...Good to be back...

...well, Hi-ya, ever-body!!!!

Hu is back from Atlantic City...well, got back quite a few days ago, but... it appears blogger has had some 'issues'... but appears to be cooking again...

As for a 'Gingery Connection' in Atlantic City, well, I doubted there would be one, but...one 'kinda' happened, at least in a 'glancing' way.
Of course, as we all know, Atlantic City is the home (again) of the Miss America Pageant...and the hotel I stayed in had the address of '1 Miss America Way'...which was pretty cool...even cooler was the display of all the dresses and other 'Miss America' stuff in the lobby (I guess at one time or another contestants stayed there). Well, when I walked into my room, there was a pic on the wall of a float from 1941 with Miss America contestants... and one of the young ladies on there was Miss California (who went on to be Miss America), Rosemary LaPlanche...this isn't the actual pic, but it IS of the young lady in question...

...and yeah, that's what I thought too (The 'float' pic in my room was a bit smaller, but large enough to portray Miss LaPlanche as being QUITE similar to Ginger... enough to make me convey this occurrance to all of y'all, for sure...)

Well, I thought it was cool first of all that they had the 1941 Miss America pic in my room (although it may have been in ALL rooms, who knows), since 1940-1941 was Ginger's 'apex' of popularity... and then I thought how cool it was that this young lady in the pic looked a WHOLE lot like our fair Ginger... but then, after doing a bit more research, it gets even MORE Gingery... soon after Miss LaPlanche was crowned, she went on do USO bond tours, a la Ginger...and well, like a LOT of actresses and other young ladies did at the time....

BUT, here's the "COOL!" "GingerConnection" part... in the same year she 'served' as Miss America, Miss LaPlanche signed with...RKO Pictures!!! She ended up appearing in over fifty films in her career - most were 'small roles' (well, actually there's no such thing as 'small roles', right? ;-) ), and had her own radio show in the late 40s, and then onward to television... pretty cool!!! Here's her IMDb page: Rosemary LaPlanche

I feel pretty sure she and Ginger crossed paths (she's not mentioned in Ginger's bio, but...) - heck, she could have been Ginger's 'stand-in' for sure! Actually, there are other pics of her out there where she is not as 'Gingery' looking, and one of them actually conjures up Rita Hayworth! Well, heck, here's the Miss America 'bio' about her...check out the second 'Rita-like' pic of her... ANYWAY, it just goes to show there are ALWAYS GingerConnections out there, if you keep your eyes open!
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As for TCM, hey...not much in October regarding Ginger, but November and December are rocking!!! First off, December's TCM Star of the Month is.... Mr. Fred Astaire! Of course, as a result, all ten of the GandF films will be aired in December (heck, I think 'Barkleys' is on TWICE in Dec...) - but there's also some cool 'spots' where Ginger occurs in the lineup... most notably, late Christmas Eve (and into Christmas Day, actually), "I'll Be Seeing You" is airing, which is tagged as a 'Rob's Pick' for the night...which is pretty awesome... Bachelor Mother also occurs within a week of Christmas, I believe... but just go check out the 'TCM Page' located at the top right of this page... also, on New Year's Eve, the "That's Entertainment!!!" series of films are being shown...Ginger appears in the third (III) installment.
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Finally, as to 'resumption' of Gingerology... still need to get cracking on the TopHat caps... pun most likely intended... but I also want to post some other Gingery topics, so... stay tuned. And of course, the continued 'advancement' of all of the GingerFilm blogs will be taking place as well, and I'll hopefully keep you posted on occurrences on any specific one of them.

Until all of that happens, tho... I'll yak with most of y'all over on FaceBook... otherwise...

Keep It Gingery!!!

Hu
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...Taking a GingerBreak...

...well, that sounds pretty bad, but...there's NO way y'all are getting rid of me THAT easily!
I'm just gonna be out for a week on a business trip to...Atlantic City, of all places! Heading out EARLY tomorrow morning...so, hope all of y'all out there have a great week, and I'll catch up with y'all upon return (I honestly have no mobile devices in which to communicate with y'all...) ...I'll be back on 10/5, so...heck, a WEEK from now... As such, I'm posting the 'Day in Gingerology' for ALL of the days I'm out... for your information, of course...

...also just received the 'official' e-mail noting that WB Archives now has 'Vivacious Lady' available as an 'on demand' DVD... see the last post for the link... here's the E-mail banner, which is pretty dang cool:

...remastered... sounds promising!  Not sure how you 'remaster' a movie from the late 30s, but... sounds good to me!

And of course, TopHat is still out there in need of The Huey Treatment... so plenty of stuff for Huey to do upon return... SO, until then...

Keep It VERY Gingery, y'all!!!

Hu
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...Happy GingerFall, Y'all!

...well, I prefer to say 'Autumn', but... doesn't really sound the same when Ginger is before it!

...ah, Miss Rogers is dressed for the approaching season in grand fashion, as usual!!!

...hope everyone is doing well out there... a few things here and there to note...

FIRST...Arianna has informed me that, after a LONG wait, one of Ginger's most beloved 'non-Fred' films is FINALLY making it to DVD...WB Archives has released 'Vivacious Lady', Ginger's only film with James Stewart as her leading man...

