WEIRDLAND

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Gene Kelly ("All I Do Is Dream Of You") video


Gene Kelly ("All I Do Is Dream Of You") video featuring pictures of Gene Kelly and his co-stars Judy Garland ("For Me and My Gal", "Summer Stock", "The Pirate"), Frank Sinatra and Esther Williams ("Take Me Out to the Ballgame"), Cyd Charisse ("Singin in the Rain", "Brigadoon"), Rita Hayworth ("Cover Girl"), Vera-Ellen ("Words and Music"), Kathryn Grayson ("Thousand Cheers"), Lucille Ball ("DuBarry was a Lady"), Lana Turner and June Allyson ("The Three Musketers), Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac ("Les demoiselles de Rochefort"), "Tamara Toumanova ("Invitation to the Dance"), Pier Angeli ("The Devil Makes Three"), Deanna Durbin ("Christmas Holiday"), Marie McDonald ("Living in a Big Way"), Barbara Laage ("The Happy Road"), Fred Astaire, Julie Andrews, etc. Soundtrack: "Sunrise Serenade" by Glenn Miller, "Take'em or leave'em" by Amy Lavere, "All I Do Is Dream Of You" (sung by Gene Kelly) and "When You Wore a Tulip" (sung by Judy Garland and Gene Kelly).

 
Nina Foch (April 20, 1924 - December 5, 2008. Happy Anniversary!) is probably best remembered as Milo Roberts: the rich, manipulative socialite who tries to buy Gene Kelly’s character, as well as his artwork, in Vincente Minnelli ’s 1951 musical, "An American in Paris".

Friday, April 20, 2012

Jake Gyllenhaal Making U.S. Stage Debut for Roundabout Theatre Company

Jake Gyllenhaal out for a stroll with sister Maggie in New York City, on April 5, 2012

Jake Gyllenhaal will make his American stage debut in "If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet," the Roundabout Theatre Company said Thursday.

Jake Gyllenhaal at the 62nd Berlinale International Film Festival (February, 9, 2012)

The Oscar-nominated star of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Prince of Persia" will star in the story of a girl who is bullied at school and finds herself suspended after head-butting a tormentor. Gyllenhaal will play the girl's foul-mouthed uncle, who forms a bond with his struggling niece. The piece was written by up-and-coming British playwright Nick Payne, who also wrote the critically adored "Constellations."

Jake Gyllenhaal with Anna Paquin, Hayden Christensen and Kenneth Lonergan on the set of "This Is Our Youth" (staged at the Garrick Theatre in the West End, London, 2002)

The show will run Off-Broadway at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre. Performances will start August 24 and officially open on September 20. Gyllenhaal is best known for his film roles, but he's treaded the boards before. He made made his stage debut in 2001 starring in Kenneth Lonergan's revival of "This is Our Youth," on London's West End. For his work, he earned the Evening Standard Theater Award for Outstanding Newcomer. Source: www.thewrap.com

Thursday, April 19, 2012

“Entertainment and Utopia” in "Singin' in the Rain" (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly)

Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds is convinced "The Artist" borrowed heavily from her hit movie "Singin' In The Rain" but failed to live up to the 1952 film's high standards.

Debbie Reynolds, who starred alongside Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in the popular musical, has now spoken out about the similarities between the two pictures, insisting she enjoyed "The Artist" but felt it failed to shine in the same way as "Singin' In The Rain".

She tells the New York Post, "I thought The Artist was a very good film, with talented personalities. But while they took the basic premise of Singin' in the Rain, it's not in colour, and it doesn't have Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. And its musical numbers aren't as good..."

"When we made the picture, nobody had the slightest idea that it would someday be listed among the greatest films of all time. We just thought it was a big, splashy MGM musical." Unlike "The Artist", "Singin' In The Rain" failed to win a single Oscar, but it was named fifth in the American Film Institute's (AFI) list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. Source: www.imdb.com

"Singin' in the Rain" is a canonical self-reflexive film which combines an informed self-consciousness with an argument about its own legitimacy as art. The film's argument is structurally evident within one of the film's more famous self-reflexive sequences, "You Were Meant for Me," and it is intended as a preliminary move in an exploration of new academic genres in film theory that hypertext might allow. -from "Singin' in the Rain: A Hypertextual Reading" by Adrian Miles (1998)

-Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds): What do you have to be so conceited about? You're nothing but a shadow on film... just a shadow. You're not flesh and blood.
-Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly): Oh, no? [moves amorously towards her]
-Kathy: Stop!
-Don: What can I do to you?, I'm only a shadow.

