Heaven, I'm In Heaven: Fred & Ginger's 10 Films

Heaven, I’m in Heaven

Fred & Ginger’s 10 Films 

(Or -- How Singing and Dancing Helped Save the Nation 
During The Shared-Shoes and Fake Socks 
Economy of The Great Depression)

An elegant and fun bridge between old and new.

In the 21^st century, dancers are athletic, ripped and gorgeous.  They do superhuman things.  We watch them with awe.  I don’t know about you, but when I watch a current dancer, I don’t feel myself performing that dance because it’s so far beyond me.  I watch as a spectator.  With Fred and Ginger, they look almost normal, sort of human.  Their dances can be felt.  It’s a dream-come-true moment of accessible elegance. 

Recently, I was with a Millennial who was not familiar with these movies.  I showed her one.  She wanted another.  Then another, and another.  We watched eight before we ran out of time.  She loved them.  I love them.  You will love them.  You can enjoy watching these movies!  In fact, I’m pretty confident that you will LOVE them; that you will want to binge-watch them.  I expect that they will become internalized into the very fabric of your personality. 

I will write a little something about each of the ten films, like a 21^st century tourist’s guide book to the 1930s.  I will link to a clip from each one.  I encourage you to then find the entire film to enjoy at your leisure.  They are on streaming services, uploaded online, available for rent, plus found on DVD, perhaps even at your public library. 

These Astaire/Rogers films from the 1930s are timeless silver, black and white visual masterpieces.  They are 80+ years old now and yet should fully own a place in the 21^st century.  They are art.  If you want fantasy and romance, elegance and artistry, silliness and comedy, beauty and style, music and love, stay with us and enjoy these films.

These were “RKO Radio Pictures” – “Radio” because you could LISTEN to them!  They were modern because they were NOT silent films!  Yes, that’s how old they are!  Pictures with soundtracks were still quite new (which you will recall if know the plot of the Gene Kelly film “Singin’ In The Rain” about the 1920s shift to sound films). 

Magical dance teams don’t come along very often.  When we watch Astaire and Rogers, we realize that they look perfect together.  Others are amazing, and over the years Fred had many partners.  But this team is iconic.

There have been brilliant dancers over the years, each inspired by the one before.  They all circle back to Fred.  Clear from today on back.  Michael Kidd, Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly shone alone or with anyone, Vera Ellen with Danny Kaye (or anyone else), Donald O’Connor, Shirley Temple, Bojangles Robinson, Fred Astaire with Eleanor Powell, Barrie Chase, Cyd Charise, Marge and Gower Champion, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller, Leslie Caron, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, Sammy Davis Jr., Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, Gregory Hines, James Brown, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Jackson and on to those like Usher, Andy Blankenbeuhler and the list goes on, and all are breathtaking.  In fact, Michael Jackson and Beyoncé were inspired by Bob Fosse, who was following in the footsteps of Fred.  It all circles back to Fred.

However (and a big however), Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1930s had something special that wasn’t even hinted at again for decades.  To be honest, no one has really ever repeated it.  These are so much fun to watch.  They created the look.  

The way they speak in these films sounds a little fake and put-on. That's because it was.  The actors of the 1930s early talking pictures had to take elocution and diction lessons.  They softened their Rs and spoke a little bit posh.  Now it sounds pretentious.  Back then it sounded lovely.

It’s important to realize that these are dancing musical stories.  The songs and dances are not illogical misfit moments, but are integral to plot development.  This is often true of songs in musicals, but here the dances do it too.  Each dance in each movie tells some segment of the story or establishes something new about character development.  For this reason, (among others) they are choreographically artistic landmarks as “interpretive dance.”

My Mom was born 100+ years ago.  RKO Studio was part of my mother’s world.  Her name was Bo.  She was a teenage protégé musician in Los Angeles in the 1930s.  Bo worked as a professional pianist and accompanied dance lessons, vocal coaching and auditions as part of the Hollywood Studio System world while she was still in high school.  My mother played the piano as easily as breathing and her brilliant impromptu stylings of The Great American Songbook standards were a part of our daily home life.  Many of those songs were introduced in these films.

