Vera-Ellen performs in "Miss Turnstiles"

[@jsharp1701]

Vera is vastly underrated nowadays. She was one of the greatest movie dancers ever. Very disciplined and extremely versatile, doing everything from ballet to tap expertly. Not to mention unbelievably cute. She's in the highest echelon, a peer with Cyd Charisse.

[@elwoodblues9613]

Vera-Ellen: one of only two people who could keep up with Fred Astaire (Eleanor Powell was the other). Fred was incredible, making the difficult look easy, but Vera-Ellen had a wider range of styles she could do equally well. She was simply the best.

[@tink6225]

when i saw her hop en pointe my mouth dropped

[@markmiller3279]

Not many could pull off that kind of broad comedy and dance so very well at the same time.

[@denisepfahl4433]

Vera Ellen is number one, The best dancer in the world both classically trained and acrobatic, tap master Not Eleamnor Powell, sorry, I put her after Cyd Charisse, even tho Charisse never did tap, she could have and did everything else beautifully

[@SealSol-w1j]

The entire movie is underrated

[@EvilTreeFrogs]

"She's got to be brilliant, beautiful and talented. Just an average girl." That always cracks me up.

[@larrydirtybird]

+EvilTreeFrogs I've seen this movie many times and I never noticed that bit of irony. Thanks for pointing it out! Funny.

[@drmantistobboggangonzodr3961]

@@larrydirtybird yep, the whole bit is full of oxymoronic phrases, like"she's a frail, flower-like creature... but oh boy, what an athlete!" Lol. :)

[@mofa9745]

Surely there's some sexism in that statement somewhere, isn't there ? Can't we find any ? After all, we know that everyone was sexist and racist 70 years ago, don't we !

[@stefannydvorak7919]

@@mofa9745 YOU are the one bringing in negativity where no one else was. YOU are the one trying to stir problems. YOU are the one who brought up sexism (?) and racism (?!) when no one was talking about that. Everyone was having fun, laughing at the flawless humour of the dialogue and YOU brought your party pooper attitude. Yet I bet you’re the type to complain about triggered snowflakes! Pot calling the kettle black…

[@henrimatisse7481]

and "frail", although that wasn't demonstrated 🙃

[@melaniewade4117]

Vera Ellen will always be one of my all time favorite movie dancers. She could do it all and her technique in so many genres of dance is impeccable. Astonishing. I wish she would have been given more credit. And more films. She was also tiny but so amazingly strong and athletic, yet with the ability to make it all look so easy and light. There will never be another like Vera Ellen.

[@ecneb]

Vera-Ellen is greatly underrated and under appreciated. She deserves a place as one of the greats of Golden Era Hollywood.

[@h.calvert3165]

The precision required in the choreography of the 'fight' scenes, so that she doesn't kick anybody in the jaw, is mind-boggling! Bravo to all! 😮

[@h.calvert3165]

Jo Blow 😄 💃 😆

[@andrewbrendan1579]

So much talent here! Something that also impresses me is how so much motion and action takes place in a small space. For example: the illusion of people running a long distance when they are actually dancing within a few square feet. All the dancers here and the choreographer deserve a lot of praise---and they have it from me! Well done!

[@yelloworangered]

And me! There was so much brilliant stuff in this routine.

[@johngreve2104]

She’s just plain fantastic….I continue to watch White Christmas over and over just to watch her dance. Especially love the “Mandy” number

[@soulserenade.kcn1992]

Love that number! She truly shines!

[@standelman95]

God bless Vera-Ellen in her best years the Best Hollywood dancer the world has ever seen !!!!! Thank you Vera

[@alisonfraser8231]

The athleticism of these dancers is truly unparalleled. There were so many incredible talents back then. Now, we settle for much less.

[@virginiastock5518]

One of the best dancers ever. She was great.

[@christiangibbs8534]

Miss Turnstiles. The modern subway systems need to bring back this tradition.

[@glorialotz3333]

Now it would be a 300 lb ghettopotamus.

[@ginnylorenz5265]

So good to see Vera-Ellen's legs looking well muscled and beautiful. They became so thin later.

[@patriciaholt-torres7591]

That was my thought too. She was so thin in White Christmas!

[@junemoonchild]

Hypnotizing.. Vera Ellen's a gem. I'm sorry for her and her baby. I'm sorry for what happened to her!

[@MrEjidorie]

Vera-Ellen is really an amazing dancer!

[@Eyes-of-Horus]

The only person who comes close is Paula Abdul. She has a lot of similarities with Vera-Ellen in her dancing.

[@namtil]

I love discovering talents like hers pretty much by accident. She's a bit before my time and I've never explored all these great musicals. There's no denying her brilliance, that's for sure.

[@FanOfJanis]

This is one of Vera's best all-time dances. Simply marvelous. Thanks so much for posting this. Peace.

