Silver screen dance sensation Cyd Charisse

I really shouldn´t be writing this spotlight post since I have now two months to catch up but it´s been a few times now that I mentioned Cyd Charisse - who was called the most beautiful legs in Hollywood - and she really deserves more attention than just a few lines in some random posts.

So I have gone over everything I could find - using a lot of the old copy / paste flim flam - and made a cult siren entry for her. As usual this will not be posted at the actual date I am writing this but at her date of birth.

Ms. Charisse came of age in a sparkling era of Hollywood musicals, and though she had some dramatic film roles, it was in musicals that she achieved her lasting renown. She was a striking presence on film : slender and graceful with jet black hair. She stood 5 feet 6, but in high heels and full length stockings - a familiar costume for her - she seemed even taller.

Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1921 in the dust - bolw town of Amarillo, Texas. Born to be a dancer, she spent her early childhood taking ballet lessons and joined the Ballet Russe at age 13.

Her Baptist jeweler father Ernest, a closet balletomane, encouraged her to begin ballet lessons because she was frail and sickly at the time and had a bout with polio. Dance build up her strength and she took to it quickly.

Unlike many top female dancers in the era of movie musicals, she was trained as a ballerina in the russian tradition. In 1939, she married Nico Charisse, her former dance teacher. Cyd got her start in Hollywood when Ballet Russe star David Lichine was hired by Columbia Pictures for a ballet sequence in the musical Something to Shout About ( 1943 ). Cyd, who was billed as Lily Norwood, appeared in the scene and attracted attention.

Prior to that she appeared in at least six Soundies - short musical films played in the popular television - like jukeboxes of that era. Her actual film debut may have most likely been in the low budget exploitation film Escort Girl ( 1941 ), in which an uncredited dancer looking amazingly like Cyd does a number - very much in Cyd's unique style - in a café sequence.

The same year, she played a russian dancer in Mission to Moscow ( 1943 ),



by Michael Curtiz. In 1945, she was hired to dance with Fred Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies ( 1945 ), and that uncredited appearance got her a 7 year contract with MGM. She appeared in a number of musicals over the next few years, but it was Singin' in the Rain ( 1952 ) with Gene Kelly that made her a star with a 5,000,000 dollar insurance policy accepted on her legs.



The film established her as one of Hollywood’s most glamorous and seductive talents and was quickly followed by her great performance in The Band Wagon (1953). Astaire played a fading Hollywood song - and - dance man hoping to make a comeback on Broadway and who finds himself cast in a show opposite a snooty ballerina ( Ms. Charisse ). The couple do not see eye - to - eye until they take a nighttime carriage ride through a moonlit Central Park and wind up embracing languorously to the strains of " Dancing in the Dark ". One of the most famous sequences from the film, if not in the history of dance on film, is " The Girl Hunt Ballet ", in which Ms. Charisse plays the vamp to Astaire’s private - eye stage character.



In her autobiography, Charisse reflected on her experience with Astaire and Kelly :  As one of the handful of girls who worked with both of those dance geniuses ( the others were Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Vera - Ellen, Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Caron ) I can give an honest comparison.



My husband could tell who I had been dancing with that day on an MGM set. If I came home covered with bruises, it was the very demanding Gene Kelly, if not, it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire moved like glass. Physically, it was easy to dance with him. It was not as demanding on me. I didn't need the same vitality and strength. I can watch Astaire anytime. I don't think he ever made a wrong move. He was a perfectionist. He would work on a few bars for hours until it was just the way he wanted it. Gene was the same way. They both wanted perfection, even though they were completely different personalities.

In my opinion, Kelly is the more inventive choreographer. Astaire, with Hermes Pan's help, creates fabulous numbers - for himself and his partner. But Kelly can create an entire number for somebody else.

I think, however, that Astaire's coordination is better than Kelly's, his sense of rhythm is uncanny. Kelly, on the other hand, is the stronger of the two. When he lifts you, he lifts you ! Fred could never do the lifts Gene did and never wanted to. I'd say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on the screen. Each has a distinctive style.

