Ruth Page Walk Thru No. 08 [April 11]

Transcript (Download)

We're never going to see that.

Because when you gesture to Peter, we'll cut to Peter.

We won't see that.

So this is the Tibetan prayer.

This is Bars and Tone on channel one and channel two is a loud microphone.

This will be a minute to Bars and this is for Tom Ferris Radio and the film production is done with Peter Arquivaltapes and the documentary.

It's a four -way play.

They're extraordinary, aren't they? I'm so glad I got that.

That's Chinese, but I love this little bit.

That's a typical Balinese dance.

And when you do that, Ruth, turn and show it to the camera.

It's your friends that you're inviting into the house here.

Do you want to go, would it be better if you came around here and we're shooting this way? Has she talked about this? No.

Everybody clear.

Well, this I call my Tibetan room because that is a Tibetan prayer wheel, which my father brought all the way from the Orient to myself.

I was here in America someplace and he carried it all the way because he thought I'd like it and I do like it.

And then here are a lot of dolls.

These are Balinese.

I love this little one.

This looks exactly like the little Balinese dancers and just all those exaggerated stylized movements.

That one's Javanese.

Any time, Ruth.

So this is my Tibetan room.

I call it Tibetan room because this is a Tibetan prayer wheel, which my father brought all the way because he thought I'd like it and I do like it.

And then these dolls underneath here are dolls that I've collected.

These are mostly from Java.

There's one little Chinese one, but these are mostly Javanese.

And I especially like this little one because that's exactly what they look like.

Those stylized movements and very interesting.

Then over here, I like these two little figures.

You know what they are? Chinese use them on the corners of their roofs to keep the evil spirits away.

I don't know what that's for, but anyway, it's amusing.

This is my Peabody Award.

These are Moroccan weddings, which Andre Delpho did all around this room.

The Moroccan weddings are apparently something very, very special.

This is when we were in Sicily.

That's Mount Etna.

It's a theater, an old ruin of a theater.

You see Mount Etna right through there.

It's very interesting.

Here, these dolls are made by an Englishman who just recently died named Cyril Beaumont.

I like those very much too.

They're different characters.

There's Lipokova and Baum.

That's myself in The Birth of Infanta.

Over here, there's some more of them.

Those are old Flora Reval and Lydie Massine.

I don't know who all they are.

Mostly Massine and Lydia Lipokova, I think.

Again, here we are in Sicily with that gorgeous view and the Moroccan weddings again.

Then as you come over here, that is myself as Peter Pan.

Nicholas Remesov did that picture of me.

I always thought of myself as Peter Pan.

In fact, my first husband, Tom Fisher, that very extraordinary man, he always called me Peter.

I felt like Peter for a long, long time.

I've outgrown it now.

Oh yes, I have some more dolls over here.

I do like dolls.

This is a whole collection that I've made.

These are little hand carved, those little tiny hand carved Japanese dolls.

Those are Japanese paper dolls.

Those are Indians, of course, up there.

But they're mostly, everything is Japanese here.

I think they're interesting.

Now I'll take you to the dining room.

Let's go to the dining room.

Now turn towards those dolls, the other ones.

These? No, the other ones you were looking at.

And then start there and then turn to these and then tell your story.

These dolls are all by Cyril Beaumont, who is a very extraordinary Englishman.

He had a bookstore, but he loved to make these dolls.

I loved them and I was dancing there.

I'd save up my money.

I got my salary at the end of the week.

At the end of every week I'd go over to his shop and buy one of these dolls.

I'm so glad I did because all of the Massen and Lukwkova and Flora Reval and all the famous dancers are in these pictures.

I love Beaumont.

Well, this, as you can see, is the dining room.

This is a portrait that my husband did of me in a Chinese dress that was given to me by Mei -Long Fan.

This is a portrait of the great Chinese actor, the great Chinese actor.

I love that coat.

His name is real Chinese.

Then these are two pictures by Anthony Clave.

He did two wonderful ballets for me and at the same time somehow I got these two pictures.

Then this is a screen that Remazov had in his apartment, in his house in Palm Springs.

I kept admiring it for so long and finally he said, oh, Rudy, take it.

So that's how I got it.

Now we'll try some other place.

Okay, Ruth, anytime.

This, as you can see, is the dining room.

This is a portrait that Delpho did of me in a classroom that Mei -Long Fan, the great Chinese actor, gave to me when I was in Piquin.

These are two pictures by Clave called Les Trois Pastinques, the three watermelons.

That was the three watermelons.

This is a very famous picture.

This is a screen that Nicholas Remazov had in his house in Palm Springs.

I kept admiring it all the time.

I said, oh, I adore that screen.

Finally he said, well, take it, Rudy.

So I took it and here it is.

And now I'm going to show you another room.

This room has some interesting things in it.

That's a picture that he saw on the Gucci's bells of Edgar Allan Poe.

It's a ballet that he did for me.

It was such an interesting set because it grew up and up and up and then at the end it all collapses and falls down.

And that's in the process of it all falling down.

And these are all by Marc Chagall, who's a very certainly imaginative artist.

My husband got these.

They all came in a big book.

And I thought they were so attractive.

They're prints, but they're gorgeous, I think.

And that's the Arabian Nights.

So they look nice in this room, I think.

What else is in here? This is a ballet of mine called Amor Brujo.

That's Amor Brujo over there.

And here's another picture of claves from the Barber of Seville.

Now we'll go out into the studio that's out here.

This is the hall.

