Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780813533896)

Who was Rita Hayworth? Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, she spent her life subjected to others' definitions of her, no matter how hard she worked to claim her own identity. Although there have been many "revelations" about her life and career, Adrienne McLean's book is the first to show that such disclosures were part of a constructed image from the outset.

McLean explores Hayworth's participation in the creation of her star persona, particularly through her work as a dancer-a subject ignored by most film scholars. The passive love goddess, as it turns out, had a unique appeal to other women who, like her, found it extraordinarily difficult to negotiate the competing demands of family, domesticity, and professional work outside the home. Being Rita Hayworth also considers the ways in which the actress has been treated by film scholarship over the years to accomplish its own goals, sometimes at her expense. Several of Hayworth's best-known star vehicles-among them Gilda (1946), Down to Earth (1947), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), and Affair in Trinidad (1952)- are discussed in depth.

Author: Adrienne L. McLean
ISBN-10: 0813533899
ISBN-13: 9780813533896
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/23/2004
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 8.94h x 6.00w x 0.71d

Review Citation(s):
Women's Review of Books 12/01/2004 pg. 31