Doll-A-Day 2019 #61:Oscar Week: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

  Some of you may have been wondering where day 61 was. About nine of you actually saw it. and may have wondered where it went. So here's the story. I worked my butt off,(If only!),getting this post ready. It was the most detailed post of the whole 'Week'. While I was loading the pictures I hit something,I have no idea what,and the page vanished. I thought I had closed it off accidentally. So I opened Blogger again,and reloaded the pictures. I put all the pictures on and finished the writing. When I was finished,very late last night,I posted it. I was pretty proud of it. And I had to be, because this was a post Ivy was really going to judge me on,Fred Astaire being one of her favourites.
  While I was working on it I discovered that I had not closed Blogger off. I had instead opened a whole new Mozilla! The original was there all along. I didn't close it off,for fear of it taking everything I had done so far, on the other one, with it. So I didn't close it until I had posted the right one. Today I noticed that only nine people had seen it so far. I went ahead and posted number 62. Hours later I noticed that 62 had surpassed  61,which was still only at nine views. So I looked at it to see what might be up. Well I'll tell you what was up! Everything I had done after opening the new Mozilla WAS GONE! No pictures. No finished writing. Even though I posted the finished version,when I closed off the unfinished version,that was the one that it took. So I have had to reload the pictures AGAIN,and put them back on,and rewrite the majority of the post all over again. It was a good one too,and I'm sure this rewritten version will be just a shadow of it's former self. So cut me some slack Ivy.
  So we conclude Oscar Week with a pair of dolls.
 

They're obviously Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

They were made by World Dolls.

They represent Fred and Ginger as they appeared in "The Barkleys of Broadway", their last film together,from 1949.

Both dolls measure about 19" tall.
  

According to their paperwork they have swivel waists. 

I didn't notice that until I read it,because they are hard to pose.

 

 Their heads are strung,but while that originally would have made them nicely posable,as they age World dolls are notorious for their heads falling off. Fred's head is wobbly loose,but Ginger's head is completely separate from her body. It made it nearly impossible to pose her head in any position other than straight ahead,(No pun intended.), without it falling off. You may have seen my 2014  Oscar Week post on my World Clark Gable as Rhett Butler,who has the same problem. If not, you can see him HERE.

They are jointed at the shoulders and hips. As you may  have noticed if you read the blog regularly,I dislike using stands. I prefer to make the dolls look as alive and natural as possible. Well it was impossible with these two. Their legs are bent at such angles that they can't stand unsupported. I had to use stands for them,which accounts for the strange white lumps at either side of Fred's cummerbund,and the hump under Ginger's dress.

That dress,by the way, was actually white in the movie. The movie is in colour, so I don't know why they chose to make it pink. Other than that it wasn't very accurate anyway.

At least they got the shoes right...sort of.

Under her dress Ginger is wearing a white slip and undies.

Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10,1899,in Omaha, Nebraska. He began his dancing career as a child, in a vaudeville routine with his sister Adele. As adults they appeared on Broadway in plays like "Funny Face",and on the London stage. Adele was considered the better dancer of the two. How good must she have been?! Fred and Adele went to Hollywood for a screen test for Paramount,(which has unfortunately been lost, There is no film of Adele dancing.),but were rejected as being unsuitable for films.
  Adele retired in 1932,when she married and became Lady Cavendish,and moved to England. Fred then embarked on a solo career at the age of 33. He also had to adapt his dancing to a romantic style,now that he was no longer dancing with his sister,which took him some time to get used to. The famous story of Fred's first solo Hollywood screen test involves the studio heads memo on it: 'Can't act,can't sing,balding. Can dance a little.' There is some doubt about the truth of the story,and some, like Ivy, consider it to be an urban legend. However, I did finally track down an actual quote about it by Fred himself. In an interview with  Barbara Walters in 1980,he quoted the memo as,"Can't act, slightly bald, also dances".
 

Producer David O. Selznick commissioned the test,and signed Fred to RKO  studios. In a memo he said, "I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test."

Gee thanks Dave.

It would be nice if his lapel would lay down.

