42nd Street 1933 Directed by Lloyd Bacon Warners/Vitaphone B/W

Una Merkel. Ruby Keeler, George E. Stone,            Warner Baxter and Ginger

Darryl Zanuck got the word from the Warner Bros. office…”No musicals!”. So he wrote his scripts for the film in duplicate, one with music and one without. During the day while Jack Warner was watching, Zanuck and director Lloyd Bacon shot the non-musical version and, at night, they filmed the musical numbers. Then the two of them combined the sections and showed the full cut to Jack Warner and sent a print on to Harry, his brother, in New York. Jack knew he had been flummoxed and Harry wired back that it was the greatest picture idea that they had sent him in five years. The movie was nominated for an Oscar but lost to “Cavalcade” that year.

When Joan Blondell dropped out of the role, Ginger stepped in as Anytime Annie, a fast-talking chorus girl with a monocle, a cane and a sassy attitude (‘the only time she said no was when she didn’t hear the question”). But Ginger herself should have said no when RKO had her sign that ridiculous “non-starring contract”.

Credit a lot of this film’s success to the wizardry of dance director Busby Berkeley.

Gold Diggers of 1933 Directed by Mervyn LeRoy Warners/Vitaphone B/W

"We're in the Money"

They say Ginger’s offscreen romance with director LeRoy got her the part of Fay Fortune but nonetheless she did the role justice. Reunited with Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and dance director Busby Berkeley, Ginger opened the picture with her rendition of “We’re in the Money” in pig latin (a craze at the time) and dressed in gold coins. It became her only musical number after they cut her second one (dressed in black chiffon and sequins and perched on a white piano). As Ginger tells it, she was fooling around after a strenuous rehearsal and started to change the lyrics around to pig latin. Warner Bros. executive Darryl Zanuck was passing by and overheard her. He insisted that it be included in the film.

Oh, by the way, not long after she filmed this picture, Mervyn LeRoy dropped her for the the boss’s daughter, Doris Warner but apparently his efforts were not in vain…Ginger’s career took off like a meteor.

Professional Sweetheart 1933 Directed by William Seiter RKO B/W

Ginger with Norman Foster

This is what happens when you sign a “non-starring contract”. Ginger was given the lead as a radio entertainer in this poorly written story devised to attack radio’s sacred cows. As the “Purity Girl” she wants to drop the image and have some fun but her manager would have none of it. In this role, Ginger was given only one song to sing titled “My Imaginary Sweetheart”. When she saw the final cut she realized that it wasn’t the sweetheart that was imaginary…it was her voice. The studio had actually dubbed her only vocal with the voice of black singer Etta Moten. It was the only time in Ginger’s career that anyone else sang for her!

But the non-starring contract she signed was soon to be invalidated. Mama Lela held RKO’s feet to the fire until they coughed up a 7 year contract. They surrendered and immediately put Ginger to work in a musical….called “Flying Down to Rio”.

Flying Down to Rio 1933 Directed by Thornton Freeland RKO B/W

Fred and Ginger!

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers only danced together once in this movie…but when they danced it was dynamite. Ginger sang the title song with a gold-clad chorus line on…the wings of a plane! She also sang “Music Makes Me” while Dolores Del Rio danced with Fred. But when Fred and Ginger put their heads together for the “Carioca” they created cinema history. The dance itself became a national craze and every review of the film mentioned them.

The dance duo put in long hours of rehearsal for that number but they would reap the benefits long after they went their separate ways. RKO also rejoiced…the cash register was playing a lovely new melody!

The Gay Divorcee 1934 Directed by Mark Sandrich RKO B/W

Dancing the Continental!

This was the second pairing of Fred and Ginger by popular demand. Fred had done this Cole Porter musical on Broadway (where it was titled ‘The Gay Divorce”). But since the Production Code determined a divorce was not to be portrayed as a fun thing, the title and even the score was changed. Only one Cole Porter was retained (my favorite dance number is the one that Fred and Ginger danced to the haunting “Night and Day”).

