...regarding Roberta...well, MAYBE. I am currently reading an 'unauthorized biography' of Ginger that was written in the 60's by a dude named Dick Richards, who was (or still may be) a film critic of the Daily Mirror, a London newspaper. He had met Ginger a few times, seen and reviewed most of her films, and wrote this bio around the time she was starring in the London production of 'Mame' - the first chapter talks about how that production came about with Ginger in it. But the second chapter begins the 'chronological' story of Ginger, and overall seems pretty accurate...
...BUT, check THIS out - on page 74 of this tome, he states the following regarding the film 'Roberta': "I'll always recall a gown of glittering gold metal leaf cloth worn by Ginger. Above all, the dress parade which was the film's climax was in colour, then a comparative novelty, and it was rich and rewarding. It revealed Ginger's hair as by no means a fiery red but a soft, fair auburn and at the sight of it her male fans in the cinemas should have renewed their marital vows."
...OK - so... WHERE IS THIS COLOR (or 'colour') VERSION? Did WB just 'blow off' the color portion and made it all B/W throughout? Or was this an 'English only' thing (which would have been kinda weird to not have been that way stateside...) - see, every time things seem to be in harmony in GingerLand, something like this pops up, which just...BUGS me!!! Well, y'all can relate... OGRE - sounds like a mystery for you to unravel... oh well, we at least have Maria to provide us with awesome color 'stills' from this great film...
Anyway, overall this is a pretty interesting book, and dude is definitely a big Ginger fan, but there are a few 'iffy' parts here and there, at least in comparison to Ginger's bio... another big "???" is that he claims Ginger's favorite GandF movie is 'Top Hat'... er, that's first time I've heard that... I tend to think it was probably her LEAST fav, if just for the 'feathers' incident alone, not to mention the presence of Mr. Sandrich... and she says herself that 'Swing Time' is her fav, so there ya go.BTW, be on the lookout for MY 'unauthorized biography', "Huey Rogers: The Bodacious Life of a Cabana Boy" - guess I COULD do the 'novel writing' contest or whatever... if only time would allow...
Well, hope everyone survived Halloween... guess Thanksgiving is next....well, it's really Veteran's Day next... so lots of stuff ahead. In the meantime...
Keep It Gingery!!!
VKMfanHuey
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Hey honey! Great post! You never cease to amaze me with all you know about Ginger! So glad to see you have a new post. Hope you have a fabulous night and thanks for the new comments on my post! Kori xoxo
ReplyDeleteI think the dude was dreamin! Maybe he watched Roberta and wished that sequence was in color. Maybe he got mixed up with Carefree. Besides the dress Ginger wore as part of the fashion show was the black dress!
ReplyDeleteTo me ROBERTA is the greatest musical film ever. My favorite 1933 musical 42ND ST, GOLDDIGGERS and Footlight PARADE are great - ROBERTA is different. ROBERTA is absolutely perfect. It's like the most brilliant painting you've ever seen - everything is 100%. The way they've connected music, dancing, comedy, drama and fashion is even 200%. I didn't know this was possible before I saw it. It's not a work of all those patterns - they connected all to one brilliant piece of art. Besides ROBERTA exhales such great humanist, kind philosophy that makes me love it even more.
ReplyDeleteThere's only one film that ranks higher than ROBERTA and that is the Jean Arthur western ARIZONA. But this doesn't necessarily mean that ROBERTA is less brilliant.
Wait until it'll be 1935 on my blog. ROBERTA will get what it deserves. I'll probably work days and days at that article...
Well, several things....
ReplyDelete1. HUEY ROGERS????
Are you contemplating a name change or is this a nom de plume?
2. Huey Rogers: The Bodacious Life of a Cabana Boy
Hahahahaha Where do I pre-order???
3. I'm with Sassy. I've never seen anything anywhere about Roberta being available in color. I also think Ginger enjoyed the non-Sandrich Fred films better than those he directed. As far as the finished product she seemed to indicate Swing Time
4. I love Roberta, too, Clarissa. Ginger and Fred really seemed to enjoy themselves in that one, and there was a great amount of energy in the film. On the subject of Ginger's little curls being hard to keep in place, did you notice her hair in "Hard To Handle"? It was coming out there. Same is true after she danced in Bachelor Mother.