[@WeeWyllie]

She was a phenomenon, and sparkling to watch.

[@alliemae76]

One of my favorite clips of all time! I had this scene recorded on my family's VCR back in the 1980s and watched it over and over again.

[@davidmcveen7261]

Love watching these…. Vera was one of the best. Notice after she takes the trophy, she recenters herself while spinning!! Brilliant technician.

[@lanamedcalf1561]

She looked so great in this movie...... Whoever told her she was too fat and caused her anorexic future should have been stoned!!

[@Elizannchan]

Studio heads most likely :(

[@esmeephillips5888]

She did not have anorexia. This is a retro-rumor.

[@athelane]

she definitely lost weight since this movie which was very early in her career.she was significantly skinnier in white christmas, so if she wasn't anorexic, she was definitely severely underweight.

[@walt1896]

Houston She’s still the youngest Radio City Rockette (age 16 in 1937) and made her Broadway debut in 1939. “A Connecticut Yankee” in 1943 got her a contract from Sam Goldwyn. Sang passably on stage but was always dubbed in film. Though there is a youtube reunion of her with her “By Jupiter” fellow player, Ray Bolger where she sings on his show. Definitely lost weight in the 1950’s. Fred Astaire in his auto bio commented that she was always pushing in on her cheeks. Biggest tragedy was her losing her only daughter to SIDS at 3 months in 1963. She withdrew from public life and died in 1981 at 60

[@ValleyoftheRogue]

@@esmeephillips5888 You know this? How? I would say the better explanation, since anorexia was unknown at the time, is that Vera-Ellen abused diet pills much like Judy Garland, hence the dramatic weight loss (plus tight corseting in some costumes) in this film and her later films. Diet pills would cause dramatic weight loss over a shorter period of time than anorexia would. Films during this era were shot over a period of weeks rather than months or a couple of years.

[@DianneElizabeth64]

Genius choreography. I never heard of her before this video. Enjoyed every second of this

[@LuciferMorningstar-mw7sx]

She’s literally so adorable 🥺🥺

[@dpainter1526]

While there's no denying that Vera is always amazing, I just want to give a moment of appreciation to the incredible, well timed and acted acrobatics of those male dancers at the end! The whole sequence was so well done👋

[@zoezr1]

Gee, she's wonderful. That my heart melt😍😍😍❤️

[@BillFinger27]

I am 19 yrs old. This movie is my fave movie of Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra together. But I gotta say, this scene is one of my favorites. The talent shown is purely awesome. I haven't seen anyone in my age which matches this one.

[@markfretwell1]

One of the best dancers of her era & probably of all time thanx for posting this :-)

[@peterrice7739]

If the stars of M-G-M musicals were like superheroes, then Vera-Ellen was like Supergirl in this one. The athletic abilities which she displayed in this dance number are quite impressive. And great fun to watch also.

[@edbjr38]

Definitely one of my all-time faves....visited her grave a few years back...high in the mountains above L.A.

[@SeungYeonFan]

They pick a NEW Miss Turnstiles EVERY month. What a town!!!!

[@storyallegory]

LOL

[@tammie1078]

Wonderful extension and amazing in here, she can do ballet and act with funny expressions, she can do it all.

[@coreycox2345]

Miss Turnstiles, Tammie.

[@yelloworangered]

She was very effective in the ballet sequence without being a Balanchine pinhead. Really, just lovely.

[@k_n_g5678]

Damn she is amaaaazing! Just discovered her!!!!

[@philipp4130]

wow what a great dance number, vera-ellen is adorable!

[@pursehappygal]

She's amazing, and those fellows are doing a great job keeping up with her.

[@dreamy_mary]

Vera-Ellen was too cute in that movie... and she danced beautifully! I want to watch all her filmography.

[@vickbond008]

Great choreography.

[@dazzlingdeb8427]

vickbond008 Gene was the choreographer

[@FernandaPerfeitoOfficial]

Oh my is she real?!! I loooove this!

[@FreyaVana]

she is such a great dancer!

[@stevesheartone2998]

Vera-Ellen was such a Great Dancer and So Cute & Attractive Too.

[@user-mv9tt4st9k]

Love. Vera Ellen was awesome.

[@ianedwards4400]

Vera Ellen was overall a very talented and versatile Ballet dancer in which she incorporated pirouetting, gymnastic movements and accomplished somersaults. She was Cyd Charisse, Eleanor Powell and Leslie Caron, all rolled into one. She had a panache like no other. Her films had some of the most ebullient dance sequences ever to be caught on celluloid.

[@avuncular300]

A great dancer, and lovely with it !

[@kyokogodai-ir6hy]

@ARbenSRbarGR Totally agree with you. Watching White Christmas now. She is great in the dance numbers, but is so thin. She looks really good, in this movie. 5 years can do a lot, but there is a huge difference.

