Backwards in High Heels Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide

GLOSSARY
Marlene Dietrich: A German-American actress known for her
glamorous style and beauty. She played femme fatales throughout
her long career. Her most famous fi lms include Morocco,
Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet
Empress, and The Devil is a Woman.
Orpheum Circuit: Ginger’s fi rst tour is with Orpheum Circuit, Inc., an entertainment
company started by Martin Beck in 1880. Beck owned a series of vaudeville and movie
theatres throughout the country. Those that remain open are called Orpheum Theatres
to this day; Orpheum Theatres still exist in Pheonix and Flagstaff, though no longer as
part of a circuit. A show like Ginger’s would have travelled from Orpheum theatre to
Orpheum theatre.
Prohibition: A portion of the play occurs during the period
between 1920 and 1933 in which the Eighteenth Amendment to
the Constitution outlawed the trade and consumption of alcohol
in the United States.
Shirley Temple: Perhaps the most famous child star of all
time, Shirley Temple got her start in fi lm at the age of three. She
was a singer, a dancer, and an actress by the time she was fi ve,
beating out adult stars for parts in major fi lms.
Theda Bara
Shirley Temple
Speakeasy: A venue in which alcohol was illegally served. During Prohibition,
speakeasies operated in the United States in secret locations.
RKO, or Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures: RKO was one of the “Big Five” movie
production and distribution companies of Hollywood’s “Golden Age” (which spanned
approximately from 1920 to 1950). This studio gave Ginger her start in fi lm and
produced nine of the ten Astaire-Rogers movies.
Theda Bara: Ginger refers to this American silent fi lm star
repeatedly: “Theda Bara always said, ‘the spots in the front and the
scoops in the back.’” While Ginger praises Bara’s fi lm expertise,
most remember her as one of American fi lm’s fi rst sex symbols,
sporting a distinctive “gothic” look.
Backwards in High Heels
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 21