How KITTY FOYLE Changed Ginger Rogers's Life

Let’s talk about one of my favourite Oscar-winning performances today, in honour of Ginger Rogers’s 113^th birthday today: her Best Actress-winning performance in Kitty Foyle.

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Kitty Foyle was a bestselling novel by Christopher Morley, first published in 1939. It tells the story of the eponymous heroine, a working class white collar girl from Philadelphia who falls in love with a socialite and clashes with his family.

It was an immediate bestseller, and RKO paid $50,000 for the film rights to the story. An RKO producer by the name of David Hempstead immediately flagged it as a property for Ginger Rogers, which was something of an unusual choice: Ginger had never done straight drama before.

Ginger, at that point in her career, had spent a decade making mostly musicals and romantic comedies for RKO. Let’s not downplay her repertoire, though. That decade included nine successful musicals with Fred Astaire; as well as three of my favourites, Vivacious Lady, Bachelor Mother and Fifth Avenue Girl.

In her autobiography, Ginger, My Story, she wrote that she wanted to extend her range into more dramatic fare but that the front office at RKO never bothered to learn more about her since she was minting them money with Fred Astaire.

It wasn’t until David Hempstead sent her a copy of Kitty Foyle with the note that the character would be perfect for her that she realized someone else saw what she was capable of.

The only problem was that Ginger read the book and thought it was too graphic. “There were explicit love scenes in it that were quite disturbing to me,” she wrote. “As I read these passages, I found myself passing judgement on them. ‘That could never pass the censor board. So what good is it for me to spend time reading it?’”

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It wasn’t just that she was a little conservative reading what she did—she was straight up offended that RKO and Hempstead would even consider her for the role. The only reason she didn’t call him up and lambast him for the slight was that he’d already left the studio for the day.

But cooler heads prevailed in the form of Lela Rogers, who reminded Ginger, after speed-reading the book, that the studio would have to do a total rewrite before they could make the movie, and “Then, maybe you’ll want to do it.”

Ginger followed her mother’s advice, and when she finally spoke to Hempstead, she was calm. She told him her concerns. He replied: “Ginger, for heaven’s sake, don’t tell anyone at the studio you disliked it. I’m having it rewritten and when that’s done, I’ll submit it to you again. If you want to turn it down then, okay, but remember, RKO bought this book as a starring vehicle, expressly for you. SO DON’T TURN IT DOW until you have read the rewrites.”

She got a copy of the rewrites just over a month later and was urged to read it immediately—others were sniffing around it, and Hempstead needed to know as soon as possible if she wanted to make it. The script had been rewritten by Dalton Trumbo and Donald Ogden Stewart, writers of immense calibre.

“For the next two hours I sat reading, laughing, and crying. I realized it was one hell of a script, and was convinced that whoever played the role would end up with an Oscar. I saw it that vividly. (Sorry, Olivia [de Havilland], you didn’t get this one!)”

Side note: the ‘rivalry’ between Ginger and Olivia over film roles is something else to explore in a different post. Ginger turned down both To Each His Own and The Snake Pit, which garnered Olivia an Oscar win and an Oscar nomination, respectively.

Back to Kitty Foyle: Ginger wanted to make the movie so badly that she skipped a planned vacation in order to make it. And she took command of the role as soon as filming began. She determined that her hair needed to be darker, not blonde, as the daughter of an Irishman. She also felt like she could collaborate with director Sam Wood, and made character suggestions throughout filming.

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Of the role, Ginger wrote, “In Kitty Foyle I had an opportunity to create a three-dimensional portrait of a young American woman, and when the picture was finished, I felt I’d met the challenge.”

Kitty Foyle and Ginger Rogers became very popular once the film was released in December 1940. It was the highest-grossing RKO film that year, and one of the best-reviewed as well.

"I am inclined to think that it's Miss Ginger alone who makes 'Kitty Foyle' a better-than-average film and Kitty herself a proper model for those hundreds of thousands of young things who will now be adding a touch of white to their neckline," wrote The New Yorker in a contemporary review.

The character became a symbol of the everyday working woman and Ginger’s career was boosted by a surprising performance—no more was she just the dancing dame, now everyone knew she could carry a dramatic role.

Kitty Foyle’s influence was so wide-spread it even touched upon fashion. The ‘Kitty Foyle’ dress was a dark-coloured shirtwaist with white or light-coloured collar and cuffs, with short sleeves.

Ginger was one of the five actresses nominated for Best Actress in 1940. Her competition couldn’t have been any stiffer: Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine and Martha Scott. And none of them had phoned it in that year.

Still, it might have been something of a shock for contemporary audiences—and certainly for modern ones, who only remember Ginger as the one who did ‘everything Fred Astaire did, just backwards and in high heels’—when Ginger’s name was called. It definitely was for Ginger.

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She wrote that she didn’t even hear her name called and definitely didn’t prepare a speech, since she figured Bette or Katharine would win again. “I really can’t accurately recall the words, but believe me, I was deeply grateful for God’s love being with me at this momentous honour.”

Ginger was the film’s only win that night—Kitty Foyle had been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Sound Recording as well.

She held onto the praise that Kitty Foyle gave her, and appreciated all of the warm words people sent. In her autobiography, she writes that the most special of these letters was from Fred Astaire, who wrote: “Hello Cutie—

“Saw 'Kitty' last night and must write this note to say 'That's it!' Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! You were superb, Ginge--it was such a solid performance--the kind one seldom sees on stage or screen and it should bring you the highest honors anyone can win!!

“Hope to see you soon.

“As ever your, Fred.”

Ginger continued acting throughout the ‘40s, hit after hit after hit: Tom, Dick and Harry; The Major and the Minor (my personal favourite); Roxie Hart; Tales of Manhattan (a remake of Grand Hotel with Ginger in the Garbo role); and Tender Comrades, off the top of my head, showed her range and only strengthened her chops.