Anniversary gallery hollywood covers.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION From gorgeous leading ladies like Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, and Audrey Hepburn to the warm smile of dancer-choreographer-director Gene Kelly, to the filming of West Side Story, the glitz and glamour of Hollywood has shone on our covers. Check out these silver screen dancing stars and a follow-up on where they are now.

Cyd Charisse, known for her long, sexy legs (valued at $5 million in 1952), posed on our Sept. 1946 issue. She went on to light up the screen in Hollywood classics Singing in the Rain and The Band Wagon. "I never thought of taking the movies seriously," Charisse told DM. "I have learned to work out a scene as if it were a dance routine. After all, I've thought about nothing but dancing since I was 8 years old." Last year she was honored with a National Medal of Arts.

After dancing with Les Ballet des Champs-Elysees, 19-year-old Leslie Coron was chosen by Gene Kelly to partner him in An American in Paris, and they appeared on our cover in 1951. However Caron, who later starred in Gigi and Daddy Long Legs among other screen musicals, has admitted that her biggest crush was on the great French ballet dancer Jean Babilee. She now lives just outside of Paris and owns an inn, La Lucarne aux Chouettes (The Owl's Nest) in Burgundy.

Although Audrey Hepburn died in 1993, she keeps on dancing. Last fall, skinny black pants--the Hepburn look--reemerged on the fashion scene. The Gap used a clip of the classically trained Funny Face gal (as we featured her on our cover in 1957) to star in their commercials. The sequence begins with the classic scene where she exclaims, "I rather feel like expressing myself now. And I could certainly use a release!" The sounds of AC/DC's Back in Black blare in the background while she kicks and slinks, contracts and releases.

Until this year, George Chakiris--the proud and defiant Bernardo in the movie West Side Story--never knew he was on Dance Magazine's cover. The photo of him in Oct. 1960 with fellow Sharks Jay Norman and Eddie Verso was taken at 68th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in NYC. While filming with Jerome Robbins, Chakiris said: "The first take where I hit my fist against the red brick wall, Jerry wanted more intensity. He spoke to you in such a way that he made you dig deeper." No longer dancing through street fights, Chakiris recently started a line of sterling silver jewelry.

In August 1983, John Travolta rocked a very '80s look of tight black everything and a red sweatband for Stayin' Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. He learned to tap dance from Gene Kelly's brother Fred, and studied jazz with Luigi. To prep for his role, he took three-hour ballet classes. Check out Travolta--if you can recognize him--this July in the new Hairspray movie. Trading in his white leisure suit for a fat suit, he'll be playing and dancing Edna Turblad.