Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire – Swing Time
An evening pause: From the 1936 film of the same name. Fred improvises to save Ginger’s job as a dance teacher. Watch how Rogers’ impression of him and her interaction during the dance evolves so naturally. I have always found her to be not only a great dancer, able to keep up with Astaire (the king of all dance), but also a marvelous actress.
Note too how this is not the gymnastics of modern dance, which is often only one small step above a Jane Fonda exercise video, but an amazingly nuanced and choreographed sequence of complex steps and moves, set to American pop music but with graceful classical ballet in mind.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An evening pause: From the 1936 film of the same name. Fred improvises to save Ginger’s job as a dance teacher. Watch how Rogers’ impression of him and her interaction during the dance evolves so naturally. I have always found her to be not only a great dancer, able to keep up with Astaire (the king of all dance), but also a marvelous actress.
Note too how this is not the gymnastics of modern dance, which is often only one small step above a Jane Fonda exercise video, but an amazingly nuanced and choreographed sequence of complex steps and moves, set to American pop music but with graceful classical ballet in mind.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Judd Clark brings the best dance clips.
For the past few weeks (nearly) all of your videos have been failing with “Error 153: Video player configuration error.”
The only exception is the Miracle on 34th Street video, which plays just fine.
FYI.
It’s a shame in this case, because the video sounds like it might be interesting.
mkent: If you are referring to recent pauses, over the past few months, the problem is likely with your computer and software. All the recent pauses show up fine when I schedule them, and show up fine again when they are published.
If you are referring to older pauses, going back more than six months or more, this is a problem caused by youtube’s decision to change the embed code. In each case, it provides a link to watch the video on youtube. When I see the error I then go to youtube to download the new embed code and correct the post so the embed works again.
Can you tell me the specific videos where you have this problem? I can tell for certain that Rogers & Astaire video works.
”Can you tell me the specific videos where you have this problem?”
I checked every video you’ve posted going back to the beginning of September. Every video has the same problem except four: Miracle on 34th Street, I Really Love My Toy Chicken, Rethinking Columbus Day, and Pushback Against the Left’s Slander. Those four all work.
The problem with the others is that there’s no video to play. Every post just contains a black rectangle with “Error 153: Video player configuration error” in it. It can’t be my computer or software — they haven’t changed. It’s a sealed box. There’s no way to change it.
In addition, all other videos I’ve tried recently still work. Last night I played a Charlie Brown video and a WKRP episode, both of which were MP4s. Just now I played embedded videos on Instapundit, Samizdata, and Neoneocon — all work — as do all eight different YouTube channels I just checked. Yours is the only site whose videos have this (or any) error.
FYI.
Oh, and more importantly for this site, the SpaceX launch videos on NASAspaceflight and on SpaceX.com still work too. :-)
mkent–
–I’m not the computer-science guy here and I hope someone else would weigh in. I do however liberate a lot of videos, so this fascinates me. [“When buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t theft…”]
—————————–
The Miracle on 34th Street video is being served from Archive.org. and not YouTube.
— What I’m hearing you say is videos served through Behind the Black from YouTube, are not playing for you and you get YT Error 153. But you can watch embedded video on other sites?
Cursory Search:
This is apparently a relatively new error at YT and as Mr. Z. notes; it’s a confluence of YouTube:
1) modifying the embedded player code.
–YT needs to track where these videos play so they aren’t inadvertently delivered to people or places that YT determines shouldn’t see them. (The “for the children” excuse.) The YouTube API now requires specific security and referrer settings.
[Adding referrer policy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” to the iframe ensures the player complies with the latest security standards.] (This would be on Mr. Z.s end.)
–“Error 153 is more common in embedded environments than in direct playback because the player must interact with multiple layers of code, policies, and browser behavior.”
2) browser cache and cookie interference:
-Clean your cache & cookies. Try not to be signed into everywhere at once. (I use the free version of CCleaner to clean my browser & cookies regularly during the day. Stored browser data can be upwards of 500mb to 1Gb in size, depending on your settings and use.) Close browser, clean, restart.
3) Browser extensions, ad-blockers, privacy tools:
-The YT player depends on scripts & permissions. Extensions and ad-blockers can lead to error messages. Designate BtB and YT as allowed addresses if you think the problem is at this step. (or just turn all that stuff off…)
4) Referrer and Security Policies:
-Recent changes to browser security standards require websites to declare how external content (like a YouTube iframe) handles referrer information. If the embed code doesn’t specify the correct referrer policy, YouTube’s player will refuse to load.
