Queer Places:
Gottlieb Storz House, 3708 Farnam St, Omaha, NE 68131
Lismore Castle, Lismore, Co. Waterford, Ireland
Oakwood Memorial Park And Cemetery, 22601 Lassen St, Chatsworth, CA 91311
Adele
Astaire (born Adele Marie Austerlitz, later known as Lady Charles Cavendish;
September 10, 1896 – January 25, 1981), was an American dancer, stage actress,
and singer. After beginning work as a dancer and vaudeville performer at the
age of nine, Astaire built a successful performance career with her younger
brother, Fred Astaire. A 14-year-old Adele Astaire saw
Hazel Dawn's performance in The
Pink Lady and idolized her, thinking her to be "the most lovely, graceful
creature" she had seen.
Mercedes de Acosta claimed to have a brief lesbian relationship with
Adele. Adele was among the female relationship of
Cecil Beaton.
The brother and sister act initially worked their way through vaudeville
circuits, finally achieving a breakthrough with their first Broadway roles in
1917. Astaire became known for her talents as a skilled dancer and comedienne,
starring in hit Broadway musicals such as Lady, Be Good! (1924),
Funny Face (1927) and The Band Wagon (1931). The siblings
took several of their more popular shows to Britain's West End during the
1920s, where they were soon international celebrities, meeting members of the
British royal family and prominent figures from contemporary arts and
literature circles.
Adele Marie Austerlitz was born on September 10, 1896, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Her parents were Johanna "Ann" Geilus, an American-born Lutheran of German
descent, and Frederic "Fritz" Austerlitz, an Austrian-born Roman Catholic of
Jewish descent.
Adele's younger brother, Fred Austerlitz, was born three years after her.
Built in 1905, the Gottlieb Storz Mansion in Omaha includes the "Adele
and Fred Astaire Ballroom" on the top floor, which is the only memorial to
their Omaha roots.
After Adele showed an early propensity for dance, she was enrolled in a
local dance school. She soon stood out for her natural ability as a dancer,
and began making appearances at local recitals and parties. Her parents
decided to enroll Fred as well — a somewhat frail child in his earliest
years — with the intention of having him build strength through dance
training, and he, too, showed the beginnings of aptitude. When Adele was eight
and Fred was five, a teacher suggested that the two children might have a
stage career if they received proper training. This prompted the family to
move from Omaha to New York, though the father returned to Omaha to work.
Adele, Fred and their mother lived in a boarding house, and the children began
attending the Alviene Master School of the Theatre and Academy of Cultural
Arts.
Adele and Fred adopted the more American-sounding surname Astaire after trying
several variations on the original Austerlitz, and their mother Ann also
adopted the new surname.
In late 1905, with the assistance of her dance instructor Claude Alvienne,
Adele Astaire began a professional vaudeville act with Fred. Alvienne helped
them develop a routine involving two large, elaborate set pieces in the form
of wedding cakes. Astaire and her brother, dressed up as a small bride and
groom, danced up and down the cakes and activated small electric lights and
musical bells with their feet. They played a simple waltz through their dance
steps.
The siblings performed intermittently at first, with their mother Ann acting
as their manager and costume designer. They gained additional training from
the ballet school of the Metropolitan Opera and from American choreographer
Ned Wayburn.
Ann Astaire home schooled her children, with the exception of a stint in New
Jersey, when Adele and Fred put their performance career on hold and attended
regular school for two and half years. The adolescent Adele had grown so tall
at the time that her smaller, younger brother, still catching up in height,
looked awkward dancing with her.
After returning to the vaudeville circuit in 1911, Astaire and her brother
struggled to find steady work for the next couple of years. Agents were
initially uninterested in representing the relatively unknown pair.
In 1913, Astaire's father introduced the siblings to Aurelio Coccia, an
experienced dance instructor and showman. He taught several new dances to the
young Astaires and developed a new, more mature vaudeville routine for them.
Bookings became more frequent after this, as the pair gradually improved their
act and reputation.
In 1916, the siblings encountered a difficult year when the White Rats of
America, a union of vaudeville performers, staged a workers' strike that
spread nationally, creating tense working relations between performers and
vaudeville managers. Astaire and her brother, although not union members, lost
valuable income nonetheless, and their father, unlucky enough to be working at
a Nebraska brewery when state-wide prohibition was approved, was unable to
offer financial support. When the union strike finally ended, the Astaire
siblings returned to work at last, achieving a highly successful season.
