I liked Rita Hayworth better, her father ran a dance studio and she’d been dancing for many years before she met Fred. Sadly, she drank too much and couldn’t keep it up.
Fred Astaire’s fabulous dance to “Smooth Operator” was outstanding. Michael Jackson did an updated version in color based on Fred’s moves. Astaire said the Michael did it better.
I watch Smooth Operator at least once a year on YouTube. Both versions. Prefer Michael’s. He was a crazy pedo, but I put that aside when I watch that video. He died soon after he made the vid. I was at my daughter’s house when Michael’s death was announced and we both cried. She was, in her youth, a professional dancer, now a staid sheriff’s wife.
Rita was spectacular.
Fred/Rita dancing to Led Zeppelin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbuFLUJ89Kw
When I was 8 years old (1941), my mother took my brother & I to see Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in a movie...
She faked us out, we thought we were going to see “this weeks” episode of Captain Midnight and we wondered why she would be going with us...