Jack Purcell, author of “Plato’s Theory of Film,” writes: "Within modern cinema, it could be argued that, in its entirety the cinema is an illusion. The stages, the actors, the dialogue, the events, etc. are not what they seem to be. They represent nothing. Cinema is simply a space of fantasy, of complete illusion." The images cast on the screen by the film projector are mere shadows or illusions of what is real. True reality is not depicted; only one person’s vision of reality or of how reality could be or should be is presented. The viewing audience is led to believe – or at least asked to suspend disbelief – that what they are seeing is real. But alas, it is only a shadow on film. Andre Bazin writes in “The Ontology of Photographic Image” that through the creation of film comes “the creation of an ideal world in the likeness of the real, with its own temporal destiny”.

As Godard once said, “The moment the camera is turned on, the lie begins. But leave the camera on long enough and the truth will be revealed.” The images are mere illusions; some might even say a lie. But behind those illusions and lies is often some semblance of truth. The idea of exposing the “behind-the-scenes” truth was a central one to many early musicals, especially those of the early 1930s produced or directed by Busby Berkeley. These films make a story of the conflicts, drama, and struggles of putting on a Broadway show or musical review. These films were central not only to the development of the musical genre, but also to the development of talking pictures.

In the early 1950s, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green were hired by MGM to write a film that revolved around the old standards of Arthur Freed, and to name it after his classic “Singin’ in the Rain.” What came of their labor was the film that Roger Ebert has called "the greatest Hollywood musical of all time." The audience is aware from the start that the stories being spun are shams, and eventually the characters are made aware as well. The narrative illusions that the film exposes are Don Lockwood’s supposed rise to stardom as told to gossip columnist Dora Bailey, and Kathy Selden’s story to Don about being a stage actress. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s "Singin’ in the Rain" (1952) can be examined on two levels: first as an entertaining film, and second as a work of art. The film holds a comfortable place high on countless “best films of all time” lists, and was named the greatest American movie musical of all time in 2005 (AFI.com).

Tim Dirks writes in "The Greatest Films of All Time": The narrative images on the screen belie every embellished, fabricated word – in reality the pictures and descriptions are terribly disjointed. ("Singin' in the Rain"’s theme is the “out-of-sync” disjunction of words / sounds / movie images from reality – what can be believed in the magical world of film? Can we believe our eyes and our ears?) Like critic Peter Wollen, Dirks highlights the fact that this film is about exposing the truth of Hollywood. It causes us to question what we see and hear, and to ask if those sights and sounds can be trusted. If film is an illusion, then what is the reality behind that illusion?

Marilyn M. Ewing’s “’Gotta Dance!’ Structure, Corruption, and Syphilis in Singin’ in the Rain” concentrates on the “Broadway Ballet” number. This highly stylized dance number seems to be an interruption in the story line, but adds another dimension to the satirical nature of the film. ‘The Broadway Ballet’ functions as a map to the film industry’s dark underbelly.” According to Ewing, Gene Kelly uses the “big dance number” – a generic standard – to make a statement about the darker side of Hollywood. In this beautifully choreographed number, he exposes the ugly truth about the corruption that played a very important role in the early days of the movie industry. The bright lights and colorful costumes and exuberant dancing are but mere illusions that hide a darker, more sinister reality. Kelly, like the freed prisoner, turns our heads to see the truth regarding this corruption.

Richard Dyer’s piece entitled “Entertainment and Utopia” points out the idealism of musicals. According to Dyer, musicals paint an emotional picture of cultural idealism. They do not give us a structure, political or otherwise, for utopia, but the feelings of it. In the world of musicals, utopia is nothing political, but rather a “glorious feeling”. Another article in George M. Cohan’s anthology, Jane Feuer’s “The Self-Reflective Musical and the Myth of Entertainment” discusses the “mythify[ing] of [the genre’s] own entertainment values”. In this essay, Feuer writes about the self-reflective nature of many musicals – referring specifically to Singin’ in the Rain – and how such films give “every appearance of commenting critically on their own formal status as musicals,” but really rely on the myths of “spontaneity, integration, and the audience” to satisfy their contradictory nature.

