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Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom
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.
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.
- GenresFilmBiographyNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 23, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 17, 2013
This book was a breath of fresh air. It is a critical analysis of Rita Hayworth’s career, put into the context of women’s labor in the 1940’s and 50’s, and more specifically the demands of Hollywood stardom and the contradictory messages disseminated through popular writing about her. I read this book simultaneously with Barbara Leaming’s occasionally seamy biography of Hayworth, “If This Was Happiness”. I found it a tad sensational and lacking in real insight both historically and cinematically. Little analysis is given to Hayworth’s films, and some are barely mentioned. At times, the author of this study seems bent on correcting all of Leaming’s oversights by giving Hayworth’s career and artistry (particularly her dancing) their long overdue analysis. At times this book seems to be having a conversation with Leaming’s biography, which I can understand because I too found Leaming’s constant refrain about childhood sexual abuse to be off-putting, even though completely I agree that of all missing pieces of Hayworth’s puzzle, the abuse theory fits best.
The first half of the book focuses on her early life and her construction as a star. The author does not attempt to say with any authority what are the facts of Rita’s childhood; rather, she is primarily concerned with how the studios shaped this narrative to fit their own needs over time. The assumption we have today that Hayworth’s physical transformation and name change served to hide her Hispanic heritage is false. Even when she was ascending to the heights of her stardom during her second marriage, the press focused on her child’s pedigree from a family of talented Spanish dancers, not as the child of radio/film/theater genius Orson Welles. Later, however, during her divorce from Prince Aly Khan, Rita is constructed as an All-American woman returning home and trying to raise her daughter in a wholesome manner, not as a disempowered Muslim girl.
The author focuses heavily on the contradictions in Hayworth’s press coverage in order to explore the double bind that women faced in the postwar era. The author states that a star’s problem in Hollywood is that “a star’s success in the studio hierarchy depended on her willingness to forgo home and family life in favor of labor to publicize her home and family life in addition, of course, to making and publicizing films.” While on the one hand Rita is applauded for her work ethic and sense of cooperation on the set, she is then criticized for not being home enough for her husband(s) and children. This despite the fact that as a single mother, she needed to work to support her daughters. She may be constructed glamorously as always looking for love (particularly after being dubbed “The Love Goddess”), but is then criticized if her dating/married life takes her away from work and motherhood. After divorce #3 she’s no longer portrayed as “sad or lonely outside of marriage but rather as sad and lonely within the wrong ones.” The press finally got it right!
Rita Hayworth, by all accounts, really did hew closely to society’s ideal of homelife. Somehow, though, she ended up with men who proved to be the opposite of what she wanted. Perhaps this was because she also sought someone who would take her away from Hollywood and Harry Cohn. Orson Welles had promised her a life as a politician’s wife but eventually gave up his aspirations to return to film. Aly Khan did take her away, but he never wanted her to stop being a movie star, and their life was lived even more demanding and public than what she had in Hollywood. That’s not to say that she did not take pride in her work – indeed, her disdain for Aly Khan’s freeloaders demonstrates exactly how much she did value her own work. Yet, under the wrong influence Dick Haymes, she would dissolve the Beckworth Corporation, her production company that got her 25% of her films’ profits, in addition to her $250,000 salary.
The first two chapters are about her natal family and her marriages, and how the stories have changed over time. The following three chapters focus on films from the height of her career. I would have loved to know more about her films with Fred Astaire, “You’ll Never Get Rich” and “You Were Never Lovelier” as I have found their dance scenes to be among the most exciting in all of Hollywood, even greater than Astaire & Rogers numbers. But what the author does focus on is quite interesting. She compares “Gilda” and “The Lady From Shanghai”, finding that while the former built her star image into something dynamic and unassailable, the latter nearly emptied this persona of its charm, wit, and life, leaving something passive and insubstantial. Did Orson Welles need to assassinate the character of ‘Rita Hayworth’ in order to burnish his own fallen-golden-boy image? “The Lady From Shanghai” may be Hayworth’s most analyzed film in academia, but it is only because of Welles’ directorial touches, not Hayworth’s performance. Welles did more than cut and bleach her famous hair, he made her completely lifeless and inert, whereas all of Hayworth’s most memorable scenes involve dynamic and assured movement, even in the “Put the Blame on Mame” number, which Gilda performs drunk and emotional – but still knowing full well what she is doing.
The author focuses heavily on Rita’s dancing, as she believes we can best get to know Rita Hayworth through her own agency built upon training, discipline and collaboration. Even lackluster films such as “The Loves of Carmen” and “Salome” are immensely enjoyable when she does anything physical. In her analysis of “Gilda” and “The Lady From Shanghai” the author demonstrates how film critics and dance critics have completely differing views on Rita Hayworth and her films. I learned much about dance styles reading about Rita’s early films and what she was proficient in. She is noted as being one of the greatest Hollywood dancers above the waist, meaning that her movements and follow through are unmatched, as is her timing and grace. Her legs face forward, so anything more ballet-like that involve pliés, she can do well but not fantastic. However, the breadth of her training and abilities are startling when you watch her films back to back.
