GingerFilms That Weren't, Part One: Mother Carey's Chickens

Well, hiya, G-ologists! This is the first of (hopefully) a series of posts that will occur every now and again on Gingerology, regarding films that Ginger was pegged for at one time or another, but, for whatever reason, she did not end up in... lots of material here, folks... the more you research this stuff, the more you see that Ginger was a pretty hot 'commodity' for RKO in the mid-to-late 30s... like I have to tell Y'ALL that...

Anyway, this 'installment' concerns itself with the somewhat ill-fated production of "Mother Carey's Chickens", which was based on the novel written by Kate Douglas Wiggin in 1911(!)...she also penned the classic "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm".
Although there is a bit of 'variance' regarding Ginger's history with this film, here's the version that sounds best to me, as Lead Gingerologist...SO, here goes...

 ...the small print on this 'promo' reads, "Memories of "Little Women!" Again the sweet sensation of sheer loveliness glorifies the screen! Our studio believes, that here, at last, is the story of tender emotion, love and tears, destined to replace in the world's affections that picture of happy theatre memory..."

The treatment was picked for Ginger as early as 1936 by the RKO brass, and was to be her first lead role in a film sans Astaire (Star of Midnight and Romance in Manhattan each featured Ginger quite well, but not as the 'official' lead role; In Person does, but is not a 'drama', rather a comedy with music and dance...whatever ya wanna call that (I call it an awesome movie... 'Don't Mention Love To Me' just...is IT, y'all...) (digressing...))

It was reported that Ginge had even dyed her hair a more...well, Gingery shade for the role - a full four years prior to her hair color transformation in Primrose Path - so it appears that she was ready to roll with production. However, if anyone out there knows the saga of RKO upper management at the time (well, heck, for its entire EXISTENCE, for that matter...), there was a heap of shuffling in top brass, and each one with different 'philosophies'...and priorities. As a result (most likely), this treatment was 'shelved' for a few years, while Ginger whirled away with Fred...pretty dang hard to argue with that business model...

So, by the time someone pulled this one back off the shelf in early 1938, Ginger had advanced her career quite nicely, thank ya very much, and had even 'headlined' a few more movies, albeit not 'dramas' (Having Wonderful Time and Vivacious Lady)...so there were a lot more treatments being batted about for her, and this one just wasn't in the mix at that point...

Now, SOMEWHERE along this timeline, our ol' buddy Kate Hepburn was also tapped by RKO to take on the role (evidently when Ginger was slated for 'other projects (i.e., going full-bore with GandF films))...well, this was about the same time she was being labeled as 'box office poison' (she had just wrapped Bringing Up Baby for RKO, which was not well-received in its initial run), which she attributed to substandard roles offered up by RKO... and this script was deemed 'substandard' enough that she bought out her RKO contract and shuffled off to Columbia...Pictures, that is...  it's more than a bit interesting that the 'promo' above cites Little Women for comparison...

SO, where did that leave this film? Well, the role was eventually taken by Anne Shirley, as Nancy Carey... additionally, Ginger's bud from a few years back, Ruby Keeler, played the sister role in the film. Here's the link to TCM's info regarding the movie:

Mother Carey's Chickens


 The book, "The Films of Ginger Rogers" by Homer Dickens, also sheds light on the backstory to this movie. I haven't watched it, but plan to...always interesting to see a film which Ginger was originally 'thought of' for the role...

...Also, thanks to the cool blog, MCMXXXVIII by Mark Thom, for info regarding the 'Ginger angle' of the film's history, and general info regarding the eventual film...

***edited 11-09-12...thanks to GF (as usual) for digging up this awesome pic of Ginger in the 'MCC dress'...

Well, hope this has been an interesting post for ya... not 100% sure about all the pics of Ginger, but it appears the first few are 'dead-on' what the 'promo' pic looks like... the next to last one...not quite as much (seems like that one is from In Person...)...but seems to generally match the previous pics quite well, so... 'nuff said.

As for the Roberta review, that's 'in development'...actually, I've been adding stuff to the 'GingerFilmBlogs', primarily screen caps and any other files I have regarding the film in question...yeah, I'm generally setting up 'clouds', but hopefully will be of interest to y'all out there... I think I made it up to Don't Bet on Love...dang, it takes a fair amount of time to 'transfer' stuff... but it's getting there!

In the meantime, y'all...

KIG!

Hu
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