Collaboration with Fred Astaire Hermes Pan

astaire , pan (standing third left) in second chorus (1940)

he met fred astaire, whom physically resembled, on set of flying down rio (1933), in worked assistant dance director dave gould.

while astaire trying work out series of steps carioca number, suggested him pan had few ideas , pan invited over. hermes pan demonstrated brief break had picked street days in new york.

from on 2 began lifelong professional collaboration , friendship included rko astaire pictures, including damsel in distress (1937) in ginger rogers did not appear, , awarded 1937 academy award best dance direction. had received academy award nominations top hat , piccolino numbers top hat (1935) , bojangles of harlem number swing time (1936).

the astaire-pan collaboration, involving 17 out of astaire s 31 musical films , 3 of 4 television specials, accepted 1 of important forces in dance choreography of 20th century film , television musicals. astaire called pan ideas man , , while choreographed own routines, , worked other choreographers, valued assistance of pan not source , critic of ideas, rehearsal partner purposes of fine-tuning routine.

given astaire s obsessive rehearsal habits, no mean task. pan performed essential function of rehearsing ginger rogers, many other commitments during filming of astaire-rogers musicals conflicted astaire s rehearsal schedule. in addition, recorded ginger s taps in post production in numbers.

pan continued collaborate astaire right until latter s last musical picture, finian s rainbow (1968), disaster on number of fronts, not least pan himself. young director francis ford coppola had no prior experience musical films, , proceeded ride roughshod on astaire , pan s plans film s dance routines, reintroducing style of dancing camera of 1930s astaire had done banish hollywood musical. eventually, coppola fired pan, had small walk-on part in film; coppola has since acknowledged own primary responsibility film s artistic failure.