[@MsDavisPhotography]

Her variety shows are just pure TV gems!

[@donnabrown8582]

Vera ranks right up there with Ginger Rogers. Amazing almost superhuman dancing and energy Loved her in White Christmas And that 18 inch waist!!

[@theredderthebetter1]

This was great!!!

[@jakegraves7946]

She is so great. Love the sports bit.

[@GalloPazzesco]

She was incredible

[@carolynellis387]

That copper long gown is so beautiful

[@kattykit139]

Didn’t know I needed to see Vera Ellen beat a bunch of men up in white shorts via dance sequence today but i definitely did

[@roccotracanna163]

Very good Vera. Love Her in White Christmas. R.I.P.

[@juliahayes6671]

1:45 If a man don’t propose to me like that I don’t want it

[@Diiixdixo]

"what a girl!" I love Vera!!! :) :)

[@deniaridley]

She makes it all look so easy!...kinda like Astaire. The very best can pull that off. Side note: that gold lamé dress nearly floored the retro-fashion geek in me. 😍

[@5DNRG]

Vera Ellen was an athlete who expressed herself in dance...and what an AMAZING dancer (ala White Christmas) with the epitome of dancer's legs, no matter what size.

[@Ayzlin]

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 such an incredible lady (and dance team)

[@alexleongcp]

Amazing performance 👍👍👍

[@johnprostak5103]

Simply fantastic

[@tarnsand]

Vera Ellen was considered the best female dancer of her time; as well as the hardest working dancer by her peers. Co-stars,directors,choreographers etc have said she was a joy to work with never complained and was patient/kind with everyone. She made one more picture after 'White Christmas' and retired for good. Sadly she passed away in her early sixties.

[@elwoodblues9613]

I once read that Vera-Ellen is one of only two ladies who could keep up with Fred Astaire! (Eleanor Powell was the other)

[@psycherevival2105]

This was awesome! But you can tell really she had been in a fight by the way she was holding her hands in her “fighting stance.” Super fun to watch tho! Such skill.

[@jungshooketh3846]

I just realized her legs were more full. When she played in White Christmas, she was extremely skinny!😮

[@angel4ever1]

Jung Shooketh I think I remember reading somewhere that she suffered from anorexia for many years before she passed away.

[@carolynellis387]

Battled with anorexia sadly most of her life

[@ValleyoftheRogue]

Lots of crash dieting, even anorexia, took its toll. I would guess she abused diet pills like so many women of her generation and is likely a better explanation given how widespread diet pills were. You can see her weight fluctuating dramatically even in the same film including "On the Town." Some scenes she looks normal, as in this number, while in others she is shockingly thin. It's not simply because she was corseted in. She is literally half as wide as Ann Miller, who was hardly overweight. She had a small frame, but not that small without severe food deprivation.

[@daroldspoon5181]

She looks good here, but she was very thin in White Christmas. Was watching that this weekend and thought she was way too thin.

[@stantheman9072]

Benzedrine coffee was a big thing in professional circles in those days, too. Amphetamine abuse was common. “Diet pills” was a euphemism. Businessmen crashed and burned a lot.

[@dennismiddlebrooks7027]

There's "hot, and there's "sizzling hot." Vera Ellen was "sizzling hot" in this number, and in many others as well. She was the finest and sexiest female dancer I ever saw.

[@WildWildWest30000]

BRILLIANT

[@paulbroderick5358]

What a routine! Superb.

[@howardkoor2796]

Sensational scene

[@dmoney668]

Wboa she's beautiful and brilliant dancer

[@pursehappygal]

It seems that when a dancer really enjoys what they're doing,regardless of the role,it shows. As a result,it makes them fun to watch. When I was a teenager, I watched my first ballet (The Nutcracker) and I was a little bored (I was also a third wheel on my brother's date). But the dancer playing Fritz was having so much fun with such a minor role, he made the ballet fun to watch as well.

[@3luckydog]

That was so much fun!🎉🎉🎉

[@MrRichiekaye]

How great!!

[@zizzolizzo1]

fantastic

[@louipappas6282]

cant take my eyes off her...she's brilliant!

[@margin606]

The magic never dies

[@larrymyland3800]

Bless Vera forever. I love you

[@sazure2]

Unfortunately she was underrated then and I think more appreciated now. (but who knows - what goes on behind the doors back then - maybe she just said NO!)

[@jochenstossberg5427]

This is MeToo bullshit. She was never under rated. She was a top dancing star back then. It's just that now, for some unknown reason, she's become interesting to people who have no idea who she was or what she did.

[@suebruce493]

Great choreography and talent.

