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Puttin' on the Ritz
Fred Astaire and the Fine Art of Panache: A Biograpy
By Peter J. Levinson St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 2009 Peter J. Levinson
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-250-09149-9
CHAPTER 1
PAYING DUES
It is perhaps no surprise that Friedrich Emanuel Austerlitz, the father of Fred and Adele Astaire, was a musician — a piano player and singer in his native Austria. As a young man he had grown up attending operettas and concerts in Vienna. As he once related to his two children, "There are two kinds of Austrians ... rascals and musicians. I belong to the second group. "Friedrich had been born in Linz and baptized on September 8, 1868, as part of a Roman Catholic family of beer brewers in Vienna.
What is astonishing is that Friedrich's father, Stephan Austerlitz, a self-employed trading agent living in Prague, Czechoslovakia, who had been born Salomon Austerlitz, and his wife, Lucia Marianna Heller (Friedrich's mother), were Jewish. Despite their Czech background, the Austrian/Bohemian family spoke German.
Salomon Austerlitz and his wife, Lucia, their oldest child, Adele (baptized as Josepha); and Otto, Friedrich's older brother, converted to Catholicism on September 20, 1867, at St. Michaels Church in Leonding, Austria. (This was while the family was living in nearby Linz). Friedrich and his younger brother, Maximilian Ernest (later changed to Ernst), were baptized at birth. (Ironically the parents of Adolf Hitler, the Austrian-born dictator who raised the centuries-old Austrian hatred of the Jews to a demonic level, are buried in the church's cemetery.) Salomon became Stephan Johann Nep, taking the name of his godfather, but retaining his surname of Austerlitz.
At that time, a blatant anti-Semitic atmosphere pervaded Austria. Ingo Preminger, the late literary agent and brother of Otto Preminger, who grew up in Austria, observed, "There had always been anti-Semitism in Austria, but it is not the same brand as in this country, which is social anti-Semitism. In Vienna, there was a very different contempt for Jews for which the Church was responsible. It was the Church that taught over and over that the Jews killed Jesus Christ. Hatred for Jews was always present, in the capital as well as in the provincial towns and cities." This helps to explain the religious conversion from Judaism to Catholicism of Salomon Austerlitz and his family.
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, authored the Edict of Tolerance in 1781. Its terms demanded that all Jews residing within the borders of the Empire were to henceforth assume a new surname, which would become the family's official name. The amount of the required fee to register that name was determined by how much each family could afford to pay, that is, the Jewish families of means could afford to pay a considerable fee. Their newly adopted names (for example, Goldstein) had a connotation of wealth or something equally becoming (such as Rosenthal, with its reference to a rose).
Families of lesser wealth were given names like Eisen, meaning iron. The poor were strapped with names that often reflected "nonsense syllables." The most frequent Jewish names were those like Richardson (son of Richard), and some were based on a local city or a place, such as Austerlitz.
The village of Austerlitz had been renamed because the prominent Austerlitz family had lived there for generations. On December 2, 1805, it was the site of one of Napoléon's major victories when his army won a valiant battle against the Russian and Austrian armies.
The many restrictions placed on Jews by the Edict of Tolerance in 1781 and '82 fundamentally allowed them no religious freedom and included forbidding the use of Hebrew except for ritualistic purposes. Secular transactions were required to be in the languages of the regime. To learn these languages, Jews were encouraged to attend Christian schools and universities and encouraged to learn new trades and occupations. The Hofkanzlei (Court Chancellery) went even further by suppressing Jewish admission to Catholic schools and their learning new trades.
As pointed out by the historian Bruce F. Pauley in his book From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, "Jewish survival depended on the protection of the Austrian rulers — whenever it was removed, expulsion or at least harsh social and legal discrimination was the likely result." Nor did the devastating effects of war help. Again to quote Pauley, "Jewish-gentile relations were tolerable during periods of prosperity but rapidly deteriorated during social and economic crises brought on by bad harvests, plagues, wars or revolutions."
The strictly enforced anti-Jewish feeling was slightly altered by the second Edict of Tolerance, passed in 1782, which affected the Jews living in Vienna and Lower Austria. It brought few substantial improvements but did attempt to improve the prevailing public feeling toward them. The stated goal of the edict was to "make the Jewish nation useful and serviceable to the state."
Researchers are unable to probe further back in time, but acknowledge that Stephan's father (Fred Astaire's great-grandfather), Simon Juda Austerlitz, was born in Prague in 1790. Their inability stems from a 1784 patent of Joseph II's that replaced the rabbinate circumcision book (birth book) by standard record books similar to Catholic parish books. The once precisely chronicled dates of births and deaths in Jewish families were thus lost to posterity. Apparently, however, earlier generations of the Austerlitz family (or of its former surname) that came from Alsace, the province located between France and Germany, were Jewish as well.
