EARLY DAYS PRODUCTIONS
Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath on July 16, 1911 in Independence, Missouri, the daughter of William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer, and his wife Lela Emogene Owens (1891–1977). Ginger's parents separated soon after her birth, and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents in nearby Kansas City. Rogers' parents fought over her custody, with her father even kidnapping her twice. After her parents divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood. When Rogers was nine years old, her mother married John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the name of Rogers, though she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth, Texas.
1911-1995
Stats:
Real Name: Virginia Katherine McMath
Height: 5' 4 1/2"
Hair Color: Naturally dark chestnut red, dyed blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname: "Feathers"
Quote:"My mother told me I was dancing before I was born. She could feel my toes tapping wildly inside her for months."
Real Name: Virginia Katherine McMath
Height: 5' 4 1/2"
Hair Color: Naturally dark chestnut red, dyed blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname: "Feathers"
Quote:"My mother told me I was dancing before I was born. She could feel my toes tapping wildly inside her for months."
As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a schoolteacher, 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 was born one night when the traveling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. At 19, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in Girl Crazy by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, the musical play widely considered to have made stars of both her and Ethel Merman. Her appearance in Girl Crazy made her an overnight star. In 1930, she was signed by Paramount Pictures to a seven-year contract.
Rogers would soon get herself out of the Paramount contract—under which she had made five feature films at Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens—and move with her mother to Hollywood. She made a significant breakthrough as "Anytime Annie" in the Warner Brothers film 42nd Street (1933). She went on to make a series of films with Fox, Warner Bros. ("Gold Diggers of 1933"), Universal, Paramount, and RKO Radio Pictures.
Rogers was most famous for her partnership with Fred Astaire. Together, from 1933 to 1939, they made nine musical films at RKO: Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) (The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) was produced later at MGM). They revolutionized the Hollywood musical, introducing dance routines of unprecedented elegance and virtuosity, set to songs specially composed for them by the greatest popular song composers of the day.
Both before and immediately after her dancing and acting partnership with Fred Astaire ended, Rogers starred in a number of successful dramas and comedies. Stage Door (1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, In Roxie Hart (1942) Ginger played a wise-cracking wife on trial for a murder her husband committed. In the neo-realist Primrose Path (1940), directed by Gregory La Cava, she played a prostitute's daughter trying to avoid the fate of her mother. Further highlights of this period included Tom, Dick, and Harry, a 1941 comedy where she dreams of marrying three different men; I'll Be Seeing You, an intelligent and restrained war time "weepie" with Joseph Cotten; La Cava's 5th Avenue Girl (1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family; and especially the sharp and highly successful comedies: Bachelor Mother (1939), where she played Polly Parrish, a shop girl who is falsely deemed to have abandoned her baby; and Billy Wilder's first Hollywood feature film: The Major and the Minor (1942), in which she played a woman who masquerades as a 12-year-old to get a cheap train ticket and finds herself obliged to continue the ruse for an extended period.
In 1941, Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 1940's Kitty Foyle. She enjoyed considerable success during the early 1940s, and was RKO's hottest property during this period. Becoming a free agent, she made hugely successful films with other studios in the mid-'40s, Ginger Rogers' film career entered a period of gradual decline in the 1950s, as parts for older actresses became more difficult to obtain. She died on April 25, 1995 of congestive heart failure at the age of 83.
