This Day in Tap History - Ginger Rogers

Stacie Strong | Jul 16, 2008 | 0

Known best as Fred Astaire's long-time dance partner, Ginger Rogers is loved by some and criticized by others, who claim that - unlike some of Astaire's other partners - she was not a trained dancer.  In fact, Rogers got her first break in show business through her dance skills and used them throughout her career for both her professional benefit and the enjoyment of her audiences.  Though the public holds a single view of Rogers as a charming, beautiful, sometimes rambunctious woman, she was actually a complex person whose personal life held many surprises, not the least of which was the fact that her mother was one of the first women to enlist in the Marines Corps.

Here Ginger and Fred tap dance in the last of their films together, "The Barkleys of Broadway." Read on for more on Ginger's extraordinary life.

Ginger Rogers was born on July 16, 1911, in Independence, Missouri, with the name Virginia Katherine McMath.  Shortly after she was born, her parents underwent an incredibly volatile divorce, with Rogers' father even kidnapping the infant twice.  During this time, Rogers and her mother moved to Kansas City to be closer to Rogers' maternal grandparents, and it was there that some cousins - who couldn't pronounce Virginia - started calling her "Ginya."  When Rogers was nine, her mother married John Rogers, and even though John never adopted Ginger, she took his name.

The Rogers were living in Fort Worth, Texas, when the famous vaudevillian, Eddie Foy, came through town.  The act needed a quick stand-in, and Rogers stepped up, winning a Charleston dance contest.  This started Rogers in show business, and she and her mother - who was already familiar with the entertainment industry through her work as a screenwriter and producer - started touring on the vaudeville circuit.  

Here Rogers is doing the Charleston in a deleted scene from the 1942 film, "Roxie Hart."

Rogers' film career began in 1929, when she was also appearing on Broadway in several shows.  One of them - "Girl Crazy" by George and Ira Gershwin - used a well-known dancer by the name of Fred Astaire to help with choreography.  The show made Rogers an overnight success, and Rogers even dated Astaire for a short time during this period.  Rogers parlayed her Broadway success to a film contract, and by 1933 had become a film star with "42nd Street."

Rogers paired up again with Astaire in "Flying Down to Rio," also in 1933, which was the first of their ten films together.  Despite the fact that Rogers couldn't tap at the time and had never done any partner dancing before, the duo was an immediate success.  Both Astaire and his longtime co-choreographer, Hermes Pan, always noted that Rogers was an integral part of the dance team.  Not only did she contribute to the choreography, she lent her considerable acting skills and spontaneity to the task.  As one critic put it, "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."  Furthermore, Rogers's physical talents played a large role in the duo's success.  First, she had an incredibly flexible back, which gave the pair a wonderful line in certain dips and poses (critics have pointed especially to "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)). Second, she had a high degree of stamina and self-discipline, balancing grueling rehearsals and dance sequences with Astaire as well as the demands of her other filming commitments.  Astaire - who rehearsed far more than other dancers - was also a perfectionist when filming, and one famous sequence in Swing Time (a stair dance) had to be shot 99 times.  Other reports say that Rogers kept filming, with energy and a relaxed smile on her face, even while her white silk dancing slippers turned pink from her bleeding feet (the color change wasn't caught on the black and white film of the time).  Astaire particularly respected Rogers' dedication and endurance, saying, "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."

Rogers would, from time to time, ask not to be cast in musicals, not because she didn't value all that dancing in musicals had done for her career, but because she wanted to grow creatively.  During one of those hiatuses, she filmed "Kitty Foyle," for which she won an Academy Award for her acting.  In all, Rogers made 73 motion pictures, ten of them with Fred Astaire.

The two most famous quotes about Ginger Rogers are that "She did everything that Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels" and that "Fred gave Ginger class, and Ginger gave Fred sex" (the latter of which is attributed to Katherine Hepburn).  However, both of these suggest that Rogers' only fame and talent was as Astaire's dance partner.  While she certainly excelled at that - taking place of prominence over such luminaries as Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller, Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland and Jane Powell - she had many talents as a dancer, actress and singer.  One of the true triple threats of show business, Ginger Rogers will be always remembered for her unique role in the development of the Hollywood musical and as a performer of the highest caliber.

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