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Many thanks to Gillian Rodger, Richard Will, Mary Simonson, and the anonymous reader of this journal, who provided helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article.
The Eleanor Powell memorialized in That's Entertainment! III (1994) has become ingrained in Hollywood mythology. Dressed in a top hat and tails, Powell performs rapid-fire rhythms, acrobatic walkovers, and breathtaking turns, all while smiling broadly at the camera. "In Broadway Melody of 1938 and almost all of her films," narrator Gene Kelly intones, "Eleanor becomes a huge sensation by the last reel." She is that rare female star who is famous not for her beauty or sex appeal, but for her undeniable talent. Her tuxedo, it seems, signals her liberation from the cumbersome high heels and extravagant dresses that hindered the likes of Ginger Rogers.
Yet Powell's performances--spectacular as they are--are not nearly as emancipatory as That's Entertainment! III suggests. The film, a retrospective of the MGM musical, separates musical numbers from their original narrative contexts, highlighting spectacle over story, and in many cases editing quite lengthy numbers into brief excerpts. That's Entertainment! III features just two minutes of Powell's tuxedoed tapping from Broadway Melody of 1938's "Your Broadway and My Broadway," whereas the original thirteen-minute production number also features Powell dancing with George Murphy in a conventional ballroom duet and ends with her and love interest Robert Taylor kissing onstage. When viewed within the context of the complete number and the preceding film, it is clear that Powell's tuxedo is wedded to a narrative of marriage rather than of liberation.
Powell's other films are similar. Most are labeled backstage musicals, or simply "backstagers": they take place in a show business setting, where Powell's character, an ingénue, strives to find a job dancing on Broadway. During her show business journey, she falls in love, and the success of her relationship becomes linked to that of her burgeoning career. Extended production numbers like "Your Broadway and My Broadway" end each film, celebrating, as Rick Altman writes, "the successful conclusion of show and romance alike." 1Powell's early musicals at MGM established this paradigm--Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), Born to Dance (1936), and Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937). Later films--Honolulu (1939), Broadway...