[@pokemontas8025]

not her doing ballet and paining at the same time 😂😂 She's the OG Barbie

[@dpainter1526]

Barbie can't hold a candle to Vera! But yes, I love that bit too😄

[@DandelionFunky]

2:44-2:50 if you look carefully, you can see Vera-Ellen wince when her hair hits her face. lol Anyway, this is one of my favorite scenes from the movie. Thanks for the upload! ^.^

[@dairydell]

Vera Ellen was pure dancing genius. First time I've seen this clip.... Delightful. It's pretty much accepted that she battled anorexia. What the heck, we all battle something! I'm just sorry she couldn't stay with us longer!

[@ChicagoSouthDan]

@nuzzi7 This was made in 1949, before the anorexia had set in as much. In White Christmas, made in 1954, you can see the difference in her legs. I did not think anything of it when I first saw the movie. Now, after reading about her problem, I am more aware of it. Also in White Christmas, she wears high collars to cover her neck because her neck skin was beginning to sag. You don't think about that because the movie is set in cold Vermont, but Rosemary Clooney does not wear high collars.

[@lindarogow5338]

Who did this excellent choreography??? Exciting visually and showcasing vera

[@lindarogow5338]

I checked. Choreographed by gene kelly. Cho cho san is a writer in phoenix

[@Diiixdixo]

what a smile, what a gal.

[@amethystanne4586]

I think she played one of the 2 female leads in “White Christmas”, with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Fabulous as always!

[@johngianoli1209]

Bravo!

[@MicheleOfficialPage]

Brilliant

[@pursehappygal]

I remember seeing that on IMDB. I remember seeing that she always wore high collars in White Christmas, but never thought about why.

[@TwoBarkingMad]

Fred Astaire once said that Vera-Ellen was the only one of his dance partners with a waist smaller than his, LOL :-)

[@thegreencat9947]

Oh yes. So delicate.

[@stellarsjay1773]

She was born to twirl in a fluffy full skirt. Check out some of her other videos. She adorns the dance archive.

[@Oreadno1]

Yes, that was Gene Kelly, along with Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin. This is from the film ON THE TOWN which Kelly directed and starred in.

[@davidmiller4078]

She is good one of the very best check her out if u not familiar with her work Obviously White Christmas and i remember dancing with the also very great Donald O Conner in ? Call me Madam ? Dancers are athletes and put in hard work to become as if by overnight magic Great thanx for posting

[@alexisisaacson7773]

Watching this asking myself how her knees never gave out. So much respect

[@RexBenincasa]

Wow!

[@アリアーヌ]

この時代のミュージカル映画は本当に良い物が多い。本当に面白いし、最高。

[@alenabrehm2779]

Jadore

[@richardgiem6404]

One of the most underrated dancers.

[@trainliker100]

Gene Kelly choreographed this for the movie, and you can really tell it is his style with the athleticism in so much of it.

[@moldyloaf774]

I want her athletic shorts

[@lovelygoldensparrow]

Hmm,that's a tad vulgar. But she was very cute,so the attraction is understandable,lol.

[@snowmonster42]

Me too. I was trying to watch her dance and figure out how her shorts were made at the same time.

[@johnlorenzen4633]

The "fight" scene of this is amazing. Equal parts humor athetisim and precision. No one was an eighth of an inch off. They couldnt be. When hwood had talent!

[@susanbrennan5511]

In White Christmas (which I watch every year) I’ve marveled how small her waist was. She was amazing and highly underrated.

[@Bossa57]

Yes I absolutely agree! I couldn't have said it better...

[@elainebmack]

Vera Ellen was just plain great- a born dancer and athlete. Compare her to the pathetic twerkers of today.

[@elainebmack]

Jim Stark. No need for name calling. She was born with the talent to dance, and with training developed the skill to do it very well. Try using your brain and think before you write insults.

[@AriD2385]

There are scores of dancers today who do the same. It's not difficult to find both talented and trained dancers pretty much everywhere. Maybe Jim Stark's name calling was unnecessary, but the original comment seemed to be without purpose.

[@teebat58]

No, it's about class. Something missing in today's "performers". Twerking is just a bunch of hoes.

[@AriD2385]

Nothing to do with class. You cherry picked one choreographed piece from a movie to compare it to another cherry picked example today. There were burlesque dancers then and there are the same today. There are plenty of people doing the same and more than Vera did.

[@AriD2385]

Nothing to do with class. You cherry picked one choreographed piece from a movie to compare it to another cherry picked example today. There were burlesque dancers then and there are the same today. There are plenty of dancers today doing the same and better than Vera did. some are just not exposed enough to know it.

[@TheGeoDaddy]

Now I realize why the producers felt compelled to cast an NYC Ballet Star in the Broadway revival (which I saw BEFORE checking out the movie) and why the beefed up the dancing bits to justify the Ballet casting... great Production!