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.

The only thing odder than pairing the lanky Fred Astaire with the chunky Betty Hutton as a dance partner -- see the disastrous result, Let's Dance (1950) -- is asking a wisecracking kibbitzer like Joseph Epstein to describe the essence of Astaire's elegant artistry. But despite lots of over-worked prose and jokey asides, Epstein manages the job quite well. His slim volume -- an essay really -- on the great hoofer captures the full dimension of Astaire's talents. Which for Epstein rightly extend beyond the best of his films and include his unforgettable recordings with Oscar Peterson et al. in the early Fifties, a session that reprised all of the songs Astaire helped make famous in his films, only this time made to seem tossed-off, in a way only a true perfectionist could accomplish. Astaire's own fame, though, rests mainly on his partnership with Ginger Rogers in ten films, especially the early ones which include The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, and Swing Time. In these Jazz Age-inspired movies, the graceful Astaire fills the screen with movement, and in perfect syncopation with his partner. His polished dress compensates for his peculiar looks -- his big head and ears and hands, and his long face and chin, not to mention his toupee. But Astaire's all about charm, not pretty-boy looks. And his body in motion is elegant from top to bottom. As Epstein points out, Astaire surely benefitted from the great composers who wrote for him, Irving Berlin most of all. Epstein also admires Astaire's off-screen persona -- laconic, modest, always a pro. This supports his main idea, which he hammers home again and again, in an un-Astaire-like manner, that this Nebraska-bred performer was that ultimate democratic ideal -- "an aristocrat of talent." --Thomas DePietro

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