The Celebrated Barn-Raising Dance [Updated]

in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) is one of the few sequences in movie/video history one can burn tons of calories and become exhausted just watching the dancers:



It deserves its legendary status. As of this writing, the five major male dancers are still alive after all these years. There must be something to strenuous dancing/acrobatics. Matt Mattox (Caleb, yellow shirt) was born in 1921; Tommy Rall (Frank, red shirt and probably the best dancer of the bunch and maybe in movie history, which is saying one hell of a lot) was born in 1929; Jacques d'Amboise (Ephriam, teal shirt, real name Joseph Ahern and changed it for some damned reason) was born in 1934; Russ Tamblyn (easily recognizable in blue and had a gymnastics background) was born in 1934; and Marc Platt (Daniel, purple shirt) was born in 1913 making him a mere 93 years old (he'll be 94 in December). Sadly Jeff Richards (Benjamin, orange shirt and a non-dancer) passed away in 1989.

I did mention choreographer Michael Kidd's passing last year. At least I wasn't all that negligent.

From the Kidd obit:

“While those with overly delicate feminist sensibilities may find the sexual politics of ‘Seven Brides’ too horrifying to contemplate,” Stephanie Zacharek wrote in The Times in 2004 on the occasion of a 50th-anniversary DVD release of the film, “the rest of us will want to play the barn-raising sequence — choreographed by Michael Kidd, it is one of the most rousing dance numbers ever put on screen — over and over again.”

For the film, Mr. Kidd recruited ballet-trained dancers like Jacques D’Amboise, Marc Platt, Tommy Rall and Matt Mattox to join the musical actor Russ Tamblyn; his female dancers included a young Julie Newmar (billed as Julie Newmeyer) and Ruta Lee (then Ruta Kilmonis).

I'll have to go get the movie if and when I get any money.

_____

Speaking of Rall, who has lived in retirement for years, I found this interesting article of somebody who had taught dance posing as Rall--for THIRTY years--until he was caught:

Over the years, I have gotten the occasional e-mail from someone who has read the mini-biography, asking me about which films are best or how to contact him (I don't know). But in October 2006, I got an e-mail from a woman living outside of Houston who said her daughter was taking dancing lessons from a man who claimed he had danced in '50s movies under the name of Tommy Rall; she was growing suspicious of his claims. Could I tell her if TR lived in Houston? I replied I was pretty sure he lived outside of Los Angeles and was no longer dancing, but I wasn't 100% positive the man in Houston was an imposter. She wouldn't give the name he was now using (she didn't want to get him in trouble, she said) but she did send me his photo and his so-called credits. The credits were wrong: sure, he mentioned SEVEN BRIDES and KISS ME KATE, but also HELLO DOLLY and WEST SIDE STORY (nope to both). I was sure the man was a fraud but I couldn't prove it - and I was furious that this man was taking credit for Tommy Rall's work.

...

I relayed the name and the name of the studio to TR. A week later, I got a phone call from a reporter from the Houston Chronicle wanting to know how a woman in CT got involved in this case. It seems that TR had notified not just SAG but the sheriff's office and the Chronicle.

Mr. Rall declined to take Brame to court. But Brame wrote a letter of apology - in which he admitted to posing as Tommy Rall for THIRTY years, both in Florida and Texas - which was sent to TR and to all the dance studios at which he had taught. The reporter says Brame's wife has left him (he had lied about his identity to her too!). Since there's no criminal case, the Chronicle has also decided not to print the story.