Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts
Monday, April 17, 2006
Sunday, April 16, 2006
ORIGINS OF EASTER
Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre. Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime. Some were, Aphrodite from ancient Cyprus and Ishtar from Assyria.
Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25. "About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill ...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.
Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."
Many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity. Ancient Christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value. They regard Jesus' death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.
Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their 8 yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer's crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding. Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. Where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.
Later,
Kenaz
Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25. "About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill ...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.
Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."
Many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity. Ancient Christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value. They regard Jesus' death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.
Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their 8 yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer's crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding. Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. Where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.
Later,
Kenaz
Saturday, April 15, 2006
History of Easter
Easter
A Christian feast commemorating Christ's resurrection. Easter Sunday celebrations follow the sombre observances of the Last Supper, Jesus's torture and crucifixion.
The Thursday before Easter ("Holy" or "Maundy Thursday") is the day Jesus is believed to have instituted the Eucharist which assumed the central role in Christian worship services.
At the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples to demonstrate that Christians are called to serve humanity. He also issued a new commandment: "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13: 34-35). After the Last Supper, Jesus was arrested, tried and condemned to death.
On Good Friday, Jesus endured a humiliating and torturous march to Calvary where he was crucified and died. Many Christians make solemn observances of Christ's "Passion" on Good Friday by following the Stations of the Cross. The 14 stations -- depicted in sculpture or images in churches throughout the world -- commemorate the stages of Jesus's journey to the cross.
Holy Saturday is a sombre day of waiting without benefit of knowing how grief is to be overcome.
Easter Sunday is the day Christians celebrate Christ's rising from the dead. According to the gospels, a group of women found Jesus's tomb empty and a divine messenger proclaimed that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Later, Jesus met the Apostles, renewing their courage and conviction to share the good news of eternal life with God through Christ.
Timing: At the Council of Nicea in 325, the date of Easter was fixed as the Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. This year, Easter is tomorrow, April 16.
Most Eastern Orthodox Churches follow the Julian calendar which is now 13 days out of sync with the more accurate Gregorian calendar. This year, Christian Orthodox celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 23.
The Easter Bunny
Not unlike Christmas, the Christian holiday of Easter is thought to have overtaken an earlier Pagan festival. In Easter's case, it was the spring festival of Eostre. Celebrating the fertility goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe, Eostre's name meant spring. Her symbol was a hare which is thought to have, over time, morphed into a rabbit.
The appearance of an egg-laying rabbit (brightly coloured eggs, no less) is documented in 16th century Germany where children eagerly awaited the arrival of the "Oschter Haws."
The tradition appears to have been brought to America by settlers in the 18th century where the Easter Bunny became firmly established as a popular symbol of Easter.
The egg, which represented fertility and rebirth to pagans, was also adopted as part of the Christian Easter festival. It came to be associated with the resurrection with some holding that it symbolizes the stone that was rolled away from in front of Jesus's tomb.
Later,
Kenaz
A Christian feast commemorating Christ's resurrection. Easter Sunday celebrations follow the sombre observances of the Last Supper, Jesus's torture and crucifixion.
The Thursday before Easter ("Holy" or "Maundy Thursday") is the day Jesus is believed to have instituted the Eucharist which assumed the central role in Christian worship services.
At the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples to demonstrate that Christians are called to serve humanity. He also issued a new commandment: "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13: 34-35). After the Last Supper, Jesus was arrested, tried and condemned to death.
On Good Friday, Jesus endured a humiliating and torturous march to Calvary where he was crucified and died. Many Christians make solemn observances of Christ's "Passion" on Good Friday by following the Stations of the Cross. The 14 stations -- depicted in sculpture or images in churches throughout the world -- commemorate the stages of Jesus's journey to the cross.
Holy Saturday is a sombre day of waiting without benefit of knowing how grief is to be overcome.
Easter Sunday is the day Christians celebrate Christ's rising from the dead. According to the gospels, a group of women found Jesus's tomb empty and a divine messenger proclaimed that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Later, Jesus met the Apostles, renewing their courage and conviction to share the good news of eternal life with God through Christ.
Timing: At the Council of Nicea in 325, the date of Easter was fixed as the Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. This year, Easter is tomorrow, April 16.
Most Eastern Orthodox Churches follow the Julian calendar which is now 13 days out of sync with the more accurate Gregorian calendar. This year, Christian Orthodox celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 23.
