This is old hat for me...

It's Day 2 of my blogging adventure, and since I'm still early on in this thing, I've decided to share the story of why I love Classic Hollywood.

I was actually raised on classic films while growing up in the 80's & 90's. My parents are great lovers of Classic Hollywood, and they definitely instilled that love and appreciation in me! I grew up singing and dancing right along with Ginger & Fred, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland and the like right in my living room - and even got made fun of for it by other kids! Around elementary age, I used to hold my little portable tape recorder up to the tv and record the songs from the movies I loved, then walk around listening to my prized tapes in my Walkman - could never understand why I couldn't get the other kids to like "my" music. Why would any kid in 1989 choose to listen to New Kids on The Block over my Meet Me In St. Louis home-recorded soundtrack? Even in high school, one of my favorite things to do was fake sick to stay home from school, lay on the couch, and watch TCM all day. :)

Now that I am old and wise, my admiration for the abundant talent evident during the golden days of Hollywood just keeps growing. It should be obvious that I'm slightly obsessed with Ginger Rogers, and oddly enough, it didn't come about through watching the Astaire/Rogers films. It happened one night several years ago when I caught Bachelor Mother on TCM, and was really struck by Ginger's acting ability in a movie which I was frankly quite surprised made it past the censors of the late 30's! I mean come on, the very idea that a single woman could even consider giving the appearance of having gotten knocked up and raising a child on her own in 1939 is pushing the envelope - hence the appeal of this movie for me! I thought Ginger (alongside David Niven) was adorable and spunky, and I feel this film really gave her an opportunity to show her "humaness."

Here's the trailer for Bachelor Mother (1939).



After being so impressed by her acting, I started watching every Ginger film I could get my hands (or remote control?) on. Just read a quote from Astaire the other day in which he graciously gave Ginger much of the credit for their partnership's success -

"Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."

That was modest of him of course, because it was the magic & chemistry between both of them that was superb - but at the same time, I'm so glad he gave her props for her incredible talent and contribution to their pairing. There's just nothing like it.

As quoted from an August 14, 2009 New York Times article entitled They Seem to Find the Happiness They Seek, “You have this pretty girl and this far from handsome yet smoothly attractive guy, and the two of them join together to dance like nobody else, before or since, and some terrific music is playing much of the time, so what the hell, but wouldn’t it be great if life had more such moments: glamorous, romantic, elegant, yes, and uncomplicatedly happy.”