The pairing that she formed together with her mother, capable of questioning her marriages, controlling her films and even promoting her contracts, was sounded in classic Hollywood
'Not without my mother'. That would be the phrase that Ginger Rogers, the eternal dance partner of Fred Astaire, the self-made blonde actress whose 110th anniversary of her birth this Friday, would be pronounced a thousand times. The couple that he formed with his mother, capable of questioning their marriages, controlling their films and even boosting their contracts, was famous in Hollywood that boasted of conservatism and moral values but, nevertheless, used to cross the fine line that separates what is familiar from Sodom and Gomorrah.
Beyond the fame of her daughter, Lela Leibrand was quite a character on her own merits. A deeply believing and religious woman, she stood up to her husband when she divorced her in 1915 and was left with custody of Ginger. Raising her daughter alone did not prevent her from being part of the first group of female Marines in the history of the United States during World War I, something totally unusual at that time. The vicissitudes of her life ended up taking her to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter and it was then that Charles Kermer also hired her as her assistant. During those years when the movie industry was a rising stock, she had to leave her own daughter in the care of her grandparents, but the adult Ginger never seemed to hold a grudge against her.
Aware of the young woman's talent as a dancer and actress, she did not hesitate to promote her hiring and, since then, she became her guardian angel, a vital and professional guardian that Ginger accepted without hesitation. In a scene from Martin Scorsese's 'The Aviator', she becomes the perfect example of this mother-daughter pairing when both characters appear sharing a table and flirting with Howard Hughes, played by a neurotic Leonardo DiCaprio. Fans of gossip from the movie Mecca continue to put the actress and her mother as an example of a toxic relationship that ends up affecting her own films.
Anti-communist and overprotective mother
There was no moment in Ginger Rogers' professional and personal life that was not controlled by Lela. She was the one who encouraged her to get rid of the label of being the partner in Fred Astaire's dances and demand more substantial dramatic roles from RKO. All of Hollywood knew that the dance couple didn't even kiss in any of their movies, that the actress wanted many of the characters they gave her to her fellow student, the indomitable Katharine Hepburn, with whom it was once said that there was an affair.
The jealous relationship came in handy to the success of the only film they shared, 'Ladies of the Theater'. As a result of her mother's advice, Ginger won an Oscar for her role in "Love Mirage," shot in 1940 and directed by Sam Wood. And while she couldn't stop herself from having five husbands, 'Mama Rogers' did lend a hand during Senator McCarthy's controversial witch hunt in the late 1940s.
With half of Hollywood exposing the communism of the other medium, Lela cleared her daughter of any suspicion when she declared that her 'offspring' had insisted on not pronouncing the phrase: "Share and share, that's democracy", which her character recited in the film. 'Tender Comrade' (1944). She not only bailed her out but she confirmed her conservatism, as she addressed the communists with an expression: "You should all go to the electric chair." Director Joseph Losey, one of the blacklisted directors, claimed that Ginger Rogers was "one of the worst and most terrifying reactionaries in Hollywood" without taking into account that maternal influence had probably been the most responsible for the political behavior of the actress; a way of acting that has partially overshadowed her legacy, as has happened with essential figures such as Walt Disney or Gary Cooper, with questionable behavior during the disastrous Witch Hunt.
Many find a logical explanation in Lela's possessive relationship with her daughter: she only married twice and the second time, to John Logan Rogers, from whom Ginger would adopt the last name, only lasted until 1930. Doing numbers and taking into account that she died in 1977, most of her life was single and dedicated to the needs of a daughter who was always delighted with the situation.
When Lela passed away, Ginger assured that she remembered those times when the two of them traveled the country and did not have "even food." A phrase that perhaps contains the nuances and the great truth about a relationship that went far beyond the classic one between mother and artist; that she upset a Hollywood in which scandal was much more common than loving motherly love.
