...the 'official' Ginger Rogers website has a NEW entry!!! It only took a little under 26 months! Oh well... it is really just a 'link' to the article from Sarah Kaufman of the Washington Post about Ginger's 100th year - a very nice article - it's pretty apparent she is a Ginger fan... I tried to 'reply' to her article, but couldn't get it to go thru... but I still recommend it as 'required G-ology reading'.Here's the link in case you haven't been there in a while...
http://www.gingerrogers.com/about/new.php
...while we are here, hoping y'all got the Ginger movie(s) you were looking for from the WB Archive - the 'sale' on the 'six-pack' ended yesterday - mine have already been distributed on my 'row of GingerFilms'.
Hey - that pic above is pretty cool, BTW... it will be one of the last 'pre-peroxide' pics we see for awhile, I reckon... her eyes in this one are mesmerizing, no?
Also, I am starting up on Review #6, for 'The Tip-Off' - I have just watched the first 10 minutes or so, and it already is most likely the 'new #1' in the aggregate poll...RKO flicks are just cool to me - and it's weird how much 'crisper' the cinematography is on this one than on the Paramount movies - maybe it's a 'restoration' thing, but you can just tell by the 'feel' of the scenes that the RKO stuff was better than any of the Paramount stuff - (prove me wrong, Viacom, and 'restore and distribute' those 'first five'!) ...anyway, hopefully that review will be on the site by Saturday, so stay tuned.
And lastly, but certainly not least, G-ology is deeply saddened to hear of Jane Russell's passing... she was quite the lady ("The 'full-figured gal", INDEED! :-p ) ...ahem...and an underrated actress... of course, it just wouldn't be Huey of me unless I found a 'Ginger connection', right? so, here goes - For the movie 'The Paleface', Paramount (there's that name again) originally had Ginger tabbed to play opposite Bob Hope; for some reason (financial, perhaps?) Ginger backed out and they installed Jane Russell to play Calamity Jane instead - of course, I would have loved to see Ginger in that role, but...whatever... haven't seen that movie, but I feel sure Jane is fine in it!
And then, of course, there is the 'Howard Hughes' connection between Ginger and Jane; Howie signed Jane to a seven-year contract in 1940, shortly after Ginger dumped Howard in the Pacific (Chapter 26 of 'My Story').
Well, that's about it - I am going from Wednesday to Thursday as we speak, so here's wrapping up -
KIG!
VKmfanHuey
---
Nice article, thank you :)
ReplyDeleteGinger really had beautiful eyes. In the Major and the Minor, when she buys a ticket for the train, we can see how pretty were her eyes.
As much as I love the "aura" of Paramount (think of Ernst Lubitsch's famed quote, "I've been to Paris France and I've been to Paris Paramount. Paris Paramount is better."), there can be no doubt that at times it was a very confused studio, particularly in the early 1930s. It had so many young actresses under contract that many of them, such as Ginger, Jean Arthur or Carole Lombard, either never found their niche there or weren't fully utilized by the studio for several years. RKO, being a smaller outfit, tended to treat its stars with greater care, and winding up there was arguably the greatest break of Ginger's career.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know she was suppossed to play opposite Bob Hope in that role! I was looking at a survey I found in a drawer that I had filled out when I was eight, and Paleface was my favorite movie at that time. lol. It would have been so cool to see Ginger in that role!
ReplyDeleteShe turned down sooo many goodies....
That's a wonderful article! Thanks for telling us about it!
I'm trying hard to recognize Ginger in that photo, but can't. Something must be wrong with my eyes.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think so too Huey: RKO (and Columbia actually to) films were mostly better than Paramount and M-G-M films.
So Ginger turned down a role as Calamity Jane. That's all very interesting.
YAY! Finally! haha XD
ReplyDeleteHuey, have you seen this? I didn't know Ginger played the piano! Pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteI was so sad (and still am) about jane Russell! I've only seen one of her movies, but I still loved her just from that one film. :( There's a Howard Hughes/Ida connection, too, I've been meaning to post about at my blog.
And I 100% agree with what VP81955 said about Paramount. That was where had her first Hollywood studio contract, and they had absolutely no idea what to do with her. The films she made there...really aren't good. Except for The Light That Failed. At least Warner Bros. offered her better roles, even if they weren't exactly what she wanted, either, they were better. Okay, that's my rant for today. :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletewell...not sure why THAT happened... but...
ReplyDeleteCamille: Thanks! I love her eyes in 'M&M' too... when she is 'Su-Su', her eyes are not 'made-up' too much, if at all, and their 'pure essence' of beauty show well!
VP: Well, the fact the Paramount films are not 'restored' probably is the biggest difference... but seems like the scenes are just 'crisper' from RKO... not sure why. As for Paramount, Claudette Colbert was another 'defector', right? 'It Happened One Night' was a Columbia film... arguably her most well-known.
PG: Yeah - something pretty dang freaky must have happened to keep her from jumping at that role! Anyone who knew Ginger would have no problem with her in it, as she was a 'ranch girl' in real life!!!
CS: I looked at this pic a bit before I was convinced it was Ginger, but now it's pretty obvious with the hairstyle, and the right eye being a bit more 'open' than the left, which is a good 'identifier' of Ginger. I just taped 'Grand Hotel' from 1932 from M-G-M...I am interested to see it...the few scenes I have seen does seem a bit on the 'shadowy side'...of course, a lot of scenes may call for that, so...
ALD: Yep - I wish those folks would keep up with stuff a bit more on that 'official' site... the biggest 'beef' I have with the site is that it just seems to want to make sure everyone knows they 'own the rights' to Ginger's pics...which who really knows if that is true?
JH: Ginger could jam out... I think piano playing was far more commonplace back then... not a big of a 'deal' as it is now. Well, seems like Howie was linked to most every dame in Hollywood...
KIG, Y'all!!!
VKMfanHuey
---