...here's the deal (and BTW, a big THANKS to Katie (a.k.a. the Florida OGRE) for tipping me off to this troubling info)...
Mr. James Collier, a wealthy philanthropist (...er, probably not many poor philanthropists floating around) donated a GOB of money to the theater...awesome - great! I would have done the exact same thing!!! We have a few old theaters in town I wish I could totally bankroll...they are priceless!
As a result of Mr. Collier's awesome donation, the theater administration decided to change their name to "The Craterian Theater at The Collier Center for the Performing Arts"... which is perfectly fine...except...the theater is already named for someone.
I've never really understood why a structure which is named for someone can be 'renamed' for someone else, and the original 'honoree' just tossed out... maybe I'm a 'traditionalist' or something... of course, there are always 'extenuating circumstances', such as when a person honored becomes controversial or has a scandal (see Joe Paterno)...that is why I think a building or structure probably shouldn't be named for anyone until they are no longer with us... but, then again, it was pretty cool that Ginger got to see the theater 'dedicated' to her...so maybe that's a 'waffling' issue for me, ultimately...
Well, back to the topic proper...heck, here's the 'news' from the theater site regarding the name change:
Craterian Theater changes name
...er, why couldn't they just say the "Collier-Rogers Theater"? Well of course, PREFERABLY, The Rogers-Collier Theater? That's how football stadiums (around here, anyway) do it... Alabama has "Bryant-Denny Stadium", Auburn has "Jordan-Hare Stadium", etc. - which seems OK to me. But in pro sports, nearly all of the traditional stadiums are now named for corporations, not individuals...which seems quite a bit more shaky to me (see Enron).
If I were to give gobs of money to anything, I think I would prefer my name were NOT on it...in fact, I would have made the stipulation in this case that it would ALWAYS be known as the Ginger Rogers Theater!
However, they did keep the memory of Ginger's impact of the area in the form of "The Ginger Rogers Stage at The...yada yada yada..." - so, that's something...and as a performer, that is probably a fitting tribute.
But of course, the 'downgrading' just does not sit that well with Gingerologists... if anything, I thought it would be cool to see a GingerFilm at the Ginger Rogers Theater...now, eh, still a cool place, but, just not quite as...Gingery.
Now, after reading through the statement on their website, it may have been that, since the theater is becoming more of a performing arts and culture center, that they MAY have thought the Ginger name was not quite as 'fitting' for an 'arts and culture center'...really? Let's hope this was not the case...but it does make ya wonder...
OK, well, rant over...for now... but, if ya feel froggy, maybe jump onto the theater's website and leave some Gingery feedback (just keep it 'classy'...like our girl)...I haven't yet, but...probably will soon.
Hope y'all have an otherwise Gingery weekend!!! Yes, the R.I.M. review is still plodding along...I have a couple of tests next Saturday (09/08), so studying for those...but after that, will have the review out...looking pretty good...there are just oodles (there's that word again) of incredible GingerCaps...this one is really amonst the top of the heap, as far as GingerFilms to date!
Again -
KIG, y'all!!!
Hu
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I was very disappointed when I first heard about this. I follow them on Facebook, and I read a post they made talking about the name, and I was like what!? It was very annoying to hear them changing the name. I liked it just as it was, now it sounds meh.... I guess everything can't stay, just like how some Ginger Rogers places aren't even around anymore.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on finishing up the review! And nice pic "preview" like the one at the top. I thought she looked really pretty in that film.
Have a awesome day, it's nice to have a three day weekend! :)
...I think that's our 'mission', to 'preserve' all things Ginger wherever they may be and in whatever form they take... so to see something 'downgraded' is cause for concern...
Delete...and, I figured I'd throw a cap from RIM on here...there are SOOOO many I'm going to have to get thru...this is where the 'blog for the film' will start to work well...if I can just get those started... trouble is, you have to set up 75, not just one!
Hope your 'day off' goes great...it's raining here, so... time to catch up on here, right?
KIG, GF!!!
Hu
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i saw this on facebook and am rather annoyed but as someone commented money talks... a lot of football stadiums in the UK are named for their sponsers so if the sponser changes the name of the stadium changes too...
ReplyDelete...yeah, I guess the 'receivers' feel obligated to name something in honor of the donating party... but again, if I were the 'donating party', I would tell them not to change the name of any existing building...no matter WHO it was named for - unless it's, again, a controversial figure... if they are building a 'new wing' or something, then that's fine... name away... but to remove the 'original honoree' is just a bit much. And I feel the 'corporate naming rights' deal is even worse... If they say "Wembley Stadium by Burger King", or something like that, OK.
