|
BIOGRAPHY
Virginia Katherine McMath was born on July 16, 1911
in Independence, Missouri. Her nickname, "Ginger," originated
from her younger cousin Helen who pronounced "Virginia" as
"Ginja." Family and friends continued to call her this, and
later theatre men who understood the name to be "Ginger"
billed her as such on their marquees.
Those who knew her as a little girl often said that Ginger could dance
before she could walk. At the age of 10, she was appearing at local
charity shows, celebrations and lodge meetings with her stepfather,
"Daddy John," whose last name, Rogers, she eventually
borrowed.
Going on tour
At the age of 14, young Ginger won the Texas State Charleston
Championship. Her prize was four weeks of appearances in four Texas
cities on the Interstate Theatre Circuit. She chose two red-headed
Charleston dancers, and billed the act "Ginger and the
Redheads." The performances continued well beyond their four-week
engagement when Junior Orpheum sent the trio on an extensive tour across
the western United States.
When the show reached Chicago, a famous vaudeville act stole the
redheaded dancers, and Ginger found herself doing a single for the
Skouras Brothers at their Ambassador Theatre in St. Louis. She continued
for 28 weeks, with a new act each week, using the Master of Ceremonies
as her straight man.
When Paul Ash invited her to appear with his band at the Oriental
Theatre, Ginger left St. Louis and traveled to Chicago. After performing
for nearly four months with Ash, Paramount Publix lured her away to New
York to perform at Broadway's Paramount Theatre. They also began
preparing a stage show for Ginger to tour in at their theatres across
the country. However, her routines with the Master of Ceremonies were so
successful, she was held over for several weeks and the touring show
went on without her. The Paramount Theatre subsequently brought Paul Ash
and his band to New York and invited Ginger back to join them.
Broadway
debut
Ginger's first Broadway musical, Top Speed,
featured her in the ingénue role. The show opened Christmas Day 1929
and ran for less than 20 weeks, but Ginger was hailed as a promising
up-and-comer. Walter Winchell said she was "… as poised as a
veteran," and Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times noted,
"… an impudent young thing, Ginger Rogers carried youth and humor
to the point where they are completely charming."
While Ginger was performing eight shows a week in Top
Speed, she was also making films for Paramount at their studio in
Astoria, Long Island. Her first film, Young Man of
Manhattan, starred Claudette Colbert and featured Ginger as a
16-year-old flapper. Her line "Cigarette me, big boy," became
a classic phrase in the American vocabulary.
Ginger's first starring role on Broadway was in George and Ira
Gershwin's Girl Crazy. Her two hit songs
from that show, Embraceable You and But
Not For Me, have since become musical standards.
Charming Hollywood
After Girl Crazy closed, Ginger moved on to
Hollywood. Nineteen films into her career she joined Fred Astaire at RKO
Radio Studios in Flying Down to Rio. The new
team took the world by storm, subsequently making eight more pictures
together at RKO: Gay Divorcee, Roberta, Top Hat,
Follow the Fleet, Swing Time, Shall We Dance, Carefree and The
Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. Ten years later they made their
10th film together for MGM, The Barkleys of
Broadway.
Garson Kanin wrote of them, "The magic of Astaire and Rogers cannot
be explained; it can only be felt. They created a style, a mood, a
happening. They flirted, chased, courted, slid, caressed, hopped,
skipped, jumped, bent, swayed, clasped, wafted, undulated, nestled,
leapt, quivered, glided, spun - in sum, made love before our eyes. We
have not seen their like since."
In addition to her films with Astaire, Ginger also starred in a variety
of comedies and dramas in the 1940s and 1950s. They included Vivacious
Lady, The Major and the Minor, Lady in the Dark, Weekend at the Waldorf,
Storm Warning and Monkey Business.
Her leading men included Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, David Niven, Burgess
Meredith,, William Powell, Ronald Colman, Dennis Morgan and James
Stewart. She was honored in 1940 with a Best Actress Academy Award for
her performance in Kitty Foyle, and in 1945
she was recorded as the highest paid female performer in Hollywood.
That same year, Ginger bought a 1000-acre ranch on the Rogue River in
Southern Oregon. She built a modern dairy complex and bred Guernsey milk
stock for seven years. Some of the milk went to Camp White, where almost
25,000 soldiers came and went during World War II. Even today, in the
Rogue River Valley, there still are strains of purebred Guernsey cattle
with Ginger's name on their breeding records.
Worldwide revere
Ginger replaced Carol Channing for the starring role in the fizzling
1965 Broadway play Hello! Dolly.
Ginger brought the play back to life, increasing ticket sales and
thrilling the producers. She performed to packed houses, standing
ovations and an 18-month run, as well as on tour with the national
company. In addition, she took Mame
to London for a successful 14-month engagement, which included not only
a command performance for Queen Elizabeth, but a presentation to the
Queen as well.
Ginger made guest appearances on a variety of TV shows. In addition to
having her own special, she has appeared with Perry Como, Bob Hope, Pat
Boone, Steve Allen, Merv Griffin, Dean Martin and Lucille Ball. Though
not often credited, Ginger helped Lucille Ball overcome being
camera-shy, a trait that almost forced the studio to give up on her.
Ginger was also a guest on nearly every TV talk show, including
The Tonight Show and Mike
Douglas. In 1973, she traveled more than
60,000 miles throughout the United States, South America, Italy,
England, Lebanon and Greece, and served as a judge in the Miss Universe
Pageant.
In 1969, Ginger sold her Beverly Hills home (which she had lived in for
34 years) and made a permanent move to her Rogers Rogue River Ranch.
Ginger the wonder woman
While Ginger is best remembered for her stage and screen performances,
she was also an accomplished artist. She was both a talented painter and
sculptor and could have excelled in either had she more free time. She
was offered a "one woman show" in New York, but declined
indefinitely until she had more pieces to put on exhibit. An avid
athlete as well, Ginger enjoyed golf, swimming, skeet shooting and
tennis. She won several tennis cups and earned some high-score card
records at skeet.
In the early 1970s, Ginger became the spokeswoman for JC Penney,
designing a line of lingerie for them as well. Traveling thousands of
miles across the United States, she delighted fans of all ages with her
charm. A few years later, she took a very successful nightclub act to
New York's Waldorf Astoria, Las Vegas, Sydney, Mexico City, Buenos
Aires, San Francisco and a number of other cities in between.
Ginger was
awarded many honors and citations. In 1973, a speech she made before the
Congressional Women's Luncheon in Washington, D.C., found its way in to
the Congressional Record, read by Congressman Robert McClorey of
Illinois. Again in 1975, while at the White House reception for Emperor
and Empress Hirohito, Ginger's thoughts and remarks on the American
Bicentennial were read into the Congressional Record. In addition, she
was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree by Austin College, Sherman,
Texas, and in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honors were bestowed on Ginger in
Washington, D.C.
In 1985, Ginger was given the chance to direct a musical comedy, Babes
In Arms. It proved a hit with the Tarrytown,
New York audiences and verified that Ginger Rogers could do anything she
set her mind to. Several years later, Ginger wrote her best selling
autobiography, Ginger: My Story.
She traveled thousands of miles across the United States and to London
to promote the book and sign autographs for fans.
Sadly, on April 25,1995, 83 year old Ginger Rogers died as a result of
congestive heart failure. Millions of fans worldwide mourned the loss of
this multi-talented wonder woman. She was buried in Oakwood Memorial
Park in Chatsworth, California.
-
|
