technical virtuosity.

Ginger Rogers was beautiful, seductive, and comedic.  Her dancing was a notch below that of Astaire, but her playful coquettish style and natural charisma complemented him well.  Katherine Hepburn once observed, “He gives her class and she gives him sex.”  Together, Astaire and Rogers were greater than the sum of their parts.  No other dance team could compare.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in ten musical films together and revolutionized the musical film genre.  They dazzled audiences with their inventive flair.  Astaire was especially singled out for his skill and creativity on the dance floor.  Famed theater producer Jerome Robbins noted that “Astaire’s dancing looks so simple, so disarming, so easy, yet the understructure, the way he sets the steps on, over or against the music, is so surprising and inventive.” His perfectionism was legendary, yet he remained humble.  “I’ve never yet got anything 100% right,” he said. “Still it’s never as bad as I think it is.”

Alastair Macaulay from the New York Times once wrote, “Dancing together, Astaire and Rogers expressed many of love’s moods: courtship and seduction, repartee and responsiveness, teasing and challenge, the surprise of newfound harmony, the happy recapture of bygone romance, the giddy exhilaration of high spirits and intense mutual accord, the sense of a perfect balance of power, the tragedy of parting and, not least, the sense of love as role playing.”

Fred Astaire himself acknowledged that Ginger Rogers was by far his best dance partner.  “After a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong,” he said.  “Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success.”  Although Astaire was singled out more often for his dancing prowess, many people appreciated Rogers’ great talent and believed she was underrated.  Said one fan, “Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, backwards and on high heels.”

Below is a collage of dance routines performed by the great Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Emma Watson: Wizard and Hero

Artist Heroes, Celebrity Heroes

By Carolyn Flannery, Nora Tocheny, & Briana Robinson

British actress and model Emma Watson was born on April 15, 1990. She became a household name when, at the age of nine, she was cast as the strong, charismatic Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movie series. Watson auditioned for the part as Hermione because her friends did and because it would “be a laugh”. Although she didn’t take the audition seriously, her drama teacher and casting agents saw great potential in her.

She starred in eight Harry Potter movies, and has gone on to attract prominent roles in other movies and television shows. Her acting career has earned her many awards, such as the Young Artist Award, two Otto Awards, Child Performance of the Year Award, and many more.

Even though Emma Watson had many cinematic successes, becoming a world famous actress did not steer Emma Watson away from continuing her education. In 2009, Watson attended the prestigious Brown University while continuing her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter franchise. She took a year off from her education to act in several movies, but eventually received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature.

Not only is Emma Watson known as an accomplished actress, she was also named a Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women and has traveled to Bangladesh, Zambia, and Uruguay to advocate for human rights. In her September 20 speech for the United Nations, she launched the new HeforShe campaign that aims to bring men into the fight for gender equality. This speech earned her a standing ovation and began a national conversation about gender and feminism.

The HeforShe campaign advocates for gender equality as a human rights issue involving both sexes, a message Watson clearly expressed in her speech. Watson proclaims that feminism has become synonymous with “man-hating”, a negative stigma that has thwarted the advancement of gender equality. As a self-declared feminist, Watson explains how both women and men are targets of gender bias, and she urges both men and women to work together to modify today’s social norms. Emma Watson focuses her message to men and women of all ages.  She spoke out for human equality, motivating everyone to take a stand for what they believe in by saying, “If not you, who? If not now, when?”

Emma Watson embodies the qualities of a hero through her strong dedication to achieving her goals and advocating for worthy causes. She is an incredibly successful actress, and has many more achievements that are central in her everyday life. Her acting has brought her worldwide fame, and she uses her fame in a positive way to actively support humanitarian efforts. For example, she supports UNICEF on her official fan page and asks her fans to donate.

Watson also is involved with smaller charities, such as Blue Peter’s Mission Nutrition, and Wild Trout Trust. She has collaborated with Peopletree, a fair trade ecologically friendly fashion company that establishes production facilities in developing countries to provide community members with economic support through employment opportunities. Emma Watson has had a positive and enduring influence on society and has advanced numerous humanitarian causes, making her a role model and modern day hero.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Carolyn Flannery, Nora Tocheny, & Briana Robinson are undergraduate students at the University of Richmond. They wrote this essay as part of their course requirement while enrolled in Dr. Scott Allison’s Social Psychology class.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Sidney Poitier: Quiet Revolutionary

Artist Heroes, Celebrity Heroes, Unsung Heroes

© 2013 Rick Hutchins

The word revolution suggests noise. People will do a lot to draw attention to their cause; yelling and shouting is usually the least of it. But some revolutions happen quietly, peacefully, inevitably. All Sidney Poitier had to do to change the world was to be Sidney Poitier.

