Hermes Pan

Hermes Pan (December 10, 1909 – September 19, 1990) was an American dancer and choreographer, principally remembered as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Early life

Pan was born Hermes Panagiotopoulos in 1909 in Memphis, Tennessee, of Greek extraction. His father, the Greek consul in Memphis, Tennessee was from Aigio in Peloponnese, where his family had opened the first theatre. Following the death of Pan's father, his uncle held Pan, his sister and mother at gunpoint and burned all their shares and money on the grounds that if he could not have them, no one would.

Hermes and his sister Vasso were eventually raised Catholic by his mother, the former Mary Huston. Penniless, they moved to the poorest area of New York where Hermes learned his first tap dancing steps on the streets from local black children. At their lowest ebb, the family had only some potatoes and coffee for their meal. They vowed to commemorate that day and every year on June 13, they wrote down what they did and ate that day in a journal. The date became a family celebration. Eventually the family headed West with "Sammy", a black boy they met at a gas station, to Los Angeles, California.

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