Flamenco Inesita

The Film Work of the 1940’s and 1950’s

Soon after my first professional dance experience, I was noticed by other professionals in various night club engagements. These appearances served primarily as showcases and an opportunity to gain experience.

Reginald Le Borg, a director and actor of European background saw me at Grace Hayes Lodge in Studio City, and he contracted me to do a solo in two short musical films produced at Universal Studios.  One was titled, Skyline Serenade and the other Rumba Rhythms. With these movies, I joined the Screen Actor’s Guild. I now had membership in Actor’s Equity because of my appearance in a Civic Light Opera Production of Rio Rita produced by Edwin Lester. In addition, to these affiliations I also was required to join American Guild of Variety Actors.

With my experience so far, and some of my early concert appearances, I was approached by a producer, George Bilson, who asked for two dances in his feature, Foot light Varieties. It was filmed and released at RKO Studios in Hollywood.  The movie’s format was presented as a vaudeville show with a line-up of popular performers in  individual acts.

My first dance, an Alegrias, was accompanied by three members of the Heredia family. They included a young guitarist and his two sisters who supported me with rhythmic hand clapping. The second dance, a Farruca which I performed on a small table two feet by two feet was danced in male costume. This sequence, as it turned out was the one which appeared  in the feature. The other dance was not used.

However, publicity photos showing me in costume for the Alegrias were displayed prominently in posters large and small, windows cards and ads for the movie. (They exist today as collector items).

My part of the filming was completed in several days and released in 1951 as a companion piece to a full length horror movie entitled The Thing.

The final version of the table dance was introduced by Jack Parr, who played himself, was altered with a sound track recording of an orchestra and applause and concluded with the closing of a curtain. Some movie trickery!

During that year 1952, I performed in two concerts, one in Los Angeles and another  in Redlands Bowl  in Redlands, California with guitarist and pianist.

Finances were very low, but I continued to pick up whatever work could be found in local television shows and night clubs. I now had a union card from the American Guild of Radio and Television Artists. During that early period, I even danced on a radio program in which I provided the sound of my heel and castanet patterns for a sequence about a Spanish dancer! This episode was a play performed on radio with live actors who spoke their lines in the production. Although there was a live audience in the theater, the listeners over the air heard only voices and music. Kay Frances, a movie star of the ’30s and ’40s was the actress who played the role of the Spanish dancer in the story. I was the dancer whose heel beats and castanets were heard by the radio public. This was rather a special situation!

In the later part of 1952, after the Redlands Bowl appearance, I received a call from an obscure talent agent whom I knew over the years. She suggested I meet with people at Paramount Studios in Hollywood who were seeking a female flamenco dancer who could dance in male costume in a film starring Bob Hope. During the interview, it was revealed there was film on me. After several days, I was notified that I had been selected to appear in a solo dance in a film titled Here Come the Girls with Bob Hope, Arlene Dahl, Rosemary Clooney, and Tony Martin.

Following a short period, a call came from Paramount Studios to begin rehearsals. Nick Castle, the dance director, was very courteous and respectful of my work and we began organizing the dance he visualized for the production.  I was the featured dancer. He chose various movements and passages from my Farruca, a version of which he saw in the clip from Footlight Varieties. It was based on nine minutes of the original dance. From this I was able to give him about one minute and 22 seconds for the sequence. Five weeks were spent on the one scene with the backup of chorus dancers.

During this time I was told that Paramount Studios had auditioned every Spanish dancer in town. They were looking for a female flamenco dancer who could wear trousers and dance in a certain style envisioned by the dance director Nick  Castle. It was almost  a parallel to the Cinderella story and the glass slipper. The search was focused on someone who could fit into that production number. Of course, I did not have to audition as the film from Foot light Varieties made at RKO  Studios two years earlier showed me in male attire dancing on a table. Evidently I was exactly what they hoped for! 

While the rehearsals were in progress, I was summoned to the office of Edith Head the famous costume designer for a meeting. Ms. Head asked: “Can you work in beads?” I told her I could. It was decided that the design of the male costume would be white with a jacket heavily embroidered with bugle beads and sequins. The trousers and top consisted of a satin false front and attached pants. Two sets were fashioned of this combination for a replacement in case of damage. Three matching Spanish hats were made and three pairs of shoes ordered from Capezio.

Rehearsals and recordings sessions were interesting in themselves. The actual sound of my heel rhythms, hand clapping and the finger snapping I did was recorded in a large sound stage. I watched the film of my dance and matched everything to the movements. During these sessions we were joined at one point by the Step Brothers, a team of wonderful black male tap dancers who were featured the in movie. I was doing my “pitos”, the finger snapping so prominent in flamenco and the sound came out very crisp and clear. As a joke, they circled me one day and tried to figure out my technique. They thought I had metal clickers in my hands. 

All of the dancers on the set were very congenial and a few knew me from other engagements. I was addressed by Castle as Miss Inesita. At the conclusion of the shooting, Mr. Castle told me I had given him everything he asked for and then I gave him more. A film clip of the sequence can be viewed on YouTube and on my Web Site.

In 1953, the movie opened in New York City with much fanfare soon after I returned from Spain and a summer of study.

Addendum:

Only in the last day or 24 hours have I noticed that Here Come the Girls starring Bob Hope has now been uploaded in its original full length on Youtube!

I don’t know why this has suddenly been added to the roster of vintage films. It is now considered to be a “Classic Film”  of the 1950’s and is receiving high praise for the production and for the individual stars.
My dance sequence is there of course, and I am at this point honored to be seen in this new presentation. I believe I am one of the few performers surviving from the cast of the film!

I was well received as a dancer at the time but also know that the movie was not universally lauded for its artistry back then. Formerly in the recent years the trailer was seen as the example of the kinds of film work of the past. Someone decided to upload the entire work to the YouTube perhaps because of the copyright. I am not sure. When it was released in 1953; ( it was actually filmed in 1952 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood Calif,) it opened in New York City and then was released all over the world.

Sadly, this kind of exposure is sort of limiting to the performing artist as only 1 minute and 22 seconds of my work is exposed whereas the full concerts I did in the past have no record to show of my dancing, Today, of course, many videos of current recent performances are seen on YouTube and that is gratifying. But the past is lost.

Responding to one comment praising the Spanish/Flamenco number in which I appeared as the soloist, one person said ” that was hot” I subsequently replied with two comments of my own, identifying myself as the dancer in that scene and just a few hours ago I was alerted to a comment by the person, one Kevin Watt, who noticed my entries and declared much pleasure that I had “a marvelous experience” making the movie. He further stated that I had “serious flamenco skills by the way!” and wondered “how this would do in today’s market if it was to be done on a Broadway stage………”