His humble beginnings did not in any way suggest greatness. A premature baby born to a poor farming family from the Bahamas, he survived infancy against the odds. His early life in the islands, in Miami and in New York was an anonymous one of farming and odd jobs, primarily washing dishes. He did not learn to read until his late teens. After a stint in the army, he simply went back to washing dishes. While he was able to gain a spot in the American Negro Theater, his early appearances were not applauded.

Then things changed. One successful role on Broadway led to another, which led to a notable role in the film No Way Out, which led to more Hollywood successes. Suddenly this quiet, perseverant man was a star — the first Black actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award, then the first Black actor win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

But he was more than that. In the tempestuous 1960s, in the midst of the Civil Rights Era, a time of race riots and student protests and a counter-cultural overturning of tradition, a time of clashes between generations and ideologies and bewildered bystanders, a time in which the pent-up anger of centuries came to a head, Sidney Poitier found himself to be a role model. Without any ambition to do so, he touched the lives of millions.

You could hear a pin drop.

This is not to say there was no controversy; nothing and no one is immune to that. There were accusations of tokenism, of appeasement. With his serene manner, his gentle voice — even after all these years still informed by a gentle island lilt — and his general thoughtfulness, this gentleman was deemed by many to be inadequate to the revolution. As the only major Black actor of his time, he was encouraged to take stronger, grittier, more controversial roles — in the parlance of the age, Blacker roles.

Poitier was conflicted. He did not disagree, since, as does any artist, he thrived on challenge. But, in his thoughtful way, he determined that living up to his own expectations as a role model was more important. He did indeed tackle the great racial issues of his time– a man of his character could do no less– but he did it his own way.

In the classic film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?, a movie whose theme of the marriage between a Black man and a White woman (miscegenation!) was still unspeakably scandalous to much of the nation, his character quietly said to his father, “You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.”

And that was it. While others accused and attacked, he led by example. While others incited passion, he incited peace. While others were fighting battles, he won the war by teaching us that the entire conflict was based on a lie.

Of course it’s not over, even after all these decades; the troubled times are not behind us. There is still racism and chauvinism, still confusion and chaos, still antisocial throwbacks and self-serving crusaders. Even so, standing serenely above them all is a giant named Sidney Poitier– actor, director, author, diplomat– a role model for those with sincerity in their hearts, a leader for those who will listen.

Sidney Poitier, you see, is not too quiet — the world is simply too loud.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Rick Hutchins was born in Boston, MA, and is a regular contributor to this blog.  In his quest to live up to the heroic ideal of helping people, he has worked in the health care field for the past twenty-five years, in various capacities. He is also the author of Large In Time, a collection of poetry, The RH Factor, a collection of short stories, and is the creator of Trunkards. Links to galleries of his art, photography and animation can be found on http://www.RJDiogenes.com.

Two of Hutchins’ previous essays on heroes appear in our new book Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Josephine Baker: Bronze Venus

Artist Heroes, Celebrity Heroes, Legendary Heroes, Unsung Heroes

By Rick Hutchins

Pulp Fiction abounds with larger-than-life heroes who seemingly achieve more than any mere mortal could hope to accomplish in one lifetime. Mainstream society rejects such notions as mere Romanticism and advises us to set our sights lower — however, such people do exist.

This is the story of one such person.

The woman who would become known as the Bronze Venus was born into a life of poverty in the Negro slums of St. Louis in 1906, the daughter of Vaudeville performers. She did not intend to follow in her parents’ footsteps. However, abandoned by her father and abused as the domestic servant of a wealthy family, she found herself homeless and starving on the city streets; so, when dancing for pennies on the corner led to an invitation to perform in a local chorus line, she was not slow to accept.

Her natural talents quickly became apparent. Before she was out of her teens, she had moved to New York and had become the highest paid chorus girl in Vaudeville. By her early 20s, she was charming audiences in at the Folies Bergère in Paris with her uninhibited eroticism and comedic antics.

Josephine Baker quickly became one of the most famous women in the world. Her success allowed her to be financially independent, quite rare for a woman of that era and unheard of for a Black woman. As an artist, she was an innovator. In addition to pushing the boundaries of eroticism and nudity, even by the standards of the Roaring 20s, she was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture and is credited with introducing the Jazz Age to Europe.

After more than a decade of increasing success as an exotic performer (complete with pet cheetah), mitigated only somewhat by experiences with racism in the United States, Baker had become a French citizen and did not hesitate to answer the call when World War II broke out. She was recruited by French Military Intelligence and, later, the French Resistance to obtain and conduct information vital to the war effort.

