Happy 101st Ginger Rogers Birthday!

You Tube ^

[ReformationFan]

Happy 101st Ginger Rogers Birthday to all. Miss Rogers was born 101 years ago today in Independence, Missouri. She would later move to Texas and won a Charleston contest(hence the clip I picked) in 1925 and her career took off from there. The late actress was not only an accomplished dancer and an Academy Award-winner but also something you'd rarely find in Hollywood today: a staunch conservative Republican. She worked hard throughout her career and was strongly patriotic and anti-communist.

She was also a member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Alliance_for_the_Preservation_of_American_Ideals

[ReformationFan]

Here she is in a sequence with Henry Fonda from "Tales of Manhattan"

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1aXVxNAcKY

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOMlYkCdfNo&feature=relmfu

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOl-QTmOh8Y&feature=relmfu

[Jonty30]

I remember her on tv.

[xp38]

She was great.

[katana]

One of my favorite quotes: “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did but backwards and in high heels”. My two daughters have heard me speak it on a few occasions.

[Tanniker Smith]

Classy woman. I got to meet her (briefly) years ago, sometime in the 90s. She was signing her book at Barnes & Noble's on 5th Ave. Long line, moved slow, but I took an extra hour for lunch.

She signed three books for me (all three were Christmas presents) and she personalized each one. She got a genuine kick out of the people buying multiple copies (I wasn't alone -- and my three was on the low side!).

Two amusing things:
I have that friendly approachable face, so I seemed to be the one passersby came up to to ask what the line was for. I told one teenager and he looked at me with his mouth wide open and said, "No. Way!" (Yes, I replied with "Way" -- he didn't seem to react to that.) He turned to his friend and said, 'Did you ever hear of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? She's in there!" (The friend seemed a little confused).

Second, while waiting on line, a limo pulled up and Rosemary Clooney got out. Had this been a sit-com, someone would've shouted, "Hey! No cuts!" but that didn't happen.

[Mach9]

Academy Award winner (Kitty Foyle) and able to compete with Academy Award winners. A quintuple threat—she could dance, sing, act, do comedy along with being absolutely adorable. Know any of those around today? Didn’t think so.

[stylecouncilor]

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[ReformationFan]

Neat story.

“She got a genuine kick out of the people buying multiple copies.”

I bet she did. She was good, hardworking capitalist after all.

More Ginger:

Dancing Waiting for the Robert E. Lee with Fred Astaire-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUjJsFN-ypY

And some fun with Cary Grant in the pro-American/anti-Nazi comedy “Once Upon A Honeymoon”-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WleOXP_aUPU

“It’s our honeymoon! We’re not taking the horses!”
“Well, it would be a little crowded!”

“Hitler’s here!”
“Well I can’t see him now. I’m dressing.”

[I still care]

I was just watching, Flying down to Rio today. Love her.

One of my faves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3lNDmJbjPw

And she doesn’t even dance here! This is before the hayes office...

[Bobalu]

Here she is singing at age 19.
(with dark hair)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv0dwS-HEsE

[Revolting cat!]

I thought she was dead.

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] we’re in the money, we’re in the money...

[sargon]

I though she was dead.

She is. From Wikipedia:

"Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995)"

[ReformationFan]

Thanks. I hadn’t see that. Teenagers looked older then. Then again, that was an era where folks were expected to grow up faster. Here’s Ginger doing the Charleston on her pal Lucy Ball’s TV show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YMPNNWnU7g&feature=related