"Singin’ In the Rain" exposes the illusions and artifice of the filmmaking industry, as well as the deceptions of the leading characters. In this film, sight and sound are shown to not be reliable; honesty can be found only in dance. The first artifice exposed in "Singin’ in the Rain" is the visual image. The film takes place in the late 1920s when the visual image ruled the silver screen, the era of the silent film. Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are performing a love scene during the filming of The Dueling Cavalier. Their melodramatic faces exude romance and passion, but Don is whispering anything but sweet nothings into Lina’s ear.

While a major storyline in this film is the dubbing of Kathy’s voice over Lina's (Jean Hagen), the film does not expose only the deception of sound on the silver screen. This exposure of illusion extends beyond of the film-within-the-film to the lives of the main characters. Upon meeting each of the two romantic leads, Don Lockwood and Kathy Selden, we quickly learn that neither is who they say they are. Don lies to impress the crowd outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater; Kathy lies to impress Don – or at least to deflate his ego.

We first meet Don at the premiere of The Royal Rascal, the latest offering from Hollywood’s “It” couple, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont. Gossip columnist Dora Bailey asks Don to treat the crowd lining the red carpet with the story of his rise to fame. He begins by reciting his lifelong motto, “Dignity, always dignity.” Don tells of fine schools, apprenticeships, and touring symphonic concert halls, but we see him tap dancing for pennies as a child, being booed off the stage at amateur night, and touring the likes of Oat Meal, Nebraska and Coyoteville, New Mexico. His big break with Monumental Pictures came when a stunt man is knocked out cold on the set of a silent film. His rise to stardom is nothing like his story to Miss Bailey, and is anything but dignified. Instead of telling his adoring fans the truth, he lies to them because the truth is not very “dignified.”

While this introduction appears to be a big star lying to hide the indignity of his rise to fame, if this scene is contrasted with the “Broadway Ballet” number in the second half of the film we see that there is actually a hint of dignity in Lockwood’s background. Through tap, ballet, and modern dance, the “Broadway Ballet” tells the story of a young hoofer arriving in New York looking for his big break. After several auditions for talent agents, he finally lands a gig at a speakeasy. This leads to performing in vaudeville shows, in 'Ziegfeld’s Follies', and finally on Broadway.

However, all along the way he keeps crossing paths with a mobster and his moll. This, according critic Marilyn Ewing, points to the corruption and mob influence in Hollywood at that time. The hoofer has to sell himself to that system to get his foot in the door. All of his success is tainted by that first move, and that corruption follows him throughout his career.

Kathy (Debbie Reynolds) lies about her line of work, too. She isn’t an up-and-coming stage actress, but a dancing girl from the Coconut Grove. Her lofty claims of being a stage actress are exposed as a lie when she jumps out of the cake as part of the song-and-dance troupe at R.F. Simpson’s party. Like Don just a few moments earlier, Kathy’s lies, like Don’s before hers, cause us to question the truthfulness of what is heard. And if the veracity of sight and sound is in question, is there anything in this film that can be trusted? The answer, according to Peter Wollen, is dance. Through watching dance, we can know we are not being lied to. Honesty is best expressed by the characters in this film through dance.

Only dance can be trusted to express romantic intentions and the “glorious feelings” that accompany those intentions. After a brief separation, Don and Kathy are reunited on the Monumental Pictures back lot. Together again, Kathy confesses her earlier lies and Don confesses his feelings for her – or at least they attempt to do so. Both are at a loss for words when it comes to telling the truth. So Don takes her into an empty sound studio, “sets the stage” with “a rosetrellised bower, flooded with moonlight… [and] five hundred kilowatts of stardust.” The fairy-tale romance between Don and Kathy is but a shadow of real-life romance, or to use Plato’s words, a shadow of the “Form” of romance. The second illusion created and perpetuated by "Singin’ in the Rain" is that of the happy ending.

We are able to vicariously experience the feelings of being in love as we watch characters on the screen fall in love. We can get caught up in the emotions of a fairy-tale romance because it is not our own heart that will be broken if the relationship fails. The narrative structure of film is important to its escapist qualities. Conflict and the resolution of conflict is central to most narratives, and as Thomas Schatz writes, “If there is anything escapist about these narratives, it is their repeated assertion that these conflicts can be solved”. It is not only the escape out of life’s problems that encourages our belief in the illusions of film, but also the escape into something better.

