Spitball Army

Concerned that he may not seem believable as an inebriated dancer, Fred Astaire got into character for a scene where he is supposed to drunkenly flail around a dance floor on New Year’s Eve by downing a shot of bourbon before each take.

Most of the footage used in this clip is from the seventh take (how many shots of bourbon are there in a standard fifth?)!

The film is Holiday Inn, from 1942.

Personally, if I’d had even two shots of booze, I’d probably be flat on my face like Astaire is in the perfectly-timed last second of this scene.  But I can’t even dance when sober, so the comparison is hardly valid.