For more information about Ginger Rogers please visit: Wikipedia
Ginger Rogers' Filmography
1965 Harlow
1965 Cinderella (TV movie)
1964 The Confession
1957 Charisma
1957 Oh, Men! Oh, Women!
1956 Teenage Rebel
1956 The First Traveling Saleslady
1955 Tight Spot
1954 Black Widow
1954 Twist of Fate
1953 Forever Female
1952 Monkey Business
1952 Dreamboat
1952 We're Not Married!
1951 The Groom Wore Spurs
1951 Storm Warning
1950 Perfect Strangers
1949 The Barkleys of Broadway
1947 It Had to Be You
1946 Magnificent Doll
1946 Heartbeat
1945 Week-End at the Waldorf
1944 I'll Be Seeing You
1944 Lady in the Dark
1943 Tender Comrade
1942 Once Upon a Honeymoon
1942 The Major and the Minor
1942 Tales of Manhattan
1942 Roxie Hart
1941 Tom Dick and Harry
1940 Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
1940 Lucky Partners
1940 Primrose Path
1939 5th Ave Girl
1939 Bachelor Mother
1939 The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
1938 Carefree
1938 Having Wonderful Time
1938 Vivacious Lady
1937 Stage Door
1937 Shall We Dance
1936 Swing Time
1936 Follow the Fleet
1935 In Person
1935 Top Hat
1935 Star of Midnight
1935 Roberta
1935 Romance in Manhattan
1934 The Gay Divorcee
1934 Change of Heart
1934 Finishing School
1934 Upperworld
1934 Twenty Million Sweethearts
1933 Flying Down to Rio
1933 Sitting Pretty
1933 Chance at Heaven
1933 Rafter Romance
1933 A Shriek in the Night
1933 Don't Bet on Love
1933 Professional Sweetheart
1933 Gold Diggers of 1933
1933 42nd Street
1933 Broadway Bad
1932 You Said a Mouthful
1932 Hat Check Girl
1932 The Thirteenth Guest
1932 The Tenderfoot
1932 Carnival Boat
1931 Suicide Fleet
1931 The Tip-Off
1931 Honor Among Lovers
1930 Follow the Leader
1930 Office Blues (short)
1930 Queen High
1930 The Sap from Syracuse
1930 Young Man of Manhattan
1930 Campus Sweethearts (short)
1930 A Night in a Dormitory (short)
1929 A Day of a Man of Affairs (short)
1965 Cinderella (TV movie)
1964 The Confession
1957 Charisma
1957 Oh, Men! Oh, Women!
1956 Teenage Rebel
1956 The First Traveling Saleslady
1955 Tight Spot
1954 Black Widow
1954 Twist of Fate
1953 Forever Female
1952 Monkey Business
1952 Dreamboat
1952 We're Not Married!
1951 The Groom Wore Spurs
1951 Storm Warning
1950 Perfect Strangers
1949 The Barkleys of Broadway
1947 It Had to Be You
1946 Magnificent Doll
1946 Heartbeat
1945 Week-End at the Waldorf
1944 I'll Be Seeing You
1944 Lady in the Dark
1943 Tender Comrade
1942 Once Upon a Honeymoon
1942 The Major and the Minor
1942 Tales of Manhattan
1942 Roxie Hart
1941 Tom Dick and Harry
1940 Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
1940 Lucky Partners
1940 Primrose Path
1939 5th Ave Girl
1939 Bachelor Mother
1939 The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
1938 Carefree
1938 Having Wonderful Time
1938 Vivacious Lady
1937 Stage Door
1937 Shall We Dance
1936 Swing Time
1936 Follow the Fleet
1935 In Person
1935 Top Hat
1935 Star of Midnight
1935 Roberta
1935 Romance in Manhattan
1934 The Gay Divorcee
1934 Change of Heart
1934 Finishing School
1934 Upperworld
1934 Twenty Million Sweethearts
1933 Flying Down to Rio
1933 Sitting Pretty
1933 Chance at Heaven
1933 Rafter Romance
1933 A Shriek in the Night
1933 Don't Bet on Love
1933 Professional Sweetheart
1933 Gold Diggers of 1933
1933 42nd Street
1933 Broadway Bad
1932 You Said a Mouthful
1932 Hat Check Girl
1932 The Thirteenth Guest
1932 The Tenderfoot
1932 Carnival Boat
1931 Suicide Fleet
1931 The Tip-Off
1931 Honor Among Lovers
1930 Follow the Leader
1930 Office Blues (short)
1930 Queen High
1930 The Sap from Syracuse
1930 Young Man of Manhattan
1930 Campus Sweethearts (short)
1930 A Night in a Dormitory (short)
1929 A Day of a Man of Affairs (short)
Early Days Productions: Ginger Rogers 06/16/2011
Full Movie: I'll Be Seeing You (1944)
A soldier suffering from battle fatigue meets a young woman on Christmas furlough from prison and their mutual loneliness blossoms into romance. - From the IMDB