The “Continental” like the Carioca before it, was the big production number. Originally a whopping 35 minutes long, it was eventually cut to 16 and was still the longest dance number in Hollywood history at that time. It won the first Academy Award ever given to a Best Song.

Top Hat 1935 Directed by Mark Sandrich RKO B/W

FEATHERS!

Here we had it all...Fred and Ginger, an Irving Berlin score and a great script. The movie got four Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Song…”Cheek to Cheek” by Irving Berlin, Best Dance Director Hermes Pan and Best Art Directors Polglase & Clark.). But what was the biggest story on and off the set? …it was FEATHERS!

Ginger loved feathers. She was pictured earlier in her career swathed in ostrich and she asked the designer to create a pure blue satin creation high in front, low in back and lots of ostrich feathers for the “Cheek to Cheek” number. Bernard Newman designed exactly what she ordered. When the gown arrived on the set, it got thumbs down from Fred, Mark Sandrich and even the camera man. They sent her a dress she had worn in “The Gay Divorcee”. Ginger sent it back. They argued, she argued back. But she had a secret weapon….she called her mother. Mama laid down the Rogers law…..what Ginger wants, Ginger gets! The gown stayed in the film. But when the two danced, the feathers flew and had to be singly knotted to the fabric. From that day on, Fred referred to Ginger as “Feathers”. And directors were forewarned to double-check all of Ginger’s wardrobe selections!

Shall We Dance 1937 Directed by Mark Sandrich RKO B/W

Dancing on skates

This is the 7th pairing of Astaire and Rogers but the only one completely scored by George and Ira Gershwin. Fred and Ginger do “Let’s Call the Whole Thing off” on roller skates!

But after this film, Ginger and Fred took time off to do other things. Fred went into “A Damsel in Distress” and danced with 19 year old Joan Fontaine. Ginger heeded Mama Lela’s advice to stop all the singing and dancing and get her teeth into real dramatic roles. RKO, with one ear to Mama and Ginger and one eye on the box office, decided they were both right.

Ginger and Fred would only make 2 more films together at RKO.

Now I have been watching all the Fred and Ginger movies and there hasn’t been even the hint of a buss, a smackeroo, a lips-to-lips conversation. Ginger tells us in her book that Fred took her out in New York after they met during “Girl Crazy” and when he kissed her goodnight it took 5 minutes. Well, that was the only one she would ever get. In Hollywood, nothing happens! All he needed to do was just come up with a little kiss. Ginger says it may have been because his wife, Phyllis Astaire, brought her knitting to the set and kept one eye on the purling and the other eye on Ginger. I guess he had to restrict all the romance to dancing cheek to cheek.

Stage Door 1937 Directed by Gregory La Cava RKO B/W

Ginger with Adolphe Menjou and Kate Hepburn

Ginger wanted a crack at serious drama and RKO finally gave it to her. She didn’t disappoint them. This is one of her finest performances. The studio did throw in one musical number for good measure. Ginger tap dances with Ann Miller (who at 14 was 5’8” tall and promised to dance in flat shoes) to the melody “Put Your Heart into Your Feet and Dance”. And, by the way, watch out for Eve Arden. She found a stray cat on the set and is wearing it draped around her shoulders. Everyone had a ball making this film…except for Kate Hepburn.

Kate disliked Ginger for some reason and, while no fireworks erupted, it was very cool between those two during filming. Ginger tried to stay out of her way, possibly remembering another time when Kate emptied a glass of water on her from an upstairs window of one of the RKO buildings.