As they grew older, the contrasting personalities of the siblings grew more
distinct. Adele was a "perennial live wire": lively, gregarious, and known for
her raw frankness, along with her colorful swearing. Fred, the hardworking
perfectionist, was quieter and constantly anxious about all the details of
their day-to-day work.
While Fred might come to a venue two hours early to prepare for their show,
Adele was more likely to arrive only a handful of minutes before she was due
on stage.
Despite their differences in temperament, the siblings were close. Astaire
affectionately nicknamed her younger brother "Moaning Minnie" for his tendency
to worry about every possible thing that could go wrong.
In 1917, after Fred carefully purchased a full-page advertisement on the
back cover of Variety, the siblings landed a part in their first
Broadway show, Lee Shubert's Over the Top. Adele was 21, while her
brother was 18. The show opened on November 28, 1917,
and the siblings received a weekly salary of $250 for their assigned dance
numbers and comedy skits.
A critic from The New York Globe commented that the dancing of Adele
and her brother was "one of the prettiest features of the show", and the
production ran for 78 performances.
The following year, Adele and Fred performed in The Passing Show of 1918,
which ran for 125 performances.
Astaire was given an opening solo, singing "I Really Can't Make My Feet
Behave".
In November 1919, the Astaires appeared in the operetta Apple Blossoms,
beginning a professional relationship with Broadway producer
Charles
Dillingham. The show was successful, running for 256 performances. Fritz
came to see his children perform. Their weekly salary was now $550, which rose
to $750 when Apple Blossoms began its post-Broadway tour from September
1920 to April 1921.
Unlike her brother, who struggled with shyness offstage, Astaire's outgoing
personality made it easy for her to speak to reporters.
Although their next show The Love Letter was a commercial flop,
opening in October 1921 and running for only 31 performances,
Astaire and her brother continued to garner appreciation from audiences, and
here they introduced what would become one of their signature exit moves. the
Runaround. Standing shoulder to shoulder at the end of a dance number, the
siblings would put their arms out as if grasping the handlebars of bicycles,
running around the stage together in ever-growing circles while the orchestra
played "a series of oompahs".
At last, Adele and Fred would disappear into the wings.
Audiences loved it. Fred attributed the popularity of the Runaround to his
sister's comedic timing and expressions, and the siblings subsequently found
ways to incorporate the move into almost every other show throughout their
career together.
While visiting New York for the first time that year, English playwright
Noël Coward saw
The Love Letter and was impressed by the Astaires. He came to meet them
backstage, urging them to consider taking their performances to London.
In 1922, Adele and Fred landed their first proper speaking roles in the
Broadway musical For Goodness Sake, playing the best friends of the
lead characters. They received positive reviews from critics,
and sang the hit song "The Whichness of the Whatness", concluding the piece
with their increasingly popular Runaround exit. With the success of this show,
Fred began taking more of a lead in choreographing their routines.
The siblings finally received star billing in the short-lived The Bunch and
Judy, earning $1000 weekly. Drama critic Heywood Broun called the Astaires
"the most graceful and charming young dancers in the world of musical comedy".
As the siblings continued to rise professionally, Adele quickly became
known for her comedic expressions and "adorably squeaky" soprano voice.
She often ad-libbed onstage.
She gave high-spirited performances, delighting audiences with her zany humor;
Fred developed his own more understated style in response, dancing with a
characteristic "pretence of nonchalance" that he would carry on using
throughout his dancing career.
Adele and her brother developed a dancing style involving complex steps
performed rapidly and gracefully, often compared to "a whirlwind" by critics
and audiences.
After the idea of performing overseas was suggested, Adele and Fred agreed
to take For Goodness Sake (renamed Stop Flirting) to the West
End in London. On May 30, 1923, their show opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre
and received a standing ovation.
Stop Flirting ran for 418 performances. It moved to the Queen's
Theatre, followed by the Strand Theatre.
The Prince of Wales attended the show ten times, and both he and his brother
the Duke of York became friends with the siblings. Adele taught Edward some
new tap dance steps, and the pair once danced together at a club.
As the Astaires' popularity grew, both Adele and Fred were featured in major
advertising campaigns.
While in London, Peter Pan creator
J. M. Barrie
asked Adele to play his creation on stage, but contractual reasons forced her
to turn down the part.
In early 1924, Adele received word that her father, Fritz, had died from
cancer.
Returning to New York in late 1924, Adele and her brother starred in
Lady, Be Good!, the first Broadway musical scored entirely by George and
Ira Gershwin. It was a hit with audiences, running for 330 performances. The
siblings earned $1750 per week. One critic called Adele the most charming and
entertaining musical actress seen "in many a moon".