Her celebrity status allowed her to rub shoulders with movers and shakers at embassies throughout Europe and her charm allowed her to gather data about enemy airfields, harbors, and troop movements, which she would then convey written in invisible ink on her sheet music and in notes pinned in her underwear. She was, in short, a spy. In addition, her home in the south of France became an unofficial headquarters for the Free French movement, where operatives could obtain visas.

Throughout the war, Baker also performed freely for the troops and worked as a nurse for the Red Cross. Many Allied soldiers remembered her generosity and healing ministrations throughout the remainder of their lives.

For her efforts, she was awarded the Croix de guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.

After the war ended, Baker’s celebrity status was heightened by her wartime heroism, and she was not afraid to use her newfound clout. Returning to the United States after many years, she refused to perform for segregated audiences– most venues, most notably in Miami and Las Vegas, gave in to her demands, resulting in a sold-out national tour. She was named the NAACP Woman of the Year in 1951 and May 20th was declared Josephine Baker Day. A parade was held in her honor.

All was not wine and roses, however. She was turned away by dozens of hotels for being Black and received death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. A confrontation at the New York Stork Club (in which she was befriended by Grace Kelly, a hero in her own right), resulted in the revocation of her visa for several years.

Nevertheless, Baker continued to work with the Civil Rights Movement, and was an ally of the NAACP and Martin Luther King. She spoke at the historic March on Washington in 1963 (the only woman to do so) and was heartened by the sight of so many Blacks and Whites standing shoulder to shoulder. “Salt and pepper,” she said. “Just what it should be.” When Doctor King was killed, she was offered the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement by his widow, but she declined. By then, she had a family to think about.

Her family at that time consisted of her husband, Jo Bouillon, a French conductor, and a dozen adopted children who she called her Rainbow Tribe (as well as a menagerie of exotic pets). The children were of a variety of backgrounds– European, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern– and were a testament to Baker’s belief that “Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.”

Josephine Baker died in 1975 from a cerebral hemorrhage, following a retrospective performance in Paris that was attended by celebrities, royalty, and dignitaries from all over the world. She received full French military honors and a public funeral attended by tens of thousands.

Today there are parks and streets that bear her name, she is the subject of multiple books, movies and plays, and there are museums and memorials from Missouri to Monte Carlo that pay tribute to this underprivileged Black woman from the streets of St. Louis who championed sexual freedom, provided a role model for independent women, fought the Axis, stared down the Klan, and set an example of human fellowship that is still needed today.

Mere Romanticism indeed. Such people do exist.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Rick Hutchins was born in Boston, MA, and is a regular contributor to this blog.  In his quest to live up to the heroic ideal of helping people, he has worked in the health care field for the past twenty-five years, in various capacities. He is also the author of Large In Time, a collection of poetry, The RH Factor, a collection of short stories, and is the creator of Trunkards. Links to galleries of his art, photography and animation can be found on http://www.RJDiogenes.com.

Two of Hutchins’ previous essays on heroes appear in our book Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Myrna Loy: Hero On and Off Screen

Artist Heroes, Celebrity Heroes

By Rick Hutchins

Many actors are known for the heroic exploits of their fictional alter egos, but far fewer deserve to be called heroes in their own right. Myrna Loy is best remembered for her role as Nora Charles, the wry better half of William Powell’s Nick Charles, whom she portrayed in six Thin Man films from 1934 to 1947. In these films, Loy never failed to help bring the murderer to justice and prevent further loss of life. In real life, her acts of heroism were more subtle, yet more profound and lasting.

Born in 1905 in Montana, Myrna Loy came to southern California with her mother following the death of her father when she was 13. Here she studied dance, posed for photographers and sculptors, and was soon performing in local stage productions. A job as a dancer in Grauman’s Egyptian Theater led to her first roles as exotic femme fatales in several silent films throughout the 1920s. But it was in 1934, at the age of 29, that she landed the role of Nora Charles, making her one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and earning her the nickname “The Queen of Hollywood.”

Loy put her fame and wealth to good use. A strong opponent of racism, she lobbied against discrimination in Hollywood. “Why does every black person in the movies have to play a servant?” she asked studio executives when she was at MGM. “How about a black person walking up the steps of a courthouse carrying a briefcase?” This was in 1934, during the Great Depression and three decades before the Civil Rights Era. Later, she worked as co-chair of the Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing.

