Ginger Rogers

Dazzling Ginger Rogers captured by photographer John Miehle in publicity for THE GAY DIVORCEE (1934). Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911. She and her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, when she was nine years old. She won a 1925 Charleston dance contest which launched a successful vaudeville career. After that, she gained recognition as a Broadway actress for her stage debut in “Girl Crazy”. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, which ended after five films. Rogers had her first successful film roles as a supporting actress in “42nd Street” (1933) and “Gold Diggers of 1933” (1933). In the 1930s, her nine films with Fred Astaire are credited with revolutionizing the genre and gave RKO Pictures some of its biggest successes: “Flying Down To Rio” (1933), “Top Hat” (1935) and “Swing Time” (1936) to name a few. Rogers gradually turned her focus to dramatic and comedy films, in films such as “Stage Door” (1937), “Vivacious Lady” (1938), “Bachelor Mother” (1939), “The Major and the Minor” (1942) and “I'll Be Seeing You” (1944). After winning the Oscar for “Kitty Foyle” (1940), Rogers became one of the biggest box-office draws and highest paid actresses of the 1940s. She reunited with Astaire in “The Barkleys of Broadway” (1949). She also starred in the successful comedy “Monkey Business” (1952) and was critically lauded for her performance in “Tight Spot” (1955). She returned to Broadway in 1965, playing the lead role in “Hello, Dolly!” Rogers continued to act, making television appearances until 1987 and wrote an autobiography Ginger: My Story which was published in 1991. After a long and well lived life, Rogers passed away of natural causes in 1995, at age 83.

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