Editing Fred Astaire (section)

===1917–1933: Stage career on Broadway and in London===
[[File:AdeleFred1921.jpg|right|thumb|Fred and Adele Astaire in 1921]]
The Astaires broke into Broadway in 1917 with ''Over the Top'', a patriotic revue, and performed for U.S. and Allied troops at this time as well. They followed up with several more shows. Of their work in ''[[The Passing Show of 1918]]'', [[Heywood Broun]] wrote: "In an evening in which there was an abundance of good dancing, Fred Astaire stood out&nbsp;... He and his partner, Adele Astaire, made the show pause early in the evening with a beautiful loose-limbed dance."<ref>Bill Adler, ''Fred Astaire: A Wonderful Life'', Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1987, p. 35, {{ISBN|0-88184-376-8}}</ref>

Adele's sparkle and humor drew much of the attention, owing in part to Fred's careful preparation and sharp supporting choreography. She still set the tone of their act but by this time, Astaire's dancing skill was beginning to outshine his sister's.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

During the 1920s, Fred and Adele appeared on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and the [[West End theatre|London stage]]. They won popular acclaim with the theater crowd on both sides of the Atlantic in shows such as [[Jerome Kern]]'s ''[[The Bunch and Judy]]'' (1922), George and [[Ira Gershwin]]'s ''[[Lady, Be Good (musical)|Lady, Be Good]]'' (1924), and ''[[Funny Face (musical)|Funny Face]]'' (1927) and later in ''[[The Band Wagon (musical)|The Band Wagon]]'' (1931). Astaire's tap dancing was recognized by then as among the best. For example, [[Robert Benchley]] wrote in 1930, "I don't think that I will plunge the nation into war by stating that Fred is the greatest tap-dancer in the world."<ref name="Mueller"/> While in London, Fred studied piano at the [[Guildhall School of Music and Drama|Guildhall School of Music]] alongside his friend and colleague [[Noël Coward]],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GBfVCQAAQBAJ&q=fred+astaire+guildhall+school&pg=PA36|title=Puttin' On the Ritz: Fred Astaire and the Fine Art of Panache, A Biography|first=Peter|last=Levinson|date=July 28, 2015|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=9781250091499|via=Google Books}}</ref> and in 1926, was one of the judges at the '[[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]] Championship of the World ' competition at the [[Royal Albert Hall]], where [[Lew Grade]] was declared the winner.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

After the close of ''Funny Face'', the Astaires went to Hollywood for a screen test (now lost) at [[Paramount Pictures]], but Paramount deemed them unsuitable for films.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

They split in 1932 when Adele married her first husband, [[Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish|Lord Charles Cavendish]], the second son of the [[Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire|9th Duke of Devonshire]]. Fred went on to achieve success on his own on Broadway and in London with ''[[Gay Divorce]]'' (later made into the film ''[[The Gay Divorcee]]'') while considering offers from Hollywood. The end of the partnership was traumatic for Astaire but stimulated him to expand his range.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Free of the brother-sister constraints of the former pairing and working with new partner [[Claire Luce]], Fred created a romantic partnered dance to [[Cole Porter]]'s "[[Night and Day (song)|Night and Day]]", which had been written for ''Gay Divorce''. Luce stated that she had to encourage him to take a more romantic approach: "Come on, Fred, I'm not your sister, you know."<ref name="Mueller"/>{{rp|6}} The success of the stage play was credited to this number, and when recreated in ''The Gay Divorcee'' (1934), the film version of the play, it ushered in a new era in filmed dance.<ref name="Mueller">{{cite book
| last = Mueller
| first = John
| title = Astaire Dancing&nbsp;– The Musical Films
| publisher = Hamish Hamilton
| year = 1986
| location = London
| isbn= 0-241-11749-6 }}</ref>{{rp|23, 26, 61}} Recently, film footage taken by [[Fred Stone]] of Astaire performing in ''Gay Divorce'' with Luce's successor, Dorothy Stone, in New York in 1933 was uncovered by dancer and historian Betsy Baytos and now represents the earliest known performance footage of Astaire.<ref>{{cite web|author=Betsy Baytos |title=Information on this footage in the Fred Stone Collection of the Broadway show Gay Divorcee (1933) |url=http://www.faconference.org/bio_baytos.htm |work=Fred Astaire: The Conference |publisher=The Astaire Conference |access-date=May 14, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602045934/http://www.faconference.org/bio_baytos.htm |archive-date=June 2, 2015 }}</ref>