Obituary: Tommy Rall

I decided to repeat this post from last night and give him a separate post:

 An obituary I missed:  Back in October, dancing great Tommy Rall had undergone heart surgery, but sadly, he passed away on October 6.  He had suffered from congestive heart failure.  He was 90 years old.

He was one of the greatest dancers ever to step in front of a camera, but he had bad timing.  He should have been as big as Kelly or Astaire, but he was too young at the peak of the Hollywood musical.  He concentrated much of his career on stage.    His film work when it appeared is very memorable, including his work in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  I'd like to see Astaire or Kelly, even in their prime, be able to do those dangerous backflips Rall seemingly did with ease.  They couldn't do it, and they wouldn't have ever tried.    He was right up there with the great Nicholas Brothers in pure physical ability but more versatile than they were.  

Snip from the link:

Born December 27, 1929, in Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Rall began taking dance lessons, enrolled by his mom, at the age of four and would go on to perform as a child in Seattle vaudeville acts. Incidentally, one of his first Broadway credits was the 1948 musical comedy Look, Ma, I’m Dancin’!, choreographed by Jerome Robbins. (Two years prior, he appeared in the Robbins-choreographed Fancy Free and Interplay as part of a Broadway engagement with Ballet Theatre). His onstage collaboration with Robbins continued into the 1950s with Miss Liberty and Call Me Madam.

Having appeared in a number of bit film roles before heading to Broadway, Mr. Rall returned to the big screen as Bill Calhoun in the 1953 adaptation of Kiss Me, Kate; his performance of “Why Can’t You Behave?” opposite Ann Miller, including a rooftop-set tap sequence, remains a hallmark movie musical moment.

Mr. Rall followed up the movie with more memorable—and agile—turns, as Frank Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and dancing alongside Bob Fosse in My Sister Eileen. Never short on notable dance partners, he’d go on to appear in such films as Funny Girl (appearing as a ballet dancer opposite Barbra Streisand’s Fanny Brice) and Pennies From Heaven (tapping with Steve Martin).

Prime Rall:

And of course this.  Rall was in the red shirt, as if he needed to be pointed out.  As good as the other dancers were, he was just that much better:

And this, with Bob Fosse:

Tommy Rall was out of this universe.

Rall was also an accomplished opera singer.  

Despite his obvious talent and notoriety on film and on stage, the New York Times STILL hasn't published an obituary of Rall, two months after his death.

I wrote and posted this last night but this morning I decided to make it a separate post for today.

Rall talked about how dangerous that "barn raising" dance was in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers:

Tuesday Reads

 It's now 1 to 51 in Trump and company's bid to overturn a lawful election.  USSC Justice Sam Alito refused to even hear the Pennsylvania case.  The idiotic Texas case is on the docket, but that doesn't mean anything at all.

_____

Oh, goody, another demonstration in D.C. by right-wing nutjobs who can't move past the November election.

_____

An obituary I missed:  Back in October, dancing great Tommy Rall had undergone heart surgery, but sadly, he passed away on October 6.  He had suffered from congestive heart failure.  He was 90 years old.

He was one of the greatest dancers ever to step in front of a camera, but he had bad timing.  He should have been as big as Kelly or Astaire, but he was too young at the peak of the Hollywood musical.  He concentrated much of his career on stage.    His film work when it appeared is very memorable, including his work in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  I'd like to see Astaire or Kelly, even in their prime, be able to do those dangerous backflips Rall seemingly did with ease.  They couldn't do it, and they wouldn't have ever tried.    He was right up there with the great Nicholas Brothers in pure physical ability but more versatile than they were.  

Snip from the link:

Born December 27, 1929, in Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Rall began taking dance lessons, enrolled by his mom, at the age of four and would go on to perform as a child in Seattle vaudeville acts. Incidentally, one of his first Broadway credits was the 1948 musical comedy Look, Ma, I’m Dancin’!, choreographed by Jerome Robbins. (Two years prior, he appeared in the Robbins-choreographed Fancy Free and Interplay as part of a Broadway engagement with Ballet Theatre). His onstage collaboration with Robbins continued into the 1950s with Miss Liberty and Call Me Madam.

Having appeared in a number of bit film roles before heading to Broadway, Mr. Rall returned to the big screen as Bill Calhoun in the 1953 adaptation of Kiss Me, Kate; his performance of “Why Can’t You Behave?” opposite Ann Miller, including a rooftop-set tap sequence, remains a hallmark movie musical moment.

Mr. Rall followed up the movie with more memorable—and agile—turns, as Frank Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and dancing alongside Bob Fosse in My Sister Eileen. Never short on notable dance partners, he’d go on to appear in such films as Funny Girl (appearing as a ballet dancer opposite Barbra Streisand’s Fanny Brice) and Pennies From Heaven (tapping with Steve Martin).

Prime Rall:

And of course this.  Rall was in the red shirt, as if he needed to be pointed out.  As good as the other dancers were, he was just that much better:

And this, with Bob Fosse:

Tommy Rall was out of this universe.

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.