5) Network Issues:
-Less common. Are you on a restricted network at all?
6) Logged-in Conflicts:
-Less common. But try not to be logged in to everything, at once, all the time.
If none of this helps….the actual Title of the video can be searched at YT and you will locate it at YT. This defeats the purpose of embedded video, but you would still be able to find the videos you wanted to watch, with effort….
Please let us know how this turns out!!
mkent—
Forgot to ask; were you watching the turkey-drop episode of WKRP, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving??
(Me too!)
mkent: I am at a loss to help, as every one of these recent videos looks correct on my computer, visible and playable on BtB. Wayne raises some issues that might explain the issue. It might also be that your browser is not up-to-date.
As info, I’ve viewed on Brave, Chrome and Safari with same YouTube issue as described. Using iOS 26.1 (latest).
I can’t see the videos on the site, but the pop up in YouTube app when I click on the link in the embedded message.
Blair Ivey,
it is very kind of you to say that.
Bob has given me very clear guidance on what he wants to present and i do try to follow that. He has encouraged me to find things i previously would have never considered. Considering the rate that older performers are dying off, we are so very fortunate to have these old recordings, even if they are not the best audio and visual quality.
At my age, having something, at least occasionally entertaining, to do for others keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.
For whatever it may be worth, I’ve had no problems with videos from this site. I’m using Opera on Windows 10.
I strongly second our host’s remarks anent the late Ms. Rogers. Splendid dancer, splendid actress, splendid-looking woman – one of the great beauties of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
This may be an iOS thing. I tried Opera per Dicks note and had same issues with video not showing up.
mkent/Gvt11
(I’m just a psych major)
–Finding actionable info on this Error 153 is way more difficult than it should be!
— Do me a favor.
Cause the Error 153 problem at your end and then Right-Click on that error screen and “Copy Debug Info.”
Paste it into a text file so you can read it.
Look for this exact line of text:
“debug_error”: “{\”errorCode\”:\”embedder.identity.missing.referrer\”
If you see that exact error message:
“The cause of this (153) issue is the referrer policy. When the embedded YouTube URL loads on a page where the referrer policy is set to “no-referrer,” it triggers Error 153. This was likely tolerated previously, but Google appears to have tightened the policy recently, which has led to the problem.”
———————————-
Ah– this is a known thing with WordPress powered websites.
(if this is the problem, fixes fall upon Mr. Z’s tech-guy.)
“The “no-referrer” policy may be inherited from your webpage itself.”
“If the value is “no-referrer,” it may have been configured by your web hosting provider, set in the .htaccess file in your WordPress directory, or enforced by a WordPress security plugin.”
“If the page already has the correct referrer policy (for example, “strict-origin-when-cross-origin”), check if there is a referrerpolicy value configured in the YouTube embed code. An iframe can include a referrerpolicy attribute, which influences the policy for that frame.”
“To fix the problem, the website will need to change the referrer policy of the YouTube embed URL from “no-referrer” to another value, for example, “strict-origin-when-cross-origin”, which is a common value., and confirm the website has the correct attribute specified.”
———————-
“The policy attributes of the YouTube embed URL could also be affected by a meta tag on the page. For example, the following code forces all links on the page to use the “no-referrer” policy:
(Can’t post the code snippets, website thinks I’m trying to inject malicious code)
“–This meta tag may have been added by your WordPress theme or dynamically inserted by a third-party plugin.”
First of all, thanks, Wayne, for digging into this.
”What I’m hearing you say is videos served through Behind the Black from YouTube, are not playing for you and you get YT Error 153. But you can watch embedded video on other sites?”
Yes.
”Try not to be signed into everywhere at once.”
I’m not signed into anywhere, including here. I have to type my name and email anew with every comment.
”Designate BtB and YT as allowed addresses if you think the problem is at this step.”
I have no idea what you’re talking about here.
”Are you on a restricted network at all?”
What is that? Restricted by whom?
”Cause the Error 153 problem at your end and then Right-Click on that error screen and ‘Copy Debug Info.’”
1) I don’t do anything to cause the error. It’s there when the webpage appears.
2) I can’t right-click (or even left-click) on anything. I’m not using a mouse.
