SIMPLY CAROLE

SIMPLY CAROLE
CAROLE LOMBARD - My Favorite Actress

Monday, November 29, 2010

All Good Things in December

Greetings everyone! Just wanted to let you guys know what's on deck for December. My classic movie goddess will be the fabulous Barbara Stanwyck, who stars in my favorite Christmas movie of all time, Christmas In Connecticut. I will post about her with photos and facts and a list of her essential films through-out the month. I will also do a top ten list of my favorite Christmas films, but I guess you already know what number 1 is now. My guest blogger for the month will be Anastasia of the wonderful blog Lily Lemontree. And I will have more assorted goodies as I wrap up my first full year of blogging. When I started All Good Things back in October 2009, I only had a few followers. Now I have over 80. Thanks to everyone who has chosen my blog to read and peruse through. I hope to keep things going in 2011 and keep improving as much as I can. I know I already got a sollid line-up for my classic movie goddesses and working on an equally great list of guest bloggers. But anyway, I hope everyone has a great holiday season and check out All Good Things from time to time.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Ginger Rogers - Classic Movie Goddess Of The Month Part Three - The Essential Ginger Films

Here is my list of essential Ginger Rogers films that showcase the actress at her very best.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire

HER FILMS WITH FRED ASTAIRE (1933-1939; 1949) Choose any of the ten films she made with Fred Astaire and you will she her talents on wonderful display. My personal favorite film of theirs was SWING TIME, but I also loved TOP HAT, SHALL WE DANCE, and CAREFREE.
42nd Street
42nd STREET (1933) The much copied musical about a newcomer (Ruby Keeler) trying to make it big on Broadway. Ginger plays Ann "Annytime Annie" Lowell, a chorus girl always ready with a quip or two. She and pal (Una Murkel) make the film for me.
Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and Eve Arden
STAGE DOOR (1937) This is one of my favorite films of all time. Almost all the action takes place at a boardinghouse for women called The Footlights Club, who are trying to make it in show business. The all star cast inlcudes Ginger, Katherine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, Gail Patrick, and Jack Carson. How's that for a cast? And Ginger holds her own with every single one of them, including her scenes with the great Kate Hepburn.
Vivacious Lady
VIVACIOUS LADY (1938) On a quick trip to the city, young university professor Peter Morgan (Jimmy Stewart)  falls in love with nightclub performer Francey Brent (Ginger) and marries her after a whirlwind romance. But when he goes back home, he can't bring himself to tell his conservative, ultra-respected family about it. Great screwball comedy.
BACHELOR MOTHER (1939) Ginger is great as Polly Parrish, a department store clerk, who is mistaken to be the mother of a baby. Ginger is strong-willed and determined in this great family movie. She doesn't back down from no one and she gives one of her best performances ever. And has great chemistry with co-star David Niven.

KITTY FOYLE (1940) Ginger won her only Oscar as Kitty Foyle, a hard working girl from Philadelphia who falls in love with a young socialite, but his family opposes their relationship. Good stuff with another standout performance by Rogers.

PRIMROSE PATH (1940) Ginger is Ellie May, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who falls for good guy Ed Wallace (Joel McCrea). She must deal with her free spirited mother, her drunken dad, and a mean grandmother.
Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR (1942) New York working girl Susan Applegate (Ginger) is desperate to go home to Iowa but does not have the railway fare so she disguises herself as a child to ride half fare. Enroute she meets Philip Kirby (Ray Milland), an Army major teaching at a military school. Great comedy from Billy Wilder and a showcase for Ginger's comedic talents.
Tender Comrade
TENDER COMRADE (1943) Ginger Rogers is Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation. This is Ginger's contribution to all those patriotic films that were coming out during this time period. And while it's no Best Years of our Lives, Tender Comrade is still a solid piece of work.


I'LL BE SEEING YOU (1944) A soldier suffering from battle fatigue (Joseph Cotten) meets a young woman named Mary Marshall (Rogers) on Christmas furlough from prison and their mutual loneliness blossoms into romance. Heart-breaking romantic film that is one of the very best of it's genre. I had forgot about it when I did a recent poll on Ginger but was reminded by my good friend Renata. And she's right, this film is amazing.

