AllMovie

American choreographer and director Robert Alton first worked as a theatrical dancer. He then worked his way up to choreographing major shows during the '30s and '40s. Among those he has worked on are Cole Porter's Anything Goes (1934) and numerous shows by Rodgers and Hart. In the early '40s, Alton began his long association with MGM. He proved to be a competent, but seldom-spectacular dance director, and worked on some of MGM's biggest musicals. One of his best-known sequences features a dance between Fred Astaire and Judy Garland in Easter Parade (1948). While at the studio, Alton occasionally returned to Broadway. He made his directorial debut in 1947 with Merton of the Movies. He directed one more film, Pagan Love Song, in 1950.