In the spring of 1926, Adele and her brother took Lady, Be Good! to
London, opening at the Empire Theatre to enthusiastic reception. The siblings
renewed their acquaintance with the British royal family, receiving an
invitation from the Duke and Duchess of York to meet the newborn Princess
Elizabeth. King George V and Queen Mary also made a special visit to see the
Astaires perform.
In 1927, Adele and Fred joined forces with the Gershwin brothers again in
New York for their new musical Funny Face. The show was another hit.
Shortly after the opening, the Astaires arranged for a film screen test with
Paramount Pictures. The film studio hoped to feature Adele and her brother in
a film version of Funny Face, but the siblings were both unsatisfied
with the initial screen test results, and the project never went ahead.
On the Broadway stage, Funny Face ran for 250 performances, closing
only due to a summer heatwave in 1928 that made theaters too hot for audiences
and performers. That summer, Adele was injured in an accident on Long Island
when a motorboat engine exploded, scalding her upper body with burning oil.
Although her career was put on hold for a few months, she made a full
recovery.
The Astaires' London debut of Funny Face took place in November
1928. The show ran for 263 performances, and British newspapers hailed
"another outbreak of 'Astairia'" as audiences embraced the American duo once
again.
On the night of their final performance in London, Adele was introduced to
Lord Charles Cavendish, the second son of the 9th Duke of Devonshire.
Cavendish was several years younger than Adele. The pair were quickly
attracted to each other, spending time together in Paris before Adele returned
to America with Fred. They met again soon afterwards when Cavendish came to
New York and took a position with J.P. Morgan & Co.
Astaire (left) with The Band Wagon co-star Tilly Losch
Although their next show, Smiles (1930), was a commercial flop,
Adele and her brother soon made their comeback with another hit, starring in
their final Broadway show together, The Band Wagon, which opened on
June 3, 1931, and ran for 260 performances.
Other members of The Band Wagon's cast included Tilly Losch, Helen
Broderick and Frank Morgan.
Critics applauded the creative, decidedly modern writing and set design of the
show, which included a custom-built "double revolve" turntable stage: the
turntable revolved in two directions at once, revealing new scenes quickly and
smoothly while the performers danced and sang.
After the two had been courting for some time, Adele proposed marriage to
Charles Cavendish at a speakeasy named 21, and he accepted.
She was tired of the relentless travel and rehearsals required of a performer,
and had been considering retirement.
For her, theatrical life had always been "an acquired taste... like olives".
In Chicago on March 5, 1932, after one final performance with Fred in
The Band Wagon, Adele officially retired from the stage.
She had been performing with her brother for 27 years.
American drama critic Ashton Stevens declared her departure from theater a sad
occasion, commenting that "Heaven doesn't send every generation an Adele
Astaire".
Following a farewell party, Adele and her mother boarded the RMS Majestic
and sailed for London, while Fred remained in the United States to continue
his career. Adele renewed a friendship with fellow passenger Winston
Churchill, whom she had earlier met while performing in England, and the pair
enjoyed games of backgammon together during the voyage.
Upon the ship's docking in Plymouth, reporters attempted to ambush Adele and
were deterred only by Churchill, who distracted them until Adele and her
mother could disembark without harassment.
In April of that year, after rejoining Charles, Adele met the rest of the
Cavendish family for the first time. Her future sister-in-law, Lady Mary
Gascoyne-Cecil, later gleefully recollected Adele's colorful entrance: Adele
was formally announced, quietly entered the room where the Cavendish family
was waiting, and then launched herself into a series of cartwheels across the
floor until she had reached her new relatives. Despite the initial
reservations of Charles's mother, the Duchess of Devonshire, Adele was
welcomed by the family. The wedding was briefly postponed when Charles was
hospitalized for appendicitis, his ill health exacerbated by heavy drinking,
but on May 9, 1932, Adele Astaire married Lord Charles Cavendish in the
family's private chapel at Chatsworth,
receiving the courtesy title of "Lady Charles".
The couple moved to County Waterford in Ireland, where they lived at the
family estate of Lismore Castle. Adele paid for the installation of several
new, modern bathrooms to replace the castle's antiquated facilities, joking
that this was her gift to the family in place of the more traditional dowries
brought by rich, aristocratic heiresses.
