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Hermes Pan
The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire
John Franceschina
320 pages
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55 photographs
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235x156mm
978-0-19-975429-8
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Hardback
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28 June 2012
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- The first full biography of this important choreographer
- Based on access to unpublished documents
- Includes many unpublished photographs
- Discusses Pan's work and creativity in full, each and every one of his films and theatre works
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.Readership: Fans and students of Hollywood musicals, Astaire-Rogers aficionados, general readers of biographies, students of the dance and of choreography.
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John Franceschina, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University, USA 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.
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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
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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