HERMES PAN MAN DANCED FRED AST

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-975429-8
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 554 g

Hermes Pan: The Man who Danced with Fred Astaire is a rags-to-riches story about a boy from Tennessee who, armed with only an 8th grade education, an inexhaustible imagination, and an innate talent for dancing, becomes the most prolific and popular choreographer of the glory days of the Hollywood musical. As luck would have it, Pan's movie career began and ended working with Fred Astaire, the most famous dancer on film. The pair made nearly two dozen movies
and television shows together and in Astaire, Pan found an artistic soul mate with whom he would develop a symbiotic relationship for the rest of his life. A devout Roman Catholic, Hermes was interested in perfecting the souls as well as the physical technique of his dancers and the book explores the profound
effect he had on the lives of stars such as June Haver, Ann Miller, Rita Hayworth, Linda Darnell, Ginger Rogers, and Betty Grable. The book examines each of Pan's eighty-nine films offering a panoramic view of Pan's choreography from "Flying Down to Rio" in 1933 to "Aiutami a sognare" (Help Me Dream) in 1980 and comments on the development of Pan's art throughout his fifty-year career. Although Pan lived what many considered a life without scandal or controversy, as a Catholic and homosexual
gentleman living as one of the "A-List" of Hollywood's elite, Pan had many personal conflicts and doubts. The book explores these in full along with his unease with the film community, his spiritual vocation as well as his artistic philosophies.

The self-made choreographer of films such as "Top Hat", "Swing Time", "Moon Over Miami", "Kiss Me Kate", "Can-Can", "My Fair Lady", "Porgy and Bess", and "Cleopatra", Hermes Pan is proof that the American Dream is still alive.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Franceschina, John

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Tanz
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Musicals

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
1. Black Bottom to Broadway
2. Try Dancing
3. Fifteen Cents a Dance
4. The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire
5. Chica Chica Boom Chic
6. Red Robins, Bob Whites, and Bluebirds
7. Wonderful Nonsense
8. He Could Make a Wooden Indian Dance
9. The Life of an Elephant
10. Star Turns
11. Seventy-Five Watusi Witch Doctors
12. Help Me Dream
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

John Franceschina is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theatre at The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of Sisters of Gore: Seven Gothic Melodramas by British Women, Gore on Stage: The Plays of Catherine Gore, Homosexualities in the English Theatre from Lyly to Wilde, The Dramatic Works of the Marquis de Sade (3 volumes), Duke Ellington's Music for the Theater, David Braham: The
American Offenbach, Harry B. Smith: Dean of American Librettists, They Started Talking: The Autobiography of Frank Tuttle, Socialists, Socialites, and Sociopaths: The Plays of Frank Tuttle, and Against the Grain: Theatre from Ritual to Realism.