Thursday, April 11, 2019

Throwback Thursday and Vivien Fay



Throwback Thursday and Vivien Fay

Dancer Vivien (or Vivian) Fay’s name shows up frequently in early movie credits, but little seems to be known for certain about her.

She is believed to have been born on January 16, 1912 in San Francisco. Or, some sources say she was born in Lubbock Texas on May 13, 1908. She trained at Theodore Kosloff’s ballet studio in San Francisco, and made her professional debut in a children’s vaudeville act.

Although not listed in the credits, she is said to have performed in the original 1928 Broadway production of Rosalie. Other Broadway credits include: Vanities of 1930, Music Hall Varieties (1932), Melody (1933), and The Great Waltz (1934-35). Due to her ballet training, she was often cast as a “specialty dancer”.

She then moved on to Hollywood films, such as The Lottery Lover (1935), and to what is probably her best known dance number in the Marx Brother’s film A Day at the Races (1937), where she dances en pointe (see today’s Link of the Day). After that she appeared in many movies with such notables as Abbot and Costello, Peg Leg Bates, Bela Lugosi and others. Her last movie seems to have been the 1945 musical A Song for Miss Julie.

She died more than sixty years later on August 10, 2007 in Northridge, California.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Secret #218:
“Vivien Fay was a dancer in many films, but little is known about her.”

Link of the Day:

Quote of the Day:

 “I've always been famous, it's just no one knew it yet.” 

― Lady Gaga


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