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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Honest Look at Ginger Rogers,
By Cindy Hung (West Covina, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ginger: Salute to a Star (Hardcover)
For anyone who is an admirer of Ginger Rogers, or simply likes to read about true and honest people who have found success in practicing virtues such as hard work, honesty, sobriety, and a spectactularly positive outlook on life will take great joy in learning about this wonderful woman. Dick Richards paints a very honest homage to a woman who is the symbol of the American dream. This has to be one of the most honest biographies I have ever read. It's really tricky to write about the lives of Hollywood stars because of the abundance of gossip and the constant debate about whether or not such and such part of their life is true. But Mr. Richards explains in the beginning that he is in no way trying to write a true biography, which would take much time in interviewing and getting to know Miss Rogers much better, but simply to give some praise to someone who truly deserves it...And rightly so. Ginger Rogers is someone to be greatly admired. Her integrity, her clean, healthy life is an inspiration, especially in her line of work. She was the example of the American dream and what makes you admire her more is not only her worldly reknown beauty, but her fabulous personality and sense of humor. This is a great book for anyone who wants to read about a great woman. It truly makes you want to jump up and be a better person. Though at times Mr. Richards does fall on other tangents, you can really feel how much he respects and worships Ginger Rogers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Respectful Treatment of a Star,
By
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This review is from: Ginger: Salute to a Star (Hardcover)
It's not necessary to agree with everything, in a review of someone's life...but in the context of too many nasty and factually incorrect reviews of Ginger Rogers's life...I rate Richards book highly....for his noble attempt at balancing objectivity and empathy. As it turns out, he ended his work, unknowingly, at the end of Ginger's film career...in 1965...so the book has turned out to be more definitive than intended by its author.He reviews her films in chronology, and rates them from the early period starting in 1930...to her classic period from 1933 to about 1945...and through to her period, more or less, of film decline, from 1945 to 1965. He praises strongly, where warranted...and Ginger Rogers made many timeless and wonderful films...as he points out deficiencies in scripts, indirection, and sometimes in Ginger's acting. He does this frankly, as she later did in her autobiography....and he does it, without recourse to critical rancor. How refreshing. Ginger Rogers was a imperfect human being...as she reminds us in her autobiography. Part of her private life was subject to public scrutiny which would be difficult for anyone to endure. Richards, in his creditable bio, effectively discusses her personal life; her self-admitted romanticism, mixed with her nitty-gritty realism and clean living, which makes her such an interesting woman. I don't know why he didn't interview her directly...perhaps at that time, she was just too busy living to take time off....which she eventually did in 1991, with the publication of "Ginger: My Story". She was many things...a very competent woman, hard to keep up with for any man; a romantic; a homebody who loved being married; very empathetic and helpful with many of her colleagues; a very hard worker; a woman who was on occasion hurt and vulnerable; a genuine super talent in many areas...and plus, a person who had truly tremendous spirit, enthusiasm, strength, and resilience. In late career, she had a few things to say about all the erroneous things that were said about her over the years. And, so it was, that some (notably, male) critics considered her to have become hard-hearted and egocentric....and for sure, there were instances where she was fully capable of vinegar...but Richards's biography was before her later confrontation with the "fourth estate"...and, before her official autobiography in 1991. It's generally conceded that she's been underrated compared to other great Hollywood female stars. This, as of 2008, is in process of being rectified....as her own work apart from Fred's...comes more and more to light...on TCM, and on newly released CDs. Richards respectful treatment paints us a picture of an extraordinarily giving and grateful human being who, aside from her contributions in more than 70 films, led a very exciting, very full, and very happy life in Hollywood's Golden Age.
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