DeleteWell, hope you have a great week over there... guess y'all don't have Monday off, eh? Heck - y'all just had about a whole MONTH off during the Olympics, right? :-)
KIG, Kat!
Hu
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don't worry we had a bank holiday (so a day off) the week before you guys had labor day so we're all square! Except here Summer doesn't finish until Sept 21st ;) (if only someone had let the weather know!)
DeleteWell, we have the same date for the 'official' start of autumn, but for some goofy reason, school goes back in mid-August, when the temps are at their peak... but honestly, this has been the 'mildest' (very relative term) summer we've had for years... we only hit 100 degrees F for a couple of days...seems like last year we had something like 18 days in a row over 100 (well, YOU remember KC in July, right? :-] )... and heck, it was downright brisk this morning on the way to work... I'm expecting Snow in the Ham this year!!! It happens about once every 4-5 years, at least an 'appreciable' accumulation...of course, even if a weather dude MENTIONS snow, we are all in 'full panic mode', running off to the store to buy 10 weeks worth of food...it's really pretty interesting...
DeleteOh, well - KIG!
Hu
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Isn't that the way life is these days, Huey? Everything has a price. I certainly hope this "extraordinary generosity" amounts to millions and millions of dollars. It's one thing to attach Ginger's name to the theater as she supported it and having her name on it would attract attention to it and help it grow. Ginger clearly loved the stage and was devoted to this theater, so I expect if this theater needed an infusion of cash to survive and expand, she would have been all for changing its name to accomplish it. Still it's a shame how quickly people are forgotten. I looked on the website and saw no place to leave a comment which is probably for the best as far as I am concerned. You just wonder what's next: the Citibank-Lincoln Memorial or the Hilton White House or maybe Exxon Statue Of Liberty :(
ReplyDelete...the old days are gone forever and the new ones ain't far behind... ( that's from Dylan, I think... Bob, not Thomas... anyway...)
DeleteYep, it frizzes MY fur quite a bit. of course... I guess they DID keep the stage on her honor, but... how is that to be presented? If every time they have a performance, they say, "NOW, on the Ginger Rogers Stage, here's...Chaka Khan!" ...I'm OK with that...
And it's great that the dude gave gobs of money, no problem...but again, I would have said, hey, I don't care if you put my name on the place, but just leave Ginger's on it, like 'Rogers-Collier' or whatever... and that would be the case for ANYONE currently honored like that...I wouldn't want to be the one to 'replace' an existing honoree... even if nobody knew the 'existing honoree'...(wow, I'm on quite the tear, aren't I? :-] )
Anyway, guess we just need to redouble our efforts to keep the Ginger legacy alive... so get back to work!!! :-]
KIG, Lady F! Have a great Labor Day!!! 'Bam-Bam' says 'hey' to 'T-man'! ...BTW, TODAY is Reed's 3rd birthday!
Hu
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I don't blame you for being mad. Ginger fought her entire career against money over substance and here it is again! They should keep Ginger's name on the theater. How about The Ginger Rogers Theater at the Collier Center? Not rich enough? How about everyone refers to them as the Fleet Enema Theater of Oregon from now on? And what about Roberta Olden dragging herself and a closet full of dresses up to Oregon last year to help their LOCAL Historical Society with their fashion show/auction? Thanks for the dough now please go! If these people only understand money, we should use ours as best we can and spend it on Gingery sites and NOT with them! They can kiss my Craterean!
DeleteAnd with that, have a very lovely evening Hu. Thanks for keepin' it so very Gingery!
Thanks, 'e', for saying what we all REALLY wanted to... :-]
DeleteGood point about Roberta...wonder what she thinks about this... I GOTTA get in touch with her, y'all...
KIG, 'e'!!! ...I think I don't need to remind ya of that... :-]
Hu
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erosenplatt -- I had exactly the same thought about the name you suggested. Ginger helped that theater grow and flourish by donating to it. And I'm sure her name brought loads of attention to it. Essentially she helped build the foundation of what exists today. You don't chip away that foundation, you embrace it and add "at the Collier Center."
DeleteAnd I'm with you, Huey. Honestly I'd be embarrassed to have my name on a building. I certainly would NEVER insist on a name change as a condition for making a sizable contribution. And as you so rightly noted there can be embarrassment in the future to an institution that bears the name of an undesirable. That happened here. A guy named Bob Brennan made his money by bilking people out of money via wrongful stock practices. Finally the feds got him and he was locked away for a long time but not before his name graced many buildings in the state. The money donated to all those enterprises was stolen from people who could least afford it. How nice to have that name on the facade of your building.