So there you have it, in my humble opinion, the very best films of Ginger Rogers. Other films of hers that I also like include Having Wonderful Time, Monkey Business, and Roxie Hart.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Make Your Own Bed (1944) is a fun romp with Jack Carson and Jane Wyman

 It's a Great Feeling

Jane Wyman
Successful businessman Walter Whirtle (Alan Hale, yes the dad of the Skipper from Gilligan's Island) and his wife Vivian (Irene Manning) have a hard time keeping servants in their employ. Enter private detective Jerry Curtis (played by Jack Carson) who has been fired for arresting the District Attorney. The only way that Walter can get Jerry to work for him is to tell Jerry that his life is in danger; the neighbor is trying to take his wife; and that Nazi spies are everywhere. Jerry needs a cook for his 'cover' so he gets his fiancĂ©e Susan (the game Jane Wyman) to work with him. The storyline may be exaggerated but it's so funny that you won't mind. Carson and Wyman make a delightful team. They would follow-up this movie with the equally hilarious The Doughgirls a few months later. Carson gets the majority of the best lines, but Wyman gets in a few good zingers as well. Make Your Own Bed is good, solid fun.
B

Saturday, November 20, 2010

New Poll - What are your favorite Ginger films without Fred?

Here is my newest poll pertaining to Ginger Rogers. What are your favorite Ginger films, sans Fred Astaire. Ginger did so many wonderful films during her partnership with Fred and afterwards as well. So to make it fair I made the choice multiple answers, because there were so many choices to choose from. Here are the films that you can choose from: 42nd Street (1933); Stage Door (1937); Vivacious Lady (1938); Bachelor Mother (1939); Kitty Foyle (1940); Primrose Path (1940); The Major and the Minor (1942); Tender Comrade (1943); Week-end at the Waldorf (1945); Monkey Business (1952). The poll will be up until the end of the month.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Poll Results - Favorite Astaire and Rogers film

A friend of mine from work asked me about the results of the poll I asked at the beginning of the month. I asked everyone what were their favorite Astaire and Rogers musicals, multiple answers were allowed. I forgot to make a post about the results, so here they are. Out of 20 votes, Top Hat nabbed 12 of them, or 60% of the vote. Close behind with 8 votes was Swing Time (my personal favorite that the duo did). In third was Shall We Dance with 7 votes; followed closely by The Gay Divorcee with 6 votes. No love for The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, which received no votes. Thanks to everyone that participated and look forward to a new poll within the next few days.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Chalk Garden (1964) is a great film

A grandmother (Edith Evans) seeks a governess for her 16 year old granddaughter, Laurel (Hayley Mills) who manages to drive away each and every one so far by exposing their past, with a record of three in one week! When an applicant named Miss Madrigal (Deborah Kerr) with a mysterious past manages to get the job, Laurel vows to expose her. Meanwhile, Laurel's married-divorced-married mother tries to get her back. This is an excellent drama with terrific performances by Kerr and Mills.

It's one of my favorite films from this period and features Kerr in one of her best roles. But I may be biased, since I've yet to see Ms. Kerr give a bad performance. She is a joy to watch in everything she does.

Edith Evans & Deborah Kerr in The Chalk Garden

Laurel: Thanks for the compliment. Don't expect one in return!


Tuesday, November 16, 2010

If It's Tuesday, Then It Must Be Grace Kelly - Rear Window is my favorite Grace Kelly film


I rank Rear Window as my number 2 all time Alfred Hitchcock film, just behind The Lady Vanishes and tied with the equally excellent Shadow of a Doubt. Window is a treat for the viewer with gorgeous cinematography and excellent camera work from Hitch. The story is simple enough: maverick photographer Jeff (played by the great Jimmy Stewart) is laid up in his New York apartment with a broken leg. He is being cared for by his very upscale girlfriend Lisa (the luminous Grace Kelly) and his nurse Stella (the always reliable Thelma Ritter). With little to do Jeff begins spying on his neighbors across the courtyard and what neighbors does he have. You have a highly limber blonde dancer; a troubled songwriter; a lonely woman who can't find a date; a busybody old lady; a couple with an energetic little dog; and last but not least the couple directly across from him with a very large man named Lars Thorwald (played by Raymond Burr-before Perry Mason) and his sickly wife. Well amidst all the goings on between Jeff and Lisa-she is ready to marry, he not so much and Stella's constant needling, Jeff notices strange things between Lars and his wife. Before you know it, the wife has gone and Jeff suspects foul play. It takes a little convincing to bring Lisa and Stella to his way of thinking but eventually they agree. The police, on the other hand are a different story. So the trio decide they need proof and with Jeff hobbled with a cast on his broken leg, Lisa and Stella decide to do the leg work (no pun intended). What follows is a game of suspense taken up to the highest level. Rear Window is a near perfect film with fabulous performances. Stewart is solid as always as is Ritter, who gets to say most of the film's best lines including "Nobody ever invented a polite word for a killin' yet". And Burr makes an effectively creepy bad man. But it's Grace Kelly who makes the movie for me. She just lights up the room whenever she comes in and the banter she trades with Stewart is pure bliss. I believe this to be Ms. Kelly's best film performance ever. Yes even better than her Academy Award winning role in The Country Girl. She never hits a wrong note as Lisa, and is a true joy to watch. Rear Window is one of the best films ever made and one of the best from ol Hitch.


