Rating: 
Summary: A book worth reading...
Review: This book is actually one big anecdote, peppered with little things like Mr. A's first punch, trying to figure out a title for the book, and meeting his wife, Phyllis.However, Fred Astaire does not offer much insight on how he got from point A to Z, or what made him do this and that. In other words, people who want the whys (and plan to psychoanalyze Mr. A's actions) will not find what they are looking for. It's still a great read though, and real entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: A really good read!
Review: This is a really wonderful auto-biography, by Fred Astaire. It was really interesting to read about his life, stage and film career. Any one who is a fan of Fred Astaire, or of musicals would really like this book. He did such wonderful movies, and was a great dancer.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: When I read an autobiography of a great person I look for insights into: What makes this person great? What specifically has he done, and what experiences and thought processes has he undergone, that shaped him to be the master of his domain? This is what makes a great autobiography fascinating. You search not only for WHAT he's saying, but also HOW is he saying it. Not only what he's done, but how he got there and his thoughts about it. Unfortunately, in this book Fred Astaire offers no such insights. This book is filled with facts that are largely uninteresting to me - on this and that date he met Mr. So and So and did such and such movie with such and such lovely star with such and such lovely songs by such and such great composer through such and such studio.... Brief, factual stories. These facts have their value, and his fans might want to know them, but when they make up an entire book without offering any further depth, I cannot but end up feeling dissatisfied and wanting for more. As I was reading I kept on hoping that sooner or later I would get to a chapter where Astaire offers some meat, some idea as to who he was, his thoughts and views, insights into his personality and brilliance, some of his methods and perhaps even masterly advice. When I passed the 300th page of this 325-page book and still haven't found it, I finally had to admit to myself that it ain't happenin'. Even his humor and the small points he emphasizes here and there are rather trivial. As much as I'm a devout fan of his incredible dancing skills (some of which I emulate in my own dancing), I must say that after having seen all of his movies and read this book I've come to the conclusion that there's something rather empty about him as a person, a quality that comes out in his art as well. This might be sacrilegious, but that's how I feel. True, his movements are unmatched, angelic to perfection and a sheer pleasure to the eye, but I have yet to feel that he's got more substance or depth to him other than these masterful movements. In all his fantastic movements, and in all his wonderful movies, I've yet to see him really moved - not even once. I finally found SOMETHING to nibble on at the end of the book, literally on the final page. There he frankly admits that he's got "disappointingly little to say" about "the history and the philosophy of 'the dance'". But, Mr. Fred, I'm not asking you to teach us the evolution and history of dancing! I can get that information from other sources. I am asking you to offer us some idea how YOU think! surely you've some ideas about dancing and what separates you from all other dancers in the world! Or maybe not? If he did, he surely kept it from us. He does offer one clue though, on that same page. In it he tells us that he wanted to keep the "basic principles of balance and grace" of ballet, but felt "there should be no limitations". He says, "I wanted to do all my dancing my own way, in a sort of outlaw style. I always resented being told that I couldn't point my toe in, or some other such rule." Now we know something about him! (although I could have guessed that just by watching him dance..) In what probably is the most revealing remark in the book, still on that last page, he writes: "I have never used [dancing] as an outlet or as a means of expressing myself". The impression I have - from seeing all his movies and this book confirmed it to me - is that in fact he had little to express. He's a master technician and a master of grace, but where is Fred Astaire, the man, in all this? Have we merely scratched the surface of his intellect and emotion, or is this surface all there is to him? There are two options here. Either he's truly a very ordinary man who happened to have a truly extra-ordinary gift, and therefore he cannot articulate what he does not have, or that he actually does have a philosophy of life, and it goes something like this: 'Nothing needs to be taken seriously because life is utterly inane and meaningless. It's enough to be decent (which he certainly was), and beyond that, pray don't think or feel too much.. just dance!'
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