YEah. The "Good old days". yikes.

Nothing has changed. :-(

Graceful executing traditional moves, but mechanical and predictable as a musicbox figurine.

She was not great, just relatively well trained; take a look at some professional ballet dancers from that era, they were much better. It was not her field of expertise, she excelled at something entirely different.

@@pertelote4526 WHAT WAS THAT?

@@joeapple100 If you are asking me what Verdon's professional field of expertise was, take a look at the dance routines choreographed for her by Bob Fosse. She was no Fonteyn, Plisetskaya or Makarova, though; her strength used to lie elsewhere.

@@joeapple100 She was a famous child tap dancer.

Yes. That's all. Perfect. Sigh...

Seems correct, Andrew. That came later.

Dear Andrew, 5 years after your comment, you've given me a great laugh. Thank you!!!!!

And In the musical singing in the rain

He was 49 at that time.

He may have only been 49, but she was 16. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Ugh. 😱

Ikr? So creepy. Lol

HE would have been the Emcee at a follies show. It was not meant that he was cruising the gals, but that he was presenting the girls of memory. Check out "Those Beautiful Girls" from Follies. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y8uPqcKVuajLhWg.html

It may also be in reference to the WWII battle at Verdun -- they did have some epic quarrels.

@@lohphat The battle was in 1916 :-)

@@pertelote4526, so, then, it was a battle in WWI.

Gospel truth ❤

You are exactly right!!

She was a child tap dancer even before that.

Yes, I agree. She seemed very awkward, but then again I was a " studio" mom for a good 15 years. This may have been her first " real" job and her nerves where getting the best of her?

A Busby Berkeleyesque mannequin parade.

@@JudgeJulieLit Such parades of beautiful girls were very common in musicals in the 1940s and 1950s.

@@pertelote4526 Even before then; Florenz Ziegfeld had such shows on Broadway in the 1910s & 1920s.

I noticed that also, but as a mom of a former competitive dancer you must remember she was only 16 and probably awkwardly trying to be " perfect" in her movements. She also looks as if they didn't know how to choreograph her to show her at her best. I think Fosse, since he knew her body did her talent justice

Most great jazz/musical theater dancers have a strong ballet foundation. Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor were great because of their own core ballet training.

What a surprise. Didn’t know she did pointe either. And the following year her life would change forever.

@@lohphat You're talking uneducated nonsense. O'Connor had no ballet training.

@@MrCrowebobby Yes he did. They all had basic training. How do I know? My dance teacher worked with him on several shows. Basic ballet training was a requirement for professional dancer in the movies. Even Astaire had basic ballet training.

@@lohphat He may have taken a few classes, but he had no core ballet training and it certainly didn't affect his tap dancing. I was also a professional dancer with tap as my specialty. I also had many ballet classes, but they never affected my tap in any way. A "little ballet" doesn't go a long way, as you'll know if you've studied it. And O'Connor was never under contract as a "dancer."

Courtesy of a family "friend"

She was great before she met him, just not yet famous.

But he is only 49 here, he was born in 1892; ok, perhaps he is old by your standards ;-)

49 with a 16 year old? Yeah. CREEPY.

@@jan2224 They were not together as a couple, I believe, they performed in the same featurette :-)

@@pertelote4526 I get that. But it looks creepy. I have been a performer and director. It doesn't matter what their personal lives were. I would never put a 49 year old and 16 year old together on stage like that, no matter how good they are. Just looks creepy. Just my humble opinion

@@jan2224 I respect your opinion and your professional choices but I beg to differ because I am trying to see a broader cultural context here. I remember I did have a slightly odd feeling while watching Astaire and Hepburn in "Funny Face" (30 years' difference), Bogart and Hepburn in "Sabrina" (the same) or Chevalier and Caron (43 years) but I accepted those somewhat mismatched couples as part of the then entertainment convention. On the other hand, I have never batted an eyelid watching an operatic performance in which the lead tenor/bass was middle aged but the corps de ballet, by its very nature, was much younger. Regards :-)

She didn't look and wasn't suppose to be 16 in the film . . . and that wouldn't count as pedophilia in any case.

Classic Showgirl walk

Classic ZIGFELD SHOWGIRL! WALK!! TO SHOW OFF ! USUALLY! ELABORATE! And HEAVY! COSTUMES!!!!!

Watch something else.