Film critic Mark Bourne writes in his review of the 50th anniversary release of the DVD: “This 1952 romantic comedy transcended being simply the best of the MGM Technicolor musicals to become one of movie-making’s most pleasurable essential classics.” What makes this such a special film are the multiple layers upon which it can be enjoyed and appreciated. It is, at first glance, a great Hollywood musical. Just slightly below the surface, it is also a satire of the difficult transition that Hollywood experienced as its films learned to talk. Then on a much deeper level, this film asks us to consider questions about the nature of both film and reality.

"Singin’ In The Rain" is full of Hollywood inside jokes and references to infamous snafus committed on the back lots of many of the studios. While much of the comedy is derived from this satire, there is a more serious side to it as well. The film criticizes the intrusion of the government into the affairs and beliefs of those in the industry, as well as the influence the mob had gained over Hollywood. Some have read the “blacklisting” of Kathy Selden in the film (Lina’s harsh treatment of her, and everyone’s attempts to hide Kathy from Lina) as a reference to the 50's anti-communist crusade (according to Peter Wollen).

Marilyn Ewing writes about the entire “Broadway Ballet” being a satire of the corruption and mob influence in Hollywood. The young hoofer has to “sell out” in order to get his first job. Peter N. Chumo II asserts that the moll and her ‘very sexual dancing’ seem to transform the hoofer. She removes his glasses and hat, the ‘unglamorous’ parts of his wardrobe, and it is after meeting her that he ascends to success. The implication seems to be that she seduces the honest rube and turns him into a corrupted cynic, which is what allows him to thrive in the big-city world.

Yet as Ewing notes, the scene is far from extraneous but is actually thematically integral to the movie as a whole. This insistence that musical numbers serve the story is what elevates Gene Kelly’s movies – the ones over which he had some measure of creative control, anyway – over most other artists’ musicals. Character and theme are just as important as the plot, and it is those story elements that the Broadway ballet enhances. Far from having a ‘tenuous link’ to the rest of the picture, the ballet offers insights into Lockwood and underscores one of the film’s central themes. Ewing does an excellent job of highlighting one element of the theme developed by this sequence: the ‘hypocrisy of Hollywood.’

Where Ewing takes her analysis too far is in the specificity she sees in the hypocrisy presented in the ballet. She writes that the Broadway ballet ‘ostensibly celebrates the entertainment industry [and] seems at first glance to be a sincere testimonial to the joys of being a performer,’ but notes that to clearly consider the events of the sequence is to come to a far uglier conclusion; as the gangster and the moll both flip coins, and coins are dirty and resemble syphilitic lesions, the moll has syphilis, and so we can see her as having spread venereal disease to the hoofer. Ewing further notes that the moll (Cyd Charisse) is supposed to resemble Louise Brooks, who was, by her own admission, rumored to have syphilis.

Far below the entertaining surface of the film, and below even the comical and more serious sides of the satire, is the philosophical layer of this film. In Socrates words: "At first, when any of them is liberated and looks toward the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows… what he saw before was an illusion. This new experience of the reality of his existence is a painful one. The light is overwhelmingly bright, and the thought that all he had once known was an illusion is disturbing. But the more he gazes, and the more he questions, the clearer his vision and his understanding become." -“You’re Nothing but a Shadow on Film” - Plato’s "Allegory of the Cave" and "Singin’ in the Rain"- by Ryan Blanck (2007)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Gene Kelly (You Are My Lucky Star) video

Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly as Kathy Selden and Don Lockwood dancing in "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)


Gene Kelly ("You Are My Lucky Star") video, featuring stills of Gene Kelly, family, and co-stars Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Judy Garland, Leslie Caron, Cyd Charisse, Vera-Ellen, Rita Hayworth, Natalie Wood, Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor, Pier Angeli, Shirley McLaine, Marie McDonald, etc. Soundtrack: "Boogie Woogie" by Glenn Miller & Tommy Dorsey, "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino, "Make Me Smile" by Steve Harley, "I Love You" by Glenn Miller, "Crazy About My Baby" by Randy Newman, "It's Too Late" by Buddy Holly, and "You Are My Lucky Star" sung by Gene Kelly & Debbie Reynolds.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Singin' In The Rain: 60th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Singin' In The Rain: 60th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Blu-ray:
Special Features
Limited and numbered editions
48 page hard cover production book with never-before-seen memos and photos
Custom full-size umbrella (40” diameter, consumer value $29.99)
Theatrical poster reproductions
Includes 4 hours of Bonus Content
Commentary by Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Cyd Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, Stanley Donen, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Baz Luhrmann, and Rudy Behlmer
"Singin' in the Rain: Raining on a New Generation” All New Documentary
"Great Performances: Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM” (1996 PBS Documentary)
"What a Glorious Feeling: The Making of Singin' in the Rain"
"You Are My Lucky Star" Outtake
Nacio Herb Brown, Arthur Freed Film Excerpts (A collection of 12 film clips from earlier movies that originally carried the Freed/Brown songs.)
26xScoring Stage Session Cues
Stills Gallery & Trailer

