MovieChat Forums > Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) Discussion > Pig Latin

Pig Latin

posted 10 years ago by rtw416
12 replies | jump to latest

Is Ginger Rogers speaking Pig Latin during the opening act?

[–] jonkennedy 10 years ago

Yes, she sang one part of the opening number in pig Latin. At first I thought I had gone goofy or that the soundtrack was messed up. When I finally realized what was going on, I thought it must have been hard as heck for her to do that!

[–] genplant29 10 years ago

Can you imagine how hard it was for her to get all that right while in an unforgiving extreme close-up? I can't do pig Latin, period. For her to be able to do much of a song like that, and not mess any of it up, definitely is commendable.

[–] iluvnyc 9 years ago

Difficult, yes. But what was the point? I can't find any info informing the intent of her singing in pig Latin anywhere in the trivia section.

[–] atlasmb 9 years ago

Ginger wrote that they gave her the song to learn by that evening, to be filmed the next day. She convinced a piano player to practice the song with her during what would have been his lunch hour. After about three hours of practice, she was getting slap-happy and started singing the song in pig latin. Zanuck overheard her, asked her to sing it again for him, and instructed her to tell Mervyn that he wanted her to sing it like that.

[–] iluvnyc 9 years ago

Thank you!!

[–] Dogtotem 9 years ago

She does it really well! Almost sounds Oriental. I think Pig Latin at the time was popular with college age kids so it was probably a big Wow when younger people saw it. GR was what, 21 when this was filmed? so college aged kids could probably relate to her.

[–] mcdemuth 9 years ago

Yes, It was Ginger who started the whole thing during a rehearsal, and the Director had her do it for real. Ginger's performance was amazing.

But I have to question why the director actually thought it was a good idea to put it on film.

While some college kids may have been familiar with Pig Latin, how popular was it other wise? I keep thinking that some people might have thought they were having a heart attack or were being possessed. For those that were not worried about themselves, they were probably wondering if Ginger has slid off her rocker...

I saw a review on another website, and they compared that scene with the movie "The Exorcist". My thought was..."Exactly".

Even though Ginger was great, and it is neat to see her do that NOW... at the time, I would imagine, it really was a weird thing to see by many in the audience. Remember, five years later, people thought the "War Of The Worlds" radio broadcast was real, and listeners actually panicked, and "Ran for the Hills"!

Nothing like having some giant face spouting musical gibberish at you in the dark to make you question your health or you sanity!

Think about what it would have been like if it wasn't Ginger's beautiful face up there on the big screen, but a hag or monster or devil instead with a gruff voice speaking like that...

[–] A_Melmoth 8 years ago

Is this the review you are referring to http://streamline.filmstruck.com/2013/02/08/ereway-in-hay-the-oney-may-or-the-exorcist-as-a-sequel-to-gold-diggers-of-1933/? Formerly the TCM "Movie Morlocks" blog, now "Streamline" (for Filmstruck).

I read that post back when it was published and just saw Gold Diggers for the first time this morning.

I agree it was an odd choice. Forgetting it was pig latin, I thought maybe she was singing it backwards (as if to say, we're not really in the money, it's all for show!) which would sort of make sense. Came on the IMDB to confirm.

Very strange scene, especially with the camera blur close-up. A bit sinister!

[–] johnnm58 (545) 6 years ago

Singing backwards is what I also thought.

[–] mikethemartian (6874) 5 years ago

I thought she was singing it backwards too.

[–] pontevedro 8 years ago

While some college kids may have been familiar with Pig Latin, how popular was it other wise? I keep thinking that some people might have thought they were having a heart attack or were being possessed. For those that were not worried about themselves, they were probably wondering if Ginger has slid off her rocker...

I'd say that you're the one off in fantasy land. When I grew up in the fifties and sixties, pig latin was very popular among 5-7 year olds, not college kids. But I don't think any adult would have been surprised or confused about it. Nor do I think that thirties audiences would have been

The director put it in the film because it was cute and fit well with the upbeat mood of the song.

[–] liscarkat (18932) a year ago

True. When I was a kid in the late 50s and 60s, almost all kids still knew pig latin, and we'd do it sometimes just for fun. I learned it from my mom, who grew up in the 1930s. Nobody would have been confused by it in 1933. It's not complicated. You just leave off the first letter, put it at the end, and add an a.