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never was especially interested in male dancers. Well, there weren't any really very many good

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ones, you know.

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EC- There weren't really?

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EC- There weren't really very many good male dancers in the 20s and 30s.

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JL- Didn't balance it. No. I don't think so.

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EC- Nijinsky?

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JL- Oh, he was a very great exception, and he danced a very, very short time. He was

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the specter of the rose. And I think one reason he had such a big success was that there weren't

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any others. And he was apparently a genius.

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EC- He was an original, certainly.

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JL- Yes. He was a, I think his Lepremyedium Follum was a very interesting ballet. He choreographed

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that. And Jagaloff, of course, was mad about it.

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But when he got married, then Jagaloff wasn't interested in him anymore.

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EC- Right. And there was that terrible break-up that they had that was most sad.

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JL- It was sad.

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EC- Then we were talking before about partners and what makes a good partner.

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JL- Are you on now?

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EC- We are on now, yes.

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JL- Oh, all right.

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EC- And who are, what makes a good partner, who is a good partner, who have been good

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partners of yours? And we were talking about Adolf Baum. And how was he?

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JL- Well, Adolf Baum, he was more a father figure to me, you know, and he must have been

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a good partner. He was a very great character dancer. And in Prince Igor, he danced alone.

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And he was just as successful as Nijinsky was in his stuff. But he was entirely different.

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He was a real man, you know, who danced in a very manly fashion.

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Well, since then, there have been a lot of really great male dancers, like Baryshnikov,

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who is a great dancer. Oh, I wish he'd danced more and stopped trying to, he's not a good,

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I don't think he's a very good director of a company because he doesn't seem to know

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what kind of ballets to do. And I think he was a marvelous dancer, however. And Nouriev

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was a very great dancer, too. And he lasted a long time.

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And there's some young dancers in the Paris Opera that are very good. One of them is DuPont.

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I don't know all the others' names, but there are a lot of good dancers there. And what's

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the name of the one who directs the London Festival Ballet now? I can't think of his

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name. He's a wonderful partner and a wonderful dancer.

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I don't know.

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Oh, I can't think of his name. It begins with S. Well, I'll think of it in a few minutes.

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As for partners, for you then, your best partner really, you think, was Bentley Stone?

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Oh, yes. He was a marvelous partner. And we danced together for so long that we created

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the dancers together. We did Frankie and Johnny together and we did American Pattern together.

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He was a wonderful partner.

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We were talking before when the camera was off about what makes a partner especially

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good for a dancer, for ballerina. What's the single most important thing?

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Well, if you're just a straight classical ballerina, if you don't do anything except

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straight classical dancing, it's the person who knows how to hold you right and who knows

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how to, when you do pirouettes, to sort of guide you around, see how many you can do,

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or when you have to hold your balance, he knows when to let go and how long you can

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stay there. He's very important to the ballerina, I think. And the male dancers are getting

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more and more important all the time now.

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And in more, what we would call modern dance, American dance, more contemporary dance, what

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makes for a good partner there, different just from a classical dance partner?

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Well, that's somebody who really can dance along with you and not just hold you up and

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be a classical partner.

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Crotsberg was a very, very great male dancer, but I wouldn't say he was much of a partner.

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He didn't lift. He was so individual himself. The way he walked, the way everything he did

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was expressive. And he could run and the way he taught class was very original. I've

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never heard anybody who taught a class like he did. Everybody just followed along after

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him and did the best they could. If he'd suddenly start running backwards, the whole

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class would have to run backwards, you know. And it was a beautiful class. It wouldn't

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do you much good for your technique, for classical technique, but it showed you how to move.

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He moved better than anybody I've ever seen, really. He did these three mad figures where

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he was three different characters. And they were all mad, but in a different kind of a

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way. And I think he was a genius, really. There were very few geniuses.

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You've been lucky. You've met a number of them in your life.

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Yes, uh-huh.

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You've said that the two major influences in your life and your artistic life were Pavlova

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and Kreuzberg.

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Oh, yes. Yes, that's right. They were both geniuses. But everybody was influenced by

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Pavlova. I think nobody could see her and not be influenced by her, of dance, I'm talking

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about her. She was great success with the public every place. But with the dancers,

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she was something very, very special. She was so expressive and had this marvelous body.

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She was so poetic. She could be anything.

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There's a story about you dancing across the stage with her when you were on tour with

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her ballet. And she touched your hand.

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Oh, yes.

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What was that? What was it?

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Nothing. It was the cassette machine going off. Just leave it. Are we good?

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Sorry.

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Okay. We're back again to the moment. You're on a stage in Buenos Aires, I believe, with

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Pavlova. And you get to dance across the stage with her. Tell the story. What was it?

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Well, there's no story about it. It was just so thrilling for me, you know, just to be

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on the stage with her and touch her hand. We went across the stage. That was all there

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was to it. It was part of the choreography. I don't even remember who did the choreography.

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It was a Faust ballet. Something about Faust. I believe. Yeah, Faust.

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You got noticed. Even on that tour, Ruth, though, at the age of 18, 17. No, 18. You

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got noticed. There's a story about the South Americans sending you. Tell the story.

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Of the diamond necklace? Well, it was in Lima, Peru. When we got on the boat, we traveled

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by boat, of course, then, somebody gave me a box of candy. So when we were out about

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two or three days, I opened up the candy and there was a diamond necklace. I didn't even

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know the man's name. I'd never met him or anything. And my mother said, You've got

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to send that back. That's ridiculous. And she made me send it back. I've never forgiven

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my mother for that. I wanted to keep that diamond necklace. Nobody's ever given me

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a diamond necklace before nor since. Isn't that too bad for me? No diamond necklace

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is in my life. That's a good story, though. It must be quite exciting.

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Yes, everybody was amazed. And then Victor Herbert noticed you when you did that very

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first job, Miss 1917, which was his review. He noticed you and asked if you had, well,

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you tell the story. Well, I don't remember. He was awfully nice to me and he did ask me

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if I would stay in New York and do some of his shows, but I wasn't interested in show

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business at all. Not a bit. Broadway shows were too low brow for me.

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So the music box reviews were mainly just, it was a different thing to do.

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Well, I did that for the money, 100% for the money.

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And did it pay well, Ruth? I mean, how much did it pay?

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I can't remember, but I remember I got a very, very good salary. At least I thought

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so at the time. And you were completely self-supporting.

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Oh, yes. Yes. I always have been. Ever since 1920 when they sent you off with

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$100. Yeah, in my pocket. I had to make my money. Did you worry about money very much?

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No. I never thought anything bad. I don't care about money at all.

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And you've always managed to make whatever you need. I think that's a tour worth of credit to you.

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And on that note, I think how much?

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I think seven? That's fine.

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This will be present for 30 seconds.

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Okay.

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I think the president's right.