Editorial Review: America’s beloved musical gem, starring Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, celebrates its 60th Anniversary on Blu-ray for the very first time with an all new 3-Disc Blu-ray & DVD Ultimate Collector’s Edition. The sensational limited and numbered 3-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition will feature the film both on Blu-ray and DVD, and includes an all new hi-definition documentary, and special collectible memorabilia. Source: www.amazon.com

Monday, April 16, 2012

Gene Kelly (Make Me Smile) video


Gene Kelly (Make Me Smile) video featuring pictures and scenes starring Gene Kelly and co-stars Judy Garland, Vera-Ellen, Leslie Caron, Debbie Reynolds, Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Natalie Wood, Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor, Pier Angeli, Marie McDonald, etc. Two film scenes from "Invitation to the Dance" (1956) directed by Gene Kelly and "Words and Music" (1948) directed by Norman Taurog.

Soundtrack: "My Melancholy Baby" by Ernie Burnett, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by Artie Shaw, "One Of These Days" by The Velvet Underground, "Bewildered" by Richard Berry, "Love Is Here" by Glenn Miller Orchestra, "Boogie Woogie" by Glenn Miller & Tommy Dorsey, "My Girl" by The Jesus & Mary Chain, "The Greatest Love" by Lee Dorsey, "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino, "It's Too Late" by Buddy Holly, "Make Me Smile" by Steve Harley, "I Love You" by Glenn Miller, "Crazy About My Baby" by Randy Newman.

Marjorie Morningstar (1958) starring Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood

Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood in a publicity still for "Marjorie Morningstar" (1958) directed by Irving Rapper


Marjorie Morningstar (1958) starring Gene Kelly, Natalie Wood, Carolyn Jones, Claire Trevor, etc.

Marjorie Morningstar is a 1955 novel by Herman Wouk, about a woman who wants to become an actress. In 1958, the book was made into a Hollywood feature movie starring Natalie Wood, also titled Marjorie Morningstar.

While working as a counselor at a summer camp, college-student Marjorie Morgenstern (Natalie Wood) falls for 32-year-old Noel Airman (Gene Kelly), a would-be dramatist working at a nearby summer theater. Like Marjorie, he is an upper-middle-class New York Jew (born 'Ehrman'), but has fallen away from his roots, and Marjorie's parents object among other things to his lack of a suitable profession, such as medicine or law. Noel himself warns Marjorie repeatedly that she's much too naive and conventional for him, but they nonetheless fall in love.

As they pursue an on-again-off-again relationship, Marjorie completes her studies at Hunter College, and works to establish an acting career, while Noel first leaves the theater for a job with an advertising agency, but later completes a musical he'd started writing before he and Marjorie had first met. Meanwhile, their relationship deepens (though, consistent with '50s Hollywood mores, the more full-fledged sexuality in their relationship is never explicitly communicated). They plan to marry, but after the musical's critical failure on Broadway, Noel runs away. Marjorie finally tracks him down at the summer theater where they first met.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

TCM Film Festival Red Carpet, Making of "Words And Music" (1948)

TCM Red Carpet 2012: Liza Minnelli, Debbie Reynolds, Patricia Kelly.


Live from the red carpet at the TCM Classic Film Festival Opening Night 2012, Digital Entertainment Columnist/Author Liz H Kelly interviews 3 Leading Ladies: Debbie Reynolds (Singin' in the Rain), Liza Minnelli (Cabaret) and Patricia Kelly (Gene Kelly's widow, Gene Kelly was in Singin' in the Rain, and Creative Director at Gene Kelly.)




