MANILA, Philippines—When you watch old but still delightful Hollywood musicals, expect to enjoy several tap-dancing sequences. Some of them featured awesome dancers whose singing voices weren’t as good as their terpsichorean footwork. With their improvisational skills, however, they managed to phrase their lyrics to accompany the tap-tap-tap-dancing choreography and came up with grand results. Moviegoers cheered them on for their infectious energy and bigger-than-life portrayals.

Fine dancers

Those fine dancers included Boangles, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Eleanor Powell and Ann Miller. They would start with a few simple taps, but as the music accelerated, so did their skill and precision, executed with flair and aplomb—and the smiles on the dancers’ faces made the intricate steps appear as easy as pie. I loved those scenes.

James Cagney is best-known for gangster roles, but he won his Academy Award for his performance in “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” in which he portrayed George M. Cohan, who inspired American soldiers in Europe during World War I with his uplifting “Over Here!” As Cohan, Cagney’s tap-dancing skills and musicality were superb.

Fred Astaire was considered the most stylish of them all. With his signature top hat, the versatile actor added sophistication to the dance sequences he himself choreographed. Like Gene Kelly, his rival as Hollywood’s King of Dance, he performed with Tinseltown’s most beautiful prima ballerinas, such as Eleanor Parker, Ann Miller, Vera Ellen and Cyd Charisse. Astaire likewise shared the dance floor with Joan Fontaine and Audrey Hepburn. His most memorable partner was Ginger Rogers.

For his part, Gene Kelly danced with the young Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor in “Singing in the Rain,” and with Leslie Caron in “An American in Paris.” In both, he proved that he was as inventive a dancer as he was a choreographer.

Eleanor Powell retired from screen dancing soon after she married Glenn Ford, though their marriage didn’t last. (In contrast, June Haver, then considered the Queen of Color—because all her musicals, except for one, were shot in Technicolor—also retired when she married Fred McMurray, but their union was happy and long-lasting.)

Shapeliest legs

Ann Miller, who was cast in prestigious MGM musicals, was reputed to have executed the most number of taps per second. The pert dancer was pitted against the likes of Marge and Gower Champion, Bob Fosse, Vera Ellen, Jane Powell, as well as Astaire and Kelly. (Interestingly, Miller also owned Hollywood’s shapeliest legs. Although Betty Grable’s legs were insured for $1 million, Ann’s were, to my mind, shapelier.)

Alas, the interest in fast-and-furious tap dancing faded along with the demise of the grand movie musicals. Another notable tap dancer, Gregory Hines, didn’t achieve the popularity of his predecessors, because dance flicks were no longer popular during his time.