There is great analysis of Rita’s modern scattering and gathering moves in “Gilda”, but the best analysis of her dancing is in the chapter on “Affair in Trinidad” which was choreographed by a woman, Valerie Bettis, who is quoted extensively. She stated in the 1970s that her collaboration with Rita Hayworth on this and “Salome” was her most fulfilling in Hollywood. (There was another female authorial voice on “Affair in Trinidad”, that of producer/writer Virginia Van Upp, who had written “Cover Girl” and produced “Gilda”.) The author also examines throughout this book how much attention is paid by (mostly male) film critics on male choreographers such as Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Hermes Pan, but little attention is paid to their female partners or to female choreographers. The author shows how the first dance number in “Affair in Trinidad” is an exercise in female agency, being more sensual and pleasurable for her own sake, and unencumbered by shoes, while the second dance number is about the articulation of feminine artifice, to distract the male spectators in the film at a crucial moment. Watching Hayworth dance in this film after a four year absence from the screen, one gets the distinct feeling that she has become a mature woman grown confident through weathering the vicissitudes of life. Bettis and Hayworth’s experience on “Salome” was not as good. The author writes, “Although there is considerable extratextual evidence that the pair meant Salome’s “dance of the seven veils,” which they rehearsed for many weeks before filming began, to be a “serious” dance, they apparently had no control over how the dance was shot and edited. There are glimpses of a virtuosic and unusual movement quality, but Hayworth’s body here is fragmented into legs, arms, hands, head, breasts, and bare torso by camerawork and cutting.”
I hope I have not made this book sound too dry or academic. It is immensely enjoyable and compulsively readable. There is true love and compassion for the subject, and the author valiantly hopes to rescue Rita Hayworth’s image and reputation from the meager surviving facts (and subsequent suppositions) of her life. Rita Hayworth, one of the greatest female stars of the studio era, is also impossible to know. Many of her husbands were not permitted to disclose anything about their marriages, and she does not seem to have had many close friends, at least any who were willing to talk about her. This book attempts to get to know her by reading between the lines of her publicity, and by letting her hard work, particularly as a dancer, speak for itself. I do wish that there was further analysis of her post-Columbia ‘serious acting,’ as that does not exist elsewhere. But no one else would have written the splendid and quite humorous chapter on “Down to Earth”, which I have not mentioned here. I don’t think I would have enjoyed “Down to Earth” at all had I not learned a bit about dance with this book. In addition, the author looks at the film’s bizarre internal logic with tongue in cheek, which was quite enjoyable. If you are interested in alternative history of Hollywood stars, or wish to look at a different kind of postwar ‘women’s work’—do yourself a favor and read this book.
The first half of the book focuses on her early life and her construction as a star. The author does not attempt to say with any authority what are the facts of Rita’s childhood; rather, she is primarily concerned with how the studios shaped this narrative to fit their own needs over time. The assumption we have today that Hayworth’s physical transformation and name change served to hide her Hispanic heritage is false. Even when she was ascending to the heights of her stardom during her second marriage, the press focused on her child’s pedigree from a family of talented Spanish dancers, not as the child of radio/film/theater genius Orson Welles. Later, however, during her divorce from Prince Aly Khan, Rita is constructed as an All-American woman returning home and trying to raise her daughter in a wholesome manner, not as a disempowered Muslim girl.
The author focuses heavily on the contradictions in Hayworth’s press coverage in order to explore the double bind that women faced in the postwar era. The author states that a star’s problem in Hollywood is that “a star’s success in the studio hierarchy depended on her willingness to forgo home and family life in favor of labor to publicize her home and family life in addition, of course, to making and publicizing films.” While on the one hand Rita is applauded for her work ethic and sense of cooperation on the set, she is then criticized for not being home enough for her husband(s) and children. This despite the fact that as a single mother, she needed to work to support her daughters. She may be constructed glamorously as always looking for love (particularly after being dubbed “The Love Goddess”), but is then criticized if her dating/married life takes her away from work and motherhood. After divorce #3 she’s no longer portrayed as “sad or lonely outside of marriage but rather as sad and lonely within the wrong ones.” The press finally got it right!
Rita Hayworth, by all accounts, really did hew closely to society’s ideal of homelife. Somehow, though, she ended up with men who proved to be the opposite of what she wanted. Perhaps this was because she also sought someone who would take her away from Hollywood and Harry Cohn. Orson Welles had promised her a life as a politician’s wife but eventually gave up his aspirations to return to film. Aly Khan did take her away, but he never wanted her to stop being a movie star, and their life was lived even more demanding and public than what she had in Hollywood. That’s not to say that she did not take pride in her work – indeed, her disdain for Aly Khan’s freeloaders demonstrates exactly how much she did value her own work. Yet, under the wrong influence Dick Haymes, she would dissolve the Beckworth Corporation, her production company that got her 25% of her films’ profits, in addition to her $250,000 salary.
