Let’s keep this short (work-wise) and lovely (in every other way) week simple. I’m going to post only Fred Astaire dance numbers all week, specifically ones that might be a bit more obscure to those who mostly know the Ginger Rogers-era Fred. He made two movies with Rita Hayworth–”You’ll Never Get Rich” and “You Were Never Lovelier”, in 1941 and ’42 respectively. Rita had been dancing since she was a tot–back when she was Marguarite Casino and had a dance act with her father (who pretended she was his wife and sexually abused her…but let’s not go there right now…) and you can see that far from leading her, Fred has ample reason to feel competitive with her ease, grace and perfect rhythmic snap. He always cited her as one of his favorite dancing partners and the above number, ‘The Shorty George’, will show you why. Since it’s the early 40s, the art deco Fred–all streamlined elegance and rounded edges–has given way to the swing-era, jive shucking, gum-chewing, malt-shop hanging, wise-guy and hepcat girl vibe. Fred has no trouble adapting to it. Rita is pure joy. F*&# the current world around us. Happy Thanksgiving week. School is out in a few short days for the lovely four-day weekend. Actually, school’s been out for me for awhile now due to lack of employment. But let’s not go there either…