The Easter Bunny
Not unlike Christmas, the Christian holiday of Easter is thought to have overtaken an earlier Pagan festival. In Easter's case, it was the spring festival of Eostre. Celebrating the fertility goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe, Eostre's name meant spring. Her symbol was a hare which is thought to have, over time, morphed into a rabbit.
The appearance of an egg-laying rabbit (brightly coloured eggs, no less) is documented in 16th century Germany where children eagerly awaited the arrival of the "Oschter Haws."
The tradition appears to have been brought to America by settlers in the 18th century where the Easter Bunny became firmly established as a popular symbol of Easter.
The egg, which represented fertility and rebirth to pagans, was also adopted as part of the Christian Easter festival. It came to be associated with the resurrection with some holding that it symbolizes the stone that was rolled away from in front of Jesus's tomb.
Later,
Kenaz
Friday, April 14, 2006
Good Friday
Good or Holy Friday is the name ascribed to a Friday, when the Savior of this world, Jesus Christ, was crucified, decried of treason by the Romans. It is on this Friday that Christ suffered for the well-being of mankind and spread his ubiquitous 'goodness' over this world. May be that is one reason why this Friday is called Good Friday. Some others hold the view that the name Good Friday was derived from God's Friday. But whatever the attributes, one thing shines through for sure--the welfare of mankind that Christ ensured through his sacrifice on Good Friday. Although it was on this Friday that the world at large was deprived of this One man, Jesus Christ, who brought spiritual revolution in the hearts of many, it still remains a day of hope, a day which bears the promise of an impending revival, a new tomorrow, a resurrection !
Good Friday witnessed the passion of Christ as he bore the cross through the streets to where he was finally put to death; Good Friday commemorates the Crucifixion of Christ by the Roman soldiers and Good Friday also remembers how the son of God, Christ forgave all and sundry who've sinned against the Supreme, against God. So the spirit of forgiving and an all-pervading goodness echoes on every Good Friday to keep Christ's message of "conquering all evil through good" alive !
In honour of this day I offer a home movie that has been pain staking transferred first from its original 16mm real to real footage to an analog cam-corder, then to VHS and finally into .mpg format to which I have uploaded to Google Video and posted on my sister blog http://whiteoliphantfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/
.
I have uploaded my families history starting in 1963 and commencing until 2001. The commentary is provided by my mother, father and myself. One weekend during the summer of 1997 we sat in my parents rec room and created these tapes and I'm happy to share, enjoy.
Later,
Kenaz
Good Friday witnessed the passion of Christ as he bore the cross through the streets to where he was finally put to death; Good Friday commemorates the Crucifixion of Christ by the Roman soldiers and Good Friday also remembers how the son of God, Christ forgave all and sundry who've sinned against the Supreme, against God. So the spirit of forgiving and an all-pervading goodness echoes on every Good Friday to keep Christ's message of "conquering all evil through good" alive !
In honour of this day I offer a home movie that has been pain staking transferred first from its original 16mm real to real footage to an analog cam-corder, then to VHS and finally into .mpg format to which I have uploaded to Google Video and posted on my sister blog http://whiteoliphantfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/
.
I have uploaded my families history starting in 1963 and commencing until 2001. The commentary is provided by my mother, father and myself. One weekend during the summer of 1997 we sat in my parents rec room and created these tapes and I'm happy to share, enjoy.
Later,
Kenaz
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas Wishes
A Christmas Prayer
Robert Louis Stevenson
O God, our loving Father, help us
Rightly to remember the birth of Jesus,
That we may share in the song of the
Angels, the gladness of the shepherds
And the worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate and open the
Door of love all over the world.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing
That Christ brings, and teach us
to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy
To be thy children and the Christmas
Evening bring us to our beds with
Grateful thoughts, forgiving, and
Forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
My Christmas Wish List For 2005
1.The release of Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, Briton Norman Kember, 74, and American Tom Fox, 54 from Iraq.
2.Peace for the victims of last December's earthquake and tsunami in Thailand, lets start the rebuilding process.
3.My heart goes out to all the victims of Hurricane Katrina down in New Orleans and all along the Gulph. They say home is where the heart is, if that's so these people are mansions. That said, lets not fall into the trap of charity emphathy. Two major catastrophies in a year has strained our already fragile charitable purse strings, but we must continue to aid our fellow man.
