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Barcode: 9780199738410
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BarcodeComment: Astaire-fred-adele-film-only-preserved-4192077802
Interesting biography is occasionally drowned in a puzzlingly ornate writing style, April 20, 2012
The Astaires: Fred & Adele
Before Fred and Ginger, there was Fred and Adele, a show-business partnership and cultural sensation like no otherFred Astaire is permanently recorded in our collective consciousness only because his electrifying dance routines were cinematically preserved. Delving just a little below that celluloid image immediately reveals a biographical surprise: before Astaire and Rogers there was Astaire and Astaire -- Fred and his sister Adele -- a pair who rose together through the ranks of American vaudeville to become mega-stars on both sides of the Atlantic during the 1920s and 1930s. The study of Fred and Adele Astaire is an important in the history of pop culture, not only because it helps us understand Fred, the film star, but also because the team of Astaire and Astaire was an absolute phenomenon in its day.Not one moment of their wildly successful partnership was preserved on film and here is the irony of Astaire and Astaire: a complete biography of Fred must include mention of Adele -- generally considered to be the more naturally talented of the two siblings -- and yet when...
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| Author: R. Bono "Riccardo" (Penn.. | So much has been written about the great films of Fred and Ginger, and those of Fred himself, but little on his long and arduous rise to fame, with, and usually tagging behind, his sister, Adele...of whom most know so little. The reason cited by this author, is because we literally have none of their dancing on film. The book is a serious attempt to redress this vacancy.This partial bio that takes us from the birth of Adele and Fred, to the moment of that fortuitous partnership of Astaire and Rogers. There was much hard work, perseverance, and finally huge stage success, that took place in Fred's and Adele's career between 1905 and 1933. The author is quite successful in filling out the personalities of a second fiddle, perfectionist Fred, and his ebullient, improvising, flapper sister...an extraordinary lady who loved a good party, was quite assertive, and who avoided hard work.The reader gets to understand this extraordinary brother and sister act....from its... | 26 | |
| Author: Kathryn Atwood (Midwest).. | Fred Astaire is permanently recorded in our collective consciousness only because his electrifying dance routines were cinematically preserved. Delving just a little below that celluloid image immediately reveals a biographical surprise: before Astaire and Rogers there was Astaire and Astaire -- Fred and his sister Adele -- a pair who rose together through the ranks of American vaudeville to become mega-stars on both sides of the Atlantic during the 1920s and 1930s. The study of Fred and Adele Astaire is an important in the history of pop culture, not only because it helps us understand Fred, the film star, but also because the team of Astaire and Astaire was an absolute phenomenon in its day.Not one moment of their wildly successful partnership was preserved on film and here is the irony of Astaire and Astaire: a complete biography of Fred must include mention of Adele -- generally considered to be the more naturally talented of the two siblings -- and yet when... | 28 | |
| Author: Fast Eddy "Fast" (Miami).. | If you grew up watching Fred Astaire dancing in those early black and white musicals as I did, then this is a book for you to learn about his sister Adele. I had no idea that Fred and Adele Astaire were so enormously popular as a stage act in both London and New York prior to Adele's retirement and Fred's film career. She was apparently the anchor in the stage act, much as Grace Allen was for George Burns. The author's liberal use of reviews from the stage era of the Astaires' act bring alive what it must have been like to see them in a theater. Fast Eddy | 27 | |
