Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American film and stage actress, dancer and singer.

I don't think blessings are one sided.

Quotes

• I loved Fred so, and I mean that in the nicest, warmest way: I had such affection for him artistically. I think that experience with Fred was a divine blessing. It blessed me, I know, and I don't think blessings are one sided.
  • Reported by Dick Richards in Ginger: Salute to a Star (Clifton Books, 1969), quoting Rogers from Francis Wyndham's story about Ginger Rogers, in The Sunday Times Magazine (London).

• That's pure bunk. I adored Fred. We were good friends. Our only problem is that we never aspired to be any kind of a team. We didn't want to be Abbott and Costello. We thought of ourselves as individuals. We didn't intend to be another Frick and Frack. [smiling, after a pause] But it happened anyway, didn't it? And I'll be forever grateful it did.
  • Responding to assertions of discord between herself and Fred Astaire; quoted in "Leading Couples", by TCM's Robert Osborne, p. 11.

Quotes about Rogers

• Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels.
  • The line originated in a 1982 Frank and Ernest cartoon (image) by Bob Thaves as "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, ...backwards and in high heels." On the internet and in many publications the line is incorrectly attributed to Faith Whittlesey (see "List of Websites That Have Attributed Thaves' Line to Whittlesey". Google. Retrieved on 2009-07-25. ) or Rogers herself. Ann Richards popularized the line by using it in a speech but she credits Linda Ellerbee with giving her the line, and Ellerbee credits an anonymous passenger on an airplane with giving her the line (see Keyes, Ralph (2006). "The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When". St. Martin's Griffin. p. 77. ISBN 0312340044. ). The official Ginger Rogers website attributes the line to Thaves.

• What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers? I will not have it Leland--I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her or anyone else, and if that is the program in mind for me I will not stand for it. I don't mind making another picture with her but as for this teams idea, it's out.
  • Fred Astaire in a letter to his agent Leland Hayward dated February 9, 1934. He went on to make a further nine musical films with Rogers.

• She had guts.
  • Fred Astaire's description of Rogers from his autobiography Steps in Time.

• The hardest working actress I ever knew.
  • Fred Astaire's description of Rogers' discipline and willingness to work, from Steps in Time.

• Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success.
  • Fred Astaire to Raymond Rohauser, Film Curator of the New York Gallery of Modern Art, at the San Francisco Film Festival, in 1966.

• Believe me, Ginger was great. She contributed her full fifty percent in making them such a great team. She could follow Fred as if one brain was thinking. She blended with his every step and mood immaculately. He was able to do dances on screen that would have been impossible to risk if he hadn't had a partner like Ginger - as skillful as she was attractive.
  • Edward Everett Horton to Dick Richards. Ginger - Salute to a Star (1969), p. 162.