Is that all right? Rolling.

Well, this room has some interesting things in it.

Anytime you're ready, Ruth.

You're shooting? Yes, ma 'am.

Oh, this room has some interesting things in it.

That is a picture of a ballet of mine, the bells of Edgar Allan Park.

And this is a painting of Amor Brujo by Isamu Noguchi.

And this, it was an interesting set.

It rose up and then at the end it all collapsed.

And this is where it's collapsing.

Of course, Chagall is such an imaginative artist.

My husband got all these pictures.

And I think they're just full of imagination.

Now let's go out into the hall.

And we'll go to the studio.

Well, these are all Toulouse L 'Autrex.

And I think they're very, very lovely.

And that mask is a very interesting mask.

It's by Remazin, the man who gave me this screen.

And it was for a ballet about lawyers called Hear Ye, Hear Ye.

And this is a view of Sicily.

And right over here, those are by Chilly Chiv, a very interesting Russian artist.

This is Picasso, who you've probably heard of.

And these are three puppeteers.

And this is the studio right in here.

And I took a wall out here so I could have enough space to dance in.

That's a portrait that Andre Del Faux did of me.

And over here, these are all Andre's paintings.

He goes in sort of series, like a series.

He has a series of harlequins, those are right here, in all kinds of different positions.

I think they're marvelous.

And then all these others are the brothels of Calcutta or Bombay.

I don't know which, anyway, Indian brothels.

And well, that's all there is in here.

There's nothing else.

Ruth, stop right where you are.

Walk in and say, there's...

No, I go around here first.

Go back in, though.

Go back in, though.

Okay, and then turn around and come on back out and do it.

These are all Toulouse -Lautrec's.

Both a few Japanese masks in there.

And this mask is by Nicholas Remesov, the man who gave me that screen that I just talked about.

And over here, there's Chilichev.

He's probably a painter that you don't know, but he's very interesting.

This is our old pictures by Toulouse -Lautrec, who's one of my favorite artists.

I think they're fascinating.

And over here, this mask is by Nicholas Remesov.

It was for one of my ballets.

This was one of the jury masks.

There were six of them on each side, six women and six men.

And this one, I just put it up here because I like it.

I think it's a fascinating mask.

Over there is a painter, Chilichev, who's not too well -known, but I think he's very, very interesting.

This is Picasso, and these are three puppeteers.

And in here, as you can see, it's my studio.

I always have to have a studio wherever I am.

So I always need space.

Back there is a portrait that Andre Delpho, my husband, did of me.

And these are all his paintings in here.

It's really his studio now, not mine anymore.

And he's done a very interesting series of harlequins in all kinds of positions.

He's done about a hundred of them, and there are three of them over here.

And the rest of the pictures are the brothels of...

I'm not sure whether it's Bombay or Calcutta, but anyway, Indian brothels.

And that's a different series entirely.

Now I will take you to my bedroom.

And here we go.

Oh, I forgot to mention...

Identifier

V.2011-05-0524

Date Of Production

April 11 1985

Description

     Ruth Page conducts an informal tour of her home at 209 East Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, an apartment she has occupied since the early 1970s. The tour, staged for use in the documentary, Ruth Page: Once Upon a Dancer, is broken into several sections, with several takes for each section.

     TIBETAN ROOM: Entrance into the study called the Tibetan Room, Ruth Page explains, because of the Tibetan prayer wheel given to her by her father, Dr. Lafayette Page, after their tour of the Orient; she shows her collection of dolls from Bali, Java, Japan, China, and Native American Kuni dolls. She points out Peabody Award for the televised production of The Merry Widow; figures of stars of the Diaghilev Ballet Russe and herself as the Infanta, obtained at the shop of Cyril Beaumont in London, during her season at the London Coloseum in 1920; Delfau paintings; portrait of Ruth Page as Peter Pan by Nicholas Remisoff. She discusses her first husband Thomas Hart Fisher.

     DINING ROOM: Ruth Page enters dining room coming from Tibetan room through living room. She points out full-length portrait of herself in Chinese robe of Mei Lan-Fan, painted by Delfau; large oil paintings by Antoni Clavé; an Oriental screen given to her by Remisoff. She exits dining room into kitchen.

     ORANGE ROOM: Ruth Page enters Orange Room through kitchen from dining room. She points out a set design by Noguchi for The Bells; the "Arabian Nights" lithograph series by Marc Chagall; designs by Georges Wakhevitch for her ballet El Amor Brujo; Clavé designs for Susanna and the Barber. She exits into rear hallway.

     REAR FOYER (IN SILENCE): Walk through rehearsal by production assistant tracing path Ruth Page will take through foyer and into studio. (SOUND) Ruth Page enters rear foyer from hallway and points out drawings by Lautrec, Picasso, Tchelitchev and a mask for Hear Ye! Hear Ye! by Remisoff. She enters studio.

     STUDIO: Ruth Page points out portrait of herself in practice clothes by Delfau; Delfau paintings of Harlequins and brothels of Bombay; discusses a dancer/choreographer's need for studio space in the home. Returning to rear foyer, closeup of portrait of Ruth Page by Clinton King.

Run Time

0:17:19

Color

Color

Sound

Stereo

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Language Of Materials

English

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Format

Cassette Tape ➜ Betacam ➜ 20 min.

Form

Unedited

Related Collections

SERIES III: Betacam Video of Interviews

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

Do you know more about this item?

If you have more information about this item please contact us at info@chicagofilmarchives.com.