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Fred Astaire (Icons of America) | 
 enlarge | Author: Joseph Epstein
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 15807
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 0300116950
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.8028092
EAN: 9780300116953
ASIN: 0300116950
Publication Date: October 21, 2008
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Product Description
Joseph Epstein’s Fred Astaire investigates the great dancer’s magical talent, taking up the story of his life, his personality, his work habits, his modest pretensions, and above all his accomplishments. Written with the wit and grace the subject deserves, Fred Astaire provides a remarkable portrait of this extraordinary artist and how he came to embody for Americans a fantasy of easy elegance and, paradoxically, of democratic aristocracy. Tracing Astaire’s life from his birth in Omaha to his death in his late eighties in Hollywood, the book discusses his early days with his talented and outspoken sister Adele, his gifts as a singer (Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern all delighted in composing for Astaire), and his many movie dance partners, among them Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, and Betty Hutton. A key chapter of the book is devoted to Astaire’s somewhat unwilling partnership with Ginger Rogers, the woman with whom he danced most dazzlingly. What emerges from these pages is a fascinating view of an American era, seen through the accomplishments of Fred Astaire, an unassuming but uncompromising performer who transformed entertainment into art and gave America a new yet enduring standard for style.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Sadly Disappointed December 3, 2008
Fred Astaire (Icons of America)
I was sadly disappointed by this book--the author has taken Fred Astaire and dissected him like a frog. I wanted to read about the magic of Fred Astaire--I kept reading in hopes that the author would kiss the frog and let him turn into the prince he really was...but, alas, that never happened.
A book to avoid November 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A useless compilation of topics that have been tackled many times by a great number of (by far) better specialists over the years (John Mueller, Arlene Croce, Hannah Hyam). We can still wonder why M. Epstein has written
this book. It would have been very interesting to devote the whole book to Astaire's abilities as a composer, singer, pianist, and drummer, rather than writing on subjects that have been already dissected in books by a lot of competent and qualified specialists. There is absolutely no originality in this book. M. Epstein mentions Gene Kelly (a comparison without interest), Astaire's partnership with his sister Adele(if you have never read about the subject, you must only be eight years old)and his other partners (how many times have you already read that?). Not to mention Astaire's partnership and his relationship with Rogers, a chapter in this book full of inacurracies, cliches and personal feelings of animosity against Rogers that appear really sad and pathetic to the reader. Unfortunately, neither Astaire nor Rogers is still alive to read that. You'd better watch the documentaries released by the BBC "The RKO Story, Tales from Hollywood" (1987) or "Fred Astaire, Puttin'On His Top Hat" ( Educational Broadcasting Corporation,1980), with their testimony to their professional relationship.
 Annoying little book November 24, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Anyone wanting to read a biography of Fred Astaire should look elsewhere. Mr. Epstein doesn't really offer us Astaire but rather his own less than amusing observations about clothing styes, charm, etc. Where one or two lines about a top hat, for example, might suffice, Mr. Epstein offers whole chapters. He tries very hard to be chatty and sophisticated but the result generally falls flat. Any biographical information is shamelessly quoted from other sources. The facts as well as the movie plots and descriptions presented are often incorrect which makes it clear that not enough research was done. The whole book has the feeling of a commission that was dashed off in a hurry and the result is too smug in tone to be informative and too shallow and lacking in real wit to be entertaining or insightful. In the end it's actually rather annoying.
A BIG Disappointment November 17, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The apparent premise and presumption of Joseph Epstein's book "Fred Astaire" is that the magic of Fred Astaire will be analyzed, described and explained to the reader. In the words of Mr. Epstein: "Whence derived Fred Astaire's sublimity, his magic? That is the great, happy question at the center of this little book." While Mr. Epstein is a witty and sometimes pleasantly irreverent writer, this slim volume of mostly recycled information falls far short of answering this question.
