This week (January 28-February 3) in Hollywood history – Gloria
Swanson married Henri de la Falaise (January 28, 1925); Paul Newman married
Joanne Woodward (January 29, 1958); Elizabeth Taylor divorced Conrad Hilton Jr.
(January 29, 1951); W.C. Fields was born (January 29, 1880); Victor Mature was
born (January 29, 1913); Gene Hackman was born (January 30, 1930); Samuel
Goldwyn died (January 31, 1974); Clark Gable was born (February 1, 1901); John
Ford was born (February 1, 1895); Gene Kelly died (February 2, 1996); Boris
Karloff died (February 2, 1969): Philip Seymour Hoffman died (February 2,
2014).
Highlighted story of
the week -
On February 2, 1996, Gene Kelly died at the age of 83 from a
stroke, at his home in Beverly Hills, California. Born in Pittsburgh in 1912,
Kelly graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh
during the Great Depression. With jobs scarce, he worked at a dancing school
partly owned by his mother, who had insisted that all of her five children take
music and dance lessons throughout their childhood. On the side, he formed a
dance act with his brother Fred, appearing in local nightclubs and theater
productions. In 1938, Kelly decided to try his luck in New York City. He got
his first Broadway job in the chorus of Leave
It to Me, starring Mary Martin.
His first starring role on Broadway came in My Pal Joey. He then signed an exclusive
contract with the producer David O. Selznick and headed to Hollywood. Selznick
promptly lent Kelly to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a studio best known at the time for
its large-scale movie musicals. MGM put Kelly in his first film, For Me and My Gal (1942), co-starring
Judy Garland, and soon bought his contract from Selznick. Two years later, the
studio lent him out to Columbia Pictures to choreograph and co-star in Cover Girl, opposite a then-unknown Rita
Hayworth. This film was Kelly’s first major big-screen success and his first
collaboration with the director and choreographer Stanley Donen.
Kelly continued his trail-blazing in the world of movie
dance in his next big hit, Anchors Aweigh
(1945), performing a dance routine with the animated mouse Jerry from the
popular Tom and Jerry cartoon series. The eight-minute sequence cost MGM
$100,000 and took two months to film, but it was celebrated as a breakthrough
moment in cinema for its combination of live action and animated footage. After
serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Kelly returned to the silver
screen with 1948’s The Pirate, again
opposite Judy Garland. He also made two more films with Frank Sinatra (his Anchors Aweigh co-star), including the
hit On the Town, which Kelly directed
and choreographed with Donen.
In 1951, Kelly headlined An
American in Paris, which won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Kelly picked up a special Oscar, in honor of his “extreme versatility as an
actor, singer, director and dancer, but specifically for his brilliant
achievement in the art of choreography.” At the pinnacle of his career, Kelly
cemented his iconic status with his work in what was arguably the last great
movie musical, Singin’ in the Rain
(1952). The movie featured one of the most memorable scenes in film history:
Kelly dancing and singing alone on the street during a downpour, with only his
umbrella for a prop.
As the popularity of big-budget movie musicals waned,
Kelly’s films during the 1950s, Brigadoon
(1954), It’s Always Fair Weather
(1955) and Les Girls (1957), met with
varying degrees of success. Kelly and Donen fell out after working together on
their last film, It’s Always Fair Weather,
partly for personal reasons: Kelly and Donen’s wife Jeanne Coyne fell in love
and were married in 1960 (Kelly was previously married to the actress Betsy
Blair). Kelly worked on other projects intended to raise the profile of modern
dance, including the dialogue-free Invitation
to the Dance in 1956 and an NBC television special, Dancing is a Men’s Game. He also choreographed for the ballet in
Paris and San Francisco.
After Jeanne Coyne died of leukemia in 1973, Kelly focused
on projects that would keep him close to Los Angeles, where he was raising
their two children. Late into his career, he continued to make film appearances
and direct the occasional movie, including Hello,
Dolly! (1969). Kelly’s last big-screen role was in the kitschy Xanadu (1980), in which he performed a
dance routine on roller skates. Kelly died on February 2, 1996 and his remains were
cremated. There was no memorial or funeral, and the disposition of his ashes
are not known.
Check back every
Wednesday for a new installment of “This Week in Hollywood History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books
that includes Fade to Black Graveside
Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950. Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com for
more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following
link:
No comments:
Post a Comment