The man who made Marilyn Monroe dance
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2019
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Choreographer Jack Cole had a huge influence on musical theatre and Hollywood films - most memorably with Marilyn Monroe in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But much of his inspiration came from Indian dance. Vincent Dowd has been speaking to the American actress and singer, Chita Rivera, who danced with him.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, Cricket, and Conspiracy Theories. |
| 1:04.3 | And that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.2 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, |
| 1:09.4 | find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from BBC World Service with me Vincent Dowd. |
| 1:23.7 | The choreographer Jack Cole has been called the father of American jazz dance. |
| 1:29.1 | His dancers had a big influence in Hollywood and in musical theatre. But above all, Jack Cole will be remembered |
| 1:36.0 | as the man who made Marilyn Monroe dance. Even people who've never heard of Jack Cole might know his most famous bit of |
| 1:47.5 | choreography for the screen. Marilyn Monroe quaffed and bejeweled and dressed in a tight-fitting future pink dress, flirts with |
| 1:55.5 | 20 or so male dancers in white tie and tails. For 1953, it's sexy, camp, and wildly over the top. |
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