Bo in the 1930s

Romance (along with poverty) is forever linked to the 1930s in my family.  While all this film fantasy was swirling around her, the reality was The Great Depression, where her high school piano playing jobs helped support her impoverished family.  My parents met on a blind date in 1935 (set-up by his older sister) and they eloped in 1936. 

Bo with her beau, my father, circa 1936

These movies have costumes and sets that are pure fantasy.  Please keep in mind that these fabulous clothes and locations are in a film made in the midst of The Great Depression, with massive unemployment, poverty, failure and even starvation.  My father and his younger brother lived together in a boarding house after their parents had died.  They didn't have money for nice wardrobe items so they shared a pair of decent shoes, which meant only one of them could go out on any given evening.  My mother wore a homemade hand-me-down dress to the Hollywood piano jobs she had.  Even bobby-socks were hard to come by those days.  If her socks wore out, she cut the cuffs off and wore them around her ankles anyway, just to look like she had socks on.  In the midst of a shared-shoes and fake-socks economy, these movies' fabulous wardrobes were part of the escapist fantasy the nation craved.  Going to the movies cost a dime, and was more fun than a new pair of bobby socks.

My credentials?  I danced just enough to be able to recognize how brilliant A&R's dances were, and how difficult.  

No doubt my biggest credential is that my parents were OLDER than everyone else’s because they got me really late in life.  My folks were young adults when these films were made.  For the rest of their lives my parents and their friends would don beautiful gowns and tuxedos and go on dancing dates, even into their 70s.  They lived the life!  This was their era, and they shared it with me.

When I was young my mother and I would watch these films together.  Ancient history – that was actually before anyone had a way to rent, stream or record movies, so if a film was shown on TV at an odd hour, that was the only chance to view it.  VHF stations (the weird little odd TV channels of San Francisco) would show Fred & Ginger movies sometimes between midnight and 4 AM.  We’d read the TV schedules in the Sunday newspaper to try and find these films.  We'd set our alarms (even on a school night) and get up and watch together.  Mother-daughter bonding.  We also sought out film festivals which were not unusual in the artsy Bay Area and allowed us to see the films on the big screen as intended when they were made.  Now I own them all, a brilliant gift from my husband, beautifully restored and preserved.

The films are, in chronological order:

Flying Down To Rio (RKO 1933)

The Gay Divorcee (RKO 1934)

Roberta (RKO 1935)

Top Hat (RKO 1935)

Follow the Fleet (RKO 1936)

Swing Time (RKO 1936)

Shall We Dance (RKO 1937)

Carefree (RKO 1938)

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (RKO 1939)

The Barkleys of Broadway (MGM 1949)

Each one has a post.  Click on Older Post below (or the > if you're reading this on a mobile screen) to find them in the order the films were made.  

Join me!  Welcome to this bridge between old and new. 

Flying Down To Rio 1933 RKO Studios

Flying Down to Rio

RKO 1933

Bo was 16 when this film (or “picture” as movies were called in the 1930s) was made.  And my Dad had hair like Gene Raymond, who was a star in this film.  This film had talking, and singing, tap dance sounds and even daring scenes with some special effects.  Cutting edge stuff in 1933. 

If you are new to watching Astaire & Rogers (A&R) films, please do not actually begin the viewing with this one because it’s silly.  The next seven are much better movies.  But if you are a purist and want to watch the evolution of the dance team, you have to start here.

This movie was the first pairing of Fred Astaire, a 33-year-old Broadway star who had recently come to Hollywood after his sister/partner had married an Englishman; and Ginger Rogers, a 22-year-old singing starlet who had started on Broadway and been pals with Fred, but had left New York City for Hollywood. 

Fred was an extremely accomplished dancer and a good singer who was not classically handsome but was excessively charming.  Ginger was an adorable, beautiful, perfect-physique petite redhead (eventually a blonde) who could sing with gusto and dance the same way.  She was not formally trained as a dancer but was loaded with natural talent and good experience.

