Ginger Rogers on the Steve Allen Show

Ginger Rogers appears on "The Steve Allen Show"             October 20, 1957

Miss Ginger Rogers appeared on television many times during her career.  Over the decades, there has been much talk about TV stars not being good enough for the movies and movie stars being too good for TV but early television featured a lot of big Hollywood names on their shows.  What a thrill it must have been to have Ginger Rogers singing in your living room.  With technology being the way it is, now we can all have Ginger Rogers singing, dancing and acting in our living rooms at the press of a button.  Lucky us.

Anyway, back on October 20, 1957, anyone tuning in to The Steve Allen Show got the pleasure of seeing Ginger Rogers sing a series of songs in various characters along with Steve Allen's introductions, commentary and light piano playing.  It was, and still is, a funny sketch and available to view on archive.org:

http://archive.org/details/SteveAllenShowSingers1

I've always enjoyed Ginger Rogers' singing because she sings in character.  Most singers have a style they stick to and that's it.  Actors and actresses do this as well if they have to sing in movies.  Ginger was different and I think this difference added a lot to her performances.  If anyone ever doubted that she was a great singer, they should watch the video and then decide.  She demonstrates her singing skills and versatility in the sketch AND it all stays funny the entire time.  It is well worth watching.

There are more clips from The Steve Allen Show featuring Ginger Rogers, and others, here:
http://archive.org/details/SteveAllenPlymouthIntro
The quality isn't the best but they show a variety of Ginger's talents and what television used to be like.

Other performances by Ginger on television are listed here:
http://thegingerrogersresouce.blogspot.com/2012/09/television.html

And because I couldn't pick just one still from the show, here are a few more.....

Zee french singer explains

The starlet falls flat...

...but still takes a bow