4.Watching the construction finally begin on a 1.2 million-square-foot film/media complex 'megastudio' in Toronto. The planned 'Filmport' will be built in Toronto's port area. As Toronto continues to take a back seat to Vancouver studios regarding big budget films, construction on the C$275 million project, on land owned by the Toronto Economic Development Corp. (Tedco), will now begin summer 2006. The first phase of Filmport will include six soundstages, with a 45,000-square-foot stage and production office/support facilities totaling 232,000 square feet. Filmport is expected to house more than a dozen soundstages totaling 550,000 square feet of production space. This will prosperity to an acting community that sorely needs it.
5.The Canadian Junior Hockey team to bring home the world championships!
And finally a brand new clip and a pair of screen captures from a holiday offering called "A Recipe For A Perfect Christmas" starring Christine Baranski and Carly Pope, in which I appear as a waiter. The MOW was shot in Toronto back in September. From the Lifetime Network in the U.S, here is the movie synopsis.
What don't you want to deal with during the holidays?
a. Your boyfriend dumping you
b. Burning out at your job
c. Your mother showing up uninvited
d. All of the above
Did you answer "All of the above"? Sure you did. Unfortunately, all these nightmares are raining on J.J. Jenner's holiday parade. But things may be looking up when this low-level magazine employee gets a shot at writing a prestigious food column. There's only thing standing in the way: her wacky, scene-stealing mom who's draining J.J.'s energy and patience. The solution? J.J. promises a hot new restaurant owner that she'll check out his bistro if he distracts Mommie Dearest by taking her out on a few dates. But her foolproof plan backfires in a way she never saw coming — you'll have to see for yourself!
Break out the eggnog! This funny and romantic flick is just what you need to make your holiday perfectly delightful.
Recipe For a Perfect Christmas(2005)
Recipe For a Perfect Christmas(2005)http://rapidshare.de/files/9779553/Recipe_For_A_Perfect_Christmas.mpg.html
Later,
Kenaz
Friday, October 14, 2005
Classic Screen Couples:Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Fred Astaire
"Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little." Fittingly, the studio toad who wrote that screen-test evaluation is long forgotten, but the greatest dancer in movie history is not. With his sister Adele, he danced his way from vaudeville to Broadway, where they starred in hit musicals for nearly 15 years (and reportedly appeared in a 1915 Mary Pickford movie, Fanchon the Cricket He played himself in Dancing Lady (1933), his first film; later that year, he was teamed with Ginger Rogers as the second leads in Flying Down to Rio where their footwork in "The Carioca" stole the show.
RKO quickly realized it had a potential gold mine, and over the next six years Astaire and Rogers made eight more films together, all of them a blend of astonishing choreography (usually in concert with Hermes Pan), brilliant songs by the likes of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern, eye-popping sets, and vintage comedy plots propelled by vintage comedy actors. Buffs all have their favorites, but Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936) are generally considered the best of the lot. (The others: The Gay Divorcee 1934; Roberta 1935; Follow the Fleet 1936; Shall We Dance? 1937; Carefree 1938; The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1939) Though worshipped as a dancer, in these and other films Astaire winningly introduced more enduring song hits than any other performer of his generation.
After Rogers broke up the team to concentrate on her acting, Astaire embarked on his "solo" career, giving full vent to his imaginative terpsichorean ideas, and dancing opposite-among others Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940 Rita Hayworth in 1941's You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier Bing Crosby in 1942's Holiday Inn and 1946's Blue Skies Gene Kelly in 1946's Ziegfeld Follies Judy Garland in 1948's Easter Parade Jane Powell in 1951's Royal Wedding Cyd Charisse in 1953's The Band Wagon and 1957's Silk Stockings and Audrey Hepburn in 1957's Funny Face as well as reuniting with Rogers in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).
With the passing of the studio musical, he produced and starred in three TV specials that remain landmarks of the medium. He also took a few straight acting roles in such films as On the Beach (1959), The Pleasure of His Company (1960), The Notorious Landlady (1962), The Towering Inferno (1974, which inex plicably earned him an Oscar nomination), and Ghost Story (1981), made one final musical, Finian's Rainbow (1968), and cohosted the two That's Entertainment! compilations (1974 and 1976), the second of which featured his last dancing on film-alongside compatriot Gene Kelly. Having won two Emmys for his musical specials, he added another for acting in the TV movie A Family Upside Down (1978). In any medium, he epitomized elegance and style. He never won an Academy Award for a specific performance, but did receive a special Oscar in 1949.
