Hermes Pan

Hermes Pan , actually Hermes Pangiotopolous (born December 10, 1909 in Nashville , Tennessee , † September 19, 1990 in Beverly Hills , California ) was an American dancer and choreographer , who was mainly known for his choreographies for the films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Gained importance.

Life

Pan's father, who was the Greek consul in Memphis, came from Egio , Peloponnese , where his family had founded the first theater. After his untimely death, the family lost all of their property. The mother then moved with her two children to one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City , where Hermes learned his first tap dance steps from the African-American children on the street . He later went to Los Angeles with his sister . His career began in 1928 as a chorus singer with the Marx Brothers in the Broadway production Animal Crackers , where he also appeared as a dancer with his sister Vasso. Numerous appearances in the chorus of many Astaire / Rogers films followed. He first met Ginger Rogers in 1930, where he was the chorus singer on the Broadway musical Top Speed .

He met Fred Astaire, whom he resembled physically, on the set of Flying Down to Rio (1933), where he worked as assistant to choreographic director Dave Gould . When Astaire was working on some of the steps to The Carioca , he was told that Hermes Pan had some good ideas. Pan then showed him a short break that he remembered from his days on the street with the kids in New York. This was the beginning of a long-term professional collaboration that also turned into a private friendship. Pan and Astaire worked together on all of the RKO films, including Ein Fräulein in Nöten (1937), for which Hermes Pan received the Academy Award for best choreography in 1937 . Previously, he was nominated for the Academy Award for the two numbers Top Hat and The Piccolino from Ich tanz mich zu dich bei dein Heart (1935) and for the number Bojangles of Harlem from Swing Time (1936).

Hermes Pan worked in 17 of a total of 31 Fred Astaire films. The special effects from three films had an international impact on the dance in the film. Astaire called Pan his "ideas man". Although Astaire mostly choreographed his dances himself and sometimes worked with other choreographers, he always valued the assistance of Hermes Pan, not only as a source of ideas and critic, but also as a partner in rehearsals for the couple dances, where he took on the female part. After rehearsing a choreography, which Astaire should dance with Ginger Rogers, Pan studied the choreography with Rogers, as she was often unable to attend Astaire's rehearsal dates due to other obligations. In addition, he doubled the sound of the tap steps for Ginger Rogers' sound engineering.

Pan continued his work with Astaire until his last musical film The Golden Rainbow (1968), which was not a success. The young director Francis Ford Coppola had no experience with musical films, but still did not deviate from the way in which he wanted to film the dance. Coppola resorted to the dancing camera, which was introduced in the early 1930s but banned from the Hollywood musical by Astaire of all people. Although Pan made a brief appearance in this film, Coppola ended the collaboration with Pan before filming was finished. Coppola later admitted that he was solely responsible for the cinematic failure.

Apart from working with Astaire, Pan was also in great demand as a choreographer in other film productions, including Men Make Fashion (1952), Kiss me, Kätchen! (1953), Pal Joey (1957), Can-Can (1960), Almond Eyes and Lotus Blossoms (1961) and My Fair Lady (1964).

For the lavish stage work on Cleopatra (1963) with Elizabeth Taylor , he was able to work without financial limits. The result was one of the most elaborate films of its time.

Appearances in the film

Pan's first film appearance was as a clarinetist in the Astaire-Goddard dance number I Ain't Hep To That Step But I'll Dig It in Second Chorus (1940). The only Astaire-Pan dance number Me and the Ghost Upstairs from the same film has been removed. He danced with Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami ( 1942) and with Rita Hayworth in The Queen of Broadway (1942) . In 1943 he again had an appearance in a film with Betty Grable, namely in the musical film Coney Island . His appearances in film were limited to the function of musician and dancer, he never had a speaking role in a film.

In 1958 he received an Emmy Award for the television film An Evening with Fred Astaire . He received a National Film Award in 1980 and an award from the Joffrey Ballet in 1986.

Private life

Pan was never married. He was friends with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , who invited him to the 2500th anniversary of the Iranian monarchy in Persepolis . He was also close friends with Diego Rivera , who painted a portrait of him. Towards the end of his life he visited Greece, especially the city of his father's birth, where he also met his Greek relatives.

literature

• Fred Astaire: Steps in Time , 1959.
• Garson Kanin: Together Again! The Stories of the Great Hollywood Teams , Doubleday 1981.
• John Mueller: Astaire Dancing - The Musical Films of Fred Astaire , Knopf 1985.

Web links

• Hermes Pan in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography on IMDb.com.Retrieved December 10, 2009