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More than a few readers wrote or called complaining that our newspaper did not publish any mention of actress Cyd Charisse's death earlier this week.

One reader, Bernadette Adent of Highland, was particularly disappointed.

Announcement of Charisse's death Tuesday at age 86 of a sudden heart attack came late in the day, and my column was already coming off the presses by the time the Associated Press released its alert.

Alas, my apologies, since I expected our wire desk at least to run a mention on our nation and world page, but sometimes, because of lack of space, more pressing news has to take priority.

In our defense, our online edition at www.nwi.com immediately published the full obit just minutes after it was released, and it's still available online.

I never had the pleasure of interviewing this movie musical legend, who was married to singer Tony Martin, who survives her at age 96!

Of course, Bob Thomas, the legendary entertainment writer for the Associated Press, who is now semi-retired at age 86, had interviewed her a number of times.

So I'll dedicate the remaining space to run a portion of Thomas' beautifully written Associated Press obit tribute:

Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

She appeared in dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in 1946's "Ziegfeld Follies" to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1956's "The Band Wagon" (with Astaire).

She also forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on television and in nightclub appearances with her husband, singer Tony Martin.

Her height was 5 feet, 6 inches, but in high heels and full-length stockings, she seemed serenely tall, and she moved with extraordinary grace. Her flawless beauty and jet-black hair contributed to an aura of perfection that Astaire described in his 1959 memoir, "Steps in Time," as "beautiful dynamite."

She overcame her doubts and signed a seven-year contract at MGM. She also got a new name, the exotic "Cyd" instead of her lifelong nickname Sid, to go with her first husband's last name.

The 1952 classic "Singin' in the Rain" marked a breakthrough.

When the director was dissatisfied with another dancer who had been cast, Charisse inherited the role and danced with Kelly in the "Broadway Melody" number that climaxed the movie. She stunned critics and audiences with her 25-foot Chinese silk scarf that floated in the air with the aid of a wind machine.

"Silk Stockings" in 1957 marked the end of her dancing career in films, as well as the twilight of the movie musical. With the film business suffering from the onslaught of television, MGM dismantled its great collection of talent. Musicals were too expensive, and foreign audiences had soured on them.

She and Martin took their musical act to Las Vegas and elsewhere.

In 1992 she finally made her Broadway debut, taking over the starring role as the unhappy ballerina in the musicalized "Grand Hotel."

In 1974, Charisse returned to MGM for a TV drama. Gazing over the half-filled commissary at lunchtime, she mused: "You never realize that good things are going to be over sometime. It all seemed so natural then: Clark Gable and Robert Taylor lunching at one table. Lana Turner would be lunching at a table in the corner. Ava Gardner, too.

Early in her ballet career, while on European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939.

The Ballet Russe disbanded after the war broke out, and the newlyweds returned to Hollywood. In 1942, a son, Nicky, was born.

In 1948, the year after she and Nico divorced, Charisse married Martin. Her second son, Tony Jr., was born in 1950.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at ppotempa@nwitimes.com or 219.852.4327.

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