Born July 16, 1911; today is Ginger Rogers' birthday. Rogers originally wanted to become a schoolteacher. Upon seeing a traveling vaudeville act that came through town that needed a stand-in ... school teaching went out the window and the rest is history.During her long career, she made 73 films. it wasn't until she partnered with Fred Astaire as a romantic lead actress and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre, that her career skyrocketed. She achieved great success on her own 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. (wikipedia)
Fast Facts from the Official Ginger Rogers Website:
- Ginger's grandmother on her mother's side was a relation of George Washington.
- She was given the name "Ginger" by her little cousin who couldn't pronounce "Virginia" correctly.
- She did not drink: the bar at her house was stocked with ice-cream sodas.
- Ginger brought her cousin Helen Brown to Hollywood, renamed her Phyllis Fraser, and guided her through a few films.
- Miss Rogers was an accomplished artist and excelled at both sculpting and painting, but could never bring herself to sell any of her work.
- She enjoyed tennis, golf, swimming and skeet shooting and held several tennis cups and some high-card records at skeet.
- The first Rogers and Astaire teaming, 'Flying Down To Rio', was her twentieth film appearance and only Fred's second.
- Ginger turned down lead roles in To Each His Own and The Heiress, both roles were made famous by Olivia de Havilland.
- "Cheek to Cheek" - Words and Music by Irving Berlin, is a song written in 1935. Song performed by Fred Astaire. Dance performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - Top Hat (1935)
