shy fly

19 | she/her | belgium | japanese studies | kpop, takarazuka, musicals

[movie-brain]

Can anyone give any context to this handholding? I know it’s from #Carefree and the dress is for #Changepartners #hypnoticdancescene but it’s shot inside the country house and Fred and Ginger’s charters had no reason to hold hands at this point in the film. It looks like a behind the scenes shots, like the director or someone is making an announcement? #fredandginger #fredastaireandgingerrogers #fredastaire #gingerrogers #fred Astaire #ginger Rogers

[oldhollywoodpangurban]

Okay, here we go!

This is a photo of the actors listening to their director. It's not meant to be the characters, obviously.

So they are holding hands either because they forgot to NOT hold hands, or they DELIBERATELY are holding hands.

If they forgot NOT to hold hands, it means that they regularly do it and it was just so engrained that they did it unconsciously. It's just something they do every day.

If they did it DELIBERATELY, then it's something else. These two are rumored to not get along. This makes it obvious that they do. It is also a choice to go on film forever intentionally being seen in a friendly (possibly more) way with each other.

When you realize this is the photo shoot for the upcoming dance, things are more clear. In this dance Fred caresses Ginger's breast with his thumb, AND sneaks in a secret kiss in the turn. One, two, three. The intentions are clear. He is staking a claim. There's more than friendship here, though there is that, also. That's the message that Fred is sending for those with eyes to see.

Also, it probably didn't make the missus very happy when she saw the photos. And whomever Ginger was dating - Jimmy, Cary, Lew, Howard - would have gotten the message also.

That's my take on it!

Just so happens that I've been writing this VERY SCENE in my upcoming Alphabet Anthology Volume 2. Check out AO3 for volume 1.

Alphabet Anthology - Chapter 1 - Anonymous_1701 - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]

[cartoon-heart]

For the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fans: another image from the filming of Carefree where Fred and Ginger are holding hands out of character. Also featuring the director Mark Sandrich and co-star Ralph Bellamy.

A small addition to this discussion thread (and this)

Apologies for the poor quality - blame the original source!

[sorryiwasasleep]

Happy Easter to Judy Garland as ‘Hannah Brown’ I think about that queen every time I too struggle to differentiate my left from my right

[anotherfanofhers]

« This reminds me of the time I walked into Fred Astaire’s dressing room without knocking when we were doing Easter Parade. Do you remember that, Dot [Dottie Ponedel]? When I saw how skinny he was and he had no toupee on his head, I decided then and there I was going to take him in hand and order his food for him. That’s when you bawled me out and told me I had no business going into a man’s dressing room without knocking because you could have seen a lot more than just his ribs. »

Judy Garland, in Dottie Ponedel’s words (About Face).

[draegawnborn]

Romance, Astaire-Rogers style.

Ok it took me a shit-ton of time to make these but it was SO worth it.

[lanaturnerhascollapsed]

Motion Picture, September 1938

[clarulitas]

Dolores Del Rio and Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (1933) dir. Thornton Freeland

[ediths-shades]

COSTUME APPRECIATION:

GINGER ROGERS in THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR (1942).

Costume design by Edith Head.

[psikonauti]

Vanessa Cooper

[psikonauti]

Vanessa Cooper

[freddie-my-love]

Okay, here’s another passage from a letter I read at the Fred Astaire Archive. Maybe it’s a little mean, but it made me laugh. This was from his time on Broadway, when he was around 30, written to his sister Adele after she’d left their partnership and he continued on his own. 

“I often get mobbed at the stage door by matinee girls. There’s one awful one that has seen it 16 times like Sophie in London. She is terrible looking but must have dough ‘cause she sits in the orchestra. She waits for me–holds my hand–writes to me etc. and she’s honestly the worst looking girl I ever saw! I came out of the stage door with Phyl the other day [his soon-to-be wife] and I thought this bitch was gonna scratch her eyes out. Phyl almost died.”

[freddie-my-love]

Fred Astaire and his beautiful smile, 1935

[solesupine]

Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers 

“Ten Films! Doesn’t sound like a lot does it? But it was quite a few more than Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald made together, or Judy and Mickey…and one more than Kate made with Spencer. And for each of those ten films, I can’t think of any performer of the screen or stage I would rather have performed alongside than you, Mr. A!” - Ginger Rogers (1980)

“When I was working with Ginger, it was like heaven on earth.” -  Fred Astaire (1973)

[fuckyeahfredandginger]

A telegram from Fred in 1936 wishing Ginger a good vacation and telling her to “pick up a few steps here and there; we will be needing them.”

[elviscostello]

In this scene from The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sneak an open-mouthed kiss past the Hays Code. Because the scene was filmed in the dark, the censors didn’t catch the kiss, but now, viewed frame-by-frame, it definitely was a French kiss. First of all, notice how Ginger doesn’t completely close her mouth as Fred starts leaning in for the kiss. She keeps her lips parted just enough so that he can slip his tongue through. If you look really closely, you can see how Ginger’s bottom lip quivers just a little bit in anticipation of the kiss. In response, Fred puckers his lips just a little — but not in a stiff manner. The two of them finally do kiss, and it is a bit difficult to see, but as they shift position, Fred moves his jaw so that it is a French kiss. (via fuckyeahfredandginger)

[yesterdaysprint]

Daily Capital Journal, Salem, Oregon, March 31, 1956

[hayscodeviolation]

Ginger Rogers in TOP HAT (1935) Costume Design by Bernard Newman