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Change Partners: Screwball Heroine Ginger Rogers in Vivacious Lady
Steyn Online ^ | 2 Sep 2023 | Rick McGinnis

Posted on 09/02/2023 3:42:01 PM PDT by Rummyfan

There comes a point in every classic film fan's life when you realize you underestimated Ginger Rogers. You never, of course, diminished her talent, especially as Fred Astaire's dance partner over their nine or so RKO musicals in the '30s. But it's with a slight sense of shame that you realize that she was always far more than the second half of an onscreen entity known as "Fred and Ginger".

Because her filmography provides so much evidence of her star power at a glance: Stage Door, Bachelor Mother, Primrose Path, Kitty Foyle, Roxie Hart, The Major and the Minor, I'll Be Seeing You, Storm Warning and Monkey Business taken together are evidence of a career that makes her few years as half of a dance partnership more like a footnote. Or would, if those RKO musicals hadn't been so utterly iconic, then and now.

And because Rogers did such a fine job as a screwball comedy heroine. Perhaps not as perfect as, say, Carole Lombard or Claudette Colbert, but at least as good as Irene Dunne or Jean Arthur. Rogers' persona allowed her to wisecrack and play hard to get as much as any other screwball heroine, but our collective memories of her as the fated conquest at the end of Fred Astaire's light-footed pursuit somehow overshadow this essential fact about Rogers onscreen.

(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gingerrogers

Never heard of it but will check it out.

1 posted on 09/02/2023 3:42:01 PM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

“I did everything Fred did only backwards and in high heels.”—Ginger Rogers


2 posted on 09/02/2023 3:49:18 PM PDT by oldvirginian ("one more Lord. Please let me save one more." Corporal Desmond Doss, Hacksaw Ridge, Okinawa 1945)
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To: Rummyfan
That is real feminine beauty.
3 posted on 09/02/2023 3:54:21 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: Fungi

And there’s nothing sexier than her singing “We’re In The Money” in Goldiggers of 1933.


4 posted on 09/02/2023 4:09:06 PM PDT by Calvin Cooledge
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To: All

5 posted on 09/02/2023 4:13:33 PM PDT by Liz (More tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones. St Teresa of Avila)
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To: Fungi

My dad was a wise man...He always bought me coloring books...and it was always the old pin up (movie) ladies.
I don’t think mom ever caught on...


6 posted on 09/02/2023 4:14:30 PM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: Rummyfan
Don't know what movies these are from, but what the hey...
And the twerkers out there think they got somethin' gonin' on.


7 posted on 09/02/2023 5:02:40 PM PDT by Bounced2X (Boomer - I survived childhood with no bike helmet.)
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To: Fungi

“That is real feminine beauty.”

Without make-up she was wholesomely pretty: She was heavily freckled, but the make-up crew covered it up for films.


8 posted on 09/02/2023 5:43:07 PM PDT by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule. )
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To: Rummyfan

RAFTER ROMANCE is better ( also a Depression sort of comedy, but grittier ) and to REALLY see her acting chops, the 1951 movie about the KKK with non-singing nor dancing Ginger Rogers and Doris Day is one heck of a Film Noir drama!


9 posted on 09/02/2023 6:19:36 PM PDT by nopardons ( )
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To: Rummyfan

Excellent job, Rick...

As someone almost 90, I remember Ginger, Rita, Greta, Jean, Barbara, Carole, Joan, Bette, Betty, Claudette, Olivia, Lana, Ava, Hedy, Maureen, Veronica, Lauren, Katharine, Vivian, Paulette, Mary, Jane, Marlene, Jean H, Myrna, Jean A, Norma, and the many others with great affection...

I have missed seeing movies with actors & actresses...


10 posted on 09/02/2023 6:41:49 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is the next Sam Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: Rummyfan

What’s old, wrinkled and smells like ginger?


11 posted on 09/02/2023 8:37:54 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: SuperLuminal

Concur.


12 posted on 09/02/2023 9:36:39 PM PDT by grey_whiskers ( The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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