Ginger Rogers by Virgil Apger, 1949

Ginger Rogers (1911–1995), American stage and film dancer and actress who was noted primarily as the partner of Fred Astaire in a series of motion-picture musicals. McMath was given the nickname Ginger, which was based on a cousin’s failed attempts to pronounce Virginia. Her parents divorced when she was still an infant, and she was raised by her mother, Lela Owens McMath. In 1920 Lela married John Rogers, and Ginger took his last name. She began her career, which was carefully orchestrated by her mother, performing in local shows in Texas while she was still a child. She then appeared with Eddie Foy’s vaudeville troupe before winning a Charleston contest at age 15. That success ultimately led her to the Broadway stage in 1929, when she performed in Top Speed. By the time she was 19 years old, Rogers had introduced George Gershwin’s “Embraceable You” and “But Not for Me” in the 1930 Broadway hit Girl Crazy. She then went to Hollywood and began performing in movies, typecast as a flippant blonde.