Fred Astaire (Icons of America)
by Joseph Epstein
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joseph EpsteinEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-21
ISBN: 0300116950
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Yale University Press
Book Reviews of Fred Astaire (Icons of America)
Book Review: "Without Adele as his partner at the beginning...Fred Astaire might have [become] a suburban husband, selling swank cars."
Summary: 4 Stars
Part of Yale University's Icons of America series, this fascinating Joseph Epstein study of Fred Astaire and his success is not a biography and contains nothing "juicy" about his personal life. Astaire himself did not share personal information. As "tough guy Chicago journalist" Mike Royko says, "He did his work, went home, closed the door, and said: `That's it, world. You get my performance. The rest belongs to me.'" Epstein instead concentrates on how Astaire became an "icon," analyzing the secrets of his success as a dancer and singer--what made him a man that other men wanted to emulate and made women want to love.
Born in 1899 as Frederick Austerlitz, Fred was three years younger than his beautiful sister Adele, who was expected to be the family's star when his mother took both children to New York from Omaha. With a succession of mentoring dance teachers, their song and dance act became successful enough they eventually went to England, where they became a huge hit and often went to dinner with Prince George, later King George VI, after performances. After Adele's marriage to Lord George Cavendish, Fred was on his own.
His unprepossessing appearance, combined with his fanatical attention to detail--exactly the right way to hold his overly large hands to keep them from being distracting, when to raise his eyebrows for emphasis--made him a very different performer from Gene Kelly, who was far more athletic, and Epstein gives fascinating descriptions of Astaire's dance partners. Ginger Rogers, with whom he appeared in ten films but with whom he was never close, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Leslie, Vera Ellen, Betty Hutton, and Judy Garland, who was the only one during his career in the 1930s and 1940s to supersede him in billing. Later he performed with Audrey Hepburn, Leslie Caron, Cyd Charisse, and a few others, their dance characteristics described in detail, and the plots of their films analyzed.
Songwriters, especially Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, regarded Astaire as one of the great interpreters of their songs, and many wrote specifically for him and for his films. Admired by all choreographers, he was praised by George Balanchine, who called him "terribly rare...like Bach, with the same concentration of genius." He was also praised by Rudolf Nureyev as "the greatest dancer in American history." Even though he transformed entertainment into art, was recognized as brilliant in both dance and song, and achieved enormous personal popularity, however, Astaire the determinedly private man, remained an enigma throughout his life. As author John O'Hara says, "He takes a job, he works and works on it until he is ready, and then he delivers." Epstein conveys the importance of Astaire in this fascinating study, but Astaire remains an enigma as a person. n Mary Whipple
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