The legend of Rita Hayworth has it that her mother, formerly of the
Ziegfeld Follies, wanted her daughter to be an actress, but her
father, a professional dancer, wanted his little girl to be a dancer, too. Eduardo Cansino, the dad,
won out and little Margarita Carmen Cansino would begin dancing at age three.
She was born on October 17, 1918 – one hundred years ago –
in Brooklyn. At age four, as a member of the family act, the Four Cansinos, she
was on stage dancing at the Winter Garden Theatre in a Broadway production
of The Greenwich Village Follies. Eduardo
Cansino would come to believe that the movies needed more professional dancers and so, in 1926, the
Cansinos moved to Hollywood.