In the  1930's Fred made nine movies with Ginger,and a few movies without,including one I quite like, "Damsel in Distress" in 1937.

 This Fred wears his 'top hat and tails',as the song goes.



  Fred Astaire disliked the idea that the public thought of him in top hat and tails,as he considered himself to be a pretty casual guy.

He has a white shirt,a tail coat,cummerbund,pants,and his top hat.

The boutonniere is sewn on.

He even has a walking stick.

  He also hated it when,in public places,men would come up to him and ask him to dance with their wives. Fred worked long hours perfecting his steps to make each dance in his films perfect. He didn't like being asked on the spot to dance without rehearsal.
  Fred was also a composer and musician,playing piano and drums, amongst other instruments. 
  Fred insisted that all dances be photographed in full shot,showing the dancer from head to toe. He was quoted as saying,"Either the camera will dance, or I will." Director H.C. Potter described 'the Astaire dolly', saying,"It was on tiny wheels with a mount for the camera that put the lens about two feet above the ground. On it rode the camera operator and the assistant who changed the focus and that's all. Fred always wanted to keep the camera in as tight as possible, and they used to shoot with a 40 millimeter lens, which doesn't give you too much leeway. So every time Fred and Ginger moved toward us, the camera had to go back, and every time they went back, the camera went in. The head grip who was in charge of pushing this thing was a joy to watch. He would maintain a consistent distance, and when they were in the midst of a hectic dance that's quite a stunt."

 He surprised everyone when,in 1946,he announced his retirement. The following year he founded the Fred Astaire Dance Studios, which he would sell in 1966. They are still in business today.
  In 1948 Fred was asked to come out of retirement and replace an injured Gene Kelly in "Easter Parade". He did, and just kept going. The rest of the 40's and 50's were filled with classic Fred Astaire musicals,like "The Barkleys of Broadway" in 1949,"Royal Wedding",the movie where Fred dances on the ceiling,in 1951, "The Band Wagon" in 1953,and "Funny Face",in 1957. He was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1950, for "his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures". The award was presented to him by Ginger Rogers. He also won a Golden Globe Award for best Actor in a Comedy or Musical in 1951, for  "Three Little Words",an award he would be nominated for two more times,in 1960 and 1962.
  In 1952 he recorded the album,"The Astaire Story",which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. 1958 saw the first of four acclaimed Fred Astaire TV specials.  "An Evening with Fred Astaire" won nine Emmy awards,including "Best Single Performance by an Actor". When it was argued that dancing didn't actually count as acting, Fred tried to give the award back, but the Television Academy refused to take it. "An Evening with Fred Astaire" was followed by more specials in 1959,1960,and 1968. Luckily they fixed the category problem,because he won the Emmy in 1961,this time as Outstanding Performer in a Variety or Musical Program. Fred was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his dramatic performance in "On the Beach" in 1959. His autobiography,"Steps in Time" was published the same year. (And yes Ivy. I do plan to finish reading it and give it back.)
  "Finian's Rainbow",one of our favourites in this family,in spite of it's bad reviews upon release,was released in 1968. It was Fred's last major musical film. Fred appeared in five episodes of  the TV series "It Takes A Thief",as Robert Wagner's father,in 1969.  He appeared in the first two "That's Entertainment" compilation movies, co-hosting the second one,and even dancing, with Gene Kelly,in 1976.
  In 1974 Fred was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for "The Towering Inferno".  He failed to win, but did win a Golden Globe for the role. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama or Comedy Special in 1978,for his role as an elderly man coming to terms with his ill health in "A Family Turned Upside Down". (Ivy,I don't know if we could watch that one either!)
  Fred's final dancing performance on screen was, oddly enough,in a 1979 episode of "Battlestar Galactica"! The role was written especially for him,at his request, because his grandchildren liked the series. His final acting role was in the 1981 horror film "Ghost Story". He passed away in 1987.
  The World Fred is a pretty good likeness,even if he is a bit cartoony. I guess that would be kind of hard to avoid,because Fred had a unique look. When they made a Rankin and Bass character out of him for "Santa Claus is Coming to Town",they didn't have to change much.

