Ginger Rogers Castle", but the serious plot and tragic ending resulted in the worst box-office receipts of any of their films. This was driven not by diminished popularity, but by the hard 1930s economic reality. The production costs of musicals, always significantly more costly than regular features, continued to increase at a much faster rate than admissions. Both before and immediately after her dancing and acting partnership with Fred Astaire ended, Rogers starred in a number of successful nonmusical films. "Stage Door" (1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough-minded, theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn.
Ginger Rogers Successful comedies included "Vivacious Lady" (1938) with James Stewart, "Fifth Avenue Girl" (1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family, and "Bachelor Mother" (1939), with David Niven, in which she played a shop girl who is falsely thought to have abandoned her baby. In 1934, Rogers sued Sylvia of Hollywood for $100K for defamation. Sylvia, Hollywood's fitness guru and radio personality, had claimed that Rogers was on Sylvia's radio show when, in fact, she was not. On March 5, 1939, Rogers starred in "Single Party Going East", an episode of "Silver Theater" on