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1938 Directed by H. C. Potter RKO B/W

Dancing the Castle Walk

This was the last musical for Fred and Ginger at RKO. It was based on the true story of the Castles, a dance team famous in their own right. Most of the music was from the 1911-1917 era…67 songs in all plus “Only When You Are In My Arms” written by Con Conrad, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

Things were tense on the set until Irene Castle who was overseeing the production, left on other business (Vernon had died in a plane crash). Irene didn’t think Ginger was the right actress to play her in the film and was very upset when Ginger also refused to cut her hair into the style Irene always wore.

This was not one of Fred and Ginger’s most popular films.

Bachelor Mother 1939 Directed by Garson Kanin RKO B/W

Ginger, Charles Coburn and David Niven

Ginger is the worldly wise shop girl just fired from her job who finds an abandoned baby to make her day complete. And David Niven is the department store heir to comes to the aid of the “little mother”! This picture proved Ginger’s ability as a polished comedienne who could make her character warm and human as well as funny.

This became one of Ginger’s all-time best films and she almost missed doing it. Warner Bros. wanted her to co-star with James Cagney in a Rodgers and Hart musical called “On Your Toes” but RKO was already to begin shooting “Little Mother” ( this film’s working title) and wouldn’t let her go. The co-star was supposed to be Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. but that got changed, too. The movie became a big money maker for RKO.

Kitty Foyle 1940 Directed by Sam Wood RKO B/W

Ginger as Kitty Foyle

Ginger didn’t want to do it …she thought it was too soap-operish. But producer David Hempstead encouraged her to read the finished script and then make up her mind. She did and the role brought her the best Actress Oscar for 1940.

Based on the best selling novel by Christopher Morley, it was the story of a hardworking white collar girl who learns that romance in upper social circles doesn’t always bring happiness. Wooed by Philadelphia blue blood Wyn Stafford (Dennis Morgan) she marries him only to have him divorce her after they have a baby. When the baby dies, Kitty has to get back up on her feet and hit the world running. James Craig plays the guy she should have found in the first place. The little white collar Ginger wears throughout the picture became a fad among working girls all over the country.

Oh, by the way, Ginger beat out some stiff competition for that Oscar…..Bette Davis (The Letter), Katharine Hepburn (The Philadelphia Story), Martha Scott (Our Town) and Joan Fontaine (Rebecca).

Tom, Dick and Harry 1941 Directed by Garson Kanin RKO B/W

Ginger and George Murphy

The day after she won her Oscar, Ginger was back on the set. This was a fun group, with Burgess Meredith, George Murphy , Alan Marshall and Phil Silvers all adept at keeping everyone in stitches. The story was based on an original screenplay by Paul Jarrico who won an Academy Award nomination for it. Ginger played a ditsy telephone operator who couldn’t chose between three ardent suitors and spent her days conjuring up fantasies about how life with each of them could be if he was the chosen one.

The movie was perfect for a time when the country felt the hot breath of WWII in the air and needed a little fantasy to lighten the load. Ginger’s third husband-to-be, marine Jack Briggs, had a small part in this film.

Roxie Hart 1942 Directed by William Wellman 20th Century Fox B/W

Ginger with Adolphe Menjou

Ginger was perfect for the role of Roxie, a gum-chewing, wise-cracking nightclub singer who takes the rap for a murder committed by her husband. Strike a bell? Her lawyer is the flamboyant Billy Flynn (played by Adolphe Menjou). Sound familiar yet? Yep. With a few twists and turns it is basically the same story as “Chicago” the film that won for Best Picture in 2002. It was also a stage play on Broadway in 1926, a silent film in 1927 and back on the stage as a Broadway musical by Bob Fosse in 1975. One of the high points of the film was Ginger’s dance on the metal jailhouse steps. She went brunette for the part and wore her hair in a mass of curls.

But apparently the audiences were tiring of these chorus girl roles and Ginger would find good parts getting harder to find. And while she was working on this film, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The country was at war.

