Book Review: Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak by Lela E. Rogers
Ginger Rogers enjoys her work as a night shift switchboard operator at the Seaview Arms, a fancy hotel on the West Coast. She’s good at customer service, and the constant variety of guest requests keeps her on her toes. Some of the male guests try to flirt with Ginger, but there are rules, and she cleverly avoids breaking them. But it is December 6, 1941, and her world is about to change.
This 1942 book was a Whitman Authorized Edition, books written for young people about celebrities and beloved characters but in entirely new adventures. The title character may share her name and appearance (in multiple illustrations) with the famous dancer and actress, but the details of her life are completely different. Think of it like one of those Jackie Chan movies where the main character is named “Jackie.”
The Seaview Arms is pretty obviously in Los Angeles, but the city is never named. It’s owned by Madame DuLhut, a French émigré wiz zee outRAGEous French accent, but true dedication to running the best hotel on the coast. Ginger is one of her top employees. When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Madame DuLhut decides to convert her fine establishment into housing for war workers, meaning all the non-essential worker guests will have to depart.
A Mr. Dunlop is especially hard hit by this decision. Although he has houses in New York and Florida which he often calls with bizarre orders (“lay in four hundred pounds of sugar”), he prefers hotel living, and wangles permission to stay on the grounds for another week.
Although America is at war now, life goes on, and Ginger accepts a date from Miles Harrington, an office worker at the plant where bombsights are being manufactured. Madame DuLhut presents Ginger with a scarlet opera cloak sent by a secret admirer, and when Miles finds out, he insists she wear it on the date.
Miles is not good dating material. He’s the sort of fellow who orders dinner for his date without consulting her, insists on taking a central table because “I want to show you off” and gets upset when she notices that the stranger who picked up his cigarette package returned the wrong one. When he goes to take a phone call and never returns, Ginger feels humiliated.
Ginger is rescued by Gregg Phillips, a handsome fellow who comes from money and works at the same plant as Miles, and Gregg’s boss Mr. Bagnall, who agree to take her home. Ginger and Gregg really hit it off, but then they spot Miles’ car just sort of abandoned, and Miles himself badly injured. Gregg and Mr. Bagnall pick up Miles and bring him to a place he can be looked after, but swear Ginger to secrecy before dropping her off at home.
One of the odd things about this book is that the author, Lela E. Rogers, was Ginger Rogers’ real life mother! Her counterpart in the novel is Mary Rogers, a single mom. She’s been waiting up for Ginger (who’s in her early twenties) to come home from her date. She’s horrified that Ginger came home with Gregg, and forbids her daughter from ever seeing that man again!
Her objection is that Gregg is rich. And this does not come from a healthy resentment of capitalist exploiters, but from her belief that all rich young men are spoiled and feel entitled to the affections of women–as many women as they want. (How much of this was inspired by Lela’s acrimonious divorce from Ginger’s father is a matter for debate.)
But this parental disapproval doesn’t stop Ginger from realizing that she is in love with Gregg, and the feeling is mutual.
Madame DuLhut seems unduly interested in the details of Ginger’s date with Miles, and more suspiciously so is Mr. Dunlop. Ginger becomes more convinced than ever that something strange is going on. She is, of course, correct.
Also, it turns out that Ginger’s father Josh Rogers is still alive and in town. After Mary left him, Josh lost all his money in the 1929 stock market crash, the other woman deserted him, and Mr. Rogers became an FBI agent, now on the track of Fifth Columnists.
Can Ginger reunite her parents, woo Gregg, and solve the riddle of the scarlet cloak?
Good: The first chapter sets the scene well with a detailed description of Ginger’s hotel switchboard job, an occupation that has vanished into the mists of time. There’s special mention made of the “customer service voice” that rings true even today. The illustrations by Henry E. Vallely are quite nice. Sexism, while not specifically called out, is clearly shown to make the mystery harder to solve as Ginger is kept out of the loop. There’s a happy ending.
Less good: Madame DuLhut’s accent is written in a manner that makes it difficult to decipher, evidently for comedic effect. There’s some insta-love, both in the Ginger/Gregg relationship and between two minor characters, the latter seeming very forced. There’s a bit of particularly contrived coincidence near the end, when Ginger just so happens to run across an ex-co-worker at a remote location when she needs one.
Back in the day, this would have been a “juvenile.” The heavy romance element and struggle with independence from a parent makes it closer to “young adult” in modern terms. I’d recommend this book primarily to people with a nostalgic interest in the Golden Age of Hollywood, as I fear many younger readers will not understand why Ginger Rogers was enough of a draw to put in the title.
And just to remind you why she was big back in the day:
