Adele Astaire Douglass (born Adele Marie Austerlitz, later known as Lady Charles Cavendish; September 10, 1896 – January 25, 1981) was an American dancer, stage actress, and singer. After beginning work as a dancer and vaudeville performer at the age of nine, Astaire built a successful performance career with her younger brother, Fred Astaire.
The brother and sister act initially worked their way through vaudeville circuits, finally achieving a breakthrough with their first Broadway roles in 1917. Astaire became known for her talents as a skilled dancer and comedienne, starring in hit Broadway musicals such as Lady, Be Good! (1924), Funny Face (1927) and The Band Wagon (1931). The siblings took several of their more popular shows to Britain's West End during the 1920s, where they were soon international celebrities, meeting members of the British royal family and prominent figures from contemporary arts and literature circles.
In 1932, after a 27-year partnership with her brother, Astaire retired from the stage to marry Lord Charles Cavendish, the second son of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire. The couple moved to the Cavendish estate of Lismore Castle in Ireland. Despite offers of both stage and film roles from producers eager to see her return to acting, Astaire declined to come out of retirement. Following Cavendish's death in 1944, Astaire remarried and moved back to the United States. She divided her time between properties in the United States; Round Hill, Jamaica; and her old home of Lismore Castle, where she spent her summers up until the end of her life.
In 1972, Astaire was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
In 1975, Astaire was inducted into the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List.
Early life and vaudeville (1896–1917) Adele Marie Austerlitz was born on September 10, 1896, in Omaha, Nebraska. Her parents were Johanna "Ann" Geilus, an American-born Lutheran of German descent, and Frederic "Fritz" Austerlitz, an Austrian-born Roman Catholic of Jewish descent. Adele's younger brother, Fred Austerlitz, was born three years after her.
Adele's birth year is cited incorrectly in some sources. Adele's mother became pregnant shortly before turning 16 years old, and married in 1894 with her father's consent. That pregnancy did not come to term, and the couple later told people they had married in 1896 in order to avoid a perception of impropriety. The fictional marriage year created a second perception of impropriety when Adele was born in 1896, so the family later changed references to Adele's birthdate to 1897 or 1898. The altered timelines create confusion over the age gap between Adele and her brother Fred, with various sources giving the difference as anywhere from half a year to three years.
After Adele showed an early propensity for dance, she was enrolled in a local dance school. She soon stood out for her natural ability as a dancer, and began making appearances at local recitals and parties. Her parents decided to enroll Fred as well — a somewhat frail child in his earliest years — with the intention of having him build strength through dance training, and he, too, showed the beginnings of aptitude. When Adele was eight and Fred was five, a teacher suggested that the two children might have a stage career if they received proper training. This prompted the family to move from Omaha to New York, though the father returned to Omaha to work. Adele, Fred and their mother lived in a boarding house, and the children began attending the Alviene Master School of the Theatre and Academy of Cultural Arts. Adele and Fred adopted the more American-sounding surname Astaire after trying several variations on the original Austerlitz, and their mother Ann also adopted the new surname.
In late 1905, with the assistance of her dance instructor Claude Alvienne, Adele Astaire began a professional vaudeville act with Fred. Alvienne helped them develop a routine involving two large, elaborate set pieces in the form of wedding cakes. Astaire and her brother, dressed up as a small bride and groom, danced up and down the cakes and activated small electric lights and musical bells with their feet. They played a simple waltz through their dance steps. The siblings performed intermittently at first, with their mother Ann acting as their manager and costume designer. They gained additional training from the ballet school of the Metropolitan Opera and from American choreographer Ned Wayburn. Ann Astaire home schooled her children, with the exception of a stint in New Jersey, when Adele and Fred put their performance career on hold and attended regular school for two and half years. The adolescent Adele had grown so tall at the time that her smaller, younger brother, still catching up in height, looked awkward dancing with her.
After returning to the vaudeville circuit in 1911, Astaire and her brother struggled to find steady work for the next couple of years. Agents were initially uninterested in representing the relatively unknown pair. In 1913, Astaire's father introduced the siblings to Aurelio Coccia, an experienced dance instructor and showman. He taught several new dances to the young Astaires and developed a new, more mature vaudeville routine for them. Bookings became more frequent after this, as the pair gradually improved their act and reputation. In 1916, the siblings encountered a difficult year when the White Rats of America, a union of vaudeville performers, staged a workers' strike that spread nationally, creating tense working relations between performers and vaudeville managers. Astaire and her brother, although not union members, lost valuable income nonetheless, and their father, unlucky enough to be working at a Nebraska brewery when state-wide prohibition was approved, was unable to offer financial support. When the union strike finally ended, the Astaire siblings returned to work at last, achieving a highly successful season.
