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Joan Hume McCracken (December 31, 1917 – November 1, 1961) was an American dancer, actress, and comedian who became famous for her role as Sylvie ("The Girl Who Falls Down") in the original 1943 production of ''Oklahoma!'' She also was noted for her performances in the Broadway shows ''Bloomer Girl'' (1944), ''Billion Dollar Baby'' (1945) and ''Dance Me a Song'' (1950), and the films ''Hollywood Canteen'' (1945) and ''Good News'' (1947). Though not widely remembered today, McCracken was a trend-setter in musical comedy dance. In her ''Oklahoma!'' role, McCracken became an instant sensation for a carefully choreographed pratfall during the "Many a New Day" dance number. She was considered an innovator in combining dance with comedy, and branched into dramatic roles on Broadway and early television, but her career was ultimately cut short, ending several years before her death at age 43, as she suffered complications from diabetes. McCracken was generous in promoting the careers of other dancers, including Shirley MacLaine, and was a strong influence on her second husband, Bob Fosse, encouraging him to become a choreographer. She was noted for unconventional behavior and was one of the real-life person counterparts of Holly Golightly in Truman Capote's novella ''Breakfast at Tiffany's''.〔Sagolla, p. 110〕 ==Early life== Joan Hume McCracken was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1917,〔Although many biographical sources during her lifetime gave her birth year as 1922, her biographer Lisa Jo Sagolla, author of ''The Girl Who Fell Down,'' found that McCracken systematically added five years to her age and went to elaborate lengths to conceal her birth year, and did not even disclose her age to her second husband, Bob Fosse〕 the daughter of Mary Humes and Franklin T. McCracken, a prominent sportswriter at the ''Philadelphia Public Ledger'' who was an authority on golf and boxing.〔Sagolla, p. 10〕 By age 11, she was awarded a scholarship for acrobatic work at a Philadelphia gymnasium, and later studied dance with Catherine Littlefield. She dropped out of West Philadelphia High School in the tenth grade to study dance in New York with choreographer George Balanchine at the opening of the School of American Ballet in 1934.〔Sagolla, pp. 21, 23-24〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joan McCracken」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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