European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 2, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 Colin mrs Ellen Goodman the stars and stripes thursday july 2,1987 Fred Astaire made togetherness look so easy looking at the photos those endlessly elegant portraits of top hat and tails thai ran beside his obituaries 1 could t help wandering Haw lie Man would have tired in films today. There was no angst in Allaire. Nor any Vio Lence. Nor any heavy breathing. If Fred Astaire was in a bedroom hews dressed in silk pyjamas. If Fred As Taire look a woman in his arms it was to face the music and dance. If Fred Astaire and his co stars made it together it was Cheek to Cheek. Every one of the stories about his death at 88 included the terse notes from his first screen test can t act balding. Can t sing dances a every one of them included the telling remark of his old colleague Ronald Reagan he was the ultimate dancer the dancer who made it ail look so easily Fred Allaire danced Down staircases on balconies and rooftops in a Sving room a ballroom a Garden. Easily be danced on a wedding cake on Rol Ler stale and on the ceiling. He kept his sweat offscreen. It in t Tike that any More. Our Holly Wood fantasies ire pressed into real ism even feigned realism. They do close ups of the sweat these Days. They add the sweat in. What seemed so effortless in the Astaire movies was not just his own movement but the Way he danced in indent. Fred Astaire almost always had partners but not the Way we think of partners now. In those Days they merged they had the same rhythms. When Allaire danced with Ginger Rogers or Cyd Charisse or Leslie Caron the Man and the woman flowed together. Astaire coupled in a Way that seemed visually idyllic. Dancing with Rogers was indistinguishable from dancing with disown Shadow. Two could move As easily that word again As one. It was this idyll that attracted so Many the apparently seamless coupling of Man and a woman. The ability to choreograph a perfect love merger. Even with a Hal Rock. James Reston of course we know at some level what Astaire himself said in an interview. Dancing is a sweat Job. You May go Days getting nothing but exhaustion. This search for what you want is like racking something that does t want to be a Man who All his life was addicted to soap operas knew something about the struggles of mating As Well. But we see Only the finished product the flawless Pas de Deus to his music unions the image of two people moving in perfect synch is powerful. It s no Surprise hat the Astaire genre did t make it into the 60s. There were fewer leading men in the 60s. Fewer follow ing women. Tie faint say the if Only one could Lead and the other follow All would be Well began to break apart. Gradually top hat became ballroom dancing turned to Rock. Couples were now individuals lightly connected to each other. By the70s, the struggle to keep their Steps in any son of sequence began to show. And now in the romantic movies of the late 80s. The sweat really shows. If there is a theme it is of the desire and difficulty Oft lying your Way Back to connection taking a single sure step together. In the brat pack films such As St. Elmo s fire or about last night the men and women leap into by quickly but sidestep commitment they Don Glide but lurch warily toward each other. La films lilt nothing a coi Stoh solos Are what come nalu Rady to the Yuppie set. They have to Lake lessons work hard to learn the Basic of togetherness. The desire for counting contends with the desire for Independence. Our current movie Moddy ourselves per haps portray some Barrier Between Man and woman something As obvious As the Cyrano de Bergerac nose that Steve Martin wears in As for Astaire the thin i hate most is nostalgia said this dancer. Three generations now pay him the compliment of their late night attention. Maybe it u nostalgia alone that draws us to this Graceful flawless Star and that makes his a Saint Page ode news. But 1 Don t think so. Fred Astaire did something that teems truly remarkable in our Modem eyes. He made dancing loss thir toot easy. Transition to next administration starting Early the decline of president Reagan s influence is More than a problem it s an embarrassment. The Capi Tal is still hoping that hell get an arms Deal with the russians but mainly it s turning its attention to his successor. He will of course go on and on like a stuck whistle calling for a line item veto and a constitutional Amend ment to balance the budget but Congress ii now wait ing him out and trying to control the damage. It will not be easy. After he cleaned out the base ment in the White House and appointed Howard Baker As his chief of staff it was hoped that the presi Dent would compose the differences within his Cabinet and improve nil relations on Capitol Hill but the new Regency is still divided. Secretary of stale George Shultz had serious misgivings about flagging the kuwaiti Lanken in the persian Cut Juit As he opposed the president s decision. 10 ship arms to the terrorists in Iran. Likewise Baker thought it was a unique Opportunity when the russians decided not to increase their flotilla in the Gulf and offered to consult on ending the War there but the president preferred confrontation to cooperation. Unfortunately the Contra hearings will probably dominate the news for most of the summer with it. Col. North and rear adm. Poindexter on the stand testifying on what the president knew and when be knew it or forgot it. But after All this pawing Over the past there will still be Lime to plan for the future. With the decline of Reagan the transition is starting earlier in the 1988 election than usual. There Are some thoughtful people in both parties who recognize that the situation is too serious to be left to Reagan or the candidates who Are roaring around the country Selling themselves. Gov. Mario Cuomo of new York for example is proposing the formation of a National bipartisan eco nomic commission to study the budget Trade Mone tary and other related issues so that the presidential nominees whoever they Are will have some consid ered judgments to guide them in the Campaign. Others Are suggesting similar commissions on arms control drug control education Reform and Public health to assist the winners and nourish the National debate in the 1988 Campaign. Their reports of course would not commit the Nomin 10 anything but would at least be or forty and objective summaries of the principal issues for decision. One of the major problems of our presidential elections is that the Winner usually stagger out of Ait exhausting Campaign with Only a few weeks to pick a Cabinet add a while House staff draft an inauguration speech deliver a stale of the Union message and construct a budget. Unlike the chief executives of other democratic countries who have permanent unde Secre tries of the various departments and agencies who carry on from one administration to the next the win Ner of our election inherits Little More than a party platform that he did t write and a civil service that he does t know. This is the argument for an expanded transition period beginning now. The situation in november of next year will not be like november of 1934 when the re elected Ronald Reagan carried his first term team into his second term. After the next election he will begone and both parties will have of begin anew. After the assassination of i Idem Kennedy i spent a few Days with president at i ranch in Texas. He was grappling with this of transition. You know he said i be been around washing ton for quite a while and i know some people from the South and the Southwest but with All these jobs to fill i m just realizing i Don t really know where the Good people Are in the Middle West or the far West. I Don t know How to find he said thai when he Haj to appoint judges be
