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Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution |
Author: Eve Golden
Published: 2007-11-30 |
List price: $40.00
Our price: $32.60
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As of: September 05th, 2008 02:17:13 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Lost Worlds
As with Eve Golden's previous biographies, "The Castles" (to save space) combines extensive research with a very readable and entertaining style. What I like about her writing is that Ms.Golden evokes not just the lives of Vernon and Irene Castle, but the era from which they emerged and which they influenced. As with her previous books, especially those on Anna Held and Kay Kendall, she takes figures who have sadly slipped from the public consciousness and places them back into their social context and thus reinstates their importance. Anyone interested in Twentieth Century dance (and, in fact, the history of popular entertainment in the last century) will enjoy this book. One should not, however, expect a dry academic tome: she is much too smart a writer for that. Her sly (and dry) sense of humour makes for an easy and entertaining read. Highly recommended!
Before Fred and Ginger there was Vernon and Irene
I was so thrilled to find this book. As a longtime fan of classic movies I was familiar with the movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and I always wondered how much of the story was true since Hollywood biographical films are notorious for playing fast and loose with the facts. This is a well written and researched biography of the famous husband and wife dance team. I'm so glad that after the passage of so many years there was enough information still available for Ms. Golden to write this book, some have never been published before, like the fact that they planned to divorce after Vernon returned from the war. She was even able to interview Irene Castle's son by a later marriage and the daughter of the woman who might have become Vernon's second wife if he had not died so tragically during World War I. I highly recommend this book, along with Ms. Golden's previous biographies of Jean Harlow, Theda Bara, and Anna Held, to anyone interested in theatrical and movie history and to fans of the Astaire and Rogers movie who would like to know the true story.
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