Personal Quotes
On modern movies: "They tend to overdo the vulgarity. I'm not embarrassed by the language itself, but it's embarrassing to be listening to it, sitting next to perfect strangers."
Ginger Rogers
To remember her only as the beautiful, vivacious dancing partner of Fred Astaire in their classic 1930s musicals is to do Ginger Rogers a great disfavor: She was a much better actress than most Hollywood wags gave her credit for, even before her Oscar win for Kitty Foyle (1940). Rogers was a performer from childhood, the product of an aggressive stage mother. She danced professionally in vaudeville while still in her teens, married to partner Jack Pepper at the age of 17. Her first film was Campus Sweethearts (1929), a short subject starring Rudy Vallee; she made several minimusicals in New York while performing in the Gershwin stage smash "Girl Crazy," in which she had the second female lead.
Paramount, at that time operating a stu dio in Astoria, Queens, gave Rogers a break in feature films, slotting her in the Claudette Colbert starrer Young Man of Manhattan (1930). She appeared in a few more minor films for the studio before going in 1931 to Hollywood, where she worked as leading lady in a slew of program pictures including The Tip Off, Suicide Fleet (both 1931), Carnival Boat, The Tenderfoot, Hat Check Girl, You Said a Mouthful, The Thirteenth Guest (all 1932), A Shriek in the Night, Broadway Bad, Don't Bet on Love, Sitting Pretty (introducing the song "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?"), and Chance at Heaven (all 1933). Unlike many attractive young women in Hollywood, Rogers seldom played dewy-eyed ingenues; her characters were nearly always wisecracking, worldly dames who knew their apples.
The year 1933 provided Ginger with her best breaks to date. First, she won star billing for the first time at a major studio in RKO's Professional Sweetheart. Second, she won plum supporting roles in two Warner Bros. musicals, 42nd Street (as monocled "Anytime Annie") and Gold Diggers of 1933 (introducing the song "We're in the Money"-and singing one chorus in pig latin). Third, she was teamed with dancer Fred Astaire for the first time in Flying Down to Rio also for RKO, in which they danced to the lilting strains of the "Carioca."
RKO put Rogers under contract in 1934 (after she'd finished Twenty Million Sweethearts for Warners), developing a starring vehicle for her and Astaire. The Gay Divorcee sported songs by Cole Porter (including "Night and Day") and gave the Astaire-Rogers team plenty of opportunity to strut their stuff. The picture's overwhelming success kept the pair together in a series of delightful, lavishly mounted musicals, all of which featured songs by the country's top tunesmiths (Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, the Gershwins) and provided escapist entertainment for Depression-battered moviegoers. Rogers and Astaire were an incomparably well-matched team; as perceptive critics noticed, they seemed to make love through their dance routines, and their smart comic performances as on-again, off-again lovers were a treat. Rogers also made sure she always had one prime solo song in each film. Audiences loved Top Hat, Roberta (both 1935), Swing Time, Follow the Fleet (both 1936), Shall We Dance? (1937), Carefree (1938), and the more serious The Story of Vernon & Irene Castle (1939).
Although RKO allowed her to make films without Astaire-including Romance in Manhattan (1934), Star of Midnight (1935, opposite William Powell in this imitation Thin Man), In Person (1936), Stage Door (1937, in which she provided a lively and engaging counterpart to top-billed Katharine Hepburn), Vivacious Lady, Having Wonderful Time (both 1938), and Bachelor Mother (1939)-she felt she'd never blossom on her own without shedding her demanding dancing partner. For his part, Astaire had had enough of Rogers and the RKO musicals, and was more than willing to leave for greener pastures elsewhere.
After starring in two relatively minor films, Lucky Partners and The Primrose Path Rogers hit pay dirt by letting her blond hair go naturally dark and forgoing glamour-girl treatment to play the feisty, independent working girl in Kitty Foyle (all 1940), pleasantly surprising critics and audiences with her warm, impassioned performance. She won a Best Actress Academy Award, and solidified her position as RKO's top star.
Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) gave her a delightful romantic comedy vehicle. The following year, off the RKO lot, Rogers shined in Roxie Hart (playing a gumchomping, wisecracking publicity hound) and The Major and the Minor (as another high-spirited, self-reliant working girl, who disguises herself as a 12-year-old to save on train fare). By contrast, her RKO vehicles of the period, including Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) and Tender Comrade (1943), seemed weak. Paramount's overproduced, Technicolor Lady in the Dark though, gave Rogers her first real flop, being the tale (based on a Moss Hart play-but shorn of most of its Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin songs) of a "boss lady" who undergoes psychoanalysis.