The initial attempt to define Mr. Astaire's magic is directed at the physical appearance of this "most attractive of men". Epstein begins this exercise by spending an inordinate number of pages describing and belittling Astaire's physical features, while admiring his clothes. However, he describes at the outset that Astaire was like a male version of "belle laide" : homely feature-by-feature yet stunning in totality. By his own words he therefore admits that this exercise is pointless. It is doubly pointless since nothing is said that has not appeared elsewhere or is not obvious from watching the films.
Recognizing after two chapters, that perhaps the force of Mr. Astaire's personality may be important to explaining his attractiveness, Epstein spends more fruitless pages trying to define his great charm; to pin down the indefinable. Charm is a characteristic that needs to be experienced and words are simply not adequate, as Mr. Epstein himself handily proves. During this discussion he says time and time again, that by his definition, Astaire is "not at all sexy". Of course, Epstein's definition of sexy includes features such as brutality, manly reticence, handsome features, and ample height and muscle. He fails to comprehend that romantic, gentle and graceful sensuality can also be sexy and that Fred Astaire excelled at projecting these qualities and has had, and continues to have, great appeal to women.
Mr. Epstein then proceeds to brutally spear the genre of musical comedy, mainly on the basis of "absurd scripts". To illustrate the point he provides examples from plot summaries of many Astaire films. Not only is this rather tedious, it is also unnecessary since he says absolutely nothing new. In my opinion, judging musicals on the basis of plots is not the best criteria since plots are usually the least important aspects. It is the execution that is critical, and that depends on successfully melding superior acting, singing and dancing against a background of lovely music and imaginative staging. The integrity of Mr. Astaire's acting, whether in dialog, song or dance, makes almost any character and situation plausible within the film's context no matter how irrational or absurd-seeming. Mr. Epstein is also somewhat puzzled by how the nonsense of the musicals can charm and be unforgettable. But he does finally concede that this "frivolity" (as he calls it) can produce uncomplicated happiness and joy.
Another surprising conclusion is that Mr. Astaire's acting abilities were limited to light comedy. He says that it is "unimaginable for Astaire to play heels" and that "being mean or dispirited was not in his range". In making these assertions, Mr. Epstein reveals his unfamiliarity or lack of understanding of many of Astaire's roles. Mr. Astaire has in fact successfully projected those very traits in post-1939 films like "The Barkleys of Broadway", "The Pleasure of His Company", "The Sky's the Limit", "On the Beach" and even in the 1936 movie"Swing Time". Mr. Epstein should have done more research.
The concluding section of the book is devoted to examining how to categorize Fred Astaire. He is being measured by Mr. Epstein for the roles of genius and icon. According to Mr. Epstein's judgment he qualifies as an icon, but not as genius. It seems that to be a genius "by any serious definition" it is necessary to produce something that others cannot immediately appreciate. So even though Mr. Epstein recognizes that Fred Astaire elevated popular entertainment into art, his deficiency was that it was too appealing to mass audiences. Although there is no question that Mr. Astaire's innovative artistry appealed to children and other unsophisticated people, it was also lauded by the most discerning of professionals in the dance and ballet world, as Mr. Epstein himself notes. The complexity and layers of meaning in his dances are still being unraveled and are not yet completely understood. In fact, Fred Astaire did not aspire to create art. He did what he did to please himself, and us, with his drive for perfection, amazing musicality and creativity, and a surplus of talent, charm and style. All he did was to produce magic.
 A great bio by a brilliant essayist November 16, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Joseph Epstein is a superb commentator and author. Even-handed, even brilliant. This is a superb bio that -- unfortunately for the dirt mongers -- shows Fred Astaire to be a great entertainer and dancer and a very decent man. I am conversant with this genre and with several of the great dancers and film entertainers of the 30s and 40s. I am a good friend of the lady whom was a close chum of the deelicious Eleanor Powell and knew many of the Hollywood Stars. This book is an easy reading, enchanting, five-star tour de force. It is a celebration of life. Let the grungy nit-pickers pic nits and stay out of the way. For aficionados of this era, culture, and history, this is first class, must read.
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