Each is a joy to work with. But it's like comparing apples and oranges.

Astaire on the other hand referred to Cyd as " beautiful dynamite " and wrote : " That Cyd ! When you've danced with her you stay danced with. "

Cyd was just oozing sex appeal and recalled :  The censors were always there when I was on the set. When I was held up, in a lift in Deep in My Heart ( 1954 ), they were up on ladders to see if I was properly covered.

Charisse had a slightly unusual serious acting role in Party Girl ( 1958 ) where she played a showgirl who became involved with gangsters and a crooked lawyer, although it did include two dance routines. It was far more profitable for MGM than her musicals. She then went to Universal Studios to co - star with Rock Hudson in Twilight for the Gods ( 1958 ).




Although she was one of the greatest female dancers in the history of the movie musical, her singing in films was almost always dubbed, most notably by Carol Richards in Brigadoon ( 1954 ) and a young Vikki Carr in The Silencers ( 1966 ). Other fondly remembered roles were the other woman in Marilyn Monroe's last and unfinished film Something's Got to Give ( 1962 ) and a striptease in the Dean Martin spy spoof The Silencers.



She frequently performed dance numbers on TV variety series such as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show, with seven appearances on The Hollywood Palace, a show she also hosted three times. She did Fol - de - Rol in 1968, which was filmed and broadcast in 1972. In the 1970s Charisse guest - starred on shows such as Medical Center, Hawaii Five - O, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy with 80s Power Girl Markie Post, Glitter, Murder, She Wrote, and Crazy Like a Fox. Cyd Charisse was an aunt - by marriage - to Nana Visitor from Star Trek : Deep Space Nine.

Longtime readers know that while Markie Post was practically in everything that was on tv in the 70s and 80s she became one of my ultimate sex phantasies on the show The Fall Guy which every male that was alive in the 80s remembers - and we will get to the reason why.

THERE`S SOMETHING ABOUT HEATHER THOMAS - AND HER BLUE BIKINI

But The Fall Guy didn´t just have 80s Power Girl Markie Post they also put blonde bombshell Heather Thomas in the show right from the beginning.

She played stunt body double ( and what a body it was ) Jody and her job was to keep the male viewers hooked by providing eye candy. She was in all episodes except for an episode in the first season. Yes, fan service is not as new as some people might want you to think and Heather Thomas mainly got the part because of her absolutely amazing bikini figure. OMG !

Like most growing teenagers I watched that show religiously but the biggest part of its appeal for me were sexbombs like Heather Thomas and Markie Post who didn´t appear as often in a bikini as I would have liked.

Well, Heather Thomas did since that was her main purpose on the show but Markie Post´s appearances in bikinis on The Fall Guy were very few.

I AM SUFFERING FROM ( MARKIE ) POST TRAUMATIC SEX SYNDROME !

Markie Post played bail bonds contractor Terri Michaels ( who replaced previous bail bonds contractor Samantha Jack played by Jo Ann Pflug ) beginning with Season 2 and at the beginning she played a minor role.

One of the producers must have realized what a waste it is to have somebody like Markie on the cast without letting her " show off what her Mama gave her " like they say Today and the rest is 80s tv history. Markie Post got more involved in the stories where she stole the scene from Heather Thomas as soon as she donned a bikini ( mainly in Season 3 ).

Coming back to Heather Thomas, thanks to her absolutely stunning 37 ( ! ) - 23 - 32 measurements and the exposure in The Fall Guy she became a famous pin up model with posters on every hormone driven boy's bedroom wall who even managed to replace Raquel Welch on the number one spot !

80s Power Girl Markie Post is probably the best known cult siren on the blog because not only have I done many re - posts of her original post .

I also keep mentioning her in other posts and her original post is in the Top Ten Posts widget that appears on every post. Since I have done so many different versions it is not so tragic that I did not do a re - post last year even though I did the last version of her cult siren entry in 2016 .

Cyd played Atsil, an atlantean high priestess, in Warlords of Atlantis and was in the tv movies Portrait of an Escort ( 1980 ) and Swimsuit ( 1989 ).

