I was reflecting on Ginger today and thought of the following....
The first 9 Ginger movies that I watched were those with Fred. As I was totally immersed in the singing, dancing, glamor, clothes, humor and lightness of those movies, I kept thinking about what a dark time it was in the 30s with the Great Depression and ominous occurrences throughout the world. And yet people could retreat to the theater and spend an hour and a half with Ginger and Fred, forget their troubles, and leave uplifted. Ginger left a great legacy, and this was one important part.
In the introduction to his book 'Astaire& Rogers' Edward Gallafent says 'Of all the images conveying the richness of the filmworld of the 1930s, that of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing is one of the happiest'
Gellafent also noted that of just about all the star couples of the 30s/40s only with Astaire and Rogers do we still refer to them (and feel comfortable doing so) by their first names
...sorry for the lateness on this...you know it's a pretty tough thing to think about much... but I like the points y'all made about remembering the 'good stuff'... and yes, off-hand, I cna't think of too many more joyous scenes than when G&F cut loose on that floor...especially for one like 'pick yourself up'...
...and although hopefully MOST folks still know "Fred'n'Ginger", I feel pretty good referencing "Nick'n'Nora" as well...it's a pretty good gauge of where folks are, culturally, and whether or not they are worth dealing with in the first place... :-]
I was reflecting on Ginger today and thought of the following....
ReplyDeleteThe first 9 Ginger movies that I watched were those with Fred. As I was totally immersed in the singing, dancing, glamor, clothes, humor and lightness of those movies, I kept thinking about what a dark time it was in the 30s with the Great Depression and ominous occurrences throughout the world. And yet people could retreat to the theater and spend an hour and a half with Ginger and Fred, forget their troubles, and leave uplifted. Ginger left a great legacy, and this was one important part.
In the introduction to his book 'Astaire& Rogers' Edward Gallafent says 'Of all the images conveying the richness of the filmworld of the 1930s, that of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing is one of the happiest'
ReplyDeleteGellafent also noted that of just about all the star couples of the 30s/40s only with Astaire and Rogers do we still refer to them (and feel comfortable doing so) by their first names
such a wonderful legacy
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ReplyDelete...sorry for the lateness on this...you know it's a pretty tough thing to think about much... but I like the points y'all made about remembering the 'good stuff'... and yes, off-hand, I cna't think of too many more joyous scenes than when G&F cut loose on that floor...especially for one like 'pick yourself up'...
ReplyDelete...and although hopefully MOST folks still know "Fred'n'Ginger", I feel pretty good referencing "Nick'n'Nora" as well...it's a pretty good gauge of where folks are, culturally, and whether or not they are worth dealing with in the first place... :-]
KIG, y'all!
VKMfanHuey
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