This month on TCM we're going to do our best to clarify a misconception that's been attached far too long to our March Star of the Month, Ginger Rogers. Ginger's name and reputation is now so firmly intertwined in movie history with that dancing man named Fred Astaire that too many people seem to think her career began and ended with those ten marvelous Astaire-Rogers musicals that went from 1933's Flying Down to Rio to 1949's The Barkleys of Broadway. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The lady born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, in 1911, actually had an amazing career which had nothing whatsoever to do with the marvelous Mr. Astaire. Three years before the team of Astaire and Rogers ever danced "The Continental" around Art Deco floors at the RKO studios, Ginger had starred on Broadway in the original 1930-31 company of the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy, in which she introduced such soon-to-be legendary Gershwin songs as "But Not for Me" and "Embraceable You" (Astaire was nowhere in sight). Later, during that magical time when she and Fred were doing their on-screen singing-dancing-collaborating, Ginger additionally starred in 27 films without Fred, earning a reputation as one of the film world's top box-office stars. (Truth be told, her films without Fred grossed many more millions than his films without her.)

Also on her own and without dancing slippers, she won an Academy Award® as the best actress of 1940, and worked with such directors as Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, William Wellman, Leo McCarey and Lewis Milestone; her leading men were occasionally top-of-the-liners such as Ronald Colman, Cary Grant and Henry Fonda, although her popularity was so strong that often producers opted for less expensive leading men because Ginger's name alone was all that was needed for a film to score heavily at the box office.

Why the popularity? Well, on Wednesdays this month on TCM beginning March 10, we'll give you 43 reasons the moviegoers of the world were so wild about Ginger, especially in the 1930s and '40s, although she did remain an important star far beyond those decades. (She died in 1995 at the age of 84.) We'll be showing all ten of the Astaire- Rogers films, of course-you can't have a salute to Ginger without Fred-but we're especially pleased to bring you an extensive mix of those non-Astaire successes as well.

A few to particularly make a point to watch: 1937's Vivacious Lady and Stage Door, 1939's Bachelor Mother and Fifth Avenue Girl, all on March 24, each of them striking examples of her deftness as a priceless comedienne- as is 1942's The Major and the Minor, airing March 31. Also make a point on March 31 to see her Oscar®-winning Kitty Foyle from 1940, as well as the much-underrated Primrose Path, also 1940, which helped her win that Academy Award®, and gives double proof of what a good dramatic actress she was. In fact, do try to spend many TCM Wednesdays with Ginger; if you do, to quote the title of one of her films you can see on March 24, you'll find yourself Having Wonderful Time.

by Robert Osborne