He was greatly influenced by this. Hermes befriended Aunt Betty's son, Sam Clark, who also worked for his family. Sam, a talented dancer, taught the boy many of the era's popular dances, and Hermes practiced on his own. His father died of tuberculosis in 1922 in San Antonio. Upset at being excluded from his brother's will, his brother Alkis held the widow Mary, and her children Vasso and Hermes at gunpoint. He burned all their shares and money, saying that if he could not have them, no one would. Move to New York In 1923 Mary shortened the family name to Pan and took her family to New York City, accompanied by Sam Clark. Initially they had enough money to live comfortably on the Upper West Side, but soon their money ran out. At their lowest ebb, the family had only potatoes and coffee for a meal. They vowed to commemorate that day; every year on June 13, they wrote down what they did and ate that day in a journal. They made the date a family celebration. But the eldest son, Panos, who had helped support the family, died in 1927. Pan's dance career began with an appearance at age 19 as a chorus boy in 1928 in the Marx Brothers Broadway production of Animal Crackers. Pan first met Ginger Rogers in 1930, when he appeared as a chorus singer in the Broadway musical Top Speed. He also danced in partnership with his sister Vasso. Both Pan and his sister moved to Los Angeles by 1930. The young adults shared a house before Vasso married, along with their mother Mary, and their brother's widow Dorothy and daughter Aljeanne, named for their mother. Pan eventually had a house in Beverly Hills. Vasso Pan performed in the chorus of many of the Astaire-Rogers pictures. Pan had retained links with his father's relatives in Greece. In the 1920s, he made an extensive visit to Aigio and Greece to meet them. Pan was a devout Roman Catholic and took spiritual meaning from his dancing. He was known as a homosexual in his circles, but was very private. Collaboration with Fred Astaire Pan met Fred Astaire on the set of Flying Down to Rio (1933), in which he worked as an assistant to dance director Dave Gould. While Astaire was trying to work out a series of steps for "The Carioca", someone told him