End of rant. :)
Oops. Huey, I meant to wish Bam Bam a happy 3rd birthday. How quickly that went. BTW, the aquarium at which the T-man met the sting ray was the NJ Aquarium in Camden. Probably similar looking to those you mentioned.
Delete...well, we had the local millionaire get busted by the feds for just about the same thing...Richard Scrushy of Healthsouth...he had his name on every other building in the county... they even changed the name of a parkway near a hospital he bought to his name from a fellow named Lloyd Noland, who was one of the main docs that fought against malaria and yellow fever when the Panama Canal was being built... and then founded the hospital here that was for all the steelworkers nearby (my wife started her nursing career there...the whole building is gone now...it was pretty dang old, and the new hospitals sucked all the 'business' away from it...). Of course, when this Scrushy dude got busted, they had to revert back to the original name, which was cool.
Delete...oh, thanks for that info...never been to the Camden Aquarium...I CAN now say I've traveled the length of the New Jersey Turnpike! Pretty cool, actually... better than a typical interstate. And thanks, He had a great birthday...lots of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff and 'Cars' stuff... his two current 'interests'.
KIG, Lady F!!!
Hu
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Do you have a way of contacting Roberta O.? I think rjolden-1 on the IMBD message boards for Ginger Rogers is "the" Roberta Olden. (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur2651149/boards/) But I don't know if that is a good way to contact her. I would be interested in her reaction to the name change. Considering she was in "the business" for so long when she worked for Ginger, she might not be very surprised.
ReplyDeleteKIG!
hmmm....I think I have a contact or two regarding her...not sure if they are valid... but I really would like to contact her, just to give her the 'general invite' for Gingerology...it seems like she is quite involved in any Gingery happenings, of course, and it would just be incredible if she would 'join up' or whatever... it's just kinda a 'tenative' thing...I wonder how often Ginger fans contact her, if she doesn't reply or whatever...but she seems quite nice, so... I might give it a try soon.
DeleteI DO feel pretty strongly that she was not amused with the 'downgrade'...
KIG, 'e'!!!
Hu
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Sorry to learn about this...we need to treasure the memory of our artists, of which Ginger certainly was one. I couldn't imagine folks in Helena, Mont., changing the name of the Myrna Loy Performing Arts Center (it's her hometown).
ReplyDeleteOh, and speaking of naming rights that had to be changed, let's not forget the Houston Astros' current stadium, now known as Minute Maid Park. But when it opened in 2000, it was called...Enron Field. (In fact, the firm's infamous slanted "E" logo -- perhaps indicative of how it unscrupulously took money from its customers as if using a magnet -- was on the aisle chair of each row in every section. Cost quite a bit of money to get rid of those things...
...correct - wonder if it would have mattered if this place was in Independence, MO...or Fort Worth, TX... heck, she pretty much made her home in the Medford area for a pretty good while... but I guess it ultimately is a 'private' entity, thus can do whatever they like... It would be another level if a 'public area' named for her would be changed...
DeleteEnron...yep, we had one of those, called HealthSouth... same issue, same result... the fellow who ran the show, Scrushy, had his name plastered on stuff all throughout the region... but most everything has been re-named, as a result of him being in Federal prison and all...
KIG - and Carole-y, VP!!!
Hu
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They were changing the sign today when I drove by. Such a shame. Money does talk, but Mr. Collier would have shown a lot of class if he had refused the "honor." I hope it wasn't a condition of his "donation."
ReplyDelete...dang, that's bad... Thanks SOOOO much for the update, even tho it's not good news... Maybe one day an even richer person will just buy the place and 'restore' Ginger's name upon the building...
DeleteBTW... it seems evident you are in the Oregon area... not sure how often you have read G-ology, but I am a BIG Oregon Duck fan!!! But if you are an OSU Beaver, that's perfectly fine as well! I REEEEEALLY want to get out there to see the Rogue River Ranch, and all the other great areas (too bad I missed the opp to see the Ginger Craterian...dang it...) ...and if there's EVER any Oregon / Ginger news afoot, PLEASE feel free to chime in anytime...well, actually I am REALLY close to setting up a FB page for G-ology, so the 'real time' issues (like this one you have reported) can be seen by all... I'll link to this post at the 'header page'...
Thanks again for the update, Lisa, and Keep it Gingery, even when others do not!!!
Hu
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...BTW, what did they do with the Ginger sign? I know of a few folks who may be interested in its purchase... ;-)
Delete