Eleanor Powell is the ultimate in tap. Iconic and a legend. Her movies are brilliant

Did some reading up on Eleanor's career and found out that whenever she would rehearse her tap routines on set , the cast and crew would pull up chairs to watch . What a fantastic talent . There will never be another Eleanor Powell

Thank you, baby Colin Robinson lol

Nobody else could turn and spin like her

Soundtracks were prerecorded and dictated dance steps. This song is orchestrated to build tension, relieved by a bravura climax. The crescendo was Eleanor's standard m.o., and as always her choreography has a tremendous impetus below the individual tricks; it sweeps the audience forward relentlessly to the finale. The extras and the Foursome (who were session singers, not hoofers) are likewise engaged, not mere background figures or accompanists. At the climax, as the music accelerates, Ellie's vertiginous spins and taps on the machine are concluded with hand flourishes in perfect sync with the last notes. Then a nonchalant fade with no applause from the crowd, as if this were all in the day's work. The throwaway air of so many Golden Age pieces de resistance is part of what makes them endearing as well as enthralling. Yet this number is a product of a film genre barely six years old, from a studio that had been badly lagging its competitors and created by a young woman with a handful of routines in one previous musical behind her. The explosion of achievement in Sound films during their first decade was without parallel in American history.

I'm becoming obsessed with this woman!

She's very talented and her body expression so awesome

WOW! What an incredible dancer EP was.

Eleanor had the best dancing taps in the business, an absolutely, gorgeous knockout talent. Many thanks for taking the time to add this classic gem Jymster.

Featuring Dennis O'Keefe as an extra. Terrific number with a great ending.

Cole Porter was pleased that he had written a demotic, upbeat, screw-the-Depression ditty. He was bored with his reputation as a New York sophisticate drawling in-jokes; he wanted to emulate Irving Berlin. The ocarinas were a deliberately folksy touch to set against the rhythmic complexity and key changes of a song very much tailored to Powell's tapping. At a Hollywood party in 1936, Cole and the pianist Roger Stearns improvised on the theme of 'Rap, Tap on Wood' for six hours.

Sheer pure talent

a miracle of editing and matching the track of sound, not to mention the performace itself

one of my favorite numbers.

Colin Robinson sent me here.

Amazing and uplifting!

Amazing talent well done from New Zealand

Fred Astaire said that she was the ONLY female dancer that intimidated him. What else can be said?

I appreciate the late, great Eleanor Powell, I must say that I do prefer young Colin Robinson's version.

#1 for all time...

'What we do in the shadows' brought me here

And this immense, sleek setting is just your average New York "social club" - only in old Hollywood musicals! With a perfect shiny floor to boot.

Always thought she was real attractive. Great dancer to boot. If she can cook, she is perfect.

Love it, Jim! She's just fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing, this was a great way to start the week! I hope yours is off to a great start, too!! Stay warm :))

'If you want to lick this world of men and Mickey Mice...' Cole Porter prophesied Ellie's screen persona and the insistence on doing it her way that lay behind it. She is always about cutting men down to size, schooling them, reducing choruses of them to supporting roles. No female star was more in control of the opposite sex: fashioning her routines and their trappings more thoroughly even than Astaire, and trusted to do so by Hollywood's most potent czar, Mr Mayer. As for Mr Mouse- Ellie's flexibility made her the standard of comparison between humans and animated figures.

People are commenting here that the sounds of the taps was dubbed in afterwards. Yes, that had become standard practice for musicals in Hollywood by the time this film was made. 1) First, the full soundtrack for the number was recorded, with all the instruments and vocals. In this case, that includes the men's chorus singing as well as their pipes. 2) On the set, the number was filmed in various segments with the performers lip-synching and miming to the playback of the soundtrack, which was heard via a loudspeaker. Probably no sound was recorded live on the set during this filming. 3) Finally, after the number had been assembled into its final form by editing, the sound of the tapping was recorded by someone - most likely Eleanor herself - copying the foot movements on the film that was being projected on a screen she was watching. Recording the taps this way was the only method that could insure all of them would be clear and sharp.

Thank you so much for uploading this, I’ve been looking for it under the wrong name and it’s a relief to find it :)

The greatest female dancer ever.

I think Eleanor's singing was dubbed in for this movie, but in many others she sang herself. Pretty good voice too.

Baby Colin Robinson educated me that this existed. I am grateful to Baby Colin Robinson.

She was the best. And stuck to her morals. the last straight starlet to marry before losing it.

She is not wearing tap shoes! She is doing all the steps, but she's wearing leather soles, and dubbing in all the tap sounds. It must have saved her knees and ankles, because I think the studios had concrete floors. If you pause at 1:55, you can see it's not a metal tap, and you would see taps from the sides as well.

Simple y maravillosa ¡K calidad para el tap! Angela

sheer class

Eleanor had a fluid style, as if her joints were greased. What a mover!

She was the empress of tap

The beautiful and talented Eleanor Powell died in 1982 from ovarian cancer at the age of 61.

1:29-3:31 tap dance break

Ginger Rodgers more popular because she was the prettiest!

Una Merkle at the beginning.

Did Cole Porter write this song?

Whoever the Foley was for this messed up a bit... you can tell those aren't tap dance shoes because there are parts the tap sounds are off with her movements

THE BEST I WONDER WHY she had not that success like Ginger Rogers? Wasnt she not female enough?

I think Ellie's singing voice is either dubbed or enhanced here.

Gorgeous figure Elearnor's got...it cant be hidden under the Mother Hubbard length of 30s skirts. A what a calcium deposit of Teeth----beautiful smile too !

Fantastic tap dancer but her singing vpice was always dubbed, you can't have it all but by the gods could she tap dance with that wonderful pair of legs

Who's here from Ocarina of Time

Nicholas brothers were the best . Untouched. Then Eleanor Powell. Love Fred and Ginger. Eleanor was better