Ginger Rogers

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath on 16 July 1911 in Independence, Missouri, and grew up in Kansas City and Fort Worth. She got her nickname from a young cousin who could not pronounce Virginia. In 1925, aged fourteen, she won a Charleston contest, after which she spent months touring with a vaudeville act. She then became a Broadway actress. In George and Ira Gershwin's Girl Crazy she became a star at the age of nineteen. Fred Astaire helped the dancers with the choreography at the time.

Music and breakthrough

In the 1930s she made nine films with Astaire for RKO, including The Gay Divorcee in 1934, Top Hat in 1935 and Swing Time in 1936. These films are regarded as groundbreaking for the film musical genre and brought RKO some of its greatest successes. She then turned to drama and comedy. For Kitty Foyle (1940) she won an Oscar for Best Actress. In 1949 she appeared opposite Astaire once more in The Barkleys of Broadway. In all, she made 73 films.

Influence

Rogers was an actress, dancer and singer. Thanks to her pairing with Astaire, dance in film became a form of storytelling that said as much as the words did. Her name appears on many albums of songs from those films, at a time when film music set the tone for popular music.

Listening

• 
  We're in the Money · Ginger Rogers, 1933

Discography

Studio albums

• 1991A Fine Romance
• 1995Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire, Volume 1: The Gay Divorcee / Top Hat (soundtrack)
• ?Hello, Ginger!

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 4^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Filmmusical GenreFred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced to songs by Irving Berlin in Top Hat (1935).

See also

• Filmmusical