All Five Pro Dancer Brothers From 'Seven Brides' Are Still Alive In 2012

"Brother Daniel Pontepee" played by dancer Mark Platt is now 98 years old, and still living.

He provides wonderful and extended interview talk during the documentary titled "Ballet Russe" (2004) which shows movie clips of Platt dancing in less well known, but still well done MGM musical dance movies from the 1940's and 1950's, and also shows Platt acting at age 89 in a stage production located in the Marin County, California theatre center (San Francisco, Calif. suburban area).

Platt was hired for the Ballet Russe company in the late 1930's by Leonoid Massine when Massine directed the company, and was lead dancer in at least one major Massine choreographed ballet, presented around 1937.

He was 41 when he danced and acted in "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" (1954), and was by far the "oldest brother" in that movie, otherwise made up of men in their 20's and teens (the 5 dancers).

See the "Ballet Russe" (2004) documentary about the Ballet Russe dance company founded during the WWI era and not disbanded until 1962. Mark Platt was a member of the Ballet Russe in the 1930's and possibly in the 1940's before his MGM movie dancer/ actor contract days.

The documentary shows a wonderful reunion of very old Ballet Russe dancers held in 2000, with many dancers interviewed and movie footage of their dancing during their ballet dancer days half a century and more earlier.
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Tex Allen is a SAG union Middle Atlantic States movie actor.

Email: [email protected].

Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for movie credit and biography details about Tex Allen.

March 30, 2013

Thank you for information about Kelly Brown, and also mention of the incredible Hacketts, authors of legendary scripts for decades in Hollywood.

The Hacketts also wrote scripts for Broadway plays of fame and success, including "Inherit The Wind" (c. 1958) about the "Scopes 'Monkey' trial" which featured characters based on Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, and H. L. Mencken. The Hacketts also wrote the movie script for that stage play, which featured Gene Kelly in a non-musical role he performed very well (as did Frederick March and Spencer Tracy playing roles as Bryan and Darrow respectively)

Hooray for the Hacketts...what an honor to have them as your aunt and uncle! Superstars both!

"Brigadoon" (1954) was the "big movie of the year" for MGM in 1954 (the movie MGM expected to make the most money, be the biggest MGM movie of the year), and studio resources and promotion for Academy Awards backed that movie, rather than "Seven Brides, etc." (1954) which was a "sleeper" and unexpected hit (was booked into the NYC Radio City Music Hall longer than any other movie in 1954, including "Brigadoon").

The documentary titled "Sobbin' Women" included in recent DVD packages of "Seven Brides, etc." (1954) is worth getting and seeing. It tells the story of the competition between "Seven Brides" and "Brigadoon," the latter of which cost several times the "Seven Brides, etc." cost, but was not as successful a movie, to the studio's surprise.

"Seven Brides, etc." was based on a Stephen Vincent Benet short story titled "The Sobbin' Women" about prejudice against French Canadians (the "Pontepee" brothers were French Canadian Catholics, and thus not welcome in rural Protestant Oregon as they also weren't welcome in rural Protestant New England where Benet was raised with other French Canadians).

Benet himself was a minority person who attended Yale U., had a famous writing career, then died at an early age in the early WWII years.
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Tex Allen is an accredited SAG-AFTRA union Middle Atlantic States movie actor. (Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for a detailed list of SAG movie credits since 2004....includes 15 major Hollywood studio feature movies and 8 major national TV drama projects).

Prior to full time actor work, Tex Allen worked in 2 other careers, one career as a public relations manager for major Hollywood USA movie studios, major USA and Canadian corporations, and major non-profit organizations (Blue Cross/ Blue Shield and others); the second career as a professional library manager for major USA federal and local government libraries (library work details below).........

(Details of library work....Intern at Library of Congress Manuscripts Div., Mgr. at U.S. Treasury Dept. Bur./Engraving/Printing Research Library, Reference librarian at Balto. County MD USA Public Libraries, at one time the USA's busiest suburban public library system), also school and private libraries.)

Email: [email protected].