A

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Ginger Rogers - Classic Movie Goddess Of The Month Part Two

Both before and immediately after her great dancing and acting partnership with Fred Astaire ended, Rogers, now on her own and one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, starred in more than a few very successful dramas and comedies. Stage Door (1937) demonstrated her skillful dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough minded, theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn. In Roxie Hart (1942), based on the same play which served as the template for the musical Chicago, 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 pleasing 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), where she played herself as a 12-year-old, at her own real age, and pretended to be her own mother. Her greatest skills were as a comedienne, and, as a master of the deadpan and the sidelong glance, she became well established as one of the major actresses of the screwball comedy era.
In 1941, Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring 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, including "Tender Comrade" (1943), "Lady in the Dark" (1944), and "Week-End at the Waldorf" (1945), and became the highest-paid performer in Hollywood. However, by the end of the decade, her film career had peaked. Arthur Freed reunited her with Fred Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway in 1949, a delightful Technicolor MGM musical which succeeded in rekindling the special chemistry between them one last time.

Ginger Rogers' film career entered a period of gradual decline in the 1950s, as parts for older actresses became more difficult to obtain, but she still scored with some solid films. She starred in Storm Warning (1950), with Ronald Reagan and Doris Day, the noir, anti Ku Klux Klan film by Warner Brothers, and in Monkey Business (1952), with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, directed by Howard Hawks. In the same year, she also starred in We're Not Married!, also featuring Marilyn Monroe, and in Dreamboat. She played the female lead in Tight Spot (1955), a mystery thriller, with Edward G. Robinson. Then, after a series of unremarkable films, she scored with a great popular success, playing Dolly Levi in the long running Hello, Dolly! on Broadway in 1965.
In later life, Rogers remained on good terms with Astaire: she presented him with a special Academy Award in 1950, and they were co-presenters of individual Academy Awards in 1967, during which they elicited a standing ovation when they came on stage in an impromptu dance. In 1969, she had the lead role in another long running popular production of Mame, from the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the West End of London, arriving for the role on the Liner QE2 from New York. Her docking there occasioned the maximum of pomp and ceremony at Southampton. She became the highest paid performer in the history of the West End up to that time. The production ran for 14 months and featured a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth the Second. The Kennedy Center honored Ginger Rogers in December 1992. This event, which was shown on television, was somewhat marred when Astaire's widow, Robyn Smith, who permitted clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers to be shown for free at the function itself, was unable to come to terms with CBS Television for broadcast rights to the clips (all previous rights holders having donated broadcast rights gratis).

From the 1950s onwards, Rogers would make occasional appearances on television. In the later years of her career, she made guest appearances in three different series by Aaron Spelling; The Love Boat (1979), Glitter (1984), and Hotel (1987) which would be her final screen appearance as an actress.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Happy Birthday Grace Kelly (1929 - 1982)

Happy Birthday to Grace Kelly, one of my absolute favorite actresses. Although she only made a handful of films before she married Prince Rainier of Monaco, she made several classics including Rear Window, Dial M For Murder, The Country Girl (her only Oscar win for Best Actress), High Society, Mogambo, and To Catch A Thief. So wish Grace a Happy Birthday on this day.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Happy Veterans Day from Ann Miller

I love this picture of Ann Miller, and I wish a Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans in the world, including myself for my time in the army.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Dedicated to my grandmother...

