Film: Stage Door, 1937 Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, Samuel S. Hinds, Lucille Ball, Franklin Pangborn, Frank Reicher, Jack Carson
I was lucky to get see Ann Miller dance in her one of her last appearances. I went to a taping of Home Improvement during it's first season, so it was not popular yet and easy to get tickets and Ann Miller happened to guest star on the episode.
I didn't know she was THAT young. I'm watching "Easter Parade" right now, and MGM certainly glammed her up later on. But she is more natural here, gawky and gauche in a very funny way.
Roslyn Decanio - Lucy Ball gave Ann Miller the professional push she needed. Ann always spoke well about Lucy, Ginger and Hermes Pan (great dance choreographer). Very awsome story.
@@mayaa5048 Ann told a funny story about how she was due to go to the Oscars as guest of Hermes Pan, who was up for an award. Being brunette, she plastered on make up like Hedy Lamarr or Brenda Frazer: dead white face and scarlet lipstick. He made her wash it off before she could go out, but he didn't know he was squiring a 14 y.o. pretending to be 18! They became lifelong friends.
*Are Saying that the TaLkie GirL was Ann MiLLer???* *Dam 5-years ago!!! WOW!!! Your Life has Changed since this Post!!!* *2015; Back when America was Great Again, before Trump KiLLed it!!!*
I love this film. Imagine Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller and Jack Carson in the same film before most were stars.
Take a look at the YT extract from 'Queen High' (1930). Ginger, aged 20, sings to cheer up Frank Morgan; a girl tapdancing on a table is 17 y.o. Eleanor Powell. Within a few years both these kids would be world-famous.
Ginger gave Ann the part, after the casters though she was to tall to dance with her. Miller's wore low heels...and I thought purposefully lets herself look more dowdy, than the huge star Ginger was at the time. This shows both Ginger's humanity and personal generosity, and Miller's gumption as a 15 year old. They remained friends all their lives. The lovely Ginger was 26 in 1937.
I love Ginger's character of Jean in this movie. She roasts people so scathingly yet she's so beautiful and lovely that her insulting skills only add to her personality.
She combined the heroine and the heroine's best friend (Joan Blondell, Patsy Kelly, Una Merkel). She sang endearingly, danced superbly and was cover-girl gorgeous. No Thirties star gave better value for money. At this time she was playing a very different showbiz woman, the established and sophisticated singer of 'Carefree' who needs psychoanalysing. Ginger is credible and funny in both roles.
Ginger Rogers is the queen of RomCom!!!! The queen of comedic timing, the ultimate beauty, full of talent and as beautiful and classy as it gets! I just love that woman! ❤❤❤
Ann is young--but more like 16 or here. She lied to be older--and everbody has now tried to make her younger! Trust me---22 years of research and interviews with Miss Miller! Talent is extraordinary from both these dolls!!
Ann was born in 1923 so she was 14 in 1937. She didn't try to make herself look younger for parts she tried to make herself look older. Used fake ids saying she was 18
****I find it incredible the actuality of this film, released 80 years ago, in 1937, when women still had enormous difficulties in earning a living and being financially independent. The script, based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, is seemingly futile for non-theatrical world, however, the variety of characters helps to enrich and make history interesting, as a human and moving drama , In which unscrupulous men use power to manipulate women. Hepburn is the rich young woman, willing to prove to the father (the corn king) that she lives in a club of actresses and that can enter the theater without support of the relatives; The blonde Rogers, in addition to displaying her talent as a dancer alongside young Ann Miller, demonstrates the talent that would turn her into a sought-after comedian. The cast also features the jokes of future TV star Lucille Ball, the great lady of the theater Constance Collier (with good scenes, but unfortunately in a small role too) and, worth noting, Gail Patrick, Eve Arden and Andrea Leeds - the only one nominated for the Oscars - notable for the sweet and distressed actress Kay Hamilton, discarded after the success by the immoral producer, lived by Adolphe Menjou, who uses the post to seduce the young actresses. His alcove scenes with drunken Rogers remind me of Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Oliver in The Prince and Showgirl. Stage Door gets relative success and Hepburn gain breath for two more movies on RKO: Bringing Up Baby and Holiday. With the commercial failure of these two productions, she would only return to the cinema in 1940, in The Philadelphia Story. Hepbun's character reminded me a bit of another part of her in Morning Glory. She is a bit clumsy at first, but she has the courage, she is supportive and generous with her colleagues, who wear her sophisticated clothes and coats. It even has a very current and politically correct joke about fur coats. The scene "The Calla Lilies are in Bloom Again" was taken from another play, which negatively marked her career in the theater. The sequel works on the film, but Kate used it as a joke, for fun.
Walter H Harrison - and to think that Katherine Hepburn was very mean to Ginger. She did and said mean things about her, but Ginger never let that bother her.
@@mayaa5048 Hepburn was not a nice woman. She couldn't sing or dance a step, and she resented her contemporaries who could. She envied them their sex appeal too, so she faded up the Great Actress image to compensate. I always felt a chilly core in her. No doubt Tracy, a cantankerous old goat, appreciated her orneriness, however.
I won't bet any money of her age, but according to her bio's she always had to add a couple of years to her age to be able to sign contracts and work in nightclubs, etc. She started working VERY young.
@toober222 DTs are delirium tremens, the shakes you get from alcohol withdrawal (back then I think DTs would have meant the same thing, and it makes sense in the context of dancing). Another nickname for "the shakes" of alcoholism is "jazz hands" actually :)
*Watch Ginger Rogers and Ann Miller dance together in **_'Put Your Heart Into Your Feet and Dance'_** from Stage Door (1937)* - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bx97Fy-L5GU.html
wow thanks for that link - just watched all 4 parts - thought i had seen all of Anne Millers stuff - this was the best interview of Anne ive seen = thanks again and greeting from Glasgow Scotland
@@roslyndecanio81 Yes! I've watched Stage Door a lot since I was 9 years old. "Stage Door" & "Peyton Place" (with Lana Turner) are my 2 favorite films of all time.
Yep! Can you believe she was about 14 or 15 in this movie? From what I've read she fibbed about her age to get into movies earlier on, said she was around the age of 18 so that she could get a head start!
These stars of the '30s and '40s were all virgins, who would never have dreamed of opening their legs for some Hollywood mogul . Just like the present crop. ME TOO!!!!
Ginger Rogers -- showing her lack of dance training compared to a dancer of Ann Miller's calibre. Those stiff square shoulders and terrible spins. Just shows how hard Hermes Pan had to work with her to prepare her for the Astaire dance routines.
Mag Loyd - true, she was a true professional. I happened to find a vid were Mr. Osborne interviewing Ann Miller is the best I have found so far. You might like to watch it, enjoy! Is a series of 5 vids. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bXo87eflLmg.html
@@DinoAgent69 Ginger once said she had to do 80 takes to perfect her dance numbers with Astaire. So there's no telling how many she did as a solo performer to get them down pat!