This movie was not their movie.  It was a vehicle for Delores Del Rio (gorgeous) and Gene Raymond (handsome).  The script is dumb, but involves airplane travel, which was still new back then.  Only the wealthy could fly.  Fred and Ginger are supporting players who get to show off their singing and dancing abilities throughout the movie. 

They also show comedy chops.  They steal the show.  The studio noticed and that’s why they got to make 8 more movies together at RKO, and one at MGM.  They had a magical chemistry on-screen, and so much talent.

This movie actually had a reputation for the skankiness of the costumes.  They are pretty risqué at times.  Obviously, “old fashioned” doesn’t mean prudish here.  Or rather, there is nothing new in this world except technology.  I would prefer it if they hadn’t used so many see-through and loose floppy costumes.  I think they are not elegant, or even cute.  Costumes get much better in the future A&R movies.

Their best and most famous scene from this film is called “The Carioca” which is supposed to be a Brazilian folk song and dance about people in Rio de Janeiro.  However, Vincent Youmans, Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn wrote it.  They are NOT Brazilian. 

Here’s the set-up:  Fred (FA) and Honey (GR), friends and co-worker musicians enjoying their evening at the nightclub, observe this hot local dance and decide to give it a try.  They dance brilliantly, of course, with their foreheads together.  Their dance not only entertains the crowd, but also helps these two realize that they like each other.  It’s sort of a “first date” dance.

You have to watch this scene twice.  First, watch and enjoy the dance.  Ignore the awkward cutaway moments to other people at tables at the club.  Enjoy the stage that looks like a flower of grand pianos.  Second time, look at their faces.  In 1933 Ginger is a newbie to dancing at the level of Fred, and she looks like she is working to keep up.  Her posture isn’t perfect, but her smile is. Every time.  This is beyond the current dance trend to choreograph the face.  This is acting.  One of the reasons their work is so timeless is their facial acting. 

My favorite moment:  In order to get those foreheads together after a turn, Fred (FA) gently guides Honey (GR) by a hand on the back of her head.  He uses his upstage hand, so it’s barely noticeable.

After their dance, some sort of strange flash-mob mentality takes over the film and there are dancers everywhere.  It gets so weird – but it’s been goofy all along.  This is a silly movie, but the A&R scenes are worth the watch.

There are other great Fred dance moments in this film.  He’s dancing beyond belief at times.  Ginger puts on a nearly see-through dress to sing with the band, just barely covering enough.  And then there are the scantily clad women dancing and singing on the wings of the airplanes.  Crazy.

And please don’t give up – this is definitely one of the worst, stupidest A&R films, and even so it’s still sort of fun.  If you just can’t cope, then skip through and only watch the Fred and Ginger scenes.  Great, right?  Trust me, in future films they get even better!

The Gay Divorcee 1934 RKO Studios

The Gay Divorcee

RKO 1934

This is a rhyming title, as in “The GAY Dee-vor-SAY” which means, the happy and carefree divorced woman.  In 1934, the word “gay” didn't yet mean homosexual.  This movie was adapted from a 1932 Cole Porter Broadway play called “The Gay Divorce” which also starred Fred Astaire.  This was a rather shocking topic in 1934.  Divorce was not as common as it is these days.  It also wasn’t “no fault” yet.  A divorce was only granted to someone who had serious grounds to dissolve the marriage, such as infidelity committed by the spouse.

This is the basis of the story.  In order for a person to divorce, there must be evidence that the person’s spouse was unfaithful or unfit.  Sometimes, if someone wanted a divorce, they would stage the outward appearance of an affair publicly with a hired “correspondent” and make sure it was discovered.  This would give the person’s spouse grounds for divorce.  This protected the spouse’s reputation and future, while still getting the person who desired the divorce a way out of the marriage.

In this movie, there is a woman named Mimi Glossop (GR) who wants a divorce.  She hires an attorney and a correspondent to meet her at an English seaside resort.  She will be seen and hopefully photographed with this guy, and this evidence will anger her husband.  He will divorce her and she will get what she wants. 

