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Ginger Rogers


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  • 3 months later...

Ginger also did That's How Young I Feel on The Dean Martin Show.

 

 

Supposedly there was a London Cast Recording made of Mame, but Ginger exercised a clause in her contract that if she wasn't happy with her vocals, they couldn't release it. Although we all know how unreliable Mame rumors can be.

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I actually saw Ginger in "Hello Dolly"!   I badgered my mother to take me to Portland for a matinee and bought the TOP TIER ticket priced at $5!  ($36 in today's dollars. My, how times have changed.)

What I remember (it's been so long ago) is that when Ginger/Dolly sat down at the restaurant, a waiter pulled the chair out from under her and in split-second timing put the chair back just as Ginger sat.  It got a big laugh and Ginger broke character and said to the audience "I'm just as surprised as you are!".   Obviously this was planned.  

Ginger owned property in southern Oregon on the Rogue River and in her curtain speech mentioned that she was a fellow Oregonian. 

I mentioned this to Carole Cook who got a sour look on her face.  Apparently on the LA leg of the tour, Ginger's contract allowed her 2 weeks off.  When she found out Carole was going to take her place, she didn't take her vacation, preventing Carole from wowing them in LA like she did all over Australia for TWO YEARS.

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I heard she had excellent timing in the dumplinging earing scene from some who saw her on Bway.

 

As for the LA portion do you think it was more about giving the fans in LA a chance to see her during a big city run and maybe not a slight to Carole, which seems how Carole took it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A brief newsreel from Ginger's opening night as Mame. The version of the title song they play has some very 1969 flavor to it and I like it. The only celebrity I recognize from all the ones that they show is Liberace :lucyeww: .   At the very end we see Ginger posing with her mother Lela. If I remember correctly, Lucy had a deep gratitude and love for Lela as a person.

 

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Lucy adored Lela because not only did she help Lucy bloom as a performer but she gave her the advice and tools she needed to navigate the crazy Hollywood business. The first day of Lucy's first teaching seminar in 1977 was the day Lela died. A student who greated her that day recalled Lucy arriving to class in tears as she had just found out Lela died. Lucy informed the class of this when she began and recounted how Lela helped young starlets not get taken advantage of in all aspects, delivered through more tears.

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Lucy adored Lela because not only did she help Lucy bloom as a performer but she gave her the advice and tools she needed to navigate the crazy Hollywood business. The first day of Lucy's first teaching seminar in 1977 was the day Lela died. A student who greated her that day recalled Lucy arriving to class in tears as she had just found out Lela died. Lucy informed the class of this when she began and recounted how Lela helped young starlets not get taken advantage of in all aspects, delivered through more tears.

That's the story I was thinking of; thanks!
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Lucy adored Lela because not only did she help Lucy bloom as a performer but she gave her the advice and tools she needed to navigate the crazy Hollywood business. The first day of Lucy's first teaching seminar in 1977 was the day Lela died. A student who greated her that day recalled Lucy arriving to class in tears as she had just found out Lela died. Lucy informed the class of this when she began and recounted how Lela helped young starlets not get taken advantage of in all aspects, delivered through more tears.

 

I think RKO gave Lela the workshop job to keep her out their hair, micromanaging her daughter's career. 

Ginger recounted that she was obligated to tour in some play when Lela was failing and got the call that she had died right before she had to go on.  She did because "Lela would have wanted me to."   Interesting that Lucy and Ginger were born the same year and lost their mothers the same year.  I think Lela and Dede may have been roughly the same age. 

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