Charles Powell Walters (November 17, 1911 – August 13, 1982) was an American dancer, choreographer, and film director who became best known for his work on MGM musicals. His notable directorial credits included Easter Parade (1948), Lili (1953), High Society (1956), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964).
Born in Pasadena, California, Walters grew up in Anaheim. As a young man, he left University of Southern California (USC) to join the touring Fanchon and Marco revue as a chorus boy and specialty dancer. Walters next appeared on Broadway as a dancer in the musical revues New Faces of 1934 and Fools Rush In. He was the dance partner of Betty Grable in the stage musical Du Barry Was a Lady (1938–39). He was then hired to choreograph dance numbers for Let's Face It!, starring Danny Kaye, and Banjo Eyes for Eddie Cantor.
Walters's first onscreen credit was for RKO's Seven Days' Leave (1942) where he served as the dance director. He was later hired as a dance director by Arthur Freed at MGM and began a longtime association with the studio by working on several musicals, including Presenting Lily Mars (1943), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Ziegfeld Follies (1945).
In 1947, Walters made his directorial film debut with the musical Good News. He later directed Easter Parade (1948), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), and Summer Stock (1950). Walters directed the 1953 film Lili, in which he earned an Best Director Academy Award nomination. His last film for MGM was The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) starring Debbie Reynolds. Walters's last theatrical film was Walk, Don't Run (1966), which starred Cary Grant in his final film role. He later directed Lucille Ball in two television films. In 1982, Walters died from lung cancer, at the age of 70.
Early life Charles Walters was born in Pasadena, California, the son of Joe Walter and Winifred Taft Walter, who had moved from Tomah, Wisconsin. His mother worked as a stenographer, while his father worked as a tractor salesman. His father co-founded Walter & Day, a tractor and auto dealership, before he went independent with his own auto dealership company, J. E. Walter & Company. Charles changed his last name to Walters during the 1930s, after he grew tired of the misspellings. By the time Charles was two, his family relocated to Anaheim, where they lived in a modest one-story home on Center Street. Winifred instilled an appreciation for music in Charles, who developed an aspiration to work in theatre.
Walters was educated at St. Catherine's Military Academy, and later Anaheim Union High School. There, he joined the Royal Order of the Grand Drape, the school's honorary dramatics club. During his sophomore year, the Anaheim Bulletin reported that Walters, then 16 years old, had "won considerable renown through his unique terpsichorean talents" performed during minstrel acts for the high school. On December 9, 1927, Walters performed a self-designed clog dance at a widely attended Christmas pageant. The next year, Walters performed as a Romani in The Rim of the World, a three-act fantasy play, and Not Quite a Goose. He landed the title role in the 1928 Christmas pageant The Beau of Bath and The Rear End, a mystery comedy.
Stage career In 1930, Walters graduated from Anaheim High and enrolled in University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles. Though his parents insisted he study law, Walters desired to work in theatre. While enrolled in USC, he connected with Leonard Sillman, then a fledging stage producer who was appearing in a local Los Angeles production. Meanwhile, Walters became friends with Aida Broadbent, a ballerina, who later worked as a choreographer for Fanchon and Marco, a sister-and-brother dance team.
Bored with his law studies, Walters dropped out of USC and joined a touring Fanchon and Marco revue as a chorus boy and specialty dancer. Thanks to his correspondence with Sillman, Walters was cast in the 1933 revue Low and Behold, which also featured Tyrone Power, Eve Arden, and Kay Thompson. The production premiered on May 16, 1933, at the Pasadena Playhouse, where it was well received. It reopened at the Hollywood Music Box on July 10, 1933, though it later closed in five weeks. Though it failed to reach Broadway, as theater impresario Lee Shubert withdrew from financing the production, Broadway entrepreneur Charles Dillingham hired Sillman as producer and Walters as a performer for the New Faces of 1934 music revue.
New Faces of 1934 opened at the Fulton Theatre on March 14, 1933, where Walters performed dance numbers with Imogene Coca which received positive reviews. It ran for 149 performances before it closed later in July. Shortly after, Sillman hired Walters and Coca for another musical production titled Fools Rush In. It premiered on Christmas Day 1934 and closed after 14 performances. Walters and Sillman parted ways after the show was closed, but both remained good friends until Walters's death.
By this time, Walters was frequently paired with Dorothy Kennedy Fox, a dancer from the Martha Graham Dance Company. They performed at a chop suey restaurant in Philadelphia, which led to an engagement at the Versailles night club in New York. Choreographer Robert Alton attended the show, and hired Walters and Fox to perform a specialty number in the musical Parade. It premiered on May 20, 1935, though it closed one month later.
Walters was next hired for the Cole Porter–Moss Hart musical Jubilee (1935) where he introduced "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things". In September 1935, it opened as a tryout in Boston. The New York Times praised the show and wrote the "young prince and princess were attractively played by Margaret Adams, who sings charmingly, and Charles Walters, an excellent dancer." Jubilee closed after five months on March 7, 1936, which marked the end of Fox and Walters's partnership. Walters left for Europe on a vacation, where he accepted an offer to appear in Romanian producer Felix Ferry's revue Ferry Tales of 1936 in London.