When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, she went to work raising money for the Red Cross and War Relief. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, she went to work full time for the war effort, going on fund-raising tours (in full uniform) and working at a Naval Auxiliary Canteen run by Bundles for Bluejackets. As the war continued, she moved to New York and toured military hospitals throughout the east, visiting wounded and crippled soldiers and organizing shows to raise their spirits. Her outspoken statements against the Nazis earned her a spot on Hitler’s blacklist.

After the war, she faced the threat of another blacklist because of her progressive views — this time because of the rising tide of McCarthyism and the Communist Witch Hunt. As a response to the forming of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Loy helped create the Committee For The First Amendment. Also in the post-war years, she went to work for the American Association For The United Nations and as a delegate for UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization).

In her roles as strong, intelligent and sexually liberated women in films such as The Thin Man, Topaze and The Barbarian, Myrna Loy epitomized the “New Woman” feminism that began in the 1920s. Her progressive views on racial and gender equality foreshadowed the dramatic social changes of the following generation. Her dedication and patriotism in the face of war, as well as her courage and moral fiber in the face of ominous developments on the home front, brought comfort and hope to many. In both fact and fiction, Myrna Loy was a heroic force to be reckoned with.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Rick Hutchins was born in Boston, MA, and has been an avid admirer of heroism since the groovy 60s. In his quest to live up to the heroic ideal of helping people, he has worked in the health care field for the past twenty-five years, in various capacities. He is also the author of Large In Time, a collection of poetry, The RH Factor, a collection of short stories, and is the creator of Trunkards. Links to galleries of his art, photography and animation can be found on http://www.RJDiogenes.com.

The Million Dollar Quartet: Four Rock Heroes, Sixty Years Later

Artist Heroes, Celebrity Heroes

By Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals

Over the past several years, the musical Million Dollar Quartet has been playing in major cities around the United States.  It’s a fabulous show, featuring singer/actor/musicians portraying four 1950s rock’n roll heroes from Sun Records in Memphis Tennessee.  The four are Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley.

The play’s performances are sensational.  But the leading man is not one of the musicians, rather the actor playing the role of Sam Phillips, founder and owner of Sun Records.  We have mentioned Sam Phillips before.  His Sun Records studio on 706 Union Avenue is now a lovingly preserved national landmark in Memphis.  Artists such as Bono and Ringo Starr still go there, either to record or just to see and touch the microphone used by the great singers of the golden “rockabilly” age of The Fifties.

The facts of the Million Dollar Quartet are fascinating in themselves.   The play takes some liberty with actual events, making the story even more compelling than it was in actuality.  But our need to make our heroes even more heroic than they really were easily accounts for those embellishments.  In the theatre version, Sam Phillips is dealing with Johnny Cash leaving to sign with another record company, Carl Perkins is trying to find another hit after his early defining single smash, Blue Suede Shoes, and Jerry Lee Lewis is emerging as perhaps the most musically talented of all them all.  Phillips is the glue that holds them together. That part does fit the historical record.  For that Phillips is a genuine hero to rockers of all ages.

As best we can figure out, and supposedly authoritative versions conflict, here’s what happened.  It was a Tuesday afternoon, December 4, 1956.  Elvis was at his peak.  That year he had had five number one singles and two top albums, his first movie, Love Me Tender, was a monstrous success, and his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show drew 83% of the television audience.  In contrast, after Blue Suede Shoes Perkins career hadn’t gone anywhere.  He just didn’t have the charisma that blessed Elvis.  Jerry Lee Lewis was only a studio piano player brought in to round out Perkins’ combo.

Johnny Cash had recorded I Walk the Line and Folsom Prison Blues with Phillips at Sun.  But he was about to leave for another label.  In this context, Elvis and his current girlfriend dropped by the studio.  It was likely a relief to him to return to a familiar, nurturing place where he could just be himself.  As the famous “quartet” and others in the studio chatted, Elvis sat at a piano and started playing and singing.  The others joined in.  Someone in the studio had the good sense to turn on the tape recorder.

What is so interesting are the songs they all knew and could work on together.  At first, they are almost entirely gospel songs, reflecting their common Southern heritage.   Later, they started doing more traditional rock’n roll.  Elvis takes the lead on most numbers, and the others harmonize.  They are clearly just having fun.  Many historians of the era feel that by the end of 1956, Elvis’ best days were behind him.  He was being homogenized into a bland, antiseptic round of recordings and films.

The Million Dollar Quartet was one of the last instances where Elvis was recorded in a setting where he was simply relaxing with his friends and his music, not trying to impress anyone.  Still, the recordings, which were rediscovered many years later, impress us all.

Below is a clip of the Million Dollar Quartet singing Farther Along on that historic day in December of 1956.