As they grew older, the contrasting personalities of the siblings grew more distinct. Adele was a "perennial live wire": lively, gregarious, and known for her raw frankness, along with her colorful swearing. Fred, the hardworking perfectionist, was quieter and constantly anxious about all the details of their day-to-day work. While Fred might come to a venue two hours early to prepare for their show, Adele was more likely to arrive only minutes before she was due on stage. Despite their differences in temperament, the siblings were close. Astaire affectionately nicknamed her younger brother "Moaning Minnie" for his tendency to worry about every possible thing that could go wrong.
Broadway career (1917–1932) In 1917, after Fred purchased a full-page advertisement on the back cover of Variety, the siblings landed a part in their first Broadway show, Lee Shubert's Over the Top. Adele was 21, while her brother was 18. The show opened on November 28, 1917, and the siblings received a weekly salary of $250 (equivalent to $ in ) for their assigned dance numbers and comedy skits. A critic from The New York Globe commented that the dancing of Adele and her brother was "one of the prettiest features of the show", and the production ran for 78 performances. To prepare for her work singing in Broadway musicals during the late 1910s and 1920s, she took voice lessons with Estelle Liebling who was the voice teacher of many famous singers at the Metropolitan Opera and on Broadway.
Adele and Fred performed in The Passing Show of 1918, which ran for 125 performances. Astaire was given an opening solo, singing "I Really Can't Make My Feet Behave". In November 1919, the Astaires appeared in the operetta Apple Blossoms, beginning a professional relationship with Broadway producer Charles Dillingham. The show was successful, running for 256 performances. Fritz came to see his children perform. Their weekly salary was now $550, which rose to $750 (equivalent to $ & $ in ) when Apple Blossoms began its post-Broadway tour from September 1920 to April 1921. Unlike her brother, who struggled with shyness offstage, Astaire's outgoing personality made it easy for her to speak to reporters.
Although their next show The Love Letter was a commercial flop, opening in October 1921 and running for only 31 performances, Astaire and her brother continued to garner appreciation from audiences, and here they introduced what would become one of their signature exit moves, the Runaround. Standing shoulder to shoulder at the end of a dance number, the siblings would put their arms out as if grasping the handlebars of bicycles, running around the stage together in ever-growing circles while the orchestra played "a series of oompahs". At last, Adele and Fred would disappear into the wings. Audiences loved it. Fred attributed the popularity of the Runaround to his sister's comedic timing and expressions, and the siblings found ways to incorporate the move into almost every show of their subsequent career together. While visiting New York for the first time that year, English playwright Noël Coward saw The Love Letter and was impressed by the Astaires. He came to meet them backstage, urging them to consider taking their performances to London.
In 1922, Adele and Fred landed their first proper speaking roles in the Broadway musical For Goodness Sake, playing the best friends of the lead characters. They received positive reviews from critics, and sang the hit song "The Whichness of the Whatness", concluding the piece with their increasingly popular Runaround exit. With the success of this show, Fred began taking more of a lead in choreographing their routines. The siblings finally received star billing in the short-lived The Bunch and Judy, earning $1000 (equivalent to $ in ) weekly. Drama critic Heywood Broun called the Astaires "the most graceful and charming young dancers in the world of musical comedy".
As the siblings continued to rise professionally, Adele quickly became known for her comedic expressions and "adorably squeaky" soprano voice. She often ad-libbed onstage. She gave high-spirited performances, delighting audiences with her zany humor; Fred developed his own more understated style in response, dancing with a characteristic "pretence of nonchalance" that he would carry on using throughout his dancing career. Adele and her brother developed a dancing style involving complex steps performed rapidly and gracefully, often compared to "a whirlwind" by critics and audiences.
After the idea of performing overseas was suggested, Adele and Fred agreed to take For Goodness Sake (renamed Stop Flirting) to the West End in London. On May 30, 1923, their show opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre and received a standing ovation. Stop Flirting ran for 418 performances. It moved to the Queen's Theatre, followed by the Strand Theatre. The Prince of Wales attended the show ten times, and both he and his brother the Duke of York became friends with the siblings. Adele taught the prince some new tap dance steps, and the pair once danced together at a club. As the Astaires' popularity grew, both Adele and Fred were featured in major advertising campaigns. While in London, Peter Pan creator J. M. Barrie asked Adele to play his creation on stage, but contractual reasons forced her to turn down the part. In early 1924, Adele received word that her father, Fritz, had died from cancer.