...for those who haven't seen it...it's MANDATORY...trust me. a bit 'goofy' in places, but hey, it's a 'screwball comedy'! Here's the link to WB Archives: Vivacious Lady on DVD - WB Archives 

SECOND...Monty's 2013 Lombard Cup is WELL under way...hope y'all have been participating in it...if not, well...NOW would be a good time, as our girl's number has been chosen... Ginger is up against Esther Williams, who is pretty awesome.... but in the wrong place at the wrong time, unfortunately... HERE'S the link to Monty's site, which ultimately links ya over to Kristen's blog, Journeys In Classic film (see the end of Monty's post...or heck, just click HERE ...doesn't appear to be 'set' yet, as of this posting...)

...hey, Ginger swam a good bit, too, ya'll!!! 
...but with that, I think everyone knows that Esther has no equal in aquatic acrobatics/pyrotechnics, of course :-)

Happy voting, y'all!

THIRD...as of yet, still haven't gotten around to making screencaps from TopHat... but hopefully soon... VERY soon... stay tuned... once I get time to crank them out, it goes pretty fast...

FOURTH...With that, the 'FilmJam' deal for 'The Major and The Minor' was pretty neat, even though I was only around for the last ten minutes or so... hope you got to join in!

And if not, or if you aren't 'in' with the FaceBook Gingerologist 'community', well..ya NEED to be! Pretty incredible stuff there... I find it hard to keep up at times, which I never thought I'd say regarding Ginger!!! :-)

FIFTH...and LAST...I think... I'm actually 'road trippin' to...Atlantic City, of all places...a work deal... will be out a week from today (9/29) and will be back Friday (10/4)... just a programming note, as it were... wonder if there's any Ginger connection up there? I feel pretty sure she passed through there a time or two back in the day... heck, probably had some of her stage shows set up there, I reckon...

SO, until then...

KIG, y'all!

Hu
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...VERY sad news...

...as some of you already know, we have lost a great member of the Gingerology 'family', erosenplatt (who was Amanda Cooper on FB) - here is the statement from her FB account by a friend:

 

This is a sad thing to write so please forgive me if I surprise you. I'm a friend of "Amanda Cooper". I'm writing to let her "friends" know that she has passed away. She was in a car accident over the weekend. She talked about her facebook Ginger fans group and loved reading what you wrote. She loved Ginger Rogers and you do too so you must have had a lot to talk about. I think she is in heaven now having lunch with Ginger Rogers catching her up on all that has happened on earth since she passed away. I don't know if "Amanda's" family will shut this page down or what but I think she'd want you to know she had passed. God bless you all.

...there are never adequate or 'right' words to utter when a tragedy occurs, but my sincere condolences to all who knew 'e' in a real sense, as I know a few of y'all did... and of course also to her family and other friends. I know we had LOTS of great correspondence together, and she was VERY knowledgeable of all things concerning Ginger... and overall just a sweet soul who always had a positive outlook on things...she will be sorely missed by this blogger, for sure...

Erosenplatt's blog, The Ginger Rogers Resource, is a neat site which has plenty of links and pics of Ginger... here's the link to it:

erosenplatt's The Ginger Rogers Resource

...and also her superb YouTube channel:

erosenplatt's YouTube channel

A sad post to make, y'all...but knowing 'e' is in The Great Beyond chatting with Ginger really makes things a bit better... and, as always, on a somber occasion like this, it's a time for reflection and re-evaluation... with that, my hope is that all of y'all know how awesome you all are, and I am VERY blessed and privileged to be associated with such a great group of folks...of course, Ginger is our 'central theme' here, but I think our 'links' have transcended even that, and we have become a close-knit 'community' of sorts...  which is really cool.

As always, and in memory of erosenplatt...

KIG y'all!

Hu
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Ginger's dad...future Johnny Football?

...OK, y'all...just though I'd post this one over here, as it is kinda funny, to me, anyway...

Over on that big ol' social media thingy they call FaceBook, a fellow Gingerologist - Ginger Rogers - a Joy To behold, posted a pic a few days back from the GingerCentury exhibit ay Boston University...which I just happened to take whilst there, but that's generally irrelevant... anyway, the picture is of baby Ginger being held by her 'gooberhead' dad, William Eddins McMath...here's the pic:

...now, this is a pretty cool pic for a few reasons...first, not sure if any of us Gingerologists knew of it prior to its display at BU...second, it's one of the few, if not the ONLY, pic of McMath with Ginger... but lastly, it dawned on me that McMath looked kinda familiar...couldn't really think of who he reminded me of, but with the upcoming football game between Alabama and Texas A&M, and all the media hype leading up to it, it hit me...

dude looks a LOT like...

...Texas A&M quarterback and 2012 Heisman trophy winner Johnny Manziel!!! It's just a weird similarity, especially considering how 'Johnny football' seems to be at best a goofball in his 'off-the-field' activities... thus shadowing McMath's daft behavior.

And if you REALLY want to stretch things, remember Ginger was the Charleston Champ of the state of....Texas!  ...yeah, I told you it's a stretch...

Well, just thought I would 'document' this before I forgot about it... I know a lot of y'all don't know Johnny Manziel from Johnny Mathis, so... now you do, I guess. :-)

And just to make this post a bit more Gingery, here's an awesome pic of YOUNG Ginger that Arianna posted on FB a day or two back...a new one for me!

...so pretty!!! ...OK, y'all, if you haven't noticed, there's a link at the top of the page here to a poll over at Movies Unlimited, which allows you to vote for your favorite non-musical GingerFilm... no wrong answers, of course, so, go check it out!!!

Until the next Gingery post...

KIG, y'all!!!

Hu
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