Pin-Up Girl Condos Brothers performer Grable, Betty performer Condos, Nick performer Condos, Steve performer Film 1944-05-10 20th Century-Fox A second-rate musical starring Grable and second rate swing orchestra of Charlie Spivak, made up for by the superb speed tap dancing of the Condos Brothers, Nick and Steve. Famed WWII pin-up girl (Grable), the most popular girl in the USO in a small midwestern town, pretends to be a Broadway star. With Fanchon, Hermes Pan, Condos Brothers credited for their routines. Alice Sullivan, assisted by Angie Blue, also appeared partnering Grable to "Once Too Often." "You're My Little Pinup Girl" danced by the Condos Brothers. "Yankee Doodle Hayride" performed by Martha Raye and the Condos Brothers. Tap musical numbers include: 1. "I'm Pinning My Hopes On You" sung and danced by Grable with an appearance by the Condos Brothers: they begin their routine sitting in chair and tapping (same beginning as "Moon Over Miami"): the chair dance turn into a standing soft-shoe that turns soft-shoe steps in medium temp into double-time; back slap, rhythmic breaks are the only time the amplification of the rhythm dancing is intensified. All the rest of the time they are extremely cool; a series of wings; they trade fours, they move together in sync as one; the upper body is relatively still and on film they look alike, so the eye turns to the beautiful work happening below the waist: stunning dance work that ripples. 2. "Don't Carry Tales Out of School" Grable and four men do a tap soft-shoe that is easily forgettable. 3. "Yankee Doodle Hayride" sung by Martha Raye (one chorus of eccentric tap dance; slapstick; she trips and falls while laying out a few tap steps and it is not funny but too corny; there is little charm to her persona and none to her dancing) with a succeeding danced chorus by the Condos Brothers in one of their best performances (I have seen thus far) on film: fast; backward hops onto a wagon; slides; they always trade fours; turns and taps; slides and more slides from second to first; a series of one-legged wings (possibly the five-beat wings that their brother Frank developed); smooth-sliding turns. The last chorus is phenomenal: Nick does double time wings and Steve doubles them! trotting and whipped his feet look like rotary blades. 4. "Once Too Often" an apache-tap dance for Grable and Fanchon, unimpressive. Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Frank, Rusty E.: Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and their Stories 1900-1955. New York, William Morrow. (1990). Smith, Ernie: Selected List of Films and Kinescopes. In Jean and Marshall Stearns' Jazz Dance (1968). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html Steve Condos (biography) loc.music.tdabio.57 Condos Brothers (biography) loc.music.tdabio.56 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.237