Her dark looks initially had her cast as ethnic beauties like in Fiesta ( 1947 ) as the fiancée of Ricardo Montalban with whom she would shoot 5 more movies : the Esther Williams musical On an Island with You ( 1948 ), The Kissing Bandit ( 1948 ), The Mark of the Renegade ( 1951 ), Sombrero ( 1953 ) and Won Ton Ton : The Dog Who Saved Hollywood ( 1976 ).




But Cyd Charisse also had some bad luck and lost out on two of MGM's biggest movie musical roles : she fell and injured her knee during a dance leap on a film, which forced her out of the role of Nadina Hale in Easter Parade ( 1948 ). Ann Miller replaced her. She also had to relinquish the lead female role in An American in Paris ( 1951 ) due to pregnancy. Leslie Caron took over the role and became a star. She was offered the lead role in Funny Face ( 1957 ) but declined. The role was played by Audrey Hepburn.

When casting the film Damn Yankees ( 1958 ), the studio was initially interested in pursuing Cyd as Lola and Cary Grant as Applegate. In the end, Gwen Verdon won the right to recreate her stage role with Ray Walston the devilish Applegate. Cyd was supposedly unavailable but later played the role on the legit stage. In Call Her Mom ( 1972 ), she was originally to have done the role played by Gloria DeHaven, but was replaced by Ann Miller before DeHaven finally took over the role.

As the 1960s dawned, musicals faded from the screen, as did her career. She and husband Tony Martin became a popular song - and - dance couple on television and in nightclubs / cabaret shows after their heyday in film.

Cyd is one of several, if not only, world renowned prima ballerinas to be featured in a popular hip - hop music video : she had a cameo in " Alright " ( 1990 ) by Janet Jackson. She was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in Austin in March 2002 and was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 2006 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington, DC, for her services to dance. Cyd Charisse died at age 87 of a heart attack on June 17, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. Tempus Fugit.



With ten videos already in this post I could end this post right here right now but I can´t help going the extra mile, especially since it gives me the opportunity to post some of the countless videos I have bookmarked. We start with another top 10, this time The Top 10 Movie Dance Scenes Of All Times which sadly does not include Cyd Charisse. It does though list Gene Kelly´s famous dance in the rain from the musical Singing In The Rain.



Finding a comicbook video for this post was more of a challenge but this genre was pretty popular when Cyd Charisse had her greatest success.



We already have two full movies in this post so I am adding a much shorter review about a classic science fiction / horror movie from Cyd´s heyday.



And last but not least we are staying in that particular time period with Mighty Mouse´s subversive version of the old fairy tale The Magic Slipper.



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Civilization has a natural resistance to improving itself.

I want to have Sex with Nine ( re - post )

Today hot sci fi sexbomb Jeri Ryan celebrates her 52nd birthday so it is about time to re - post her cult siren entry which I just pimped last year . 

Because as always I went through the list of celebrity birthday posts I had done on that month in previous years and for some reason I didn´t re - post this. And comparing the original Jeri Ryan post with my latest re - post of Star Trek sexbomb Jolene Blalock there really was no competition.

Also there have been a lot of animated Star Trek GIFs added to the blog.

Anyway, this is the new version and if you have any information where I can find better Jeri Ryan GIFs or pictures please let me know. Now Star Trek - Voyager stuck Jeri Ryan and her titanic tits in a skin - tight suit in the show after Season 3 as the 36DD drone of Borg Seven of Nine ( or Sex with Nine ). It´s no surprise that it´s the role she´s best known for.

Jeri was one of three reasons to watch the show, and I´m not counting her awesome twin torpedoes and the holographic Doctor as three.

I´m also putting half - klingon sexbomb B´Elanna Torres on the list.

But to tell the truth for me it was mostly hardbody Jeri and her big borg boobies that I could suffer the show because it was so badly written.

She´s the only reason people want to get assimilated - although in this case I´d rather be tittilated, if you catch my drift. I think Harry Kim is one of the few males in creation who was afraid to get it on with horny Six.

