Ginger Rogers filmography with RKO Radio Pictures, where she was paired with dancer Fred Astaire in commercially successful "Flying Down to Rio" (1933). The pair achieved greater success in subsequent musicals "The Gay Divorcee" (1934), "Top Hat" (1935), "Swing Time" (1936), and "Shall We Dance" (1937), totaling 8 films made between 1933 and 1939. Without Astaire, Rogers starred in critically and commercially successful non-musicals throughout the remainder of the 1930s such as "Stage Door" (1937) with Katharine Hepburn, "Vivacious Lady" (1938) with James Stewart, and "Bachelor Mother" (1939) with David Niven, culminating with an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in
Ginger Rogers she directed the musical "Babes in Arms" off-Broadway in Tarrytown, New York, at 74 years old. It was produced by Michael Lipton and Robert Kennedy of Kennedy Lipton Productions. The production starred Broadway talents Donna Theodore, Carleton Carpenter, James Brennan, Randy Skinner, Karen Ziemba, Dwight Edwards, and Kim Morgan. It is also noted in her autobiography "Ginger, My Story". The Kennedy Center honored Ginger Rogers in December 1992. This event, which was shown on television, was somewhat marred when Astaire's widow, Robyn Smith, who permitted clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers to be shown for free at the function itself,