In Memoriam

I know Huey has already posted so most of you will no doubt know now of 'Erosenplatt's' passing, to anyone who did not no i'm sorry.

I first got to know 'E' when she sent me a message on youtube suggesting where I could go to get my records converted to CD, her reckoning was if I could get them transferred I might be nice enough to put them on youtube, in nearly 3 years I've acquired a record player, Ginger's recordings have turned up in various places, I still haven't found anywhere to get my precious records transferred although some have been "recorded" for youtube but I made a friend who's friendship I will cherish forever

Perhaps the worst thing I've had to do was tell Anneliese about E's passing as Anneliese thought so much of her, when I told A we were going to the US her first question was 'Will we get to see "E"'? that before American Girl or anything else. When I told her the sad news her first question was 'Does that mean we'll never get to see her again?' her second (which I guess is typical of a child) was 'Does that mean there'll be no more exciting parcels' For a 6 year old I guess forever is a long time to comprehend, but her question made me think of everything I'll miss most about E, the emails and conversations on everything from Fred and Ginger to the complicated Ashes Score (cricket), the weather and life in general. The amazing way she'd find old magazine articles on Ginger, Fred, Lela, Adele not to mention music, radio recordings and other hidden gems. As well her kindness and her generosity and the treasured time spent in her company, including most recently the Labor Day Weekend only just gone, months ago when I was deciding what to do about a trip to the US (as a fine example of her wonderfulness E had been looking after my Fred and Ginger dolls until I could get over to the US to pick them up) E suggested I might bring A over again as she'd like that, i'm so glad now I was able to take her as 2 years is a long time for any child's memory
Ian too said all too rarely did you meet strangers who were so kind from the offset, its a rare quality that Ginger's fans particularly possess :-)

I was looking through emails that E sent to me when we first started corresponding and found some photos, some of them no doubt you'll have seen but others perhaps not, sorry that I did not share them before, now I know why I should have started blogging sooner (the photos were kindly sent over 9 months before Huey persuaded me I should also blog!)

      

Three Cheers for Gingerologists!!!

After the horror of losing so many Ginger movies at once, thankyou so much for all of you who have come to my rescue particuarly Huey who has most kindly put the missing movies onto memory stick or such and mailed them, one piece of mail to definitely look forward to!! Thanks also to Erosenplatt for explaining archive.org and being patient with explaining when i accidently downloaded some random programme instead of the movie it should have been (don't ask there were 4 different download options!)

Now I know why it's best to save movies to different places, as a good example my 'Fred and Ginger' movies are completely separate to both my Ginger movies and my Fred movies, mainly because at the end of the day they are the most precious even with at least 3 copies of each movie on dvd ;)

Super excited at the moment because Vacation time is looming :D It feels a long time since the last time I was away (a trip to my grandma's at the weekend doesn't count right?!) and much longer at any rate since I was in the US, think I need to sort with Ian exactly what we're gonna be doing in NYC, we have some common interests but i'm not sure he wants to visit any cemetarys - I always make a point to visit Woodlawn Cemetary in the Bronx, amongst others laid to rest, Vernon and Irene Castle, Irving Berlin, WIlliam Haines and Jimmy Shields are interred there, plus certain Ginger and Fred related locations, whilst Ian wants to cross Brooklyn Bridge and visit Rockaway Beach (sp? weather pending) Not to mention Anneliese who's main interests for New York are American Girl and the Carousel by the Chelsea Piers :-)
Washington DC is much easier as we have 3 (almost 4) full days there as opposed to 2 full days and 2 half days in NYC, I am planning to try and hold off shopping in NYC except for anything Jerry Ohlingers Movie store might be able to tempt me with though ;-)

I'd try and feel bad for anyone who's back at school while we go on vacation, although you broke up way earlier, Anneliese goes back to school 2 days after we come home and she didn't break up till the end of July :-)

Hope all is fine and dandy for everyone back at school or not

As ever

KIG

Absolutely Gutted

Went on my external harddrive tonight as wanted to transfer some of Ginger's movies on to memory stick to discover the entire file had been wiped :( no idea how, all the other movies i have are intact including Gene Kelly's movies and not in a million years would i wipe Ginger's before his (or anyone elses)