Number 13 on THE 50 SEXIEST SCI FI COSTUMES

Borg - couture is clearly heavily influenced by the science fiction classic Buck Rogers In The Twenty - Fifth Century. Ryan’s ‘ orphaned ’ spandex - clad demi - alien Seven Of  Nine was usually rated 10 by the male fans that the character was clearly put in to attract after a ratings dip.

Ryan only took the role at the fifth attempt by producer Jeri Taylor. A certain contingent of Trekkers took umbrage at the inclusion of a crew - member so overtly sexy in the usually glam - free Trek - verse. The rest of us were busy setting our vcrs as we fell for the oldest trick in the book.

Jeri´s breasts were so huge that they made her skintight suit darker and darker so you couldn´t see them as good but to no avail. Seven of Nine is THE cyborg sex machine every sci fi fanboy wants to have multiple borg - gasms with ( she´s a literal sex machine who is not only built like a porn star with Jeri Ryan´s hardbody, as a cyborg she has a lot of stamina and endurance and she also can take a lot of punishment so you don´t have to be gentle and you will get a lot of mileage out of this cyber sex amazon ).

The only one who could hold a candle to her was Jolene Blalock as T´Pol, the sex massage pro with the inbuilt automatic Pon Farr nympho mode. 

 

Jeri Ryan discussed the costume with Trek Today :  The whole ' sex symbol ' or ' babe ' thing and showing my tits doesn't bother me. It's the costume that I wear on the show which is ... a little snug, shall we say, and doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination. I don't have a problem with it because of the way this character's been written, how intelligent she is and how strong she is and what a wonderful female portrayal she is.

Although there is lot of booty in Star Trek : Uhura in the original series,

the green slave girl which was played by Batgirl Yvonne Craig,

all of Kirk´s girls which he just seemed to find on any planet he was on,

Tasha Yar in Next Generation got android Data to turn on his sex files,

there were also Deanna Troy and Beverly Crusher in Next Generation,

bajoran chief of security Major Kira on Star Trek - Deep Space Nine,

Jadzia Dax on Deep Space Nine ( who had been a man in her last life ),

Ezri Dax on Deep Space Nine ( she was the next incarnation of Jadzia ),

I always brain fart on Chase Masterson who plays Rom´s hot wife Leeta

then the former borg drone Seven of Nine on Star Trek - Voyager

Enterprise´s hasian sexbomb Ensign Hoshi Sato played by Linda Park

or vulcan crew member T´Pol on Enterprise played by Jolene Blalock.

Really, someone at starfleet has a knack for picking hot chicks.

Man, I´d love to do a sandwich with T´Pol and Sex with Nine during the time of Pon Farr. Between the insatiable vulcan nymphomanic sex addict and the inexhaustible cyborg sexdoll you could probably wear yourself out for all time. Not that anybody would complain about going out like that.

Coming back to Jeri Ryan she didn´t get naked on Star Trek - Voyager although there were some scenes in which she was supposedly naked we just didn´t get to see it since there was no full frontal nudity involved.

The best we got were some scenes where we could see her back - but not her butt like with Jolene Blalock in the unforgettable sex massage scenes.

I know that T´Pol claimed it was something else but we all know what vulcan " body relaxation massage " really stands for. T´Pol was just needy for Tucker´s earth meatpole because while Phlox gave her the idea to practice the vulcan massage it was T´Pol who went all " Kama Sutra on acid " on Tucker. And she was so turned on by their all night long midnight olympics sex marathon sessions that she had to use the old " it´s just for scientific reasons " schtick to relentlessly bang Tucker into submission.

( go to Jolene Blalock´s solo posts to read more about her sex massages )

I heard that Kate Mulgrew was constantly bitching because she didn´t get the attention she thought she deserved as star of the show. Okay, let us think about this, there are two women on the show : one a bitchy old broad and one a smoking hot sexborg. Hmm, who gets more attention ?

