The musicals themselves belong to the era when musicals were revue-like and libretti were silly, forgettable hooks onto which to hang songs; they are rarely revived (and seldom with much success; the 2002 revival of The Boys from Syracuse closed after 29 performances). Their songs, however, include dozens of the great standards of the American popular repertoire. Among them:
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Blue Moon
Falling in Love with Love (is Falling For Make-Believe)
I Could Write a Book
I Wish I Were In Love Again
Johnny One-Note
Little Girl Blue
Lover
(We'll Have) Manhattan, (the Bronx and Staten Island, too)
Mountain Greenery
My Funny Valentine
There's a Small Hotel
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
This Can't Be Love
Thou Swell
You Took Advantage of Me
Comparisons between Rodgers and Hart and the successor team of Rodgers and Hammerstein are inevitable. Hammerstein's lyrics project warmth, sincere optimism, and occasional corniness. Hart's lyrics showed greater sophistication, more use of verbal cleverness, and more of a "New York" or "Broadway" sensibility. The archetypical Rodgers and Hart song, "Manhattan," rhymes "The great big city's a wondrous toy/Just made for a girl and boy" in the first stanza, then reprises with "The city's glamor can never spoil/The dreams of a boy and goil" in the last. Many of the songs (Falling in Love with Love,Little Girl Blue,My Funny Valentine) are wistful or sad, and emotional ambivalence seems to be perceptible in the background of even the sunnier songs. For example, "You Took Advantage of Me" appears to be a evocation of amorous joy, but the very title suggests some doubt as to whether the relationship is mutual or exploitative.
Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, the daughter of Eddins McMath, of Scottish ancestry and Lela Owens McMath, of Welsh ancestry.
The Kennedy Center honoured Ginger Rogers in December 1992, an event which was marred by a request from the Astaire estate, with which CBS felt obliged to comply: to remove all clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers from the broadcast.
Ginger Rogers died on April 25, 1995, of complications from diabetes, at the age of 83, in Rancho Mirage, California, and was interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California.
Hart became associated in the practice of law with Hugo C. Koehler, under the firm name of Hart and Koehler, which firm has since continued the practice at Alliance, retaining a representative clientage and having to do with much important litigation in the courts of the county and state.
Hart is known as an able advocate and counselor, and such is his appreciative recognition of the ethical code of his profession that he has the good will and esteem of his compeers at the bar.
Hart is a staunch advocate of the principles of the Republican party, and while he has never been an aspirant for official preferment, by appointment of Mayor Walker, he is serving as a member of the board of sinking fund commissioners for Alliance.
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