The most beautiful man in the world
Subtitle: Paul Swan, from Wilde to Warhol
By: Janis Londraville and Richard Londraville ; foreword by Emily W. Leider.
Contributors: Londraville, Richard, 1933-
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
ISBN-13: 9780803229693
Subjects: Swan, Paul, 1883-1972.; Dancers -- United States -- Biography.; Motion picture actors and actresses -- United States -- Biography.; Painters -- United States -- Biography.; Sculptors -- United States -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "When Andy Warhol cast Paul Swan (1883-1972) in three films in the mid-1960s, he knew that the octogenarian had once been internationally hailed as "the most beautiful man in the world" and as "Nijinsky's successor." Arthur Hammerstein had advertised Swan as "a reincarnated Greek God," and George and Ira Gershwin had celebrated his beauty in their musical Funny Face."

"What Warhol didn't know was that Swan had also been called "America's Leonardo," portrait artist of the famous and the infamous, including writer Willa Cather, aviator Charles Lindbergh, British Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald, and dictator Benito Mussolini. This book is the first to tell Swan's story, from his days as a world-famous dancer and artist, through his film career - which ran from silent pictures, including De Mille's Ten Commandments (1923), to Warhol's Camp, Paul Swan, and Paul Swan I-IV (1965) - to his portrait painting late in life when Nelson Rockefeller's children, Malachy McCourt, and Pope Paul VI were among his subjects."

"Janis and Richard Londraville reconstruct the intriguing life of this uniquely interesting figure, whose story, although widely glossed in the press, was until now never fully known."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Andy Warhol and the rebirth of Paul Swan; title: Cold Comfort Farm, 1880-1897; title: Mentors and lovers, 1897-1906; title: Apprentices for Adonis, 1906-1911; title: "America's premier dancer," 1911-1921; title: All the world's a stage, 1921-1925; title: Death and the celebrity, 1926-1929; title: Ateliers, 1930-1933; title: Winds of war, 1933-1938; title: Farewells, 1938-1939; title: The Carnegie Club, 1940-1950; title: Holding on, 1951-1960; title: Diminuendo, 1961-1972.