"The dance routines I created are like children to me. I don’t want to forget them."

— Eleanor Powell

Eleanor Powell was truly 'The Queen of Tap' from the 1930s until her passing on 11 February 1982. She and her male counterpart, Fred Astaire, only starred together in one film, "Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)". Plans for other films with them as a dance couple - a version of the Broadway musical "Girl Crazy" and one about the backstage at the "Ziegfeld Follies" - were shelved, because MGM believed that there was no chemistry between them.

Not only was there no chemistry between them, but Astaire was also a bit intimidated by her, and 'unhappy' about pairing with her again. Later, in his autobiography "Steps in Time (1959)", he would say, "Eleanor Powell, one of our greatest talents, is a bit too powerful for me. I love Eleanor Powell, but she dances like a man. She's a remarkable dancer, but she has a very mannish style, and she's a little big for me. She 'put 'em down like a man’, no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself."

Here they are dancing together. I wouldn't say that she dances like a man, more like a confident, graceful woman, who is born to dance, and she is matching Astaire step by step, which for any woman is not easy in a dress.

Astaire recognised that she had real talent and could easily out-dance any of her male partners, including himself. Unlike other female dancers, she was a perfectionist, just like Astaire, and would create her own dance routines. Both respected each other and knew that they could bring out the best in one another, but their zeal for perfection could also be hampering the completion of the dance routines that they were working on. Maybe that is why they also clashed during their pairing.

"Could we do it just one more time?"

She wanted to do more than just simple choreography like the other female co-stars, and she worked hard on her own intricate dance routines. As a true hoofer, she would focus on flawlessly combining the movements of her arms, and her marvellous turns, with the crisp sounds of her shoes tapping to the rhythm of the music.

However, Hollywood producers considered a woman's role in dances to be just to make the man look good, and Powell was not your typical female dancer, who would want to be only the sexy, glamorous love interest of the male star, following him while they danced together, or admiring him from afar doing a solo performance.

There was no place for a woman as talented as Eleanor Powell who couldn't partner easily with someone in a romantic setting, and so she retired from acting after appearing in only fourteen films.

In "Lady Be Good (1941)" she performed an impressive, uninterrupted tap dance routine to the melody of Gershwin's "Fascinating Rhythm".

This is a behind-the-scenes video of how it was done.

I liked her dancing with Buttons too.