There is almost no film record of Adele Astaire, Fred’s older sister, and perhaps his greatest partner. There‘s a snippet with Fred and Marilyn Miller, when all three starred in the musical Smiles in 1930, amazingly enough not a big hit—perhaps too lavish an embarrassment of riches? In this tongue-in-cheek vignette, Miller and the Astaires high step onstage, arms linked, but then Florenz Ziegfeld greets them by saying, “I don’t need my $10,000 a week dancers.” They apologize and retreat back to the wings. “Wrong foot, Adele,” he says, “wrong foot. Smile!”
There’s also a snippet with Fred from 1942, by which time Adele had retired into matrimony in Ireland. She and Fred were hosting service men at the Red Cross canteen in London. The troops want them to dance, but Fred protests that they haven’t worked together in 20 years (actually 10). “None of that old stuff,” Fred chides her humorously, when she flicks her leg in a back kick that seems to peer over the shoulder of her 1920s fame. Note how a great dancer can recreate a theatrical era with one simple step!