After a special proclamation from our governor that the VWRS is indeed essential, we are back on duty. There was a brief delay while we debated with VWRS union steward Miranda Sommerfield over whether fictitious characters serving as loyal assistants are actually essential…but clearly they are. With a quick doubling of their salaries, everyone is back in action.

If you are confused by the paragraph above, I suggest you go to the actual VWRS Facebook page and read the pinned glossary for an explanation.

My first post back is a retraction from at least four years ago. I have attached the original graphic which accompanied that post. I had found a gossip item from 1943 indicating that Virginia had turned down a chance to be in a picture with Frank Sinatra because the role called for a bobbysoxer and Ginny wanted more mature roles after she had finished at MGM with THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION and BEST FOOT FORWARD.

In 2015, I determined that the film being spoken about was probably MEET MISS BOBBY SOCKS, which ended up starring Bob Crosby instead of Frankie and had Louise Erickson as the “soxer”. I based this on the plot sounding right, the time being right, and the fact that Frank had been featured in a Columbia musical around that same time.

This week I discovered I was probably wrong. TCM showed a rather awful B musical this week called DING DONG WILLIAMS. It is about a clarinet player hired to write a musical score for a picture when he can’t read or write music. He can only play. And the perky production assistant who loves him is played by singer, dancer and RKO jitterbug Marcy McGuire. Not being an expert on Ms. McGuire, I looked her up. To my surprise I found that when Sinatra played himself, third billed to Michele Morgan and Jack Haley, in HIGHER AND HIGHER, Marcy played a girl who swoons at Frankie’s feet. That sounds like it probably is the role. I skipped it before because Frank wasn’t the lead.

Marcy has a career much shorter, but of a similar path to Virginia’s. She started in her teens and was quickly moved by RKO into jitterbug roles similar to what Gloria Jean and Peggy Ryan were stuck in at Universal. She slowed her career when she married actor Wally Cassell in 1947 and retired by 1952. Virginia also married in 1947 and although she last appeared in a feature in 1943 she continued to act on stage, radio and television until about…1952.

So HIGHER AND HIGHER is now the film I think the gossips were pointing toward, although I am unsure how serious RKOs efforts toward landing her were. After all, Marcy was comfortable in the soxer/jitterbug roles and was already under contract.-

This is Ginny’s 73rd wedding anniversary. The story is that she and Lionel eloped, but I’ve always wondered if this was a family approved elopement rather than the kind dramatized in films. After all, both she and Lionel Krisel were great catches and I have to doubt either family would have disapproved.

Anyway, a virtual toast to the happy couple!

Ginny and her St. Bernard set an example by practicing social distancing.

It’s Ginny’s birthday!
It’s Ginny’s birthday!
And we would like to wish her all the very best
It’s Ginny’s birthday!
It’s Ginny’s birthday!
And it’s so nice to have you back to be our guest
(h/t to Bill Martin / Phil Coulter…and George Harrison)

It is here! That day of days. And we should have a little more time to participate than in most years, I’m guessing.

As usual, we at the VWRS celebrate Ginny’s birthday-number 93 by my count-by watching Ginny’s films and clips and eating cottage cheese (Ginny’s favorite food), although I will be lenient on the CC requirement this year only.

There are three Ginny films on YouTube, two in complete form and one broken up into around ten separate parts. My ginny fan channel there still has our short clips as well.

I have also opened up my public page as I do each year. There you will find five films, several clips, and Jean Porter’s wonderful salute to Ginny from Classic Images magazine.

My page can be accessed from https://tinyurl.com/ginnyday. Click on the item you wish to view…and be patient. I have tested them and they do load for viewing.

There are three Ginny films on YouTube, two in complete form and one broken up into around ten separate parts. My ginny fan channel there still has our short clips as well.