On this day in 1938, Life magazine features Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on the cover. In the grips of the Great Depression, the elegant screen dancers offered audiences a graceful and refreshing vision.

Astaire was born in 1899 in Omaha and, starting in early childhood, toured the vaudeville circuit with his sister and dancing partner, Adele. By 1917, the siblings were performing in New York and London. After Adele married an English lord, Astaire began working in films, starting with a small role in Dancing Lady (1933). In his second film, Flying Down to Rio (1933), he was paired with Ginger Rogers. The two were a perfect match on the dance floor and audiences flocked to see the 10 films they made together during the next several years. Astaire died on June 22, 1987.

Rogers was born in Missouri in 1911 and began taking dance and singing lessons as a toddler. At age 15, she won a Charleston contest and soon after began touring the vaudeville circuit with her act, “Ginger and the Redheads.” Her mother traveled with her as a chaperone.

In 1929, Rogers was cast in a leading Broadway role. The following year, she made a splash in George Gershwin’s Girl Crazy. In 1931, she signed a movie contract with Pathe and played a series of wisecracking blondes in various B movies. She worked at a number of studios after Pathe and settled at RKO, where in 1933 she was paired with Astaire. Their hit films included The Gay Divorcee (1933), Top Hat (1935), Swing Time(1936), and Shall We Dance? (1937).

During the 1940s, Rogers turned to straight acting and won a Best Actress Academy Award for Kitty Foyle (1940). Astaire continued dancing onscreen with other partners but also turned to straight acting in 1959, with On the Beach. He continued performing throughout the 1960s and early ’70s. He died in 1987.

Rogers, a savvy businesswoman, invested her earnings wisely and became one of Hollywood’s wealthiest actresses. In 1939, she bought a ranch on Oregon’s Rogue River, where she spent as much of her free time as possible. Married and divorced five times, Rogers had no children. She continued to perform into the mid-1960s, scoring triumphs on Broadway in Hello, Dolly in 1965 and in London with Mame in 1969. Rogers died in 1995 at the age of 83.

(With thanks to History.com)