Walters returned to Broadway to appear in The Show is On (1937), directed by Vincente Minnelli. During the previews in Boston, he was paired with Mitzi Mayfair for the dance number "Little Old Lady." He later made appearance in Between the Devil (1937–38) and I Married an Angel (1938). In the latter production, his performance was Peter was applauded by theatre critics. The Christian Science Monitor hailed: "Really the best of the show is the dancing, particularly that of Walters." Brooks Atkinson wrote, "Although Walter Slezak, despite his family tree, is no particular a singer, he can take charge of a song and he is a comedian with a most engaging manner; and Charles Walters is a superior song-and-dance antic man."
Walters was credited as choreographer on the Broadway political revue Sing Out the News (1938–39), where he reunited with Dorothy Fox (cast as the goddess of peace) to stage her number "Peace and the Diplomat." He returned to acting in Cole Porter's popular musical Du Barry Was a Lady (1939–40), where Walters was paired with Betty Grable. Despite his success, Walters acknowledged his frustration: "I was about twenty-eight and beginning to realize that I wasn't crazy about performing. I almost resented it."
Walters next choreographed Porter's musical Let's Face It! (1941–43). Within days after Let's Face It! had opened, Walters was contacted to help choreograph Banjo Eyes (1941), then a troubled production which received poorly received previews in New Haven, Connecticut. Its November opening on Broadway was delayed, and it eventually opened on December 25, 1941, at the Hollywood Theatre. Thanks to his reputation, Walters was recommended by a casting director at RKO Radio Pictures to choreograph the "dance ensembles" for Seven Days' Leave (1942).
Film career 1943–1946: Dance director at MGM At MGM, Seymour Felix was initially hired as choreographer for Du Barry Was a Lady (1943). He had creative differences with Gene Kelly over the number "Do I Love You", which in Kelly's perspective, required a stylized elegance that Felix was unfamiliar with. Kelly intended to replace him with Robert Alton. However, Alton was in New York and therefore unavailable, and Kelly instead asked for Walters. MGM agreed, and Walters was hired. Impressed with Walters's revised number, MGM producer Arthur Freed asked him to restage all of Felix's work.
After Du Barry was a Lady wrapped its production, in November 1942, Freed placed Walters under contract as a choreographer. Freed then hired him to work on Girl Crazy (1943), where he danced with Judy Garland, in "Embraceable You". He next worked on Best Foot Forward (1943), in which future film director Stanley Donen worked as an assistant. The film's star Gloria DeHaven reflected, "Chuck had an ingratiating personality and a wonderful sense of humor. On Best Foot Forward, he didn't devote much serious time talking to us, because we were such babies, but compared to most choreographers, who were strictly concerned with the sound track and the movement, he was a very loose guy."
For Presenting Lily Mars (1943), Walters appeared onscreen as Garland's dance partner in the finale. In 1944, Walters did uncredited choreography on Gaslight, in which he replaced Jack Cole for a waltz number with Ingrid Bergman. He also went uncredited for Since You Went Away (1944), in which he staged a shadowy waltz number. Back at MGM, he staged the specialty number "I Like to Recognize the Tune," which featured June Allyson. For Broadway Rhythm (1944), Walters choreographed the numbers "Brazilian Boogie" with Lena Horne and "Milkman Keep Those Bottles Quiet" with Nancy Walker.
On Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Walters staged the film's musical numbers, most notably "The Trolley Song". Walters was next assigned on Ziegfeld Follies (1945), in which he directed the segment "Pied Piper", which featured Jimmy Durante, that was deleted from the final cut. He was later called back to direct Greer Garson for another number titled "A Great Lady Has an Interview", but Garson backed out during rehearsals based on her husband Richard Ney's suggestion. Instead, Vincente Minnelli filmed the number with his then-girlfriend Judy Garland. Walters nevertheless was credited as choreographer.
Afterwards, in October 1944, Walters directed the 10-minute short Spreadin' the Jam (1946). He did choreography for Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), and made another onscreen appearance in Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945). He returned to Broadway to choreograph St. Louis Woman (1946), which was directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Back at MGM, in June 1946, Walters reteamed with Mamoulian on Summer Holiday (1948). Principal photography wrapped four months later, in which it went overbudget. The film was shelved after poor test screenings, and upon its release in April 1948, Summer Holiday was a critical and commercial failure.
1947–1952: Rise to prominence The musical Good News opened on Broadway in 1927 and was an immediate success. MGM acquired the film rights and produced a 1930 film adaptation. Nine years later, Arthur Freed considered a remake with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland as a follow-up to Babes in Arms (1939). Freed mentioned the project in passing to Walters, who was eagerly enthusiastic as he had participated in a high school production of it. Based on his response, Freed hired Walters to direct Good News (1947).; The film was also the first screenplay written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.