Rogers' star never again shone as brightly, even though she still retained the power to hold and satisfy audiences. Weekend at the Waldorf (1945), Heartbeat, Magnificent Doll (both 1946, miscast in the latter as Dolley Madison), It Had to Be You (1947), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949, reteamed one last time with Astaire, this time at MGM), Perfect Strangers (1950), the highly dramatic Storm Warning and The Groom Wore Spurs (both 1951) saw a gradual diminution in her popularity. She made something of a comeback with three 1952 comedies-We're Not Married, Dreamboat (playing a silent-screen star, a part for which she seemed too young), and Monkey Business-but she couldn't compete with a newer, younger group of stars such as Monkey Business's Marilyn Monroe.
Rogers gave tolerably good performances in Forever Female (1953), Black Widow (1954, as a temperamental actress), Tight Spot (1955), and The First Traveling Saleslady (1956), but found decent starring vehicles fewer and far between, and after Teenage Rebel (also 1956) and Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957), she returned to the stage and nightclubs. (Some years later, she played a madam opposite Ray Milland in 1964's mercifully unreleased The Confession/aka Quick, Let's Get Married/aka Seven Different Ways and was Carol Lynley's mother in 1965's Harlow.)
She remained a star, however, as she proved when she took over the leading role in the Broadway smash "Hello, Dolly!" in 1965, and played the title role in the 1969 London production of "Mame." Professionally inactive in her later years, she was confined to a wheelchair but still made myriad personal appearances, especially to promote her 1991 autobiography, "Ginger: My Story." (A 1942 juvenile novel, "Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak," was written by her mother Lela, who also worked for years as a talent scout and nurturer at RKO, and caused considerable ripples as a Communist witch-hunter in the 1950s.) Rogers was married to actors Lew Ayres (1934-41), Jacques Bergerac (1953-57), and William Marshall (1961-62).
Trivia
The first Rogers and Astaire teaming, Flying Down to Rio (1933), was her twentieth film appearance and only Fred's second.
In a 1991 TV interview when asked why the Astaire/Rogers union wasn't known as 'Ginger & Fred' rather than 'Fred & Ginger' (as Ginger had been in films longer), she replied, 'It's a man's world'.
Personal Quotes
'They're not going to get my money to see the junk that's made today' (1983)
"Hollywood is like an empty wastebasket."
"In everything that I do I learn and try to put it to use. I have learned to go through life not into it. It's like a boat. You mustn't let the water in or you're sunk. Of course, I've made mistakes and I have had failures, but I do not dwell on them because people don't care about garbage. When I make a mistake it's like a bad leaf on a lettuce - I throw it out into the waste basket."
"I don't care what the critics say. My fabulous mom will give me a good review if nobody else does."
[on her partnrship with Astaire] "After all, it's not as if we were Abbott and Costello. We did have careers apart from each other."
"The most important thing in anyone's life is to be giving something. The quality I can give is fun, joy and happiness. This is my gift."
"Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little." Fittingly, the studio toad who wrote that screen-test evaluation is long forgotten, but the greatest dancer in movie history is not. With his sister Adele, he danced his way from vaudeville to Broadway, where they starred in hit musicals for nearly 15 years (and reportedly appeared in a 1915 Mary Pickford movie, Fanchon the Cricket He played himself in Dancing Lady (1933), his first film; later that year, he was teamed with Ginger Rogers as the second leads in Flying Down to Rio where their footwork in "The Carioca" stole the show.
RKO quickly realized it had a potential gold mine, and over the next six years Astaire and Rogers made eight more films together, all of them a blend of astonishing choreography (usually in concert with Hermes Pan), brilliant songs by the likes of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern, eye-popping sets, and vintage comedy plots propelled by vintage comedy actors. Buffs all have their favorites, but Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936) are generally considered the best of the lot. (The others: The Gay Divorcee 1934; Roberta 1935; Follow the Fleet 1936; Shall We Dance? 1937; Carefree 1938; The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1939) Though worshipped as a dancer, in these and other films Astaire winningly introduced more enduring song hits than any other performer of his generation.