Asking a big favour from fellow Ginger fans i have some of Ginger's movies backed up in other places but not all (although there should be a memory stick with them on in my house somewhere its just finding it) and am now asking if people could help me out with the movies I now have missing, would be very grateful if anyone could, really am devastated to find this (second harddrive thats wiped on me this year :( )

The Movies I am now missing are

A Night In A Dormitory
Young Man of Manhattan
Queen High
Honor Among Lovers
The Tip-Off
The Tenderfoot
You Said A Mouthful
Professional Sweetheart
Upperworld
Romance in Manhattan
Star of Midnight
In Person
Tom, Dick and Harry
Tales of Manhattan
Lady In The Dark
Weekend At The Waldorf
Heartbeat
Storm Warning
Forever Female
The First Travelling Saleslady
Teenage Rebel
Oh Men, Oh Women
Quick Lets Get Married
Harlow

I've got a lot of if only's going through my head right now, if anything good comes out of this it'll be a much tidier house as i'm doing everything i can right now to find any memory sticks that might have some of the missing movies on

Happy Birthday to the wonderful Miss Ginger Rogers!!

Following on with the theme of choosing 'a few' favourite photos of Ginger, boy that was difficult!!
Happy 102 Birthday to our beautiful lady, hard to believe only 2 years ago was in Independence for Ginger's Centenary, by the clock it was only half 8! Was a real privilige to meet Huey (and the gang!) Incidently i'm always up for meeting other fans of Ginger (erosenplatt will tell ya that!) so if anyone else is NYC or Washington DC based I (and 'baby' although at 6 she sure isn't a baby no more! oh and Ian lol) are in NYC 26th-29th Aug and DC 29th Aug-2nd Sept :-)

Late 4th July Greeting plus 'The Castle's are Coming'...

I seem to be running late for everything at the moment, but hope everyone in the US enjoyed the 4th July! I did watch 'Lets Say It With Fire Crackers' from Holiday Inn more times than most people may watch it in a year but it is one of Fred's best solo numbers out of the Astaire-Rogers movies, the whole number is actually pretty good including Bing singing, the 'video' in the background really puts into perspective that 'WW2 ' started for the US during the filming of the movie and they slotted it in quite nicely (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVAUdb-3aq0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlgAj_29Z7U) On a completely seperate note Holiday Inn was in my own opinion the only movie that looked as good colourised as it did in b&w, although had i not watched the documentary on how the colourisation was done and the research put into it I probably wouldn't be so keen!

I don't know if anyone is in the NYC area but this came up on my facebook page the other day

http://www.castlewalkmusical.com/

It sounds interesting but i had a rant into the empty room (as one does) about how Irene Castle was never fair to Ginger right from the offset :( On the otherhand i'd still like to see it, although the synopsis makes no mention of how RKO got Irene 'out of their hair...
Also to be completely honest if it wasn't for RKO, Fred and Ginger i doubt very much i'd even know who Vernon and Irene Castle were!

The 'Real' Vernon and Irene Castle

 I will say that whenever i'm in NYC i make a point of paying my respects to Vernon and Irene at Woodlawn Cemetary in the Bronx (on a side note Irving Berlin is also interred there) and on my first visit met a guy who remembered Irene visiting Vernon's grave reguarly before her death :)

Apologies for the gaps between posting, life seems to be rushing at high speed around here, probably because we're on the last couple of weeks before schools get out for the summer and I have so much to do before then! I finally got my degree results and graduate on the 19th July :) So now when I fill out application forms I no longer have to write result pending which may i guess not have helped much with job applications. On a mission to find a job! As my degree is in Youth Work I am hoping to work with young people but the government seems to like hitting budgets for that first :(

The summer vacation looks like it's gonna be one long garage sale, but we do get a vacation at the end of August, 8 days in New York and Washington, Anneliese's first trip to the US since 2011, she's already got her eye on a few trips to American Girl, Ian's coming with us, so a first family vacation!