”Forgot to ask; were you watching the turkey-drop episode of WKRP, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving?”
Why, yes. Yes I was. I hadn’t seen either in over 40 years and thought they’d be a good way to wind down Thanksgiving before going to bed.
Wayne: Thank you this info. I checked to see if I got your error message listed above when getting the debug info from an older embed where I can see error 153.
I did not see it. Thus, to see if this can be fixed on my end I need others to do what you suggest and tell me what they see.
Mkent: Wayne is trying to help but you need to be more willing to help in turn. He wasn’t saying you “caused” the problem. He wanted you to look at my webpage and where you see an embed with the 153 error message, right click to copy the debug code so you can put it in a text editor to review.
And you don’t have to right click. You can use the alternative menu key (usually to the right of the alt key on the right side of the spacebar) to access this option. You will probably have to tab down until you are in the particular embed for this to work, then arrow down until “copy debug code” is highlighted, then press enter.
If others who have seen this error could get the debug code and read it, that would help also. I need to know if that “no-referrer” is what BtB needs to have changed.
BUT in spite of anything,…
All ok here in CA. ha
WOW … what a pair of dancers.
A.
”You can use the alternative menu key (usually to the right of the alt key on the right side of the spacebar) to access this option.”
I don’t have a menu key or an alt key.
”You will probably have to tab down…”
I don’t have a tab key.
”…until you are in the particular embed for this to work…”
I don’t even know what that means. What’s an embed? How can I be in something?
”…then arrow down…”
I don’t have any arrow keys.
”…until ‘copy debug code’ is highlighted…”
The only place on this entire page that the phrase ‘copy debug code’ appears is in your comment right above mine.
”Wayne is trying to help but you need to be more willing to help in turn.”
I’m trying to help, but you two are asking me to do things that are impossible for me to do. From what I understand of Wayne’s comments, the problem is a configuration error on your website. That’s why I’m not the only one having it.
mkent: I am confused. How do you use your computer without any arrow, menu, alt, tab keys? Are you using a smart phone exclusively? If so, I am unfortunately unable to help you get to the debug code, as I don’t own a smart phone myself and don’t know the tricks of that trade.
I am sure there are readers however who do. I hope someone will come forward to help.
In concept, when you look at my page there are boxes that contain videos. Those videos come from youtube, but are embedded into my page so that readers can watch them on BtB. I get the embed code from youtube itself.
In your case I am assuming those boxes are instead black with text stating you have the 153 error code.
Youtube provides a way to download the debug code (plus other options) to help fix this issue by right clicking on that video box.
I wonder if you tapped the box you might see the list with the “download debug code” option.
Finally, you write, “From what I understand of Wayne’s comments, the problem is a configuration error on your website. That’s why I’m not the only one having it.”
While you are not the only one having the problem, there are many others who don’t have it at all, including myself. I need help from you and the others who have the problem in order to solve it, as I can’t obtain that information myself because I don’t have the problem. Any debug code I download won’t tell me or my web guy anything.
Hello all, Shane the BtB web guy here.
This particular issue apparently started showing up a few months ago when YouTube changed how they allow videos to show embedded on sites. There are tons of search results pertaining to this. Prior to this timeframe YouTube wasn’t as picky when an embedded video returned no referrer header. That has changed of course.
On BtB, the root issue that caused this was a global header set on the site for referrer-policy, which had been set to “no-referrer”. On some browsers (for sure IOS/Apple devices) this resulted in a ERROR 153 instead of the video being seen. I have switched the BtB site to the global referrer-policy of “strict-origin-when-cross-origin”, which allows referrer information to be sent back to YouTube, and this is fixed the issue. I have tested it on my iPhone with IOS 26.x.
For any of you technically inclined, this website https://domsignal.com/referrer-policy-test allows you to check the status of the referrer-policy.
Have a great day all and thanks for your feedback.
Shane: Thank you! I didn’t expect a fix that quickly.
“this is not the gymnastics of modern dance”
Um. They jumped the railing – several times.
judd–
Keep up the looking for good material! Anecdotally–I’ve noticed a general increase in uploads to Youtube of full-length & clipped material heretofore not uploaded. Also, they appear to not copyright-strike as much as they did in the past, on older material.
