Astaire & Rogers

by Edward Gallafent

Book Overview

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers endure in the American imagination. The charm and grace of their dancing in the ten films they made together, including Top Hat and Swing Time, elicit nostalgia today. Most books about the Astaire-Rogers films focus exclusively on the music and dance scenes, but this book shows that the films are much more than the sum of those scenes, which after all only account for approximately one-third of their films' running times...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231126263
• ISBN13: 9780231126267
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.9" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

A Look at Two Careers and Images

This book is more about the careers and images of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers from 1934-49 than it is a study of their movies together and their dancing. If you are a dance enthusiast and want to read a detailed account of their dances, this is NOT the book for you.However, I am not a dance person, but I like classic Hollywood films, and I found this book interesting. It shows how the Fred & Ginger films share some concerns with screwball comedy, how World War II affected the images of both stars, and how stars age in the public eye. Gallafent isn't the most graceful of writers, and I got confused in his discussion of "Once Upon a Honeymoon," but I thought he did a good job connecting the Fred & Giner phenomenon to other developments and careers in classic Hollywood.

An Unusual Premise

Gallafent reviews the films of Astaire and Rogers, both those they made separately and those they made together, from their first pairing through the late forties. Gallafent makes a plausible case for continuity and development from one musical to another. Even as you find his arguments logical and believable, you know Hollywood doesn't work that way. Few people expect or want anything more from an A & R movie than the unalloyed pleasure of the singing and dancing. Gallafent even manages to connect the films Rogers did without Astaire (of which there were many more than I had realized). In spite of his quirky premise, Gallafent is interesting and entertaining throughout, and the book is chock full of stills from the films.