Albertina Rasch
Encyclopedia
Early life
Born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(in what was then Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
) in 1891 (although she would later shave five years off her age) to a family of Polish Jewish descent, Rasch studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet
Vienna State Opera Ballet
The Vienna State Opera Ballet, like the opera company, is based at the Vienna State Opera House in Vienna, Austria. The original building was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945....
school and became leading ballerina at the New York Hippodrome
New York Hippodrome
The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theatre in New York City from 1905 to 1939, located on Sixth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. It was called the world's largest theatre by its builders and had a seating capacity of...
in 1911.
Career
She formed her own dance troupe (The Albertina Rasch Girls) and the Rasch Ballet, starred in a number of ZiegfeldFlorenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
productions, appeared at the Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge is a cabaret built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. Close to Montmartre in the Paris district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement, it is marked by the red windmill on its roof. The closest métro station is Blanche.The Moulin Rouge is...
, performed with Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
, toured with Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
, and opened a Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
dance studio (where Bill Robinson
Bill Robinson
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
taught tap
Tap dance
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...
) before adapting her classical training and techniques for the Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s.
Rasch's early stage work for such projects as George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...
evoked the Black Crook
The Black Crook
The Black Crook is considered to be the first piece of musical theatre that conforms to the modern notion of a "book musical". The book is by Charles M. Barras , an American playwright...
tradition of inserting fantasy dance sequences that had little to do with the plot between book scenes, but she soon established herself as a creative force with a routine she devised for Tilly Losch
Tilly Losch
Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine "Tilly" Losch, Countess of Carnarvon was an Austrian-born dancer, choreographer, actress and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom....
in the 1930 revue, The Band Wagon
The Band Wagon (musical)
For the film, see The Band WagonThe Band Wagon is a musical revue with book by George S. Kaufman and Howard Dietz, lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz. It first played on Broadway in 1931, running for 260 performances...
. Wearing gloves covered with blacklight paint
Blacklight paint
Blacklight ink or blacklight-reactive Ink is ink that glows under a black light, a source of light whose wavelengths are primarily in the ultraviolet. The paint may or may not be colorful under ordinary light...
, Losch stood in front of a mirror on a darkened stage and performed a "ballet" in which only her hands could be seen to the Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...
and Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...
song "Dancing in the Dark".
Rasch also helped establish Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's "Begin the Beguine
Begin the Beguine
"Begin the Beguine" is a song written by Cole Porter . Porter composed the song at the piano in the bar of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.-Music:The beguine music and dance...
" as a popular standard
Traditional pop music
Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
by choreographing it to an ethnic dance in Jubilee
Jubilee (musical)
Jubilee is a musical comedy with a book by Moss Hart and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It premiered on Broadway in 1935 to rapturous reviews. Inspired by the recent silver jubilee of King George V of Great Britain, the story is of the royal family of a fictional European country...
(1935). Additional Broadway credits include The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers (musical)
The Three Musketeers is a musical with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Rudolf Friml. It is based on the classic 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas, père....
, Show Girl
Show Girl
Show Girl is a musical that ran from Jul 2, 1929 to Oct 5, 1929 with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn, and music by George Gershwin. Its heroine, aspiring Broadway showgirl Dixie Dugan, was a character created by J. P...
, The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...
, The Great Waltz
The Great Waltz
The Great Waltz is a musical conceived by Hassard Short with a book by Moss Hart and lyrics by Desmond Carter, using themes by Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. It is based on a pasticcio by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Julius Bittner called Walzer aus Wien, first performed in Vienna in 1930...
, and Lady in the Dark
Lady in the Dark
Lady in the Dark is a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart. It was produced by Sam Harris. The protagonist, Liza Elliott, is the unhappy female editor of a fashion magazine, Allure, who is undergoing psychoanalysis...
.
Rasch served as choreographer and/or dance director for a number of musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
s, including The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow (1934 film)
The Merry Widow is a 1934 film adaptation of the operetta of the same name by Franz Lehár. It was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starred Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald...
(1934) with Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
and Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
, Broadway Melody of 1936
Broadway Melody of 1936
Broadway Melody of 1936 is a musical released by MGM in 1935. It was a follow up of sorts to the successful The Broadway Melody, which had been released in 1929, although, beyond the title and some music, there is no story connection with the earlier film.The film was written by Harry W. Conn, Moss...
(1936) with Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
and Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Torrey Powell was an American film actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.-Early life:...
, Rosalie
Rosalie (film)
Rosalie is an MGM film adaptation of the 1928 stage musical of the same name. The film was released in December 1937. The film follows the story of the musical but replaces most of the Broadway score with new songs by Cole Porter...
(1937) with Powell and Nelson Eddy
Nelson Eddy
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...
, The Girl of the Golden West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
(1938) with MacDonald and Eddy, Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (1938 film)
Marie Antoinette is a 1938 film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette...
(1938) with Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
, and Broadway Melody of 1940
Broadway Melody of 1940
Broadway Melody of 1940 is a 1940 MGM movie musical starring Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell and George Murphy. It was directed by Norman Taurog and features music by Cole Porter, including "Begin the Beguine"....
(1940) with Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
.
Footage of Rasch filmed for the unfinished Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
musical The March of Time
The March of Time (MGM musical)
The March of Time was the title of a planned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film originally scheduled to be released in September 1930. Production of this early film, which would have been one of the first musicals filmed in two-color Technicolor, was abandoned, although a number of musical numbers...
(1930) was used in the MGM film Broadway to Hollywood
Broadway to Hollywood (1933 film)
Broadway to Hollywood is a film directed by Willard Mack, produced by Harry Rapf, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film features many of MGM's stars of the time, including Frank Morgan, Alice Brady, Madge Evans, Jimmy Durante, Mickey Rooney, and Jackie Cooper...
(1933) with Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
and Alice Brady
Alice Brady
Alice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked up until six months before her death from cancer in 1939...
. MGM also reused her "Chinese Ballet" from Children of Pleasure
Children of Pleasure
Children of Pleasure is a 1930 American MGM musical comedy film directed by Harry Beaumont originally released with Technicolor sequences. It was adapted from Crane Wilbur's stage success of 1929 The Song Writer.-Plot:...
(1930) in the short film Roast Beef and Movies
Roast Beef and Movies
Roast Beef and Movies is a short subject starring George Givot, along with Curly Howard , Bobby Callahan, and the Albertina Rasch Dancers...
(1934).
Personal life
Rasch was married for many years to composerComposer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." Tiomkin...
. Following a long illness, she died at age 76 in Woodland Hills, California.