Just wanted to let everyone know what's going on in my life and why I wasn't posting as much this week. We recently lost our grandmother who was suffering with Alzheimer's and trying to cope with the loss. We will have relatives coming in all this week for the funeral on Saturday. So I won't be posting at all this week, but my good friend Dawn will still be blogging regularly on our shared blogs such as Noir and Chick Flicks and Singing and Dancing Through Time. I will be back blogging soon because that will be one way for me to cope with the loss of my grandmother. Everyone take care and I will be back soon. Below are pics of my favorite onscreen grandmothers, Ethel Waters and Ethel Barrymore from Pinky. And Ellen Dow from recent films The Wedding Singer and Sister Act. And of course everyone's favorite granny of late, Betty White.

Ethel Waters in Pinky

Ethel Barrymore in Pinky



Bringing Down the House (2003)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Happy Birthday Vivien Leigh (1913 - 1967)

Forever remembered as Scarlett O'Hara, it's Vivien Leigh's birthday today. I have recently watched more of her films and found that Leigh is more than just Scarlett O'Hara. I believe her performance in Waterloo Bridge is her finest hour, even better than her stellar turn in Gone With The Wind. But that's just me. Anyway, Happy Birthday to this iconic film star.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Getting to know Monty

Well, here it is...a new month and for my monthly series, Be My Guest, I decided to interview myself to let all my followers know more about me. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before. Anyway I tweaked some of my questions from my previous month's guest bloggers and added a few more. So let's get started.

Who are my Top 5 favorite actors/actresses?







Cary Grant


















Carole Lombard














Irene Dunne







William Holden


















Elizabeth Montgomery
(I know technically she is not a classic movie star actress but what can I say, Elizabeth is awesome!)











What are my favorite films?

His Girl Friday
Bringing Up Baby
The Lady Vanishes
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
The Thin Man
The Best Years of our Lives
My Favorite Wife

Describe your first classic movie experience

It's kind of weird but the first classic movie I ever saw turns out to be my favorite film of all time. I couldn't have been more than 13 or 14 and was watching Nick at Nite. This was when Nickeloden used to air classic tv shows like Donna Reed, Hazel, etc during the week-nights. And then around 10 or so, they would show classic movies. The two films I recall seeing first..one was The Stork Club and I didn't watch the whole movie. But the other one was an instant favorite for me...His Girl Friday. I thought that movie was hilarious from beginning to end. And still to this day, I watch it several times a year. It's just funny that the first classic movie I ever saw completely would end up being my favorite film ever.


Describe the perfect way for you to watch a classic movie.

In my living room, on my sofa, watching them on my 42 inch HDTV. Pure bliss.

What is your favorite classic movie decade?

The 1930's mainly for the reason of that's when screwball comedies (my favorite genre) were at their zenith.
And the musicals were pretty good too.

Any current stars who catch my fancy?

Sandra Bullock, Denzel Washington, Leo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow

What is your favorite movie quote? Kind of hard to narrow down a favorite so I will list a few:

Crystal Allen: "There's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society-outside of a kennel". - THE WOMEN

Mortimer Brewster: "Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops". - ARSENIC & OLD LACE

Joe Gillis: "There's nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you're trying to be twenty-five". - SUNSET BOULEVARD

What is your favorite film series?

Ah, an easy one..that would be The Thin Man. A great series that always entertains me. I've had several Thin Man marathons over the years and they never get old.



What stars, besides your favorites, would you have loved to have met in person?

Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin, Grace Kelly


If you could be any movie character, who would it be and why?

Man, these are some hard questions I gave you guys. I'm going to go with Lt. Willie Calhoun in Union Station, as played by William Holden. Just because he was a take charge, no bs kind of guy. Not macho, but confident. That's who I would choose.

So there you have it..my favorites and some of my history of classic movies and stars. I hope everyone enjoyed my little experiment and I can't wait for some of your comments.



Show People (1928) is a wonderful silent film


I watched this 1928 silent film, Show People on TCM this morning before leaving for work. Directed by the great King Vidor and starring the ever enchanting Marion Davies as Peggy Pepper, a young girl  from Georgia (yay! my home state) who comes along with her father to Hollywood and tries to make it as an actress. She meets Billy (played by William Haines) who gets her work at Comet Studios. She and Billy make comedies together but another studio sees Peggy and hires her as their actress. Soon Peggy rises to stardom and refuses to acknowledge Billy. She even plans to marry the smug solely for the name and money. But Billy will not give up without a fight. I haven't seen a lot of silent films but this is one of the best ones I have seen. I thought Marion Davies was phenomenal. I was thoroughly captivated by her performance from beginning to end. Show People is a solid and entertaining film.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

New Poll started...What are your favorite Astaire/Rogers films?


