Trivia

Was Hollywood's highest-paid star of 1942.

She didn't drink alcohol and had her very own ice cream soda fountain.

A keen artist, Rogers did many paintings, sculptures and sketches in her free time, but could never bring herself to sell any of them.

Her great-great-grandfather was a doctor who discovered quinine, a treatment for malaria.

Her first teaming with Fred Astaire, Flying Down to Rio (1933), was her 20th film appearance but only Astaire's second.

When Rogers received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1992, Robyn Smith, widow of Fred Astaire, withheld all rights to clips of Rogers' scenes with Astaire, demanding payment. The Kennedy Center refused and Rogers received her honor without the retrospective show.

Was given the name "Ginger" by her little cousin who couldn't pronounce "Virginia" correctly.

Turned down Donna Reed's role in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

Salary for 1938: $219,500 (adjusted for 2017 inflation: approximately $3.8 million).

In 1986, Fred Astaire recalled, "All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No, no, Ginger never cried".

Always the outdoor sporty type, she was a near-champion tennis player, a topline shot and loved going fishing.

Fred Astaire confided to Raymond Rohauer, curator of New York Gallery of Modern Art, "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work fine for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success".

According to the 1974 book "Holly-Would", Rogers was taught the Charleston by Eddie Foy Jr. and went on the win the championship of Texas when she was only 15.

For the "Cheek to Cheek" number in Top Hat (1935), she wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, she wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming of the "Cheek to Cheek" number, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a charm of a gold feather to add to her charm bracelet. This was the origin of Rogers' nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland.

Was fashion consultant for the J.C. Penney chain from 1972-1975.

A distant cousin of Lucille Ball, according to Lucie Arnaz.

In a 1991 TV interview, when asked why the Fred Astaire / Rogers union wasn't known as "Ginger & Fred" rather than "Fred & Ginger" (as Rogers had been in films longer), she replied, "It's a man's world".

In 1976, when Fred Astaire was asked by British TV interviewer Michael Parkinson on Parkinson (1971) who his favorite dancing partner was, Astaire answered, "Excuse me, I must say Ginger was certainly the one. You know the most effective partner I ever had. Everyone knows. That was a whole other thing what we did...I just want to pay a tribute to Ginger because we did so many pictures together and believe me it was a value to have that girl...she had it. She was just great!".

Her tied-to-the-hip relationship with her mother, Lela E. Rogers, proved eternal. They're buried side by side at Oakwood Memorial Park. The grave of Ginger's screen partner, Fred Astaire, is just yards away.

During the last years of her life, she retired in Oregon and bought a ranch in the Medford area because she liked the climate. She donated money to the community and funded the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in downtown Medford, which was named after her.

She first introduced the song "The Continental" in The Gay Divorcee (1934) and it went on to be the first song that won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Was good friends with actress Maureen O'Hara since the late 1930s.

She made her final public appearance on March 18, 1995 (just five weeks before her death) when she received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award.

One of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the "Secret Annex" while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Holland.

Directed her first stage musical, "Babes In Arms", at age 74.

Was named #14 actress on the American Film Institute's list of 50 Greatest Screen Legends.

She and Fred Astaire acted in 10 movies together: The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), Carefree (1938), Flying Down to Rio (1933), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Shall We Dance (1937), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Swing Time (1936), and Top Hat (1935).

She has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936).

Has a street named after her in Rancho Mirage, California, her final winter home. Ginger Rogers Road is located in the Mission Hills Golf Course. It crosses Bob Hope Drive, between Gerald Ford Drive and Dinah Shore Drive and two blocks from Frank Sinatra Drive.

Rogers holds the record for actresses at New York's prestigious Radio City Music Hall with 23 films for a total of 55 weeks.

Made the cover of Life magazine four times: August 22, 1938, December 9, 1940, March 2, 1942, and September 5, 1951.

Turned down lead roles in To Each His Own (1946) and The Snake Pit (1948). Both of these roles went on to be played to great acclaim by Olivia de Havilland.

Was badly affected by illness in her last years after suffering two strokes that had left her wheelchair-bound and visibly overweight, while her voice had become a shrunken rasp.

Was the 16th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Kitty Foyle (1940) at The 13th Academy Awards on February 27, 1941.

Sort-of cousin of Rita Hayworth. Rogers' aunt married Hayworth's uncle.

Replaced Judy Garland in the film The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) after Garland was suspended from MGM due to her tardiness.

Was offered the part of Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday (1940), but she turned it down. Rosalind Russell was cast instead.

Appeared in five Oscar Best Picture nominees: 42nd Street (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), Stage Door (1937) and Kitty Foyle (1940).

Interred at Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, California, USA, the same cemetery as long-time dancing/acting partner Fred Astaire is located.

The well-known quote often attributed to her - "My first picture was [Kitty Foyle (1940)]. It was my mother [Lela E. Rogers] who made all those films with Fred Astaire" - was actually fabricated for a 1966 article in "Films In Review".

All of her five marriages lasted under a decade. Her longest marriage was her last, to William Marshall, which lasted eight years. She never had children.

She was of Scottish, Welsh, English, and Irish ancestry.

Author Graham Greene always said he would have liked Rogers to play the role of Aunt Augusta in the film version of his novel "Travels With My Aunt". When the film Travels with My Aunt (1972) was made in 1972, the role was played by Maggie Smith.

Was asked to replace Judy Garland in both Harlow (1965) and Valley of the Dolls (1967). Rogers turned down 'Valley of the Dolls' because she hated the script; she did, however, accept 'Harlow'.

Brighton based punk/shoegaze/alternative band Blood Red Shoes took their name from the story of Ginger Rogers during a rehearsal on the shoot of Swing Time, who rehearsed a dance routine so passionately and so vigorously that when her choreographer returned after a short break, they presumed she'd changed her white pumps for red ones, but they had actually been soaked red with blood from cuts on her dancing feet.

Was a life-long Republican.

Left her Academy Award statuette to her personal assistant Roberta Olden.

She was a conservative Republican, a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a Christian Scientist and a vocal supporter of the Hollywood blacklist.

At the age of 19 she was chosen to introduce "Embraceable You" and "But Not For Me" is George & Ira Gershwin's Girl Crazy on Broadway in which Ethel Merman introduced "I Got Rhythm.".

WAMPAS Baby Star in 1932.