Making of "Words And Music" (1948).
Starring: Mickey Rooney, Mary Rodgers, Ted Chapin, Richard Barrios, Miles Kreuger, Patricia Ward Kelly, Noel Taylor, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Tom Drake, Alexis Smith, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, Dorothy Rodgers, June Hedin, Eilene Janssen, Douglas McPhail, Gene Kelly, Oscar Hammerstein II, Ann Sothern, Ramon Blackburn, Royce Blackburn, Cyd Charisse, Dee Turnell, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Perry Como, Betty Garrett, Judy Garland, Norman Taurog, Roger Edens, Vera-Ellen.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Stanley Donen remembering Gene Kelly, TCM Classic Film Festival

Stanley Donen with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly had persuaded Charles Walters, who has been signed by MGM as dance director of the film version of "Best Foot Forward", to find something in it for Stanley Donen. "I was nothing at the time," Donen said. "A shlepper. A real zero." Stanley Donen was virtually adopted by the Kellys.

Phil Silvers, Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly in "Cover Girl" (1944) directed by Charles Vidor

COVER GIRL (1944) Dir. Charles Vidor is featured in the TCM Film Festival Schedule - Friday, April 13 9:30AM Chinese Multiplex 4

If this Technicolor confection stands among Columbia Pictures' best musicals, a major share of the credit goes to the talent producer Arthur Schwartz, costume designer Travis Banton, songwriters Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin, and choreographers Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.

Banton was a natural for the story of a chorus girl (Rita Hayworth) who finds stardom as a supermodel, creating contemporary gowns that perfectly captured the star's allure.

Kern and Gershwin, who had never worked together before, created one of the best scores ever for a musical, including the jazzy "Put Me to the Test" and the dreamy, romantic "Long Ago and Far Away." For Kelly and Donen, the film pointed to the musicals they would later create at MGM. In particular, the "Alter Ego" routine, which Kelly developed with Donen, used trick photography so he could dance with himself as an expression of his character's inner conflicts. This Columbia picture convinced MGM to finally let Kelly stage his own numbers. In Attendance: Patricia Ward Kelly

Patricia Ward Kelly is the widow of Gene Kelly. She has worked as a writer at a film production company, as a contributing scholar for the authoritative Northwestern/Newberry Writings of Herman Melville, and as a freelance journalist.

She and Gene Kelly met at the Smithsonian in 1985, when he was the host/narrator for a television special for which she was a writer. Soon after, he invited her to California to write his memoirs and they were together until his death in 1996. Currently, she serves as Trustee of The Gene Kelly Image Trust and Creative Director of Gene Kelly: The Legacy, a corporation established to commemorate Kelly's centenary worldwide. She lives in Los Angeles and is completing the book about her late husband. Source: www.tcm.com

Liza Minnelli and Patricia Ward Kelly at TCM Classic Film Festival Opening Night for 40th Anniversary of "Cabaret" at Graumann's Chinese.

Patricia shared exciting news, “Gene’s hundred birthday would be August 23rd, 2012, and so we’re going to roll out a big celebration. He doesn’t need a birthday party, but we thought it was a way to show how relevant he continues to be and see how he continues to inspire young people. It’s going to be a global dance experience, and…we’ll have a big exhibition….We’re going to post everything on the website in just a little bit...We want everyone in the world to participate so all the fans can be part of the celebration.” Source: www.examiner.com

Gene Kelly in the "Broadway Ballet" number in "Singin' in the Rain" recreating his early vaudeville experiences in New York

Previous to "Pal Joey" in Broadway, Gene Kelly's big break had come starring as Harry the Hoofer in William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life". The play ran for 22 weeks and won the Drama Critic's Award that year.

Fred Kelly and Gene Kelly

When the show began to tour, Fred Kelly replaced Gene as the lead on the road and won a Donaldson Award for his performance.

William Saroyan on Gene Kelly: "The tapping of his feet was not unlike a drum roll at a funeral; an end that was both a loss and a welcome beginning of something else - almost anything else. Gene Kelly is a great man of the theatre."

Gene Kelly and Leila Ernst in "Pal Joey" (1941)

“I was a very young man, as he was. I came to New York to get into showbusiness and I auditioned for Pal Joey. Gene was Pal Joey and I was a dancer. He was a big success in the show. George Abbott asked Gene to be choreographer of Best Foot Forward and I was in that show. Gene came in and said would I be his assistant. I was 16 or 17 at the time. So from that moment on, the relationship grew slightly. We worked together quite well.” -Stanley Donen

Asked what was Gene’s genius, what was his talent: “The big part of it was what he called himself, a song and dance man, and there was only one other, Fred Astaire.

