Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom

by Adrienne L. McLean

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Book cover for Being Rita Hayworth

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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 aims 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. 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. The book 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.
  • ISBN13 9780813533889
  • Publish Date 30 June 2004 (first published 23 April 2004)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 2 January 2013
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Rutgers University Press
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 288
  • Language English