To celebrate the end of the winter season, a season full of homage to Maria Tallchief and her 100th birthday I thought I’d share this unique story to combines both Firebird and Swans [in this instance it is Dying Swan and not Swan Lake]
In 1952, Maria Tallchief appeared in the MGM film “Million Dollar Mermaid” starring Ester Williams in a biopic about Annette Kellerman, an aquatic performer from Australia. Maria played Anna Pavlova in it.
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“In her day, Kellerman had been a famous freestyle swimmer who later became an entertainer during the great days of vaudeville. She appeared at the New York Hippodrome on Sixth Avenue where Pavlova was also on the bill. The legendary Russian ballerina made a great impression on the star-struck Kellerman.
“Esther Williams was going to play the swimmer. Billed in the script as the Incomparable Divinity of Dance, Pavlova had a few lines to speak and also had to dance “The Dying Swan.” I spoke to George about Mr. LeRoy’s proposal. The part would take only a week to film, and I wouldn’t have to miss much work in New York. George raised no objections, so I accepted.
“When the script arrived, I sat in the coffee shop across from the City Center stage door with Vida Brown and she helped me memorize my lines. A few days later, I showed George the script and asked if he could help me with the dancing. “No,” he said. “Not me. You should see Muriel Stuart. She knows everything about Pavlova. She is only one to speak to.”
“Muriel Stuart, an Englishwoman who taught at SAB, had danced in Pavlova’s company and was an authority on her. I made an appointment to visit her at the school. George was right. Miss Stuart knew everything and used to substitute for Pavlova when she couldn’t go on. She coached me in her style and mannerisms so that what I was doing would be authentic. A week later I flew to Hollywood…
When I showed them the excerpt I was going to dance in the film, they had a few objections. They thought "The Dying Swan" was dull.
"Can't you do something from Firebird, Maria?" Mr. Hornblow asked. "That'll liven everything up."
"Well, I could, but it wouldn't be very authentic."
"No one'll know, and I tell you, it'll be a lot livelier," he said. "Why don't we try and see.”
How odd, I thought. Here I am bringing them "The Dying Swan" straight from the source and they want Firebird. Well, they must know what works on the screen, I reasoned. I showed them my Firebird variation. They thought it would do just fine, and when we filmed the solo I interpolated some of George's steps into the Pavlova showpiece.
“Making the movie turned out to be a lot more demanding than I had anticipated. On the first morning, a car from the studio came for me at 5 A.M. Half an hour later I was being made up and having my hair done, a process that lasted two hours. Then, in my dressing room trailer parked outside the soundstage, I was fitted into my costume, an old-fashioned tutu designed along the lines that ballerinas wore in the 1900s. It was so large that once I was wearing it, I had to remain standing. Sitting down would have crushed and wrinkled its many layers of tulle. Rather than having a chair of my own as all the actors had, an assistant director provided me with a specially made stool against which I could lean whenever I wanted to rest. “And I needed it. Filming started at 8 A.M., and I had to dance my variation over and over again, from as many different angles, it seemed, as there were points on a compass, first in rehearsals and then for the cameras. I lost count of how many times I danced it. Between each take, I waited while an assistant on the set wiped away the scuffs I had made on the floor. Mr. LeRoy wanted the floor highly polished so that my movements would be reflected in it when I danced. All that waxing made the surface slippery, but I came prepared. Just as in my television appearances 1 had attached rubber strips to my shoes, and they kept me from falling.
“After a day or so of filming, Mr. LeRoy said he was satisfied with the sequence, and we began the scene in which I had lines. It was late in the afternoon, and I was exhausted, but the process went smoothly.
Esther Williams was a friendly woman. She couldn't have been kinder, and she deferred to me in every instance.
“Before the film premiered I received a letter:
Dear Maria,
Just had to drop this note to tell you we have had two previews of the picture and you have gotten applause at each showing even the cards say "We would like more of Maria Tallchief." Needless to say, that goes for me, too.
Regards,
Mervyn LeRoy
“Elise Reiman and I went to see the film at Radio City Music Hall, and there I was on the giant screen doing the Firebird variation in the middle of "The Dying Swan." But after all the hours of filming, and all my hard work, only a few seconds of my solo made it into the movie. Just when I was about to hit the difficult finish, the camera cut to a close-up of Esther Williams and that was that.”
—Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina
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