To all dancers, dance enthusiasts and tap dancers, join us in celebrating the Birthday of Ginger Rogers today 07/16/1911 Born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri. A Tap Icon and National Treasure.
This only child’s star would rise as an actress, dancer and singer appearing on stage, in film, radio, and television.
Most well known as a dancer partner to Fred Astaire, Rogers has over 70 film credits and won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1941 for her role in the film Kitty Foyle.
Rogers’ mother, a theater critic for the local paper – Fort Worth Record – provided the first exposure to song and dance.
Rogers career began in vaudeville with the Eddie Foy Act and made her Broadway debut in Top Speed 1929.
Her breakthrough film came in 1933 with the role of Anytime Annie in the Warner Brothers picture 42nd Street, and she debuted with Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio 1933.
Rogers would work for Paramount, Warner Brothers, Monogram and Fox over the course of her film career.
She is ranked as #14 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years – 100 Stars.