Micheline Lerner, a former lawyer, who grew up in Paris and was married to Alan Jay Lerner, the celebrated lyricist and playwright, longer than any of his eight wives, has devoted herself to a lifelong study of Napoléon Bonaparte. Lerner pointed out that when Napoléon had reached the pinnacle of his success as a conqueror and had created a French empire, he enacted the Civil Code of 1804, which granted liberty, equality, and fraternity to Jews, Protestants, and Freemasons. Following that, on January 31, 1807, he called the Grand Sanhedrin, a meeting in Paris of prominent Jewish leaders. During this conference, which lasted two months, he expressed his admiration for the intelligence and determination of the Jewish people and decried their being forced to live in ghettos. The law that gave them equality was fine-tuned at this conference.
In late 1949 and early '50, Lerner became acquainted with Fred Astaire at the time her husband was writing the screenplay of Royal Wedding at MGM, in which Astaire costarred with Jane Powell. After discussing the significance of the Grand Sanhedrin with Lerner, he openly admitted his Jewish heritage to her. Yet nine years later, in his autobiography, Steps in Time, the only reference, and it is erroneous, that Astaire made to his family's ancestry was that his father was born in Vienna, where he had indeed lived in the early 1890s before emigrating to America.
Not long after having taped two ninety-minute ABC-TV talk shows with Astaire, comedian and television personality Dick Cavett began hearing various accounts of Astaire's Jewish roots. Cavett asked his friend George Bailey, author of Germans, if this could be true. Bailey's study of the Germanic people included extensive historical research on the history of the entire region. Bailey firmly believed the reports of Astaire's Jewish ancestry, exclaiming, "Undoubtedly. There were villages which were renamed using the names of prominent Jewish families. Austerlitz was likely one of them."
Cavett was asked by George Stevens Jr., then coproducer of The Kennedy Center Honors, and son of the director of arguably the most outstanding of the ten Astaire/Ginger Rogers film musicals, Top Hat, to conduct an in-depth interview with Astaire for the Kennedy Center Archives. (Astaire had in 1978 been among the first group of artists awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.)
En route to the interview in a limousine, from the Beverly Hills Hotel with Astaire, Cavett briefly discussed various talking points that might be covered during their interview. Cavett queried Astaire about his Jewish background. Astaire demurred, remarking, "Dick, I'd rather we not get into that." Cavett was stunned and silenced.
Friedrich Austerlitz, like his brothers, Otto and Ernst, became an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. According to an often-repeated family story, one day, upon failing to salute Ernst, who was his superior officer and very much a martinet, Friedrich was jailed for misconduct. Upon his release, he became disillusioned with life in the military and decided to leave for America, never to return to his homeland.
He arrived at Ellis Island on the SS Westernland from Antwerp, Belgium, on October 26, 1892, when he was twenty-four. (This conflicts, however, with Astaire's account, which gave the year as 1895.) He listed his given name as "Fritz" (a nickname), and the ship's manifest recorded his occupation as "clerk."
After a short time in New York, Fritz headed west to Omaha, Nebraska, to start a business with two Austrian friends, Morris Karpeles and Huber Freund, who had emigrated earlier from Austria. Their company was called the International Publishing and Portrait Company. Its aim was to become established as a portrait-photography firm and also as an alternative to the Omaha Street Directory. Fritz would be the salesman for the company.
Omaha then had a population of about one hundred thousand, yet still had a small-town flavor. Its being the home of many German-speaking immigrants gave a decided impetus for the company to succeed. Unfortunately, the economic downturn known as the Panic of '93 caused the company to fold, leaving Fritz in desperate straits. He was compelled to take a job as a cook in a saloon run by another immigrant, Fred Mittnacht, a Lutheran.
Fritz became a popular figure at parties among the younger set. Many were intrigued by his mustache, his jovial personality, and his German accent. At a Lutheran social event, he met Johanna Geilus, a shy, dark-haired, bright-eyed schoolteacher at the Lutheran church school.
Her parents were David Geilus and Wilhelmina Klaatke, German-speaking Lutherans, who hailed from East Prussia and Alsace, respectively. Johanna, who had never ventured outside her Omaha environs, found Fritz worldly with his often embroidered tales of Vienna and military life. He further regaled her by playing piano and singing ballads and drinking songs. Almost immediately, the young couple fell in love.
The Geiluses were troubled by the almost ten-year age difference between Fritz and Johanna, but their daughter's subsequent pregnancy forced them to accept Fritz. A marriage was quickly arranged, for November 17, 1894, at the Erste Lutheran Kirche, officiated by the Reverend Julius Freese. Fritz was twenty-six and Johanna only sixteen. The marriage license revealed "consent given by the father."
