Janis Paige was an old-school theatrical trooper, a singer and actress with a “can-do” attitude who was ready to swing from the chandeliers — literally, if that was what a scene required.
She came across this particular scenario when she teamed up with Fred Astaire in the song and dance number Stereophonic Sound in the 1957 film Silk Stockings, an adaptation of a stage musical which in turn had been based on Greta Garbo’s 1939 film Ninotchka.
At the end of the number, Astaire and Paige had to climb on a table, catch hold of a chandelier above them and swing out over the assembled throng below. Astaire showed her the move and asked: “You think you can do that?”
“I said, ‘Sure, I