The first two chapters are about her natal family and her marriages, and how the stories have changed over time. The following three chapters focus on films from the height of her career. I would have loved to know more about her films with Fred Astaire, “You’ll Never Get Rich” and “You Were Never Lovelier” as I have found their dance scenes to be among the most exciting in all of Hollywood, even greater than Astaire & Rogers numbers. But what the author does focus on is quite interesting. She compares “Gilda” and “The Lady From Shanghai”, finding that while the former built her star image into something dynamic and unassailable, the latter nearly emptied this persona of its charm, wit, and life, leaving something passive and insubstantial. Did Orson Welles need to assassinate the character of ‘Rita Hayworth’ in order to burnish his own fallen-golden-boy image? “The Lady From Shanghai” may be Hayworth’s most analyzed film in academia, but it is only because of Welles’ directorial touches, not Hayworth’s performance. Welles did more than cut and bleach her famous hair, he made her completely lifeless and inert, whereas all of Hayworth’s most memorable scenes involve dynamic and assured movement, even in the “Put the Blame on Mame” number, which Gilda performs drunk and emotional – but still knowing full well what she is doing.
The author focuses heavily on Rita’s dancing, as she believes we can best get to know Rita Hayworth through her own agency built upon training, discipline and collaboration. Even lackluster films such as “The Loves of Carmen” and “Salome” are immensely enjoyable when she does anything physical. In her analysis of “Gilda” and “The Lady From Shanghai” the author demonstrates how film critics and dance critics have completely differing views on Rita Hayworth and her films. I learned much about dance styles reading about Rita’s early films and what she was proficient in. She is noted as being one of the greatest Hollywood dancers above the waist, meaning that her movements and follow through are unmatched, as is her timing and grace. Her legs face forward, so anything more ballet-like that involve pliés, she can do well but not fantastic. However, the breadth of her training and abilities are startling when you watch her films back to back.
There is great analysis of Rita’s modern scattering and gathering moves in “Gilda”, but the best analysis of her dancing is in the chapter on “Affair in Trinidad” which was choreographed by a woman, Valerie Bettis, who is quoted extensively. She stated in the 1970s that her collaboration with Rita Hayworth on this and “Salome” was her most fulfilling in Hollywood. (There was another female authorial voice on “Affair in Trinidad”, that of producer/writer Virginia Van Upp, who had written “Cover Girl” and produced “Gilda”.) The author also examines throughout this book how much attention is paid by (mostly male) film critics on male choreographers such as Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Hermes Pan, but little attention is paid to their female partners or to female choreographers. The author shows how the first dance number in “Affair in Trinidad” is an exercise in female agency, being more sensual and pleasurable for her own sake, and unencumbered by shoes, while the second dance number is about the articulation of feminine artifice, to distract the male spectators in the film at a crucial moment. Watching Hayworth dance in this film after a four year absence from the screen, one gets the distinct feeling that she has become a mature woman grown confident through weathering the vicissitudes of life. Bettis and Hayworth’s experience on “Salome” was not as good. The author writes, “Although there is considerable extratextual evidence that the pair meant Salome’s “dance of the seven veils,” which they rehearsed for many weeks before filming began, to be a “serious” dance, they apparently had no control over how the dance was shot and edited. There are glimpses of a virtuosic and unusual movement quality, but Hayworth’s body here is fragmented into legs, arms, hands, head, breasts, and bare torso by camerawork and cutting.”
I hope I have not made this book sound too dry or academic. It is immensely enjoyable and compulsively readable. There is true love and compassion for the subject, and the author valiantly hopes to rescue Rita Hayworth’s image and reputation from the meager surviving facts (and subsequent suppositions) of her life. Rita Hayworth, one of the greatest female stars of the studio era, is also impossible to know. Many of her husbands were not permitted to disclose anything about their marriages, and she does not seem to have had many close friends, at least any who were willing to talk about her. This book attempts to get to know her by reading between the lines of her publicity, and by letting her hard work, particularly as a dancer, speak for itself. I do wish that there was further analysis of her post-Columbia ‘serious acting,’ as that does not exist elsewhere. But no one else would have written the splendid and quite humorous chapter on “Down to Earth”, which I have not mentioned here. I don’t think I would have enjoyed “Down to Earth” at all had I not learned a bit about dance with this book. In addition, the author looks at the film’s bizarre internal logic with tongue in cheek, which was quite enjoyable. If you are interested in alternative history of Hollywood stars, or wish to look at a different kind of postwar ‘women’s work’—do yourself a favor and read this book.
June 26, 2019
If you want to read about Rita Hayworth this is not the book for you. If you want to listen to someone blather on about their in depth subjective opinions about her movies for the sake of their own ego here you go. This book is awful
August 26, 2013
Very good feminist analysis of how people used Rita Hayworth's various identities to their advantage, favorite is the part criticizing white fans of Rita Hayworth's career attributing all of Rita Hayworth's depression to her early life with her father, as well as showing how Rita Hayworth's image as a woman with a dark childhood/family life was constructed in her time. Really well researched, so damn good.
April 27, 2013
Fascinating excellent study of the star persona of Rita Hayworth. This is a very well researched perceptive and convincing book.
August 14, 2015
An insightful, but accessible analysis of Hayworth's career and image.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews