Ginger Rogers interview

hey don't move right she says stay that way don't move alright well yes now we are starting yes well ginger I have to welcome you fellow Texan I have to well welcome you home it's so nice to be home - really it's wonderful and to get here and look out at the beautiful sky and see that nice warm sunshine it's lovely yes it may be a little warmer they don't buy it I don't mind it I'm not I'm saying that very lovingly I don't mind it at all because I'm kind of used to having warm Texas days where there was air conditioning - yes we all remember that my ass my my home in Fort Worth did not have air conditioning and I pull through it pretty well that's why we do survival so ginger I think it is just mashing that you are taking an interest in this project of film preservation and is this something that you've always been interested in Bobby I think it's because some of the wonderful films that were made are just being lost absolutely well they're disintegrating in their little film receptacles and it's it's a shame to see these marvelous things that could go and need now to be put on safety film there are so many wonderful films and I've always had an interest in that you see I used to own copies of all the films that I did for example and I gave them to to TCU when I was you know Texas Christian University and they in turn gave them to the Smithsonian Institute 50 later is funny but they were all of the same material and that's nitrate yeah we may be getting a problem with your bracelets oh it only taken off I think maybe we better yeah alright okay alright um ginger of your own films are there any that are lost there I don't really know that there our I couldn't say but I'm just of the opinion that who's ever film is in that state of nitrate should be preserved if there's possible to be found and it takes money and dollars and effort and love and haha a lot of care which I'm very proud of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are taking this this really great interest in seeing that they are for the students that have that and and for the people that come after us or know that need to see what was going on and and what some of the good things that happened at that time now you've mentioned that you had given your films to Texas Christian University they in turn presented them to this that's what I was told ah I don't know this firsthand but I was told that they had given it to to Smithsonian Institute who in turn were put it into a vault you see and this vault would have to be something that's very cold to preserve them and and it's not it doesn't really do it for very long that I'll tell you and if you have Technicolor film that is priceless you probably have heard the story of what happens to Technicolor yes I'm sure that fay kanin has told you yet Technicolor company is only in China and in where where else is it in China I forgotten the other country we don't own Technicolor anymore that's why I state in this country we can't make the Technicolor prints anymore no no ginger if you could keep for posterity only one of your films which one would it be oh dear I think I think Kitty Foyle because it tells the story of an American woman of that day and date it's it's a young woman who is fighting for her own freedom of thought and she stands up to anyone with of course she doesn't she takes a lot of losses along the way but she does it because she has she has her own form of principle she she she is principled in her own way Jackie is rather nice and of course he won the Academy Award for your best woman that I did and I'm very grateful to the Academy for the Hat and to my peers who voted for me at the time and and you had really stiff competition that year do you remember your competition yes ma'am I remember it very well do you know what who my competition was well I'd rather you say it was Betty Davis in the letter Katharine Hepburn in Philadelphia story Martha Scott in our town and Joan Fontaine in Rebecca ah now that's a pretty and then I was the fifth there always five and I was the fifth person to be to be voted for happily and surprised as I was I want I was shocked who did you think would win I didn't think but I just didn't think that I would I just didn't feel that I would I was working so hard that really it was it I was at a point that I thought well may the best man win whoever it is you know I was I was heavily worked at that time ginger were there many people tested poor kitty foil for the role for the role no there was no one tested for it he's given directly to me what's it written with you in mind no it was a book it was over it was a book of Christopher Marley's and it was one of the top sellers so Christopher Morley wrote the book the studio bought the book and therefore they began to figure out who they could get to play it and the producer came to me and said would I like to would I be interested in doing this kind of movie nice well let me read it and of course it's a long story but when the when the finished script came out and I was given that to read I was thoroughly convinced that this was something I wanted to do very much David Hampstead was the initiator of this he was the producer and David had me in mind for beginning he said I would never let any I never wanted anyone else to play it but you which was really quite a compliment but that didn't say that he could actually have wherever he wanted I don't think but happily it all worked out because it was all on the RKO studio country try a contract with them that I was to do whatever they asked me to do unless of course I walked out like some people I know did and walked out and were on suspension I never took a suspension and you never had any uneasy moments about it I mean you just felt positive about oh I felt certain that when I read the script Bobby when I read that script I knew that whoever played that film whoever it was was going to get a nomination I didn't say they'd win an Academy but I knew who ever played it would get a nomination and I thought oh dear could I be the one that this what happened to happily I was of course I was frightened beyond my skin when they told that my name was announced that I had won it was at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles I can't frightened what yes I mean if somebody says to you you're in our business it's like saying here the president United States the man told you just felt was I just thought happiness you know this is to to to to unexpected I really had not expected to win it but you did but I did a thing thank God I did thank God ginger there is a story going around now in the press that Katharine Hepburn dumped a pail of water on your head is that true goodness at such an old gold that's an old saw but its didst it wasn't a pail of water no but it was I had on a new mink coat and I came to show it to my friend the director persona I didn't know the Katharine Hepburn and so she heard me say this is new Meg isn't my new mink coat and she had some water and she went she says if it's new if it's make it won't shrink well so so it didn't shrinks so what but was it as the nice is real as the press is reporting it was that she did it because Howard Hughes was interested in you rather than other and I do be the motive how can I be behind her thinking can i I don't know why she did it no way no way to know so fine I guess now it's because of that book on Howard Hughes that's why that's surfacing again I guess because I'm asking the folk foggiest notion why but people have their own motives to do whatever they do and you don't say somebody what's your motive for doing this no yeah will you read the book that she's writing that that who's writing that Terry Moore is writing about I haven't read it I mean it's I don't think it's out yet but will you want to read the book she's writing on Howard Hughes I very seldom read those kinds of books very so very seldom I mean they even even make movies about actresses I've known and I won't read the books about them because I don't like what they say has she interviewed you or talk to you oh no would you talk to her about Howard Hughes would I talk to Terry Moore or anybody no no no I wouldn't because I'm writing my own book why you talk to her are you why should I talk to anybody about what I'm writing is how are Hughes going to be in the book yeah haha sure and when when will that be out next year will you come back to Dallas and we can talk of all I hope so I'd love it oh we have to I'd love it a CAD a problem yes Adi okay I'd love to have you talk to me about it at the time very much you have a publisher and all well I have a publishers agent all lined up ready and he's also good and so I don't I don't feel that it would be with the knowledge that he has and oh I don't think it'd be too difficult to to get a good publisher he's a very good guide he's done some very wonderful things well I think he's pretty good to handle it well ginger it's just lovely to see wonderful I know you've got many other things to do but thanks for coming to Dallas and thanks for your interest in film prints I just am in love with this idea that this is done and I I just hope that that I wish that we could go around with the tambourine and ask our people to would you give us a dime quarter a nickel or something to help do this because it's such a worthy cause and do you think of all the things that films that can be saved CBD Mills films are all made of nitrate oh just for an example and of course Clark Gable Joan Crawford Greta Garbo etcetera etcetera they're all nitrate film so we've got to save those and if they don't get transferred to safety they don't get transferred to safety film they're finished they're ruined all right I may get a tambourine and help you and yes it is done Bobby we need you thank you so make you very nice to see you again

Channel: MimiCrimi

Views: 335,830

Keywords: ginger, rogers

Id: cVOqgcS_eRQ

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 27 2010