Gene had his own manner and charm, and he was good at singing and dancing and he had this wonderful Irish-American brash quality which was so winning and so full of energy that it was an irresistible charm. He had a desire to change what musical films had done, to explore other avenues.”

Asked what was the nature of their relationship: “It started when he was a star and I was a dancer."

By the time we did "Singin’ in The Rain" we were co-directors. He was an actor and I was a director really. He was in front of the camera and I was behind so it did complement each other. But we had our differences of course. No collaboration would be worth its salt without differences of opinion. The clashes have to be done in private because if done in front of others they’re very disturbing, but new things came because of it.”

Gene Kelly with wife Jeanne Coyne and child.

In 1948, Jeannie Coyne had married Stanley Donen. They were divorced the following year, but continued to work together. "Jeannie's marriage to Stanley", Gene said to Clive Hirschchorn, "was doomed from the start. Because every time Stanley looked at Jeannie, he saw Betsy, whom he loved; and every time Jeannie looked at Stanley, I guess she saw me. One way and another it was all pretty incestuous."

Gene Kelly and Jeannie Coyne married on 6 August 1960, in the County Court House, at Tonopah, Nevada. They had planned to marry in secrecy because Gene felt that by underplaying the marriage he was protecting his daughter Kerry, whom he did not want involved with reporters.

During three months in Paris, Gene and Jeannie stayed in an expensive apartment on the Avenue Foch. One of his nightly rituals in Paris was walking to the Invalides and into a nearby bar for a beer and a few games of pinball. "I usually won", Gene said, "because I used to cheat outrageously. Well, one night Jeannie and I were playing, and a stranger came over to watch us. All of a sudden, he turned on Jeannie and started to call her the foulest names in the French language - of which the nicest I think was 'whore.' So naturally, I slugged him. He fell, and when he staggered up, the bartender came over and broke it up and threw the guy out, because he'd heard the names he was calling Jeannie."

The ‘rain dance’ was shown, and Donen was asked if it brought back memories: “Indeed it does, it’s a great loss, not to have him around any more.”

Gene Kelly serenading Debbie Reynolds with 'You are my lucky star' number in "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)

Did Gene appreciate his talent? “I think so, he was aware that he had a very special gift and that he wanted to show it in the best possible way. He drove himself very hard. He was very nervous about his singing voice though, and would get hoarse from nerves when he had to record.”

Marie McDonald and Gene Kelly in "Living in a Big Way" (1947)

Stanley and Gene worked together on Cover Girl, Anchors Aweigh, Living In A Big Way, Deep In My Heart, Take Me Out To The Ball Game (also jointly writing the story and getting $25000 for it), On The Town, Singin’ In The Rain, and It’s Always Fair Weather.

How do you remember Gene Kelly? “Like in that moment in Singin’ In The Rain. When one is down and wants to be cheered up, watch Gene Kelly.” -Stanley Donen, interviewed by Charlie Rose on the day of Gene Kelly’s death, 2nd February 1996.


The 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival will cover a wide range of programming themes, including “Style in the Movies.”

THE FILMS OF STANLEY DONEN: Charade (1963), Funny Face (1957), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Two for the Road (1967)

ESSENTIALS: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Annie Hall (1977), Auntie Mame (1958), Black Narcissus (1947), Cabaret (1972), Casablanca (1942), Dr. No (1962), Duck Soup (1933), Elmer Gantry (1960), Grand Illusion (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), High Society (1956), The Longest Day (1962), Moonstruck (1987), The Pink Panther (1963), Rio Bravo (1959), Sabrina (1954), The Searchers (1956), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Snow White and Seven Dwarfs (1937), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), To Catch a Thief (1955), Vertigo (1958), Wings (1927), The Women (1939), Young Frankenstein (1974)

THE LEGENDARY COSTUMES OF TRAVIS BANTON: Cleopatra (1934), Cover Girl (1944), I'm No Angel (1933), Letter from and Unknown Woman (1948), Nothing Sacred (1937), The Scarlet Empress (1934)

NOIR STYLE: Criss Cross (1949), Cry Danger (1951), Gun Crazy (1950), Night and the City (1950), Raw Deal (1948)

BUILT BY DESIGN - ARCHITECTURE IN FILM: Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Fountainhead (1949), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), My Architect: A Son's Journey (2003), Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Source: www.tcm.com