TCM Schedule for Fri, Nov 21, 2025: Birthday tributes: Eleanor Powell and Goldie Hawn

Fun line-up from TCM today:

Eleanor Powell is known as one of the most versatile and athletic female dancers of the Hollywood studio era.

Powell developed a dance style that fused her ballet and acrobatic abilities with her grounded taps. She moved smoothly and effortlessly through fast, complex footwork, barely leaving the floor, even to perform tap steps that take place while airborne, such as double pullbacks (sometimes tapping in a "hoofing" style, with natural, loose arms, and other times with a more technical, placed port de bras).

This was contrasted with energetic turn sequences, high-flying, buoyant leaps, such as grand jeté en tourants, and grande battements, which further showed her technique and flexibility. She incorporated Hula for the film Honolulu, which then infiltrated her choreography for years to come.

Powell was well received in her first starring role in Broadway Melody of 1936, and delighted 1930s audiences with her endless energy and enthusiasm, not to mention her stunning dancing.

According to dancer Ann Miller, quoted in the "making-of" documentary That's Entertainment! III, MGM was headed for bankruptcy in the late 1930s, but the films of Eleanor Powell, particularly Broadway Melody of 1936, were so popular that they made the company profitable again.

Powell died February 11, 1982, of ovarian cancer, aged 69.

Full bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Powell

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Goldie Hawn rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968–1970).

She made her screen debut in a minor role in the western comedy The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968), before going on to receive the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her comedic role in Cactus Flower (1969), airing tonight. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a woman who enlists for the army in the comedy Private Benjamin (1980), also airing tonight.

In a career spanning six decades she has also received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

In 2003, Hawn founded the Hawn Foundation, a non-profit organization which provides youth education programs intended to improve academic performance through "life-enhancing strategies for well-being."

Hawn turns 80 today.

Full bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldie_Hawn

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DAYTIME: (EST)

6:00 AM | Broadway Melody of 1936 (1936)
A Broadway columnist tries to use an innocent dancer to frame a producer.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth | Cast: Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor

8:00 AM | Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
Backstage problems jeopardize a Broadway musical.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth | Cast: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy

10:00 AM | Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
A vaudeville team breaks up when both men fall for the same gorgeous hoofer.
Dir: Norman Taurog | Cast: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy

12:00 PM | Born to Dance (1936)
A sailor on leave helps a young dancer make it to the top on Broadway.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth | Cast: Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, Virginia Bruce

2:00 PM | Lady Be Good (1941)
Married songwriters almost split up while putting on a big show.
Dir: Norman Z. McLeod | Cast: Eleanor Powell, Ann Sothern, Robert Young

4:00 PM | Rosalie (1937)
A West Point cadet falls for a European princess.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II | Cast: Nelson Eddy, Eleanor Powell, Frank Morgan

6:15 PM | Honolulu (1939)
A movie star hires a Hawaiian plantation owner to switch places with him.
Dir: Edward Buzzell | Cast: Eleanor Powell, Robert Young, Burns & Allen


PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT, EARLY MORNING

8:00 PM | Cactus Flower (1969)
A philandering dentist asks his assistant to help him deal with his latest girlfriend.
Dir: Gene Saks | Cast: Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn

10:00 PM | Butterflies Are Free (1972)
A blind man befriends the freethinking young woman in his new apartment building.
Dir: Milton Katselas | Cast: Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert, Eileen Heckart

12:00 AM | Foul Play (1978)
A librarian gets mixed-up in a plot to assassinate the Pope.
Dir: Colin Higgins | Cast: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith

2:00 AM | Swing Shift (1984)
A woman takes a job in an aircraft factory while her husband fights in World War II.
Dir: Jonathan Demme | Cast: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Christine Lahti

4:00 AM | Best Friends (1982)
Screenwriters marry after years of working together. Can the relationship survive?
Dir: Norman Jewison | Cast: Burt Reynolds, Goldie Hawn, Jessica Tandy