ABSTRACT
Early Life Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz, the son of Frederic and Ann Austerlitz, in Omaha, Nebraska. The elder Austerlitz worked in the brewing business. Frederick's ambitious and stage-struck mother soon mapped out a show-business career for her son and her daughter Adele, who was eighteen months older than Frederick. Realizing that her children had talent as singers and dancers, Ann relocated her children to New York City, where Adele and Frederick studied at the Ned Wayburn school in Manhattan. Frederick soon displayed a gift for dancing, including the new style of tapdancing. By the time Frederick was eight, he and his sister were already onstage in the entertainment medium known as vaudeville.
