Puttin' on the Ritz: Fred Astaire and the Fine Art of Panache
Peter J. Levinson, . . St. Martin's, $30 (477pp) ISBN 978-0-312-35366-7
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
Reviewed on: 02/02/2009
Genre: Nonfiction