Eleanor Torrey Powell was born on November 21, 1912, in Springfield, Massachusetts. She started her career in 1920 on Broadway, where her machine-gun foot work gained her the title of "World's Greatest Feminine Tap Dancer" in 1929. Powell's mother wanted her daughter to overcome shyness, so she placed her in dancing school taking ballet and acrobatic dancing at thirteen years old. Gus Edwards dis covered her dancing on the beach at Atlantic City and placed her in one of his children's reviews.
 
Eleanor made her way onto Broadway, but she realized she needed to learn how to tap in order to be successful in the field, so she took $35 worth of tap classes for ten lessons. She was a natural at tap and the ten lessons were the only ones she would ever take. When Powell landed on the Broadway stage for the first time, she charmed her way into a review in 1928, called The Optimist.

In 1935, Powell came to Hollywood where she starred in The George White's 1935 Scandals. She found the filming process tedious and wanted to go back to Broadway. When MGM wanted to dance in another picture, Powell said she would not unless they raised her salary to a quota that she believed they wouldn't pay and also demanded she have a starring role. MGM did both and Eleanor Powell stayed in Hollywood making some of the great MGM musicals in the late 1930s, establishing herself as the "Queen of Tap." In spite of the fact that she was primarily a solo performer, she also danced with Fred Astaire and George Murphy, both in The Broadway Melody series, and as Sinatra described the pair of Astaire and Powell in That's Entertainment, "You'll never see the likes of it again." Each Broadway Melody film is an amazing chapter in musical film.
 
After marrying actor Glenn Ford, Powell gave up the silver screen, except for a short number in The Duchess of Idaho. Powell also had a public television show called "Faith of our Children" in the 1950's based on her Sunday School Classes. Even more than her film career, she loved being with children and once said "There's nothing in the world like having a child love you." After her divorce from Ford, Powell started a short but successful night-club career. Eleanor Powell died February 11th, 1982 of cancer.

Although Powell's film career was short by Hollywood standards (she only appeared in fifteen films), her impact on film was tremendous. Most modern film historians point to Powell as one of the great musical film stars in Hollywood. Powell's career soared back into the spotlight when That's Entertainment was released. Although That's Entertainment, reminded us of many great talents from the past, Powell probably was respected more than any other star as a result of the documentary and for that reason, her star burns brighter today in our hearts.