Veloz and Yolanda

Veloz and Yolanda

Frank Veloz (19061981) and Yolanda Casazza (19081995) were a ballroom dance team during the 1930s and 1940s.

Biography
Veloz and Yolanda were amongst the highest paid, elite featured acts at high toned supper clubs throughout the 1930s and 1940s, a fact loudly trumpeted in full page advertisements in "Variety" magazine by Jules Stein and Lew Wasserman of MCA. Splashed across the top of these advertisements it read "Music Corporation of America salutes the GREATEST Marquee name the dancing world has ever known...whose amazing chain or record business during 1936 in the following cities sets a new high in the pages of theatrical history." Yolanda Casazza was born in the "Little Italy" section of New York in 1908. She was often called a tomboy, though she grew to be one of the most elegant and admired women in show business. Frank Veloz grew up in a rough neighborhood, abandoned by his father and forced to make his own way in the world. The pair met at a dance around 1921. They began dancing together and entered many dance contests, including The New York City and State Championship, which they won in 1927. According to their son Guy Veloz, Veloz and Yolanda owe much of their early success to the infamously brutal mobster Dutch Schultz, who gave them access to some of the more upscale dance clubs at the time. Dutch allegedly once sent gangsters to beat up Frank Veloz after he and Yolanda danced a secret show in Cuba. Once Dutch was shot and killed in 1935, Veloz and Yolanda were no longer beholden to him. Another character that played a role in the success of Veloz and Yolanda was the influential critic Walter Winchell. Winchell claimed that "Marveloz" and Yolanda were even better than the Castles, a reference to Vernon Castle and his wife, inventors of the castlewalk,and brought attention to their budding career. In October 1939 they appeared on the cover of Life Magazine, which proclaimed them the "Greatest Dancing Couple" They were the first and only ballroom dance team to appear at Carnegie Hall, this during the time there of Arturo Toscanini. They were the first and only ballroom team to ever do transcontinental tours, sometimes taking in 42 cities, several times breaking and finally holding onto the all time attendance record at the Hollywood Bowl until the Beatles came in and eclipsed it in 1964. Early in their career they were featured in broadway shows of the Shubert Brothers and Florenz Ziegfeld, Sigmund Romberg once writing a special number to fit one of their dances in his operetta, "The Love Call." The super swank supper clubs at which they were featured included the Sert Room of the Waldorf Austoria, the St. Regis Roof, the Plaza's Persian Room, John Perona's Place Pigalle with band leader Vincent Lopez and the Central Park Casino with Eddie Duchin. Other famous orchestra leaders who accompanied Veloz and Yolanda were Paul Whiteman, Xavier Cugat, Leo Reisman, Enrique Madriguera, Ted Fio Rito at the Cocoanut Grove, Wayne King, Guy Lombardo and Bert Ambrose of the Mayfair Hotel in London. Amongst the biggest nightspots they starred in overseas were the Kit Kat Club and Ciro's in London and the magnificent Casino in Monte Carlo. While in Havana, they were featured at the still extant Hotel Sevilla and are currently advertised as amongst the most famous pre Castro guests ever to visit this venue, joining a rather colorful, if also sometimes lurid, panoply of celebrities including Gloria Swanson, Luis Angel Firpo, Ted Williams, Al Capone, Merle Oberon, Santos Traficante and Enrico Caruso. Yolanda's dancing wardrobe was unique, inasmuch as no other ballroom dance team could realistically dream of approaching it. One of Frank's earliest and most fateful inspirations that paid off big time was to spare no expense, and to throw most of their early profits, into Yolanda's ever expanding collection of spectacular dance gowns that

