Editing Fred Astaire (section)

====Assessment of the Rogers partnership====
[[File:fredginger.jpg|thumb|An RKO publicity still of Astaire and Rogers dancing to "[[Smoke Gets in Your Eyes]]" in ''[[Roberta (1935 film)|Roberta]]'' (1935)]]
Dance commentators [[Arlene Croce]],<ref name="Croce"/>{{rp|6}} Hannah Hyam<ref name="Hyam">{{cite book
  | last = Hyam
  | first = Hannah
  | title = Fred and Ginger: The Astaire–Rogers Partnership 1934–1938
  | publisher = Pen Press Publications
  | year = 2007
  | location = Brighton
  | isbn=978-1-905621-96-5}}</ref>{{rp|146–147}} and [[John Mueller]]<ref name="Mueller"/>{{rp|8,9}} consider Rogers to have been Astaire's greatest dance partner, a view shared<ref name=GilesP33>Giles, p. 33 Pan: "I do not think [[Eleanor Powell]] was Fred's greatest dancing partner. I think Ginger Rogers was. Not that she was the greatest of dancers. Cyd Charisse was a much finer technical dancer"</ref> by Hermes Pan and [[Stanley Donen]].<ref name=GilesP33/> Film critic [[Pauline Kael]] adopts a more neutral stance,<ref>Kael: "That's a bit much", in an otherwise laudatory review of Croce's ''The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book'', writing in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', November 25, 1972</ref> while ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine film critic [[Richard Schickel]] writes "The nostalgia surrounding Rogers–Astaire tends to bleach out other partners."<ref>{{cite magazine |author-link=Richard Schickel |last=Schickel |first=Richard |date=July 6, 1987 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964929,00.html |title=The Great American Flyer |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223091706/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964929,00.html |archive-date=February 23, 2007}}</ref>

Mueller sums up Rogers's abilities as follows:

<blockquote>Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer, but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began&nbsp;... the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable.<ref name="Mueller"/></blockquote>

According to Astaire, "Ginger had never danced with a partner before ''Flying Down to Rio''. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that&nbsp;... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong."<ref name="Satchell1">{{cite book |last=Satchell |first=Tim |date=1987 |title=Astaire: The Definitive Biography |publisher=Hutchinson |page=127 |isbn=978-0-09-173736-8}}</ref> On p.&nbsp;162 of his book ''Ginger: Salute to a Star'', author Dick Richards quotes Astaire saying to Raymond Rohauer, curator of the New York Gallery of Modern Art, "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually, she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In 1976, British talk-show host [[Michael Parkinson]] asked Astaire who his favorite dancing partner was, on ''[[Parkinson (TV series)|Parkinson]]''. At first, Astaire refused to answer but ultimately he said "Excuse me, I must say Ginger was certainly, [uh, uh,] the one. You know, the most effective partner I ever had. Everyone knows."<ref>{{YouTube|id=xEaach8NrPUt=4m11s|title=Fred Astaire interview : Parkinson 1976}} The timestamp starts when he is asked who is his favorite dancing partner. The referenced quote is at 5:20.</ref>

Rogers described Astaire's uncompromising standards extending to the whole production: "Sometimes he'll think of a new line of dialogue or a new angle for the story&nbsp;... they never know what time of night he'll call up and start ranting enthusiastically about a fresh idea&nbsp;... No loafing on the job on an Astaire picture, and no cutting corners."<ref name="Mueller"/>{{rp|16}}

Despite their success, Astaire was unwilling to have his career tied exclusively to any partnership. He negotiated with RKO to strike out on his own with ''[[A Damsel in Distress (1937 film)|A Damsel in Distress]]'' in 1937 with an inexperienced, non-dancing [[Joan Fontaine]], unsuccessfully as it turned out. He returned to make two more films with Rogers, ''[[Carefree (film)|Carefree]]'' (1938) and ''[[The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle]]'' (1939). While both films earned respectable gross incomes, they both lost money because of increased production costs,<ref name="Mueller"/>{{rp|410}} and Astaire left RKO after being labeled "[[Box Office Poison (magazine article)|box office poison]]" by the ''Independent Theatre Owners of America''. Astaire was reunited with Rogers in 1949 at MGM for their final outing, ''[[The Barkleys of Broadway]]'', the only one of their films together to be shot in [[Technicolor]].