Swing Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lucky

At the start of the film, John "Lucky" Garnett is a dancer who is leaving show business to get married to his hometown sweetheart. Since it is a romantic comedy, the path of true love does not run smoothly, complications ensue, and in the end Ginger Rogers falls in love with him. (This is the plot of most of the pictures they did together.) Fred Astaire (1899-1981) was "Bake" Baker in "Follow the Fleet" (1935) and Huck Haines in "Roberta" (also 1935), and was one of the biggest stars in 20th century cinema.

He revolutionized the way that dance was portrayed in film, and influenced generations of dancers. Astaire began acting when he was six, and was a major Broadway star during the 1920s. He made his first film in 1933, "Dancing Lady". It was when Astaire was paired up with Ginger Rogers in "Flying Down to Rio" (1933) that magic happened.

They would make ten films in all, with some of the best dancing ever caught on film.

Answer: His pants

Garnett's colleagues in the dance troupe do not want him to leave, so they decide to sabotage his wedding. They convince him that his pants need cuffs, so he takes them off and sends them to a tailor. This delays things long enough that the father of the bride calls off the ceremony.
At the end of the film, Garnett and his friend Edwin "Pop" Cardetti (Victor Moore) pull the very same trick on Penny's would-be-husband.

Answer: To bribe his future father-in-law

After his future father-in-law (Landers Stevens) calls off the wedding, Garnett shows up begging forgiveness. The father-in-law says that Garnett must go to the city and raise $25,000 to prove that he is responsible enough to get married.
At one point, Garnett is offered the opportunity to make $30,000, but "Pops" Cardetii talks him out it in order to postpone having to return.
By the end of the film, Garnett has broken up with his fiance.

Answer: Dance instructor

Penny Carrol is a dance instructor at Gordon Dance Academy. She and Garnett meet cute when he gives her his lucky quarter. He takes a dance lesson and pretends to be an atrocious dancer. When Penny tells John he should give up any hope of being a dancer, Gordon (Eric Blore) fires her. Feeling badly, John then proceeds to show how much Penny "taught him" in just one lesson. What follows is one of Astaire and Roger's best dance routines. Ginger Rogers did play a sales clerk in "Kitty Foyle" (1940), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Rogers played a singer in several of her films with Astaire, including "Flying Down to Rio" (1933), "Roberta" (1935) and "Carefree" (1938).

Answer: Gambling

John "Lucky" Garnett was a gambler, and a fairly successful one. He went toe to toe with a guy nicknamed "Dice" and managed to beat him, at least for a while. At the end of "Swing Time" John gives up gambling to please Penny.
Astaire played a sailor in "Follow the Fleet" (1936) and a psychiatrist in "Carefree" (1938). He was a dancer or musician in most of the other Astaire-Rogers musicals.

Answer: Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern (1886-1945) was one of the legendary songwriters to come out of Tin Pan Alley. He wrote the scores for numerous Broadway shows, and spent the last decade of his career writing for Hollywood films. Kern was incredibly prolific, writing over 700 songs during his career. Many remain popular today. Kern worked with Astaire and Rogers on "Roberta" (1935) and "Swing Time" (1936). Kern won two Academy Awards: In 1936 for "The Way You Look Tonight" (lyrics by Dorothy Fields) and in 1941 for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" (lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II).
Berlin (1888-1989) was one of the most popular and prolific songwriters of the 20th century, with over 1500 songs, including "God Bless America".
Rogers (1902-1979) wrote over 900 songs. Together with Lorenz Hart, he created many of the most popular Broadway musicals of the 1920s and 1930s.
Copland (1900-1990), while not as prolific as the others, did create some of the most popular American music of the century, including "Fanfare for the Common Man" and "Appalachian Spring".

Answer: Fine Romance

Penny (Ginger Rogers) is the first to sing "A Fine Romance" which is basically a complaint about the fact that Garnett hasn't made a move yet. Garnett sings it later on, once "Pops" has spilled the beans about John being engaged.
Jerome Kern wrote the music and Dorothy Fields wrote the lyrics. It has been recorded by many artists in the years since, from Billie Holliday in 1936 to Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne.
"Bad Romance" is a 2009 song by Lady Gaga. It was one of the biggest songs of the decade, going multi-platinum in many countries. It was nominated for both Song and Record of the year at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
"True Romance" is a 2007 song by the Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein. "Great Romance" is a 2007 song by Fall Out Boy.

Answer: The Way You Look Tonight

He sings "The Way You Look Tonight", which was written by Kern and Dorothy Fields. The song has been covered by many, many artists in the years since it was written, including Peggy Lee, Perry Como, the Letterman, and more recently Harry Connick Jr and Michael Buble.
"The Way You Look Tonight" regularly appears in films, especially romantic comedies. It played a key role in the series finale of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1999).
Kern wrote "Lovely to Look At" for another Rogers-Astaire film, "Roberta" (1935). The lyrics are by Otto Harbach. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is from the musical "Roberta" written in 1933 by Kern and Harbach. "All the Things You Are" was written for "Very Warm in May", a 1939 musical. The lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Other great Kern songs in "Swing Time" include "Pick Yourself Up" and "Never Gonna Dance".
The "soap suds" in the scene are not shampoo. After many experiments, the crew finally discovered that whipped cream worked as the best substitute.

Answer: Bojangles of Harlem

"Bojangles of Harlem" features Astaire dancing with three shadows projected behind him. The shadows were shot before hand, and the fact that Astaire is able to mirror them in real time is a testament to the man's brilliance as a dancer. Choreographer Hermes Pan came up with the idea of using the shadows, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Dance Direction; he lost to Seymour Felix of "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936).
The "Bojangles" routine is probably the most controversial in Astaire's film career, as he did it in blackface. Some film critics see it as a tribute to William "Bojangles" Robinson, who was a major influence on Astaire's dancing style. Other critics see it as racist and insensitive, and a major blot on an otherwise great film.
The other three routines are with Ginger Rogers. "Pick Yourself Up" is when they first meet, and is a great display of their physical skill. "Waltz in Swing Time" is at the middle of the film, and is a great scene from both a musical and dance standpoint.
"Never Gonna Dance" is the last major dance routine, and it is amazing. Astaire and Rogers shot the scene 47 times until they got it perfect; Ginger's feet were bleeding by the end of filming.

Answer: Ricky Romero

Ricky Romero is played by Georges Metraxa. Romero leads a Swing band, and is in love with Penny; he has proposed to her several times. Romero refuses to play for Penny and Lucky when they want to dance, so Lucky proceeds to obtain Romero's contract - by gambling, naturally. Once he "owns" Romero, he forces him to play.
Through a series of confusions common to Astaire and Rogers romantic comedies, Penny ends up agreeing to marry Ricky. Lucky has to step in and stop the wedding, and everything ends happily.
Ricky Ricardo was the bandleader played by Desi Arnaz on "I Love Lucy".
George Romero helped create the genre of zombie films with "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968, and has made many zombie movies since.
Cesar Romero (1907-1994) was a veteran character actor, known as both the Cisco Kid in the 1940s and Batman's nemesis The Joker in the 1960s.