Hermes Pan (choreographer) - Early Life

Early Life

Pan was born Hermes Panagiotopoulos in 1910 in Memphis, Tennessee, of Greek extraction. His father, the Greek consul in Memphis, Tennessee was from Aigio in Peloponnese, where his family had opened the first theatre. Following the death of Pan's father, his uncle held Pan, his sister and mother at gun point and burned all their shares and money on the grounds that if he could not have them, no one would.

Hermes and his sister Vasso were eventually raised Catholic by his mother, the former Mary Huston. Penniless, they moved to the poorest area of New York where Hermes learned his first tap dancing steps on the streets from local black children. At their lowest ebb, the family had only some potatoes and coffee for their meal. They vowed to commemorate that day and every year on June 13, they wrote down what they did and ate that day in a journal... the date became a family celebration. Eventually the family headed West with "Sammy", a black boy they met at a gas station, to Los Angeles, California.

Pan's career began with an appearance as a chorus boy in 1928 in the Marx Brothers Broadway production of Animal Crackers. He also danced in partnership with his sister Vasso, who subsequently appeared in the chorus of many of the Astaire-Rogers pictures. He first met Ginger Rogers in 1930, when he appeared as a chorus singer in the Broadway musical Top Speed.

He retained links with his relatives in Greece and made an extensive visit in the 1970s to meet them.