Yes, I certainly adore Ginger's curls in ROBERTA. But it's just a few months ago, ROBERTA struck me like an angelophany. My veneration of FOLLOW THE FLEET has a much longer tradition, that goes back to the late 80s. I grew up with that stuff and it influenced me enormously. Ginger Rogers to me was above all that girl in FOLLOW THE FLEET. And I always tried to follow that idol.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean her curls uncurled? Well, if you have them in resin - like those prehistoric bugs - then they will do millions of years... :D
Huey I have that book. I haven't had time to read the whole thing, just been going back through certain parts that I wanted to read about...seeing that Ginger put out her own autobio. I too am confused about what he is talking about. I know there is a movie that is completely B&W until the models shows their gowns, then that whole part is in color, then it switches back to B&W. I forget what that movie was called, but it sounds like he is describing that movie and not "Roberta"...and Ginger was definitely not in that other movie obviously.
ReplyDeleteI just remembered what movie that might be..."The Women" :-D
ReplyDeleteKori - Thanks for the kind words! Glad you are better, and hope you have a VERY Gingery weekend! :-] BTW, nice work on the 'new look' for Blonde Episodes...only issue is, no Kori pics! :-( otherwise, it's great!
ReplyDeleteSG - yeah, I just think dude has his films mixed up... maybe the 're-make' of this one, 'Lovely to Look At', had a color scene during the dress show... but the way he details Ginger's hair color (colour) makes you go hmmmm...
CS - 'Roberta' gets better every time I watch it - I am becoming a big fan of Irene Dunne - saw 'My Favorite Wife' the other day, and she was great in it with Cary... I guess I just concentrate on the Ginger scenes, but viewing the 'bigger picture', it works very well.
Fioraon - Well, maybe that will be my 'pen name', sure... sounds about right to me... :-] ...As for Ginger's locks, they had much attention given to them, but I guess after so long, they 'lost form', unfortunately... I guess Ginger had somewhat curly hair, anyway... ??? Again, not a hair expert, but just LUV hers... :-P
Desarae - Cool! It is a pretty cool read... not exactly sure as to it's 'accuracy', and not a HEAP of photos, but still pretty interesting... it kinda surprised me that dude didn't remember much about 'Swing Time' - couldn't even remember the plot! Seems like 'Top Hat' was the biggie for folks in the U.K.
Hmmm - I bet you are correct in that he is probably thinking of some other movie...'The Women' - haven't seen it, but need to... but dang, I would REMEMBER Ginger in color, you know? But then again, that's not too shocking coming from me, is it? :-]
Irene has a perfectly skilled voice. In that little scene when drunken Randolph Scott blames her (before she's going to sing her great SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES) Irene says:
ReplyDeleteNow would you pleas go?
A very simple phrase, but nobody else could speak it out like that. There is so much dignity in her voice. But this certainly comes from her enormous skills as a true Bel Canto singer. And it makes her absolutely believable as princess.
As a loving woman she's always very human. It's the exact contrary of the 60s' sexual revolution - "back to nature", or let me paraphrase kind of 'let's-be-wild-animals-again'-attitude.
As blogger happythoughts wrote on THE MORE THE MERRIER:
"In a film today they’d have been pushing each other up the stairs and tearing each other’s clothes off. I don’t say that in moral judgment, really." [http://happythoughtsdarling.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/joel-mccrea-where-have-you-been-all-my-life/]
Well, I mean it as a moral judgment. Because I don't want to live in such a world, with such philosophy - or call it just moral. And that's the actual reason why my world is the 30s. I do claim dignity ... at least for myself - if other people despise that I can't help them. But I won't be around! I switch the screen off, or go away. And then maybe I enjoy ROBERTA again, which tells me: "There is another world, with real culture, love and truth and it still exists. There are still people who appreciate and live that.
Fred Astaire himself is a good example. He was really a true husband. How he suffered after his Philis' death. And I really appreciate the 'pretension', not to kiss anybody. This saved all the Fred & Ginger Project from being flat. Their final hug in SWINGTIME says so much more.
I just saw STAGE DOOR, still having Kate's most tragic reciting in my ear. So I read the paragraph next to the last of my yesterday's comment and laugh myself to death. Because in my mind I hear Kate speaking it.
ReplyDeleteWe vintage people seem to be rather tragic people -- aren't we?... ;)
But stage door is really wonderful.