And let´s be realistic : nobody likes Captain Janeway. Not because she´s a woman. But because she´s frigging crazy. With the other Captains you knew where you stood. Kirk always broke the rules and his crew was the most important thing for him. Picard always obeyed the rules - but his crew was more important. Captain Sisko bended the rules on occassion because he was first stuck out in the middle of nowhere and then he became an emissary of the gods. And in the end he became a god. But Janeway ? One day the rules are the most important thing, the next day she couldn´t care less because it´s Wednesday or that time of the month.

And she didn´t care about her crew at all. They could all kick the bucket as far as she cared. With her as captain your f - word - ed ! Just ask Seven of Nine, she was told by Janeway that she´s nothing but a toaster. Daimn, she can roast my baguette any time she likes if you know what I mean.

Reading some online threads you could think Jeri Ryan was the first actress on Star Trek who was brought in to sex the show up. But as a matter of fact Marina Sirtis was on tv long before rocking the cleavage and the best parts of some episodes were counselor Troy breathing heavily.

There are even some online rumors - but there´s probably no truth to it - that her role was supposed to be the ship´s telepathic blow up sex doll.

 
In the first draft Deanna Troy wasn´t the ship´s counselor but rather the " ship´s consolation officer " an orgasmic priestess from the planet Betasex skilled in all known sex techniques to be used by the crew for stress relief.

Because of their telepathic abilities the women from Betasex were ideal prostitutes and they also had a very high pain threshold and were very resilient so their clients could go for it. Which happened very often when they were working at some mining outpost frequented by sexstarved aliens with dozens of huge reproductive organs or slimy tentacles.

Anyway, that´s just a silly rumor and there´s probably nothing to it. I mean the whole concept would never have passed american tv censors.

What is strange is the fact that for someone who is just supposed to give people advice she wore a pretty sexed up outfit that would totally defeat the purpose of counseling. All her male customers would be thinking about ripping her uniform off and banging her brains out and knowing it would be really uncomfortable. I guess the reason why they only made her kind of telephatic was that if she knew what the male crew members were thinking she couldn´t walk ten feet in the Enterprise and would never visit the bar. Speaking about the bar, if her role was to give people sage advice why did Guinan do basically the same ? So while still unverified the idea of Deanna Troi not only as the ship´s cleavage but also the ship´s adult entertainment system does have its merit. On the other side we know that the holo deck was used for the same thing. It´s so confusing.

What I could verify is that in the original draft Deanna Troy was supposed to have three breast, Tasha Yar had an unhealthy sexual crush on Wesley Crusher and Captain Picard couldn´t help but noticing  the ship´s Doctor Beverly Crusher´s natural walk resembles that of a striptease queen. Oy.

Anyway, click here for more GIFs of Doctor Crusher´s and Deanna Troi´s space yoga, The 21 Times Dr. Beverly Crusher Was Your Fashion Idol and last but not least THE VALKYRIE DIRECTIVE takes a more than extensive look at Kira and Dax´s wardrobe through the Deep Space Nine series. 

Of course Jeri starred in other tv shows like Boston Legal for which she did a supersexy photoshoot and even had a scene in which she undressed till she only had a shirt on - which showed much of her fantastic breasts.

I really was lucky to catch that episode because after Ally Mc Beal I really stay away from courtroom drama series. And I prefer to watch James Spader in The Blacklist. What I did see was the Two And A Half Men episode with Jeri. In the episode she plays an old flame of Charlie Sheen who starts a relationship with his brother but he is too obsessed with what happened when she was with Charlie - so he ruins it. Poor guy, I bet she would have spoiled him for all other women on earth. And beyond.

I also caught the episode Queen For A Day from the show Warehouse 13 where Jeri Ryan had a guest role as Peter Lattimer´s ex wife Amanda.

Kate Mulgrew who played Captain Janeway on Star Trek - Voyager was also on the show as Peter´s Mom ( kind of a reunion here although I´m not so sure Kate was so happy to see Jeri again since she was always bitching about Jeri stealing the attention of the viewers away from her ) which didn´t exactly make it easier to watch the show. Not that it isn´t difficult enough to watch the show as they keep changing the time the show is on, then it gets put on a different channel and now they are doing marathons. Some day I´ll just buy all the seasons and binge watch it. 

