Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies.

Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies By Lauren Redniss. New York: ReganBooks, 2006. 208 pp. Hardcover, $34.95.

Not many people survive an entire century, let alone spend it dancing. But Doris Eaton Travis, 102, an original Ziegfeld Follies performer, has done just that. "I get the impulse to move ... I don't have to do backbends and nip-ups and cartwheels anymore," she says, "but I am very active."

In Century Girl, author and artist Lauren Redniss has created a scrapbook of Travis' life with witty drawings over-lapping vintage photographs. Looking through these pages feels more like watching a movie than reading a book. As Redniss tells the story, Travis frequently interrupts, reminiscing about the Follies and the people she's met--like Irving Berlin, John Wayne, and Arthur Murray.

Travis joined the Follies at 14 and was immediately in the spotlight. She was constantly described as a desirable beauty. American Weekly claimed that she had ideal American lips; the Los Angeles Daily News reported her toes were insured for $10,000.

This lush, visually alluring book would make a great gift that would sit on a coffee table rather than a bookshelf. Picking it up and flipping through the pages, one sees new details, artistically and historically, at each glance.