Oooh this is interesting! Just when you think you know everything about a actor/movie, some new info comes up! :)
ReplyDeleteCS - agree on Irene... she is VERY 'classy', IMHO... really way too good for Ol' Randy... oh well. Very astute commentary on the 'lowest common denominator' of today's screen 'romance' scenes... It's funny - I was watching 'Kitty Foyle' with my wife and when 'Wyn' is speaking to Kitty in his office and says (paraphrasing somewhat) - "I think about making love to you" -she said, 'whoa!' didn't know they could say THAT back then! Of course, I explained it was a whole different context back then... ...sad how that phrase (as Fred also sings in 'Night and Day', of course...), which obviously meant 'to romance' in a...well, genteel manner, is nowadays just another crass way of describing 'intercourse'... yes, things were more 'naive' back then, which was a good thing in many respects...
ReplyDeleteStage Door... an essential. Yes, a pretty 'dramatic' ending... but seems to catch the 'reality' of actresses trying to make it big... Ginger and Kate trading barbs is so priceless... Ginger and Ann hoofing it up... perfect! OK - guess I need to go watch that one again now... Thanks, CS! :-]
JH - It's always something, isn't it? I was just really wondering if anyone else had heard of this, as I have not. I really need to sit and watch 'Roberta' with the 'commentary' on... my mom does that, and comes back with all kinds of cool facts... she is the 'matron saint' of Gingerology...well, of course she is still VERY much with us, but you know what I mean...
Y'all KIG!
VKMfanHuey
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STAGE DOOR
ReplyDeleteWhat's so brilliant in this one is the combination of comedy and tragedy. The whole musical is actually full of tragedy -- and yet it's extremely funny. So is actually live: It's tragic and funny. And this film shows it in a way not many movies productions in Hollywood's history have achieved.
I found it very amusing that Ginger and Kate acted practically in changed parts. In real live Kate had that big mouth and Ginger held back. I laughed very much when Kate wanted to know what to do with that blindfold and Ginger answered: "You swallow it with a glass of water." -- Then Ginger's champagne tipsiness was really too cute. Nobody can really describe that, they have to see it themseves...
...'edited' by VKMfan on 11/09/10 - CS, ya know I love ya, and appreciate your awesome comments, and TOTALLY agree with you on the current depravity which is prevalent in all forms of media, but... with a few kids 'tuning in' to G-ology, we are trying to keep at best a 'PG' rating...hence the 'edit'...
ReplyDeletethanks!
VKMfanHuey
CLARISSA SMITH said...
The phrase "make love to you" can be heard in many popular love-songs of the 30s. Everybody could interpret this as suited themselves. Of course you met people with a nasty sexual-fetishistic attitude in the 30s as well. And some of those old love song had a tendency to make you blush possibly. But the "sexy m----f----" of our days has just another quality. In my opinion the 30s showbiz presented a quite sound human sexuality. Today it isn't sound at all - to me it's insane. This has something pathological, as I feel. Above all I made the experience that very sexual-fetishistic people can't really love. The more they go for 'sex' the more they lack of heart. They're cold, as this time is. Just listen to that stupid and careless babbling in tv-shows - the philosophy of the 60s revolution made our world heartless, that's all. It's inhuman.
In this moment I have a CD with early 30s Bing Crosby songs. There is one song on it, I know from the beginning of DANCING LADY - the burlesque scene. I don't wonder they chose that song:
Paradise
And then she holds my hand, mm mm mm mm.
And then I understand, mm mm mm mm.
Her eyes afire with one desire,
then a heavenly kiss;
could I resist?
And then she dims the light, mm mm mm mm.
And then she holds me tight, mm mm mm mm.
Her kiss, each fond caress,
they lead the way to happiness.
She takes me to Paradise.
You see, here's lots of imagination possible and this stuff can make you really blush. Besides the "mm mm" humming seems to stand for something concealed. But just compare this harmless little firework to the modern arsenal of sexist and sexualistic phrasing.
November 9, 2010 3:50 PM
...although the 'general topic' is hopefully a bit 'over the heads' of any young-un's tuning in! In today's society, tho, most likely not, unfortunately... too bad the 'style' of yesteryear is not still in place, where romantic scenes were 'faded' abruptly and left the viewer to imagine how the evening proceeded from there...
