Ginger Rogers and Her Love of Ice Cream

What are the odds that National Ice Cream Day falls on Ginger Rogers’s 112^th birthday?

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She’s quoted as saying, “My love for ice cream emerged at an early age — and has never left!”

Has anyone ever loved ice cream as much as Ginger Rogers did? I doubt it. The woman had a fully-functioning soda fountain in her house and encouraged guests to try out their soda jerk fantasies.

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In the July 1938 Photoplay, Marjorie Hillis wrote about how regular folks could ‘have a star’s fun’ on their average income, and used Ginger’s love of ice cream as an example.

“…She buys some ice cream, some assorted fruit syrups, bananas, maraschino cherries, and lots and lots of bottled soda water. Then she turns her guests loose on the collection and lets them make their own ice-cream sodas and banana splits, thereby solving at one fell swoop the twin problems of food and entertainment. Did you ever meet anyone who didn’t have a sneaking ambition to mess around in back of a soda counter? It goes back to the mud-pie instincts in children. And besides, ice cream is much cheaper than liquor. Try it yourself some time, and see.”

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And if you were wondering, according to Hillis, Ginger’s ‘fancy’ dinner parties almost always made use of a backyard barbecue pit and featured a menu of “small steaks, pots of baked beans, and a green salad, handed around on stone platters.”

In 1951, Ginger wrote an article for the NEA Service wire about how she stays fit and further shared her love of ice cream.

“I have no theories about food or diet. I always eat to feed my hunger and not by appetite. Fortunately, I enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables and milk products. The fact that I have a soda foundation in my house is indicative of my fondness for ice cream and all of its accompaniments.”

And in 1968, she’d tell interviewer Cliff Michel Moore that she loves her ice cream with lots of chocolate.

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It probably thrilled her to no end that she was featured on the tops of Dixie Ice Cream cups throughout her career. Like many stars of the era, whenever there was a new movie to promote, there were their faces under the sealed opening of these ice cream cups.

I’ve found versions for Star of Midnight (1935), Primrose Path (1940) and Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) online. Featuring stars—and earlier, circus performers and animals; and later still, baseball players and other athletes—was a way to market movies to children, and you can find cards for Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, among others.

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Ginger was even the star of her very own Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavour.

Back in 1988, they created a ‘Fred & Ginger’ flavour. Ever heard of it? Probably not. It was featured second on a list of their biggest flop flavours.

“We like to push the boundaries of ice cream greatness, and nobody’s ever done that by coloring inside the lines,” they wrote. That must be the ‘ice cream way’ to say that they tried to do everything backwards and in high heels with the flavour…

According to Ben & Jerry’s, “This flavor featured ginger ice cream with chocolate bowties and was a not-so-subtle homage to dance duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Apparently it needed to keep practicing its dance steps, though, because of the 47 Scoop Shops that carried it, only two re-ordered when they ran out.”

Listen… I’d try it. That sounds kinda good.

So there you have it: a not-totally comprehensive chronicle of Ginger's love for ice cream, but it's a start. Go out and buy yourself a cone today in her honour and let me know what your favourite flavour is in comments. I'll start: mine is a Nova Scotian specialty known as Moon Mist!