Johanna's first child was stillborn, a not uncommon occurrence at the time. But on September 10, 1896 (incorrectly stated as September 10, 1897, on her tombstone), the Austerlitzes announced the birth of a daughter, Adele Marie, who was called Dellie. She was named after Johanna's two sisters and Fritz's sister. Exactly thirty-two months later, on May 10, 1899, a son, Frederick, whose name was Americanized from his father's name by adding a "k," was born at the family's small, nondescript home located at 2326 South Tenth Street in Omaha.
At the age of one, Freddie, as he was called, tottered around, and at two he began to walk and to participate in his sister's impromptu dances around the house. On May 16, 1903, just a few days after his fourth birthday, he joined his vivacious sister in attending the Kellom School. Freddie, small and elfin, looked up to Adele and followed her around as she ran her errands. At this young age, a closeness between the brother and his older sister had already been established.
Given her obvious aptitude for dance, Adele was enrolled by her parents at the Chambers Dancing Academy when she was four. A few years later, Johanna decided that Freddie should tag along with her. According to her, at the academy, he enjoyed trying on his sister's dancing pumps and imitated her beginning ballet steps on her pointed toes, though he didn't remember having done so. This exercise was also beneficial in helping to build up Freddie's slight physique. Looking back on those formative years, Adele recalled, "He tried his best. He was a little thing, a cute little boy."
Almost immediately, Willard E. Chambers was taken by Adele's natural ability. She already exhibited a decided grace and spontaneity and gaiety in her dancing. He made it clear to Fritz that his daughter, who was fast approaching age seven, had the potential to become a star. Fritz recognized her talent as well and noted, "Maybe Freddie will come around to it someday, too." Displaying the precociousness that remained with her for the rest of her life, stagestruck Adele exclaimed to her father that she was going to be a famous dancer when she grew up. "And so am I," her already determined brother chimed in.
Freddie recalled that their mother was always ready to play with them, but she was also strict. "I don't remember any spankings, but I think we got a slap or two occasionally just to level things off a bit. And why not?" Without consciously trying to indoctrinate his children into pursuing a life in show business, but rather to satisfy his own deep interest, Fritz would have them accompany him and Johanna on visits to the local vaudeville theater. Fritz delighted in watching the happiness on his children's faces as they watched the singers, dancers, and acrobats perform. The Austerlitz children were both bright, open to new experiences, with Freddie the more serious child.
But a harbinger of what loomed ahead in the lives of the two dancing school pupils was the sudden interest in trains that Freddie developed. This stemmed from the move the family made to 1421 North Nineteenth Street, close to the railroad. He and Adele became intrigued by the beat and syncopation of the mighty locomotives as they chugged through the neighborhood several times a day. They adapted that to their daily routine by playing at actually being trains and tapping their feet to accompany their own hissing and clattering sounds.
When he was only five, Freddie broke his arm while turning a cartwheel, and it was firmly strapped to a wooden splint. His injury kept him out of dancing school and prevented him from playing in the streets for two months. This incident left a lasting impression on his later professional career, as he developed an intense dislike for including acrobatics in his dance routines.
More than two decades later, when they costarred in The Band Wagon on Broadway, Fred and Adele were interviewed about their early childhood. Fred candidly admitted, "There was a time, I was six ... when I used to think of her with contempt. She couldn't play ball, or chin herself, or whistle through her teeth. She couldn't even spit! I used to pray at night for God to turn her into a brother. ... Then when we had the first contest at dancing school, Adele, I remember, put in some crazy little jiggers that we hadn't prepared at all. I was primed for murder until the judges gave us the first prize, with special mention for Adele. It began to dawn on me that she had her way of getting results, and I had mine. Gradually that idea sank in, until I understood that we got along together best if we admitted that we were two separate people."
Adele summed up their early-childhood behavior by explaining, "From that first sock in the eye, I realized you could never be a sister for me. I decided to first accept you as a brother and let it go at that."
* * *
Fritz had most recently worked as a salesman for the Omaha Brewers Association. In 1902, the Storz Brewery absorbed the company. This upset Fritz, and he began drinking heavily and turned to other women. Johanna looked the other way as she was innately gentle and soft-spoken, but she was becoming increasingly unhappy. At twenty-five, she was looking for an escape from her hollow and confining domestic existence.
The Austerlitz children were establishing a formidable local reputation as an inspired brother and sister act after appearing at church socials and other events. Adele was seven and a half and Freddie five when they rehearsed and rehearsed, as became their wont, for the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben ("Nebraska" spelled backward) competition to be crowned in the organization's Coronation of the King and Queen. Formidable as they were as dancers, they lacked the stylish clothes of the wealthier children whose parents helped fund the Ak-Sar-Ben operation. Johanna tried to shield them from disappointment, but their failure to win made her decide that this must not happen again to her children.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Puttin' on the Ritz by Peter J. Levinson. Copyright © 2009 Peter J. Levinson. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
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