Beautiful Dynamite

If the great Hollywood musical had been a wondrous, gaudy, but inevitably finite fireworks display, then Cyd Charisse was certainly its glittering grand finale. Cyd was like that one last majestic burst across a shimmering sky leaving us all breathless. The woman that Fred Astaire once described as “beautiful dynamite” was truly an explosion of talent and glamour. Her image remains timeless and genre defying. Was she a dancer or an actress? Was she a beauty queen or a gifted athlete? The answer of course is yes! She is all that and so much more.


While Cyd is universally known for having perhaps the most celebrated set of legs in Hollywood history, it’s her body of work that includes many of the quintessential musical numbers ever filmed. One of her best is the “Broadway Melody Ballet” sequence with partner Gene Kelly in MGM’s 1952 classic “Singin’ In The Rain.” Her numerous big screen pairings with both Kelly and Astaire are now considered industry benchmarks. No matter who the partner, when Cyd is in front of the camera, she is the essence of strength and dignity. She coolly projected power and strength while somehow remaining completely feminine.

The last place one would expect a girl with the exotic presence of Cyd Charisse to have come from is Amarillo, Texas. When she entered the world as Tula Ellice Finklea it may have seemed a long shot that one day her glamorous image would grace the covers of Life, Newsweek, Look, and every conceivable movie magazine on the world’s newsstands. But luckily for us Cyd’s father loved the ballet and encouraged his daughter to dance. And dance she did. She developed a tenacious work ethic and eventually jettéd her way into the respected Ballet Russe at the age of fourteen. Little Miss Finklea soon appeared in that company’s program as Felia Sidorova, a euro-ized combination of her last name and her nickname “Sid”. While traveling the world and growing up in a tutu, she was still an arabesque or two away from finding her true calling.