After Rogers broke up the team to concentrate on her acting, Astaire embarked on his "solo" career, giving full vent to his imaginative terpsichorean ideas, and dancing opposite-among others Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940 Rita Hayworth in 1941's You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier Bing Crosby in 1942's Holiday Inn and 1946's Blue Skies Gene Kelly in 1946's Ziegfeld Follies Judy Garland in 1948's Easter Parade Jane Powell in 1951's Royal Wedding Cyd Charisse in 1953's The Band Wagon and 1957's Silk Stockings and Audrey Hepburn in 1957's Funny Face as well as reuniting with Rogers in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).
With the passing of the studio musical, he produced and starred in three TV specials that remain landmarks of the medium. He also took a few straight acting roles in such films as On the Beach (1959), The Pleasure of His Company (1960), The Notorious Landlady (1962), The Towering Inferno (1974, which inex plicably earned him an Oscar nomination), and Ghost Story (1981), made one final musical, Finian's Rainbow (1968), and cohosted the two That's Entertainment! compilations (1974 and 1976), the second of which featured his last dancing on film-alongside compatriot Gene Kelly. Having won two Emmys for his musical specials, he added another for acting in the TV movie A Family Upside Down (1978). In any medium, he epitomized elegance and style. He never won an Academy Award for a specific performance, but did receive a special Oscar in 1949.
Personal Quotes
On modern movies: "They tend to overdo the vulgarity. I'm not embarrassed by the language itself, but it's embarrassing to be listening to it, sitting next to perfect strangers."
Ginger Rogers
To remember her only as the beautiful, vivacious dancing partner of Fred Astaire in their classic 1930s musicals is to do Ginger Rogers a great disfavor: She was a much better actress than most Hollywood wags gave her credit for, even before her Oscar win for Kitty Foyle (1940). Rogers was a performer from childhood, the product of an aggressive stage mother. She danced professionally in vaudeville while still in her teens, married to partner Jack Pepper at the age of 17. Her first film was Campus Sweethearts (1929), a short subject starring Rudy Vallee; she made several minimusicals in New York while performing in the Gershwin stage smash "Girl Crazy," in which she had the second female lead.
Paramount, at that time operating a stu dio in Astoria, Queens, gave Rogers a break in feature films, slotting her in the Claudette Colbert starrer Young Man of Manhattan (1930). She appeared in a few more minor films for the studio before going in 1931 to Hollywood, where she worked as leading lady in a slew of program pictures including The Tip Off, Suicide Fleet (both 1931), Carnival Boat, The Tenderfoot, Hat Check Girl, You Said a Mouthful, The Thirteenth Guest (all 1932), A Shriek in the Night, Broadway Bad, Don't Bet on Love, Sitting Pretty (introducing the song "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?"), and Chance at Heaven (all 1933). Unlike many attractive young women in Hollywood, Rogers seldom played dewy-eyed ingenues; her characters were nearly always wisecracking, worldly dames who knew their apples.
The year 1933 provided Ginger with her best breaks to date. First, she won star billing for the first time at a major studio in RKO's Professional Sweetheart. Second, she won plum supporting roles in two Warner Bros. musicals, 42nd Street (as monocled "Anytime Annie") and Gold Diggers of 1933 (introducing the song "We're in the Money"-and singing one chorus in pig latin). Third, she was teamed with dancer Fred Astaire for the first time in Flying Down to Rio also for RKO, in which they danced to the lilting strains of the "Carioca."
RKO put Rogers under contract in 1934 (after she'd finished Twenty Million Sweethearts for Warners), developing a starring vehicle for her and Astaire. The Gay Divorcee sported songs by Cole Porter (including "Night and Day") and gave the Astaire-Rogers team plenty of opportunity to strut their stuff. The picture's overwhelming success kept the pair together in a series of delightful, lavishly mounted musicals, all of which featured songs by the country's top tunesmiths (Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, the Gershwins) and provided escapist entertainment for Depression-battered moviegoers. Rogers and Astaire were an incomparably well-matched team; as perceptive critics noticed, they seemed to make love through their dance routines, and their smart comic performances as on-again, off-again lovers were a treat. Rogers also made sure she always had one prime solo song in each film. Audiences loved Top Hat, Roberta (both 1935), Swing Time, Follow the Fleet (both 1936), Shall We Dance? (1937), Carefree (1938), and the more serious The Story of Vernon & Irene Castle (1939).
