Cook Islands 5 Dollars Silver Coin 2010 Ginger Rogers, Hollywood Legends
Commemorative issue: Hollywood Legends Series - Bernard of Hollywood
Despite obscurity and lack of funds, Bruno Bernard (1912-1987) set up his first darkroom in the basement of his Hollywood apartment in 1940. Shortly thereafter, he moved his studio to the famous Sunset Strip. “No one knew the name Bernard, but they all knew Hollywood“, and hence the optical trademark signature Bernard of Hollywood, which ensured the image of glamour visually for decades, was created.
Bruno Bernard was considered as "Rembrandt of photography" and the “The king of Hollywood glamour” and Marilyn Monroe’s discoverer. In 1984 Bernard was the first still photographer to be honoured with an Oscar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Obverse: Head of Queen Elizabeth II with tiara facing right.
Lettering: ELIZABETH II COOK ISLANDS 5 DOLLARS.
Engraver: Ian Rank-Broadley.
Reverse: Ginger Rogers photograph by Bruno Bernard and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Motion Pictures category at right (Classic film camera representing motion pictures).
Lettering: HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS GINGER ROGERS 2010.
Value: 5 Dollars = 5 New Zealand Dollars.
Metal: Silver (.925).
Weight: 25 g.
Diameter: 38.61 mm.
Shape: Round.
Mintage: 2500 pcs.
Partially coloured on relief.
Hollywood Legends
Brigitte Bardot Marlene Dietrich Ginger Rogers Anita Ekberg
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers, original name Virginia Katherine McMath (born July 16, 1911, Independence, Missouri, U.S. — died April 25, 1995, Rancho Mirage, California), American stage and film dancer and actress, noted primarily as the partner of Fred Astaire in a series of motion-picture musicals.
Rogers, whose career was carefully orchestrated by her mother, appeared with Eddie Foy’s vaudeville troupe before winning a Charleston contest that would ultimately lead her to the Broadway stage in 1929, when she performed in Top Speed. By the time she was 19 years old, Rogers had introduced George Gershwin’s “Embraceable You” and “But Not for Me” in the 1930 Broadway hit Girl Crazy. She then went to Hollywood and began performing in movies, typecast as a flippant blonde.
Rogers made her motion-picture debut in Young Man of Manhattan (1930), in which she immortalized the catchphrase “Cigarette me, big boy.” Her gum cracking and good-natured wholesomeness typified 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 (both 1933), while her stately beauty and sophisticated charm fueled the on-screen chemistry with Astaire in their films. Her first performance with Fred Astaire occurred in Flying Down to Rio (1933), which was so popular that they continued the partnership in nine other films, notably The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), their last collaboration.
Though best known for her dancing, Rogers preferred dramatic acting and in 1940 won an Academy Award for her leading role in Kitty Foyle. She also enjoyed a sure hand in light comedy and starred in such films as Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) and The Major and the Minor (1942), in which her character pretended to be a 12-year-old girl. Some of her other 70 films include Roxie Hart (1942), Lady in the Dark (1944), and Monkey Business (1952). After appearing in her last film, Harlow (1965), Rogers maintained a busy theatre schedule, performing the title role in Hello Dolly! from 1965 to 1967 and introducing Mame to London audiences in 1969. Rogers was a 1992 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement. Her autobiography, Ginger: My Story, was published in 1991.