Donald OConnor Quotes (21 Quotes)

Well, my legs are the same size I'm still 5-foot-10 - that's with heels. I started dancing when I was 13 months old. The first dance I did was the Black Bottom, and I did the same routine for years in the acts.

That is the godawful thing about television today. Performers don't have any place to hit and miss. You're either in or you're out; you don't have a chance to become good at your craft. If you make three pictures in a row and they don't go over, you're out of the business.

You see, as far as the man's personality goes, there's no one who can touch Fred Astaire. He's unique. But for the work he does, I would say Tommy can do it, Fosse can do it.

I worked with Eddie Cantor, Ed Wynn - one of the greatest comedians and actors that ever lived - and Jimmy Durante. You can't ask for better than that. And it was great format. We had three and a half weeks to work on a show. It was a family-style thing. We used to walk on when someone was doing a handstand, crazy we'd break them up. And it was great because it was live. They couldn't cut out the mistakes. And that's what audiences love.

Doing those costume pictures was wonderful.

Whatever they laughed at the most, that's what we did on the screen. I had to do it in one day because I was doing the pratfalls on cement, and my body, knees, ankles, and toes started to hurt. We saw right then we had to get the number done in one day, and we did it.

My brothers and my mother were all dancers, outside of whatever else they did, like acrobatics, high-wire, trapeze. I was born in a circus.

Going up the walls doing somersaults, that trick took a couple of days.

I think you should make more movies, more musicals. I think the public deserves that. I think this country deserves to be able to get out and foster that talent. Give them an opportunity to become stars. I think the whole idea is wonderful.

Pratfalls are always funny. A performer has to answer to himself. If you think something's funny, you've got to go out there and try. It's only by trial and error that you find out.

To me, the funniest thing that happened was when Gene was filming the main title song on the back lot out in the rain. When they started, he was singing, and he looked great-so happy. The rain was coming down just perfectly, so each droplet seemed to have its own beat.

Remember, if you do the same act for 20, 30 years it gets a little boring unless you've got something else going for you... And the orchestra really kept you going. They'd laugh at all your jokes, even if they'd been hearing them for the last 30 years.

They put me in a harness, like a horse, to learn the back somersault. It was weird up there when I put on that harness for the first time. The courage came with practice.

I'm not a good choreographer: I can't remember what I put down.

I like it live. I think the numbers are live in the movie. If they replaced any, it would have been due to extreme set noise.

I can picture things, like a painter would, though I'm not good at painting, either.

It's so wonderful... if your whole day is rotten, once they start the music, it seems to melt away.

I didn't smoke. I didn't smoke then, and I don't smoke now. We worked every day - that keeps you in pretty good shape. We could go for a long time in one take. You had to be in good shape with Gene Kelly.

We used to work in two great black houses Chicago's Regal Theater, and the Apollo Theater on 125th Street in New York.

I'm basically a hoofer, a tap dancer. I was always very good from the waist down, moving with the feet... I became what's known as a total dancer, using the entire body in order to express what you want to express in tap dancing and line.

I grew up in vaudeville. All the hoofers used to get together in a drugstore down the street from the theater, or what-have-you, and if they knew a new step they would teach it to you. I learned hoofing steps that way. But going into ballet didn't come until I made those pictures with Kelly.