American actress, dancer, and singer Ginger Rogers (1911-1995) made 73 films during her long career. Her RKO musicals with Fred Astaire revolutionised the genre. She won an Oscar for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940).
Dutch postcard by Fotoarchief Film en Toneel, no. 3252. Photo: RKO Radio Films. Ginger Rogers in Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich, 1936)
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 60. Photo: Radio Pictures.
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 60.B. Photo: Radio Pictures.
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 60.C. Photo: Radio Pictures.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1939, for Orologi e Cinturini Delgia. Photo: Universal.
Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in 1911 in Independence, Missouri. She was the only child of Lela Emogene née Owens, a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer, and William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer.
She was raised in Kansas City. In 1915, Rogers moved in with her grandparents while her mother made a trip to Hollywood in an effort to get an essay she had written made into a film. Lela succeeded and continued to write scripts for Fox Studios.
One of Rogers' young cousins, Helen, had a hard time pronouncing "Virginia", shortening it to "Badinda"; the nickname soon became "Ginga". When Rogers was nine years old, her mother remarried, to John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the surname Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth. Her mother became a theatre critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record.
As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a school teacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage
Rogers' entertainment career began when the traveling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. In 1925, the 14-year-old entered and won a 1925 Charleston dance contest. This launched a successful vaudeville career.
Rogers made her Broadway debut in the musical 'Top Speed', which opened on Christmas Day, 1929.
Two weeks later, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in 'Girl Crazy' by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, and her first film was A Night in a Dormitory (Harry Delmar, 1930). Her contract ended after five films, all made at the Astoria Studios in Queens - and she moved with her mother to Hollywood.
At Warner Bros, Rogers had her first successful film role as in the backstage musical 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), starring Warner Baxter and Bebe Daniels. The choreography was staged by Busby Berkeley. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and was very successful at the box office. It is now considered a classic.
The film that enamoured her to the public was the musical Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933) with Warren William and Joan Blondell. She did not have top billing but her beauty and voice were enough to have the public want more. She popularised in the film the evergreen 'We're in the Money'.
Her real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933). Throughout the 1930s, Rogers and Astaire made nine musical films at RKO, among which were some of her biggest successes: Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933), The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1934), Roberta (William A. Seiter, 1935), Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935), Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich, 1936), Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936), Shall We Dance (Mark Sandrich, 1937), Carefree (Mark Sandrich, 1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (H.C. Potter, 1939).
British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. F 195. Photo: Radio (RKO). Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich, 1936).
British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 211. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Ginger Rogers and David Niven in Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin, 1939).
French postcard by Viny, no. 7. Photo: RKO.
French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 97. Photo: RKO.
British Real Photograph postcard by Art Photo, no. 42. Photo: Radio Pictures (RKO).
Dutch postcard by J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam (J.S.A.), no. S 68. Photo: Universal International. Photo: Ginger Rogers in Magnificent Doll (Frank Borzage, 1946).
After two commercial failures with Astaire, Ginger Rogers began to branch out into dramatic films and comedies. Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough-minded theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn.
Successful comedies included Vivacious Lady (George Stevens, 1938) with James Stewart, Fifth Avenue Girl (Gregory La Cava, 1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family, and Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin, 1939), with David Niven, in which she played a shop-girl who is falsely thought to have abandoned her baby.
Her acting was well-received by critics and audiences, and she became one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1940s. Her performance in Kitty Foyle (Sam Wood, 1940) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
She followed it with the delightful comedies Tom, Dick and Harry (Garson Kanin, 1941), and The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder, 1942) with Ray Milland. In Roxie Hart (William A. Wellman, 1942), based on the same play which later served as the template for the musical 'Chicago', Rogers played a wisecracking flapper in a love triangle on trial for the murder of her lover; set in the era of prohibition. Most of the film takes place in a women's jail.
Rogers remained successful throughout the 1940s and at one point was Hollywood's highest-paid actress, but her popularity had peaked by the end of the decade. She reunited with Fred Astaire in the commercially successful The Barkleys of Broadway (Charles Walters, 1949).
After an unsuccessful period through the 1950s, Rogers made a successful return to Broadway in 1965, playing the lead role in 'Hello, Dolly!'. In 1969, she had the lead role in another long-running popular production, 'Mame'. More lead roles on Broadway followed. Rogers' autobiography 'Ginger: My Story' was published in 1991.
Ginger Rogers died of a heart attack in 1995 in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 83. Her resting place is the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. Rogers married five times with all of them ending in divorce and having no children. During her long career, she made 73 films.
British cigarette card in the Stars of Screen & Stage series by Park Drive Cigarettes, Gallaher Ltd., London & Belfast, no. 14. Photo: Radio. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Big Dutch postcard by 't Sticht / Takken, Utrecht, no. 3145. Photo montage: Film en Toneel.
Vintage card. Photo: RKO Radio Film.
French postcard by Erpé, no. 550. Photo: Film Radio (RKO).
Belgian postcard, no. 351. Photo: Warner Bros.
Spanish postcard. David Niven and Ginger Rogers in Magnificent Doll (Frank Borzage, 1946).
Spanish postcard, no. 741. Cornel Wilde and Ginger Rogers in It Had To Be You (Don Hartman, Rudolph Maté, 1947).
Belgian collectors card by Fotoprim, Brussels, presented by De Beukelaer, Biscuits and Chocolates, Anvers/Antwerpen (Antwerp), no. A 41. Photo: Warner Bros. Photo: Ginger Rogers in Perfect Strangers (Bretaigne Windust, 1950).
American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CA, no. 91. Photo: Anthony Rollo. Caption: 1980 Woodfin Camp.
Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Dutch postcard by Fotoarchief Film en Toneel, no. 3252. Photo: RKO Radio Films. Ginger Rogers in Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich, 1936)
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 60. Photo: Radio Pictures.
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 60.B. Photo: Radio Pictures.
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 60.C. Photo: Radio Pictures.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1939, for Orologi e Cinturini Delgia. Photo: Universal.
Her beauty and voice were enough to have the public want more
Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in 1911 in Independence, Missouri. She was the only child of Lela Emogene née Owens, a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer, and William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer.
She was raised in Kansas City. In 1915, Rogers moved in with her grandparents while her mother made a trip to Hollywood in an effort to get an essay she had written made into a film. Lela succeeded and continued to write scripts for Fox Studios.
One of Rogers' young cousins, Helen, had a hard time pronouncing "Virginia", shortening it to "Badinda"; the nickname soon became "Ginga". When Rogers was nine years old, her mother remarried, to John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the surname Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth. Her mother became a theatre critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record.
As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a school teacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage
Rogers' entertainment career began when the traveling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. In 1925, the 14-year-old entered and won a 1925 Charleston dance contest. This launched a successful vaudeville career.
Rogers made her Broadway debut in the musical 'Top Speed', which opened on Christmas Day, 1929.
Two weeks later, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in 'Girl Crazy' by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, and her first film was A Night in a Dormitory (Harry Delmar, 1930). Her contract ended after five films, all made at the Astoria Studios in Queens - and she moved with her mother to Hollywood.
At Warner Bros, Rogers had her first successful film role as in the backstage musical 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), starring Warner Baxter and Bebe Daniels. The choreography was staged by Busby Berkeley. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and was very successful at the box office. It is now considered a classic.
The film that enamoured her to the public was the musical Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933) with Warren William and Joan Blondell. She did not have top billing but her beauty and voice were enough to have the public want more. She popularised in the film the evergreen 'We're in the Money'.
Her real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933). Throughout the 1930s, Rogers and Astaire made nine musical films at RKO, among which were some of her biggest successes: Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933), The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1934), Roberta (William A. Seiter, 1935), Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935), Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich, 1936), Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936), Shall We Dance (Mark Sandrich, 1937), Carefree (Mark Sandrich, 1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (H.C. Potter, 1939).
British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. F 195. Photo: Radio (RKO). Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Follow the Fleet (Mark Sandrich, 1936).
British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 211. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Ginger Rogers and David Niven in Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin, 1939).
French postcard by Viny, no. 7. Photo: RKO.
French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 97. Photo: RKO.
British Real Photograph postcard by Art Photo, no. 42. Photo: Radio Pictures (RKO).
Dutch postcard by J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam (J.S.A.), no. S 68. Photo: Universal International. Photo: Ginger Rogers in Magnificent Doll (Frank Borzage, 1946).
One of the biggest box-office draws of the 1940s
After two commercial failures with Astaire, Ginger Rogers began to branch out into dramatic films and comedies. Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough-minded theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn.
Successful comedies included Vivacious Lady (George Stevens, 1938) with James Stewart, Fifth Avenue Girl (Gregory La Cava, 1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family, and Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin, 1939), with David Niven, in which she played a shop-girl who is falsely thought to have abandoned her baby.
Her acting was well-received by critics and audiences, and she became one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1940s. Her performance in Kitty Foyle (Sam Wood, 1940) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
She followed it with the delightful comedies Tom, Dick and Harry (Garson Kanin, 1941), and The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder, 1942) with Ray Milland. In Roxie Hart (William A. Wellman, 1942), based on the same play which later served as the template for the musical 'Chicago', Rogers played a wisecracking flapper in a love triangle on trial for the murder of her lover; set in the era of prohibition. Most of the film takes place in a women's jail.
Rogers remained successful throughout the 1940s and at one point was Hollywood's highest-paid actress, but her popularity had peaked by the end of the decade. She reunited with Fred Astaire in the commercially successful The Barkleys of Broadway (Charles Walters, 1949).
After an unsuccessful period through the 1950s, Rogers made a successful return to Broadway in 1965, playing the lead role in 'Hello, Dolly!'. In 1969, she had the lead role in another long-running popular production, 'Mame'. More lead roles on Broadway followed. Rogers' autobiography 'Ginger: My Story' was published in 1991.
Ginger Rogers died of a heart attack in 1995 in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 83. Her resting place is the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. Rogers married five times with all of them ending in divorce and having no children. During her long career, she made 73 films.
British cigarette card in the Stars of Screen & Stage series by Park Drive Cigarettes, Gallaher Ltd., London & Belfast, no. 14. Photo: Radio. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Big Dutch postcard by 't Sticht / Takken, Utrecht, no. 3145. Photo montage: Film en Toneel.
Vintage card. Photo: RKO Radio Film.
French postcard by Erpé, no. 550. Photo: Film Radio (RKO).
Belgian postcard, no. 351. Photo: Warner Bros.
Spanish postcard. David Niven and Ginger Rogers in Magnificent Doll (Frank Borzage, 1946).
Spanish postcard, no. 741. Cornel Wilde and Ginger Rogers in It Had To Be You (Don Hartman, Rudolph Maté, 1947).
Belgian collectors card by Fotoprim, Brussels, presented by De Beukelaer, Biscuits and Chocolates, Anvers/Antwerpen (Antwerp), no. A 41. Photo: Warner Bros. Photo: Ginger Rogers in Perfect Strangers (Bretaigne Windust, 1950).
American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CA, no. 91. Photo: Anthony Rollo. Caption: 1980 Woodfin Camp.
Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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