Finding it is always a problem, there are “5 billion+” videos at Youtube with “20 million added per day.” And people are sloppy about adequately describing what they upload.
mkent– you’re in business! Go back and watch some of those videos. (Tangentially–WKRP; wild turkeys can fly; they roost in trees. The franken-turkeys however can barely stand up. )
Shane & Mr. Z.,
All right!
Mark Sizer, that jump over that low railing is hardly the modern dance gymnastics I am referring to. Watch this Pink evening pause to get a typical example:
Pink – Try
The differences are quite profound. Pink’s choreography might be interesting, but it is to my eye generally coarse and muscular. Astaire’s in turn is subtle, fast, detailed, and graceful. And above all, it is two people doing it at the same time.
Shane and Bob: That worked! Hooray!! Thank you both, and to Wayne again.
As for the video itself: I’ve never been into tap dancing — don’t even really like it. But sometimes when you see an art form performed at the top of its class, you just have to stand back to watch and appreciate the beauty and majesty. This is one of those times.
I remember a quote (TCM?) where a woman said that most women would give their heart to Fred, but would rather give their body to Gene.
The former lead with his chest, where Kelly danced “low” to the floor.
judd clark observed: ” . . . keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.
That’s overrated. Get on the streets; make some trouble. I recently had a Honda Civic with a fart-can muffler want to have a go at the stoplight with the Jaguar. A mistake.
Robert Zimmerman,
The Pink routine is, undeniably, muscular, but it is also detailed and graceful. I didn’t know she was that good a dancer. It is, additionally, something that couldn’t possibly have been filmed for general release during the post-Hayes Code 1930s so the comparison to Astaire and Rogers is maybe a tad inapt.
The Pink routine is of a style known as ‘Contemporary’ which didn’t really exist in the 1930s and in which the effort of dancing is allowed to show to some degree. The Astaire-Rogers routine, as was true of much of their work together, was based on tap which, in its classic forms, is based on making the dance look effortless.
But, even then, there were tappers who incorporated athleticism that sometimes looked borderline superhuman. The Nicholas Brothers and their classic alternating-splits-on-a-staircase routine comes to mind. Not exactly what Bojangles Robinson used to do with a flight of stairs.
The parts of the Astaire-Rogers collaborations that were not based on tap were largely based on the Foxtrot and the Quickstep.
mkent,
Tap dancing, I suppose, is like strongly-flavored cheese – not everyone is a fan. And there isn’t much point in trying to convince someone that they should like it. That said, it’s hard for me to see how one – assuming one to be male and heterosexual – would not be utterly entranced by Ann Miller, Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell or Eleanor Powell doing their tap-ly best.
Jeff Wright,
Astaire and Kelly certainly brought different qualities to their dancing. Both deserve their stellar reputations. But there is a third guy who, in my opinion, also deserves to be seen as having been at that same level and that is the late Gene Nelson. He had the relative misfortune to be at 20th Century Fox rather than MGM during the heyday of the movie musical. His style was a sort of fusion of those of Astaire and Kelly. He could definitely stay with Kelly when it came to pure athleticism – one of his routines actually had a gym as background and he incorporated a lot of the apparatus into the choreography. The whole routine might well have been a not-so-subtle send-up of Kelly’s style. But Nelson’s use of his arms and hands was very Astaire-ish. He is undeserving of his relative obscurity.
Blair Ivey,
There has always been a certain fraction of the car-driving public that seems to value engine noise over any other automotive characteristic. I suspect they will be among the last ICE car holdouts as surface transport inevitably goes electric. Their only consolation will be that they can still chirp their tires.
Dick Eagleson:
I won’t race any EV. Even with the Mazda:) EV’s have changed the game with respect to the usual performance benchmarks. There are still enough young people in hot hatches to have some fun with. Sometimes I’ll lose, when they see I’m serious about it, but not usually. This isn’t “American Pie”. Just the fastests to the legal limit (maybe a little above), but no one wants to lose their license.
Blair—
“There was this time at Band Camp…”
—————————————————-
Gene Nelson clip
“The West Point Story” (1950)
https://youtu.be/hm4R1ntaGN0
2:13
Wayne:
That was great. I marvel that an ostensibly 20 year-old cadet would become a kung-fu level cane master on first exposure. Perhaps I am missing context, like, seeing the movie, but the cane-fu is impressive. I would also say that the cadet apparently has what might be called ‘a rich inner life’.