Veloz and Yolanda became the rage of cafe society, which he himself designed, naming them all as if they were original rose or orchid cultivars he had somehow created in a laboratory, and happily invited the media for noisy unveilings. "L'Opera," "American Beauty," and "Liquid Silver" should give some idea of the relish he took in naming his creations. To actually bring to life these matchless creations, for in truth they often seemed to possess a life of their own, took a brilliant modiste, Kathryn Kuhn, and her very large cadre of seamstresses, hundreds of thousands of sequins, for example, having to be carefully hand sewn so that they might hold up under the immense lifts that were emblematic of Veloz and Yolanda. But there were difficulties, mainly the sheer weight of such lavish exhibition ballroom dance gowns that reflected shifting, dazzling colors under different pin spots depending upon where the viewer sat at any particular moment, and weight which sometimes approached or exceeded sixteen pounds and could easily wear out several pairs of Frank's white kid gloves in a single evening of repeat performances. Ever experimental, these gowns did not always pan out and simply had to be scrapped after one or two tryouts, despite the huge investment already made in them. The most notable was a gown wrought almost entirely of ermine tails, an incredible number of them, that simply refused not to tumble off and cover the dance floor when put to the test. But it nevertheless remained a marvelous piece of publicity with Yolanda modeling this dance gown for still photography. Today the gowns are kept in the care of Veloz and Yolanda's only remaining daughter, Yolanda Jr., in Los Angeles, CA. Eventually they hired Shep fields to lead their own "Veloz and Yolanda Orchestra," with which they toured and which appeared with them in record breaking runs at the Empire Room of the Palmer House in Chicago. They made eight films together, beginning with "Many Happy Returns" in 1935, which starred George Burns and Gracie Allen. Their most prestigious film was multiple academy award winning "Pride of the Yankees", starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, and Walter Brennen. They received an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film nomination for their Cavalcade of Dance with Veloz and Yolanda in 1943 which was directed by film legend Jean Negulescu. Veloz and Yolanda performed as uncredited choreographers and dance doubles for George Raft and Carol Lombard in the films "Bolero" and "Rumba" in the early thirties, which continued as a carefully guarded trade secret for decades. They opened their own chain of "Veloz and Yolanda" dance schools with motto, "Walk in, Dance out." They had four children together, Nick, Tony, Yolanda Jr. and Guy. The marriage of Veloz and Yolanda did not last past the 1950s. According to Frank's journals, he met Jean Phelps, a swing star almost 20 years his junior, when she was at a club dancing with her brother. A few weeks later, Frank took Jean to perform in San Francisco with him and gave her one of Yolanda's dresses to wear. Yolanda surprised Frank by coming to see the show and was so furious, she approached the stage and tried to rip the dress off of Jean. Frank and Yolanda then went to argue in a hotel room on the 30th floor, from where Yolanda almost went out the window and to her death 30 floors below. Incredibly Frank caught her by the foot and pulled her back in. Whether Yolanda jumped or fell out the window has never been confirmed. In 1963 Frank Veloz married Jean Phelps and the two continued to tour and dance. They also appeared on "The Frank Veloz Show" which ran from 1950-1955. Jean and Frank stayed together until his death in 1983. Even as she approaches 90 years old, Jean still continues to perform swing dancing all over the world. At one time they owned Tail o' the Pup. "An American Tango - The Story of Veloz and Yolanda" premiered in Los Angeles at the prestigious Broad Stage in Santa Monica September 21 and 22, 2013, also to packed houses and wildly enthusiastic standing ovations. Reviewer Steven Woodruff called it "A heartfelt and visually appealing production" adding, "Big dancing moments feel well integrated and purposefully wrought, shining an intense light on intimate moments of jubilation and despair." The Corsair's Alci Rengifo wrote, "Those attending were treated to a whirlwind of technicolor artwork and lighting, nostalgia, and dancing that defied the modern notions of ballet and an escape from the kind of products that currently dominate the airwaves." Joan Alperin Schwartz headlined her review, "Passionate, Beautiful and So Very

Veloz and Yolanda Good" adding, "A must see production for anyone loves dance or dance/history. I hope the show moves to Broadway, where it definitely belongs."

References External links

Frank Veloz (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0892703/) at the Internet Movie Database Yolanda Casazza (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0948451/) at the Internet Movie Database http://balletdances.com/americantango/index.html http://www.dancehistoryproject.org/index-of-organizations/veloz-and-yolanda-dance-company/ http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2velyol1.htm

"An American Tango - the Story of Veloz and Yolanda" - performed by the State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara, premiered in Los Angeles at the prestigious Broad Stage September 21 and 22 to enthusiastic packed houses and standing ovations. Steve Woodruff, reviewing the show, wrote, "A heartfelt and visually appealing production. Big dancing moments feel well integrated and purposefully wrought, shining an intense light on intimate moments of Jubilation and despair." Joan Alperin Schwartz headlined her review, "Passionate, Beautiful and so Very Good." also writing, "A must see production for anyone who loves dance or dance/history. I hope the show moves to Broadway where it definitely belongs."

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Veloz and Yolanda Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=581608096 Contributors: Auric, Bearcat, Dusty777, Eftzoons, Fryede, Frze, Grifterlake, Guy Veloz, Jim.henderson, Johnpacklambert, Lugnuts, Malcolma, Pichpich, Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ), Rjwilmsi, WOSlinker, 16 anonymous edits

License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/