Back in the United States, Fred initially struggled to adjust to his new
dancing partners; Adele sent Fred a teasing telegram right before the first
performance of his new show, The Gay Divorcee: "Now Minnie, don't
forget to moan".
Lismore Castle
In 1933, Adele gave birth prematurely to a daughter, who did not survive.
Two years later, she gave birth to stillborn twin sons. She struggled with
periods of depression and an increasingly difficult home life. Charles
grappled with severe alcoholism, spending periods of time in hospitals,
nursing homes and German spas as he tried unsuccessfully to conquer his
addiction. In 1936, American film producer David Selznick offered Adele a
supporting role in his film Dark Victory, but she was unsatisfied with
the screen tests and preoccupied with caring for her husband, ultimately
declining the job offer. She turned down another film role from Selznick a
year later.
In 1939, Adele, aged forty-two, suffered a miscarriage in her third and final
pregnancy.
In 1942, as Adele searched for ways to contribute to the wartime effort,
she met Colonel Kingman Douglass, the American chief of U.S. Air Force
Intelligence who was stationed in London. Douglass suggested that Adele work
at the American Red Cross's 'Rainbow Corner' canteen, located near Piccadilly
Circus. Adele agreed to his suggestion. Her mother, who had remained in
Ireland to be near her daughter, now stayed home at Lismore to care for the
often bed-ridden Charles, sending Adele regular updates.
In London, Adele wrote letters home for soldiers, writing and posting up to
130 letters in a single week. She took shifts at the information desk, danced
with soldiers, and helped the men shop for necessities while in London. After
the London Blitz began, she increased her work hours and served at the Rainbow
Corner seven days per week.
Adele's wartime work gave her a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment,
helping her cope with recent personal difficulties.
In March 1944, Charles died as a result of long-term alcohol poisoning,
aged 38. Adele received compassionate leave to attend his funeral at St.
Carthage's, where Charles was buried near his children.
Following his death, Adele turned down an offer from Irving Berlin to return
to the stage in Annie Get Your Gun.
In April 1947, Adele re-married, this time to her old American acquaintance
from the war, Kingman Douglass.
Douglass, who had previously been married and divorced, now worked as an
investment banker. He later briefly served as Assistant Director of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Initially lacking the personal funds necessary to move back to America, Adele
broke the news of her engagement to the Cavendish family in Ireland, and
received their financial support to move on to the next stage of her life. She
was also given permission to continue spending three months a year at Lismore
Castle, provided that she helped contribute towards the upkeep of the
property.
Adele gained three stepsons from her marriage to Douglass.
Aside from returning to Lismore Castle periodically, Adele and her new husband
lived in New York, Virginia, and eventually Round Hill, Jamaica.
Adele often entertained family and friends at her Jamaica home.
Adele remained retired from stage life. In 1953, authors P. G. Wodehouse
and Guy Bolton, both fans of Adele, wrote a teasing epilogue for her and her
brother Fred, who had successfully transitioned to film work after his
Broadway career.
In 1968, Douglass received injuries after being struck by a bus. Soon
afterwards, he was injured again in a car accident. He died in 1971 due to a
brain hemorrhage.
Afterwards, Adele moved to Phoenix, Arizona. She continued, until 1979, to
spend summer at the castle in Ireland she had shared with her first husband.
Adele was known for her robust health, going regularly jogging every morning
well into her late seventies.
According to her relatives, Adele quickly overcame illnesses, soon getting
back on her feet "and in Marine-type English, telling what she thought of the
world."
She remained close with her brother, exchanging constant letters, packages
and long-distance phone calls, chatting together about favorite
soap operas.
In November 1972, Adele and her brother were both inducted into the
newly-created American Theater Hall of Fame.
In 1975, the Astaires' mother died at the age of 96.
Adele Astaire died on January 25, 1981, in Scottsdale Memorial Hospital,
Scottsdale, Arizona, after suffering a stroke.
She was 84. Some of her ashes were scattered in Ireland, by Lismore Castle and
the graves of her children and first husband, while the rest were buried near
her mother's grave in Chatsworth, California.
In the early 1980s, the Anglo-American Contemporary Dance Foundation
created the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards to recognize outstanding Broadway
dancers and choreographers.
The Gottlieb Storz House in Omaha includes the "Adele and Fred Astaire
Ballroom" on the top floor, which is the only memorial to the siblings' roots
in Omaha.
Although there is no surviving film footage of Astaire's Broadway
performances,
recordings do exist of her duets with Fred, George Vollaire and Bernard
Clifton.
My published books:
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