A 1936 Phillips Screen Star cigarette card of Ginger Rogers. Source: Flickr
Ginger Rogers, one of the most popular Hollywood actresses, was always remembered in Texas. Fort Worth was her home for a time and where she launched her career as a performer. When she was 9 years old, the Missouri-born Rogers and her mother Lela moved to Fort Worth with Rogers’s stepfather. At 14, Ginger Rogers won a Charleston contest and traveled on the vaudeville circuit. Lela Rogers left her job as a reporter for the Fort Worth Record to accompany her daughter, on what later led to Broadway and movies. For this reason, Texas was a place she spoke of fondly. Rogers said years later to reporter and film critic Bobbie Wygant, while visiting Texas in 1983, “It’s so nice to be home, really it’s wonderful. And to get here and to look out at the beautiful sky and see that nice warm sunshine, it’s lovely. . . . I don’t mind it at all because I’m kind of used to having warm Texas days—before there was air conditioning too.”
Ginger Rogers, Honorary Admiral, presenting David French, assistant to the president of Chrysler, a certificate of Honorary Commodore appointed by Texas Governor Allred. Printed in the Fairfield Recorder on August 20, 1936. Source: Portal to Texas History
In 1936, the year of the Texas Centennial, Ginger Rogers was at the height of her career in the RKO musicals alongside Fred Astaire, as well as starring individually in musicals and dramas. The Texas Centennial needed publicity to attract locals and tourists during a difficult time when money was strained for many people during the Great Depression. Since movies were a popular pastime, select Hollywood actors were given honorary titles and invited to visit. Ginger Rogers, being a former Texan, was the ideal guest because her movies were a favorite of audiences and she was an example of a previous resident who went on to success. She was invited to select the Queen of the Texas Centennial.
Earlier in June 1936, Rogers was a guest on radio’s Shell Chateau, hosted by musician and fellow Texan, Smith Ballew, for a Texas Centennial-themed broadcast. According to the Oakland Tribune, Ballew and Rogers were last together on the same stage in Fort Worth during the 1920s. At that time, Ballew conducted his orchestra there, making the story probable. In August, The Bonham Herald printed a photo of her sending a crown from Mary of Scotland (1936), to Dallas for the Queen’s night she would be judging within a few days. As exciting as Rogers’s upcoming appearance was for audiences, this wasn’t a vacation but more of a pleasant event in her existing schedule. An item in Variety from August 1936 reported that while Fort Worth was prepared to have Ginger Rogers Day, her agent explained that Rogers’s contract prohibited her from making another appearance 30 days before and after the Dallas engagement.
Ginger Rogers crowns Geraldine Robertson of Lamesa, Texas the Queen of the Texas Centennial on August 9, 1936 in Dallas. Source: Archive.org
On August 7, 1936, Ginger Rogers arrived in Dallas and was welcomed by a naval unit. Overcome by the reception, according to the Denton Record Chronicle, she said, “It’s grand to be home again, but I’m so thrilled I can scarcely talk.” The next night she and the Ina Ray Hutton Orchestra rode on what the Grand Saline Sun described as “myriad-lighted” floats into the Cotton Bowl. The last 2 finalists representing different regions of Texas were chosen. The night after, Rogers crowned Geraldine Robertson of Lamesa, Queen of the Centennial. Robertson’s prize included a movie contract, where she reportedly appeared as a chorus girl in the musicals Born to Dance (1936) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936). Rogers’s role paralleled when she was presented as the winner of a statewide contest. The next day, she left for a radio broadcast in New York. Although her visit to the Texas Centennial was brief, it boosted attendance, allowing her to visit the state that she credited gave her a start.
Today Ginger Rogers is remembered for her versatility and hard work. Years before DVDs and streaming services existed, she was one of the many to recognize the value of film preservation. She told Bobbie Wygant in the 1983 interview, “. . . I’m just of the opinion that whoever’s film is in that state of nitrate, should be preserved [. . .] And it takes money . . effort and love—a lot of care. [. . .] I’m very proud of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences [. . .] in seeing that they are [important to preserve] for the students and for the people that come after us that need to see what was going on and what [were] some of the good things that happened at that time.” Throughout her career, Ginger Rogers came to Texas, including back to Dallas–such as starring in Tovarich during their 1964 summer musical series as well as a 5-day engagement of her title role performance of Hello Dolly! at the Fair Park Music Hall in 1967. In 1994, a year before her death, she was presented the Topaz Award by the Dallas Women in Film.
Sources:
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times (Mount Pleasant, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 161, Ed. 1 Friday, August 14, 1936, newspaper, August 14, 1936; Mt. Pleasant, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth800120/m1/1/?q=%22ginger+rogers%22+AND+%22centennial%22: accessed November 5, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Mount Pleasant Public Library.
The Fairfield Recorder (Fairfield, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 20, 1936, newspaper, August 20, 1936; Fairfield, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1126481/m1/1/?q=%22ginger+rogers%22+AND+%22centennial%22: accessed November 5, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Fairfield Library.
McDonald, L. A. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 35, No. 309, Ed. 1 Saturday, August 8, 1936, newspaper, August 8, 1936; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1304485/m1/1/?q=%22ginger+rogers%22+AND+%22centennial%22: accessed November 5, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.
The Bonham Herald (Bonham, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 97, Ed. 1 Monday, August 3, 1936, newspaper, August 3, 1936; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth993433/m1/1/?q=%22ginger+rogers%22+AND+%22centennial%22: accessed November 5, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bonham Public Library.
The Grand Saline Sun (Grand Saline, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. [39], Ed. 1 Thursday, August 6, 1936, newspaper, August 6, 1936; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1015993/m1/1/?q=%22ginger+rogers%22+AND+%22centennial%22: accessed November 5, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Van Zandt County Library.
Vintage Stardust 