Shall We Dance: The Life of Ginger Rogers

by Sheridan Morley

Chronicles the life and career of the dancer and actress, including her five failed marriages and film highlights with dancing partner Fred Astaire

Genres: Biography

96 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1995

About the author

Sheridan A. Morley (5 December 1941 − 16 February 2007) was an English author, biographer, critic and broadcaster. He was the official biographer of Sir John Gielgud and wrote biographies of many other theatrical figures he had known, including Noël Coward.

Morley was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson, via his mother Joan Buckmaster, of the actress Dame Gladys Cooper.

Reviews

[Peter M. B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great photos, but the text is horrendous: error-filled, poorly researched, and mean-spirited. The author has no understanding of the magic and joy that Ginger Rogers gave to her huge number of fans, past and present—and furthermore made no effort to try to understand it. He actually quotes a critic as saying that tap dancing is one of the most pointless activities imaginable. He also criticizes Ginger for her optimistic and cheery personality. He put so little effort into the writing of this book that simple facts and quotes are mangled at a prodigious rate.

This book unfortunately reveals far more about the author than it does the subject.

[Stasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely pictures! From a classier age. ❤️

[Train · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book received such bad reviews on amazon because it is bad.
The author Sheridan seems to have a strong dislike for Miss Rogers.
He seems to think she has no real talent and I would advise people to read the amazon reviews than if you want to read it order it from the library.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light quick read with lots of vintage photos and movie art. It gets terrible reviews at Amazon because Morley wasn't completely worshipful of Rogers, but I liked his irreverence.

[Lp]

I'd love to read this. I read Astaire's "Steps in Time" when I was really young (8? 9?) and was disappointed to learn that he was more interested in horses than dancing.