Although RKO allowed her to make films without Astaire-including Romance in Manhattan (1934), Star of Midnight (1935, opposite William Powell in this imitation Thin Man), In Person (1936), Stage Door (1937, in which she provided a lively and engaging counterpart to top-billed Katharine Hepburn), Vivacious Lady, Having Wonderful Time (both 1938), and Bachelor Mother (1939)-she felt she'd never blossom on her own without shedding her demanding dancing partner. For his part, Astaire had had enough of Rogers and the RKO musicals, and was more than willing to leave for greener pastures elsewhere.
After starring in two relatively minor films, Lucky Partners and The Primrose Path Rogers hit pay dirt by letting her blond hair go naturally dark and forgoing glamour-girl treatment to play the feisty, independent working girl in Kitty Foyle (all 1940), pleasantly surprising critics and audiences with her warm, impassioned performance. She won a Best Actress Academy Award, and solidified her position as RKO's top star.
Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) gave her a delightful romantic comedy vehicle. The following year, off the RKO lot, Rogers shined in Roxie Hart (playing a gumchomping, wisecracking publicity hound) and The Major and the Minor (as another high-spirited, self-reliant working girl, who disguises herself as a 12-year-old to save on train fare). By contrast, her RKO vehicles of the period, including Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) and Tender Comrade (1943), seemed weak. Paramount's overproduced, Technicolor Lady in the Dark though, gave Rogers her first real flop, being the tale (based on a Moss Hart play-but shorn of most of its Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin songs) of a "boss lady" who undergoes psychoanalysis.
Rogers' star never again shone as brightly, even though she still retained the power to hold and satisfy audiences. Weekend at the Waldorf (1945), Heartbeat, Magnificent Doll (both 1946, miscast in the latter as Dolley Madison), It Had to Be You (1947), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949, reteamed one last time with Astaire, this time at MGM), Perfect Strangers (1950), the highly dramatic Storm Warning and The Groom Wore Spurs (both 1951) saw a gradual diminution in her popularity. She made something of a comeback with three 1952 comedies-We're Not Married, Dreamboat (playing a silent-screen star, a part for which she seemed too young), and Monkey Business-but she couldn't compete with a newer, younger group of stars such as Monkey Business's Marilyn Monroe.
Rogers gave tolerably good performances in Forever Female (1953), Black Widow (1954, as a temperamental actress), Tight Spot (1955), and The First Traveling Saleslady (1956), but found decent starring vehicles fewer and far between, and after Teenage Rebel (also 1956) and Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957), she returned to the stage and nightclubs. (Some years later, she played a madam opposite Ray Milland in 1964's mercifully unreleased The Confession/aka Quick, Let's Get Married/aka Seven Different Ways and was Carol Lynley's mother in 1965's Harlow.)
She remained a star, however, as she proved when she took over the leading role in the Broadway smash "Hello, Dolly!" in 1965, and played the title role in the 1969 London production of "Mame." Professionally inactive in her later years, she was confined to a wheelchair but still made myriad personal appearances, especially to promote her 1991 autobiography, "Ginger: My Story." (A 1942 juvenile novel, "Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak," was written by her mother Lela, who also worked for years as a talent scout and nurturer at RKO, and caused considerable ripples as a Communist witch-hunter in the 1950s.) Rogers was married to actors Lew Ayres (1934-41), Jacques Bergerac (1953-57), and William Marshall (1961-62).
Trivia
The first Rogers and Astaire teaming, Flying Down to Rio (1933), was her twentieth film appearance and only Fred's second.
In a 1991 TV interview when asked why the Astaire/Rogers union wasn't known as 'Ginger & Fred' rather than 'Fred & Ginger' (as Ginger had been in films longer), she replied, 'It's a man's world'.
Personal Quotes
'They're not going to get my money to see the junk that's made today' (1983)
"Hollywood is like an empty wastebasket."
"In everything that I do I learn and try to put it to use. I have learned to go through life not into it. It's like a boat. You mustn't let the water in or you're sunk. Of course, I've made mistakes and I have had failures, but I do not dwell on them because people don't care about garbage. When I make a mistake it's like a bad leaf on a lettuce - I throw it out into the waste basket."
"I don't care what the critics say. My fabulous mom will give me a good review if nobody else does."
[on her partnrship with Astaire] "After all, it's not as if we were Abbott and Costello. We did have careers apart from each other."
"The most important thing in anyone's life is to be giving something. The quality I can give is fun, joy and happiness. This is my gift."
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