What I didn´t watch was The O.C. even if was supposed to be for comic people so I didn´t see Jeri in it. And I somehow missed Dracula 2000 which was probably as bad as it sounds so I might have lucked out on this one and the only good parts were the ones with a very busty Jeri Ryan.

I also don´t watch Body Of Proof, another tv series where Jeri Ryan appears but I´m already watching too many crime series as it is. Although judging by the scene from the episode Fallen Angel I may reconsider.

Other shows where Jeri Ryan appeared include The Sentinel, Who´s The Boss ?, Matlock, Leverage and Arrow. I guess that´s everything covered.

Oh, I almost forgot, Seven of Nine was in the only STAR TREK VOYAGER comic I bought called FALSE COLORS. It was a prestige format one shot from Wildstorm and Jim Lee did the variant cover ( I know it´s the variant cover because it was almost impossible to find a picture of the regular ).

The story was written by Star Trek novelist Nathan Archer and the interior art was done by Jeff Moy ( and possibly Phil Moy on backgrounds ) and W. C. Carani, who had a lengthy run on DC´s threeboot LEGIONNAIRES book.

I don´t remember much about the story so it can´t be that impressive but it wasn´t my favorite Star Trek crew either. I only bought it based on the art and I don´t have any idea where it is at the moment so I can´t check how well the comic has held up. But I know I must have it somewhere.

There are no links for this post except this one that I just had to post. I didn´t make this up : 7 bizarre facts about Deanna Troy´s cleavage .

Speaking of sexy sci fi cult sirens, someone who has worked with one of the best is Kyle MacLachlan who turned 61. He has been in everything from Twin Peaks to Desperate Housewives and Marvel´s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but the reason why I am mentioning his birthday in this post is that he also starred in a little sci fi movie from 1997 called The Hidden.

The film is still shown on tv mostly because of the raunchy striptease by Claudia Christian who is best known from another sci fi show, Babylon 5 by comic writer J. Michael Strazynski where she plays hot Commander Susan Ivanova. Although I doubt Claudia wore anything as skimpy as this on it.

In the movie bi - sexual Claudia Christian plays a stripper ( a role for which Claudia was born ) who gets taken over by a sex addicted alien parasite and the first thing the alien does with the stripper´s pornstar body is literally fuck a guy to death. Which apparently she tried to re - enact with Kyle MacLachlan for a few weeks in a nearby no - tell motel where she used her relentless body to pump his giant boner dry in many positions.



Now usually I try to include as little celebrity birthdays in my cult siren posts as possible ( I prefer to also write a comicbook related post on the same day for that ) but I also had Claudia Christian in last year´s Jeri Ryan post. Plus she also has been in some science fiction movies and tv series.

But more important than that I found Maniac Cop 2 which not only stars Claudia Christian but also Robert Davi ( about whom I have written more in this movie special which also includes natural born for porn stripper babes Kathleen Kinmont, Lindsay Lohan , Tori Spelling, Tiffany Amber Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley  and 80s tv bikini sexbombs Heather Thomas and Markie Post ) Bruce Campbell and underrated Paula Trickey.



Coming back to the topic of Today´s post here are a few things you might not know about all the various Star Trek comicbooks over the decades.



After so many posts related to Star Trek you sooner or later reach the point where you have exhausted all videos about the tv show so here is one about another tv series based on a science fiction movie franchise about which I am probably never going to write its own spotlight post.



In light of Today´s cult siren Jeri Ryan who turns any science fiction movie into a science fucktion movie our music video is Doja Cat and who would not have hot cyber sex ( or really any kind of sex ) with Seven of Nine ?



We continue the theme of science and fiction or to be more precise sex in science fiction with another anime classic from the 90s DNA² episode 1.



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It doesn´t bother me that Seven has such an overtly sexual presence, because she has no concept of what effect that physical package would have on some male member of the crew.