Since Ginger Rogers is my classic movie goddess for the month, I decided to do a poll. I pose the question what are your favorite of her 10 films she did with Fred Astaire. I made it multiple choice so as to make the question a little easier. Choose as many as you want from the list of 10 films they made. I, myself am partial to Swing Time, Top Hat and Carefree. The poll is up for 2 weeks.

If It's Tuesday, Then It Must Be Grace Kelly - My First Grace Kelly Experience

I believe I was around 16 or 17 when I watched my first Grace Kelly movie. It was Dial M For Murder, her second pairing with Alfred Hitchcock. At the time, I had no idea who she was. The stars I had watched and knew about then were Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, etc.  You know, the big guns. And I had only seen one previous Hitchcock film, Rebecca. And that was in my English class. Anyway, I was immediately impressed with this lovely new leading lady. And not just because of her striking good looks. Just because the way she carried herself in this movie. She plays Margot Wendice, wife to Ray Milland's Tony, who is plotting to kill her. Now Grace's character did have an affair a few years ago and tries to work things out with her husband. It's to Kelly's considerable charm that I did not blame her at any point during this film. Even though she committed adultery, she was just so darned nice and sweet about it. I forgave her immediately. After watching Grace in this film, I had to see as many of her films as possible. And while she did like only 12 or so films, I have yet to see one where she didn't a good performance. I believe Rear Window's Lisa Fremont was her best character and film, just slightly ahead of Margot.  She won her only Oscar for the Country Girl, where she downplayed her gorgeous beauty with a solid performance. But Dial M For Murder will always hold a special place in my heart for me, as this was the first film in which I ever saw her in and was immediately captivated by her. Just a story I wanted to share on this Tuesday then it must be Grace Kelly day. If you have never seen Dial M For Murder, check it out this Sunday on TCM at 6 pm EST.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Ginger Rogers - Classic Movie Goddess Of The Month Part One

So October is over and all of my scary movies and such posts have come to an end. Back to normalcy. And to kick off the month of November, it's none other than Ginger Rogers as my Classic Movie Goddess.

Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911. During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner, in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. She also achieved great success in a variety of film roles, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940). She ranks #14 on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Stars list of actress screen legends.

The Ginger/Fred years:

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.

Fred and Ginger
Arlene Croce, Hannah Hyam and John Mueller all consider Rogers to have been Astaire's finest dance partner, principally due to her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire: a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences. Of the 33 partnered dances she performed with Astaire, Croce and Mueller have highlighted the infectious spontaneity of her performances in the comic numbers "I'll Be Hard to Handle" from Roberta (1935), "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and "Pick Yourself Up" from Swing Time (1936). They also point to the use Astaire made of her remarkably flexible back in classic romantic dances such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" from Roberta (1935), "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat (1935) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Follow the Fleet (1936). For special praise, they have singled out her performance in the "Waltz in Swing Time" from Swing Time (1936), which is generally considered to be the most virtuosic partnered routine ever committed to film by Astaire. She generally avoided solo dance performances: Astaire always included at least one virtuoso solo routine in each film, while Rogers performed only one: "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936).

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
Ginger with Fred Astaire in the film Roberta (1935).Although the dance routines were choreographed by Astaire and his collaborator Hermes Pan, both have acknowledged Rogers' input and have also testified to her consummate professionalism, even during periods of intense strain, as she tried to juggle her many other contractual film commitments with the punishing rehearsal schedules of Astaire, who made at most two films in any one year. In 1986, shortly before his death, Astaire remarked, "All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it, but of course they could. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No no, Ginger never cried". John Mueller summed up Rogers' abilities as follows: "Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began...the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable". According to Astaire, when they were first teamed together in "Flying Down to Rio", "Ginger had never danced with a partner before. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong." Astaire also had this to say to Raymond Rohauer, curator at the New York Gallery of Modern Art, "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."
Ginger and Fred
Rogers also introduced some celebrated numbers from the Great American Songbook, songs such as Harry Warren and Al Dubin's "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)" from Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), "Music Makes Me" from Flying Down to Rio (1933), "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee (1934), Irving Berlin's "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and the Gershwins' "Embraceable You" from Girl Crazy and "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)" from Shall We Dance (1937). Furthermore, in song duets with Astaire, she co-introduced Berlin's "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936), Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields's "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance" from Swing Time (1936) and the Gershwins' "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from Shall We Dance (1937).

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