I don't think World did nearly as well with Ginger,even if they did remember her mole.

  Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath on July 16,1911,in Independence,Missouri. She got her nickname,'Ginger', when a younger cousin could not pronounce 'Virginia'.
 

When Ginger was nine,her mother remarried, and Ginger took her stepfather's last name,(although he did not adopt her.) At the age of fourteen,she won a Charleston dance contest. This launched her vaudeville career. At nineteen Ginger made her Broadway debut in "Top Speed" in 1929. Within two weeks of opening in "Top Speed",Ginger was chosen to star in "Girl Crazy",in which she became a star on Broadway. The person hired to help the dancers in "Girl Crazy" with their choreography? Fred Astaire. According to Fred Astaire's autobiography,he and Ginger dated a couple of times,but they were never a couple.

  Also in 1929 Ginger made her film debut in some short films. By 1930 she had been signed to a seven year contract with Paramount. She soon extricated herself from her Paramount contract and signed a three movie deal with Pathe' Exchange. After Pathe' Ginger made several films with Warner brothers, including "Gold Diggers of 1933", where she debuted the song "We're in the Money",part of which was sung in Pig Latin, while wearing a costume made of 'coins'.

  Ginger was next signed to RKO. She and Fred Astaire were first teamed in "Flying Down to Rio",in 1933. The film was a starring vehicle for Delores Del Rio and Gene Raymond, but Fred and Ginger stole the movie.
  Fred and Ginger were paired eight more times at RKO,the last time being 1939's "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle", based on the true story of the famous dancing team. (I refuse to watch this one a second time because**spoiler!** Fred Astaire's 'Vernon' dies at the end! Nobody wants to see that!)
  The famous quote about Ginger is, "Ginger does everything Fred does, only backwards and in high heels." (Since Fred was 'leading', Ginger basically had to do the steps in reverse.) That's not strictly true, but Ginger was known to rehearse until her shoes were filled with blood.  
  After Fred and Ginger's partnership,(which was never meant to be one) ended in 1939 after nine films, Ginger wanted to try drama. It worked well for her when, in 1941, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for "Kitty Foyle". During the forties Ginger became the highest paid performer in Hollywood. This was a huge difference to her years with RKO, where she was paid less than Fred Astaire,(understandable, since he also had a hand in the choreography, and teaching her the steps.),and sometimes even less than the co-stars that followed her in the credits.
  Fred and Ginger reunited one last time in 1949 for "The Barkleys of Broadway", when Judy Garland, who was to play the female lead, fell ill. In spite of what MGM and "That's Entertainment" would have you believe, this was the only Fred and Ginger film made for MGM.
  Ginger continued to make films throughout the 50's,but never again had the success she had with "Kitty Foyle". The most well known of her 50's films are "Monkey Business", a 1952 film with Cary Grant and a young Marilyn Monroe, and "The First Traveling Saleslady", from 1956. She appeared in films and on TV throughout the 60's. In 1965 she played Jean Harlow's mother "Mama Jean" in the movie "Harlow", and the Queen in a TV adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella". That version, with Leslie Ann Warren as Cinderella was shown on TV every year when I was a kid. Ginger also wrote her autobiography, "Ginger, My Story".
  Ginger made a successful return to Broadway on 1965,starring as Dolly Levi in "Hello Dolly". She also had a very successful West End run with "Mame" in 1969.
  Ginger did only occasional TV appearances during the 70's and 80's. She fulfilled an ambition in 1985 by directing the off Broadway play "Babes in Arms. Her last acting appearance was in an episode of the series "Hotel" in 1987. In 1992 Ginger was given the Kennedy Center Honors. She passed away in 1995.

  Although recent books have tried to say Fred and Ginger didn't get along, or even hated each other, the two of them always said the opposite. Both spoke well of the other in their autobiographies, and when Fred was given the AFI (American Film Institute) Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985,he mentioned that he had recently received a letter from Ginger. I'd like to think they were friends.
  Shew! And that's it for Oscar Week. (AGAIN!)