Here’s Looking At You, Cyd
Throughout her career, Cyd Charisse, who died today at the age of 86, had more names than Prince and P. Diddy combined. Born in Amarillo, Texas, as Tula Ellice Finklea, she became part of the Ballet Russe at age 14, being billed there as Celia Siderova then Maria Istromena. She married the dancer Nico Charisse in 1939, divorced him in 1947 and the following year married Tony Martin, who survives her. In the 1943 picture “Something To Shout About,” she is billed as Lily Norwood. Finally settling on Cyd Charisse (her childhood nickname was Sid), she entered the Hollywood pantheon in 1952, with “Singin’ in the Rain,” partnering with Gene Kelly in the picture’s imperishable “Broadway Melody” number. My favorite Cyd movie, though — in fact, my favorite Hollywood musical — is “The Band Wagon.” Charisse and Fred Astaire’s Central Park ballet number, “Dancing in the Dark,” is so graceful you begin to wonder how any dancer, after watching it, would ever bother to perform again. (Charisse is pictured here with Astaire in “The Band Wagon”‘s “Girl Hunt” sequence.)