The Major and the Minor 1943 Directed by Billy Wilder Paramount B/W

Ginger as "little Susie Applegate"

This Billy Wilder comedy was pure Wilder and a bit of “Lolita” in pigtails and a middy blouse. Ginger is Susan Applegate who pretends to be 12 years old so she can pay half fare on a trip home. But she meets up with a good-looking major (Ray Milland) who takes her under his wing . One complication leads to another and to romance (and more complications). One fascinating feature of the film has Ginger playing her own mother and her real mother who plays her reel mother has to fill in as her reel grandmother. Whoa, I am going to get off here.

This film was a huge success. It was Ginger’s first picture for Paramount in 9 years ( the last one was 1933’s “Sitting Pretty”). But after this one, things seemed to slide. Lela wasn’t helping her by crusading for the HUAC in their Hollywood communist witch hunt. Lela was suspected of giving lots of names to the investigators including that of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. who was connected with several of Ginger’s pictures. He was eventually blacklisted as one of the so-called “Hollywood Ten”.

Lady in the Dark 1944 Directed by Mitchell Leisen Paramount Color

Ginger and Ray Milland

The journey from Broadway to Hollywood can change a brilliant stage musical into a very minor screen event. So it was with this movie. Gertrude Lawrence had much more to work with in the stage version than Ginger did on the screen. The picture cost $2 million , took almost a year to make and another year to release. Filming was delayed twice….once for Ginger’s wedding to Jack Briggs and again when Ginger and one of her dancing partners had to be hospitalized because of the fumes from dry ice used in one of the dream sequences. Most of the Gershwin/Weill songs were cut from the final release.

This was Ginger’s first all-color film but it did little for her career already on the skids.

The Barkleys of Broadway 1949 Directed by Charles Walters MGM Color

The Barkleys!

Could it happen again?…that same magic? When Judy Garland was unable to fulfill her commitment to play Dinah Barkley opposite Fred Astaire, producer Arthur Freed phoned the only other star who could do it….Fred’s old dancing partner, Ginger Rogers. The scuttlebutt was that he called on Saturday and she was on the set Monday. But Ginger recalls that she was at her ranch when the call came and, even though she accepted immediately, she took a few days to “limber up”!

This was the first color film for the team of Astaire and Rogers and the first one for MGM. However, they were able to reprise a song from “Shall We Dance”…a Gershwin tune called “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”. Time magagazine said”their dance numbers, though more sedate than ever before, were enchanting examples of the breezy, sophisticated style which they themselves brought to perfection”.

Sadly it was now the very last time.

Monkey Business 1952 Directed by Howard hawks 20th Century Fox B/W

Just kid-ding!

This was one of those screwball comedies where Ginger sparkled and, of course, Cary Grant showed that perfect timing he was famous for in past comedies. He played the absent-minded professor (not unlike the one he did in “Bringing up Baby” ) who develops a formula to reverse aging only to have the potion re-mixed by a rascally lab chimpanzee. Ginger plays his wife and, of course, they both get to be guinea pigs and revert back to crazy kid stuff! No one can do that better than Ginger and Cary!

The most remembered bit of dialogue didn’t belong to Ginger or Cary however. It belonged to Charles Coburn who hands his sexy secretary (Marilyn Monroe) a letter and quips “Find someone to type this.” When Cary gives him a quizzical look, he answers it with “Anyone can type!”

Teenage Rebel 1956 Directed by Edmund Goulding 20th Century Fox B/W

Ginger with Michael Rennie

This was by far the best of Ginger’s last six films. For once, Hollywood took a hit Broadway play and made it better. Ginger is warm and understanding as Nancy Fallon, who suddenly gets her teenage daughter back from an ex-husband who is about to remarry. Betty Lou Heim expertly reprises her stage role as the daughter and the supporting cast is excellent, too. Michael Rennie plays Ginger’s present husband, Jay Fallon. While Ginger was not happy to go gently into character parts, she proves here that she was an actress who could do whatever the role asked for.

Off screen, Ginger and fourth husband Jacques Bergerac were headed for divorce.