Todd Creed

Maybe our sport is still capable of bringing together four such people round a dinner table. But you have to doubt it. "They were comparing the theaters that they had played on the Vaudeville circuit," Dave Johnson recalls. "Which had the best backstage dressing rooms? Which had the best eating places, that you could walk to still with your costume and makeup on?" These memories were being shared between Johnson's mother and Fred Astaire. Moreover, both of those who were listening on, fascinated, had remarkable stories of their own: Astaire's...