There is a man named Guy Holden (FA) who plays the part of a different man at the same resort.  Awkward situations occur, and comedy ensues.  There are songs and dances and romance and love.  It’s a fun movie. 

Here are a couple of women to watch for:  Lucille Ball (as a blonde) has a small role as a young woman working in a flower shop.  Betty Grable, who became a huge star during WWII, sings a silly, embarrassing and mildly provocative song called “Let’s Knock Knees.”

Watch for three men:  Edward Everett Horton plays the attorney.  Eric Blore plays a waiter.  Erik Rhodes plays the correspondent.  These three will appear in other Astaire/Rogers films.  They become like a little stock troupe with great comic timing that they play off each other.

English seaside resorts probably didn’t look anything like this one.  This is a fantasy Art Deco wonderland built in a Hollywood soundstage, larger than life.  The silver screen!  It’s magnificent and begins the trend in several of these Astaire/Rogers films.

If you are a 21^st century baby, you might not recognize a record player’s turntable, which performs a function in the story.  In the 1930’s, such a phonograph (record player) was a luxury item.  This one is also a grand piece of furniture.  This would not be common in regular homes during The Great Depression.

Guy (FA) does a wonderful solo tap dance in the early minutes of the film.  He also has another solo later in the film.  He’s just a dance genius, that’s all.  He also had behind-the-scenes choreography help from a brilliant guy named (I’m not making this up), Hermes Pan.  For years they worked together on choreography with a pianist and Ginger.  Each of these solo dances serves to move the plotline of the story forward and helps develop both Guy’s character, and the story.

Two fabulous and glorious Astaire/Rogers dance numbers in this film also move the plot along.  The first one is danced to Cole Porter’s haunting song “Night and Day.” “Night and Day” was written for the original New York musical "The Gay Divorce", and written specifically for Fred's voice.  Cole Porter did not write the other songs used in the film, just this one. 

Listen to the way Mr. Astaire gamely launches right in to this song.  You may come to love his voice.  Observe how beautifully the dance tells the story.  Check out the innovative camera angles through the blinds or under the table.  I love this scene.

My favorite moment:  In “Night and Day” there’s a bit of a “No Means No” vibe about Ginger’s part in the dance language.  In the 21^st century, this is very interesting.  Keep in mind that this is part of the plot, and the dance moves the story forward.  Also, in the 1930s, the offer of a cigarette was considered not only polite, but quite personal.  (The public didn't yet accept that smoking was unhealthy.)  At the end of the dance, the offer of a cigarette signals that the relationship is different than it was at the beginning.

The other big deal dance is “The Continental.”  It takes a dang 20 minutes!  Mimi (GR) sings it for Guy (FA) and it’s obvious that he thinks she is the greatest woman he has ever encountered.  She actually sings it better than the soloist who takes over later.  That soloist sounds dated now, but Ginger?  Never!

There are dancers galore, singers, spectacle, scarves, pageantry.  And even dance ripples!  It’s written by Con Conrad and Herb Madigson.  It’s got some wonderful Fred and Ginger moments.  It’s clear that Ginger has increased in her dancing skill, beauty and fitness since their previous movie. 

My favorite moment:  During “The Continental” (which combines tap and ballroom dance genres about as brilliantly as it’s ever been done), A&R do a spin-in to an embrace that perfectly matches the music.  Did I say perfectly?  Oh yes!

As usual, watch each dance scene twice, once for the dance and once for their faces.

Spoiler Alert!  Do not read this if you want the shocking surprise at the end. 

At the end of the movie, there is a dance scene of Guy flipping coins to the bellboys.  He’s tipping them.  That means he’s a guest at the hotel and this is his room.  As you can see, it’s the same room that has been Mimi's room.  He’s wearing wool "traveling clothes" and so is Mimi, and there are suitcases in the room.  This means that they are now married and honeymooning together.  Sorry to hit you over the head with this, but it might not be obvious to 21^st century audiences.

My favorite moment:  As A&R dance over the table, look at Ginger’s feet.