Product Description

Fred Astaire defined elegance on the dance floor. With white tie, tails and a succession of elegant partners - Ginger Rogers, Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Eleanor Powell, Judy Garland and others - he created an indelible image of the Anglo bon vivant. His origins, though, were far more humble:  Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Fred Astaire came from Midwestern stock that partially had its origin in the late nineteenth century Jewish communities of Austria.  At first, he played second fiddle in vaudeville to his sister, Adele; however, once he learned how to tap and bought his first Brooks Brothers suit, the game changed. How did he transform himself from a small town Nebraska boy into the most sophisticated man ever to dance across a dance floor?  In this comprehensive new book about the life and artistry of Fred Astaire, Peter Levinson looks carefully at the entirety of Astaire's career from vaudeville to Broadway to Hollywood to television.  He explores Astaire’s relationships with his vivacious dance partners, his friendship with songwriters like George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and his relationship with choreographers like Hermes Pan to discover how Astaire, in effect, created his elegant persona.  Astaire put his mark on the Hollywood musical, starting his career at RKO and then moving to MGM.  From his long list of films, certain classics like "Swing Time", "Top Hat", “Royal Wedding” and "The Bandwagon" revolutionized the presentation of dance on film; but, he also revolutionized the television variety special with the Emmy-Award-Winning “An Evening With Fred Astaire”.  For ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz”, veteran Hollywood insider, Peter Levinson interviewed over two hundred people who worked closely with Astaire such as Debbie Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, Artie Shaw, Bobby Short, Oscar Peterson, Mel Ferrer, Betty Garrett, Joel Grey, Arlene Dahl, Michael Kidd, Betty Comden, Onna White, Margaret Whiting, Andy Williams, and others like Quincy Jones, John Travolta, and John Williams, to provide an intimate window on to his professional as well as his personal life. His new biography of Astaire is a celebration of the great era of sophistication on Broadway and in Hollywood as seen through the life of a man who learned how to put on the Ritz and become America’s premiere song-and-dance-man: Fred Astaire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #447739 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-17
• Released on: 2009-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312353667
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In this exuberant biography of Astaire, Levinson—who has written biographies of Harry James, Nelson Riddle and Tommy Dorsey, and who died last year—traces Astaire's stunningly long and successful career from early vaudeville partnership with sister Adele to the heyday of MGM musicals (and, along the way, highlights Astaire's musical influence in jazz and his tasteful, understated sartorial chic inspired by the duke of Windsor). Hailing from Omaha, Neb., Astaire né Austerlitz (his family the descendants of Austrian Jews), tagged along with his older, more promising sister to dance school in New York City, where the tap-and-step team got their start on the Orpheum Circuit and in Charles Dillingham's revues, before hitting stardom in the 1923 London musical Stop Flirting. When Adele quit to marry an English lord in 1932, Astaire renounced Broadway for the bright new medium of film, and once ensconced in Hollywood, under contract with David O. Selznick at RKO then MGM, he never looked back: from being teamed up rather reluctantly with Ginger Rogers (10 films) to finding his muse in choreographer Hermes Pan and spectacular, short-lived partnerships with legendary leading ladies, Astaire became a national treasure. Levinson takes a chatty, nostalgic look at Astaire's artistic collaborations, his longtime, stable marriage to Phyllis Potter, his shy nature and his underappreciated singing voice. (Apr.)
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About the Author
PETER LEVINSON (1934-2008) was a highly respected music publicist and author of the critically acclaimed biographies Trumpet Blues, September in the Rain, and Livin' In a Great Big Way.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing Ritz.
I hate to speak ill of the dead (Levinson) but this has to be the worst book on Fred Astaire that I have ever read and I have collected all the books there are about him over the years. It is full of blinding inaccuracies and worse still is extremely dull.

I am still struggling to finish it and somewhere after the chapter on Ginger Rogers I lost the will to live. I sincerely hope that the author didn't pay his researchers a lot of money as they got basic facts completely wrong. One of the most glaring was saying that Miss Roger's gown in "Top Hat," the feathered dress she fought tooth and nail to wear was pink. Wrong, every Fred and Ginger fan knows that this gown was ice blue. If he can't be bothered to check on little things like that then what can you trust?

My advice would be to not waste your money on this book, there are far better books out there such as the Hannah Hyam book, "Fred and Ginger, the Astaire-Rogers Partnership 1934-1938" Buy this one and you won't be disappointed.

Thank you, Mr. Levinson
the late peter levinson (1934-2008) has written the most detailed, comprehensive astaire biography i've seen in years. the first thing one will notice is that it is packed with information. levinson covers just about every aspect of this great man's career that you can think of.

from page one levinson hits the ground running... he covers fred's early years thru fred's RKO years with ginger in just over 100 pages!! in 13 chapters, he looks at:

1)fred's early beginnings and his start in vaudeville
2)fred and his sister adele's emergence as stars on broadway
3)fred going solo and moving into film
4)fred and ginger at RKO
5)fred's filmwork from 1940-43
6)fred's filmwork from 1944-53
7)fred' filmwork from 1955-57
8)fred's style and taste in clothes
9)fred's television specials 1957-68 (subtitled 'three hits and a miss')
10) fred as a singer
11) fred as character actor 1957-69
12) fred as legend, 1970's
13) fred's death and it's aftermath

peter levinson is an excellent writer and biographer, and he is my favorite type of writer. levinson does not take center stage and peel fred apart as if he were an onion. fred is not 'dissected' by this author. levinson guides the narrative but generally stays in the backround.

in this book we are not given one perspective, one viewpoint, one lens thru which to see fred and his career.

levinson has been insightful enough...canny enough... to include seemingly hundreds of interviews, each person having his/her own take, his/her own experience of astaire... critics, co-stars, directors, famous stage dancers of that era, dancers from the chorus, bit-players, songwriters, choreographers, tailors, an average fan... on and on. the text is peppered with these different voices and viewpoints. levinson is diplomatic enough to even allow some negative elements in. there are a handful of events related here which are not exactly flattering to fred.

levinson has done his research. he has culled through existing materials on fred (previous books, celebrity memoirs, etc.) and supplemented this with over 100 (perhaps closer to 200) of his own interviews. and ALL these voices together weave a multi-layered complexity into the narrative that i frankly wasn't expecting to find.

this is a solid three- dimensional portrait of fred that i've not quite seen before, and i think i can say now, whole-heartedly, that this is the best book i have on astaire...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Best Foot Forward
What a delight "Puttin' on the Ritz" is! The late Peter Levinson did his iconic subject proud. With several hundred interviews, Levinson assured readers of a well-researched, well-written account of Astaire's life and career. Anyone who enjoyed Astaire's on-screen (big and small), on-stage, on-record magic will appreciate the book. You get a portrait of a complex individual whose striving for perfection in all he did provided the world with decades of great entertainment.