ReplyDeleteAs for Stage Door - Ginger played 'tipsy' as well as anyone, especially considering she was a t-totaller! Classic scenes.
Thanks, CS!!!
VKMfanHuey
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It's better that way ... I mean edited of course. You gotta remind those who believed in that insanity. It was wrong and we need a change in the heads. I'm afraid the harm is still there -- in our souls. Well, they remember it by the edited version as well...
ReplyDeleteBut your right, I forgot those who might never have heard of those crazy things. Why should they ever be bothered by that? Long live the new, innocent generation! This is kind of hope, isn't it?
For the future I won't forget those nice little people ... and let me say, I'm gonna believe in them. ;)
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You know Huey, at high school everybody listened to rock and disco and Clarissa dreamed of Broadway and Hollywood. When they talked about Woodstock I didn't know what it actually was. I wasn't interested at all. But sometimes they said things that just wondered me. I thought they were all nuts.
AHAHAHA BODACIOUS. Besides that, I'm excited for veteran's day. But I haven't found any military stuff that I liked to wear. So I think I'll be patriotic à la fête.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Top Hat is Gin's fave movie of theirs but Swing Time her fave one to work on?
...no problem, CS - I know it is quite naive at this point in history to assume children can be totally 'sheltered' from language, violence, etc.... but it is worth a shot! :-] Thanks for your understanding and support!
ReplyDeleteAs for music...well, I was into heavy metal in high school, although I DID buy 'Glenn Miller's Greatest Hits' in the midst of buying all the wild haranguing and catrerwauling records of those metal dudes... SO, guess I knew there would be a day when the 'classic' stuff would be a big part of my 'repitoire'...but yeah, I still listen to the wild stuff, too... I generally give most ANY genre and era of music a 'fair listen', as there has to be SOME value to it, else it wouldn't have been popular, correct? There's even a few 'diamonds' in the otherwise quite rough landscape of the current 'popular music' arena.
Lauren: HELLO THERE!!! :-)
Hope everything in school is moving right along... are you blogging again? Hope so... throw a post on 'Grayscale' with the details of what's been cooking in your world (I bet someone that you have a 'man-friend', thus placing the blog-o-sphere squarely on the back burner, as it well should be...) At the very least, I know school is a bear (or in your case, a Bruin :-] ), so that is top priority, obviously. We 'classic bloggers' are holding things down pretty well, and hopefully there will be times you can jump in...
...as for 'Swing Time', it seems like it is her fave, period... a few different sources, mainly her Bio, confirm this.
Remember Veteran's Day!
KIG - VKMfanHuey
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I think everyone's assumed I don't post on my blog anymore, but I've just been busy with work and stuff. Yeah sure man friends, as friends. And yeah, school is getting a little grisly (grizzly?) I actually love the word grizzly. Esp when people pronounce it 'grizz-a-ly'
ReplyDeleteand PS, my chiapa, gestapo, capacha, whatever for the above comment was "forkiest" (sounds like a word I would make up). Um, remember say what? :)
ReplyDeleteHuey, I just became choosy, withdrawing to that music- and film-world I always loved. I don't give a darn for what other people in their private life do. But I claim certain moral values that correspond with my convictions, before I'm ready for a film. And same goes for music. During the 90s I worked a lot with synthesizers. I started with kind of Diana Ross/ Whitney Houston style. But as techno/house/rap influence got more and more in soul, I was eager to show that I could even integrate that. And this is kind of 'art' that prefers 'nasty' sounds. I didn't love that, I just bore with it -- was proud of my results indeed though. But yet I never could understand why anybody would like that. Today I'm happy to be home in the 20s/30s again. And I'll never leave 'em again...
ReplyDeleteOf course there are values in 60s and 70s music ... just to think of emancipation of women and black people. But other values got lost, as truth, rationality and reliability. These were values they made ridiculous and the resulting harm is still in the world, or rather in people's mind. I can't live in such a world. It seems every fifteenth word people say is "sex". Must be kind of collective neurosis. I always answer: "Sorry, too me this means nothing but gender."
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P.S.: By censoring my comment before, you make me even worse, Huey. :) -- I really loved what you did there! By this you broke the evil spell. In future I'll say to myself: "Why, that all doesn't exist to me." :) -- I just go deeper into my 30s world and let other people stuff themselves with their junk. Why in heaven's name should I care, can't help it anyway?