He's Got Rhythm: The Life and Career of Gene Kelly (Screen Classics)

by Cynthia Brideson

  4. Morley and Leon, Gene Kelly, 82.

  5. “Gene Kelly,” Liberty.

  6. “Gene Kelly,” Reflections on the Silver Screen, February 2, 1994, television interview.

  7. Morley and Leon, Gene Kelly, 83; Dancing: A Man’s Game.

  8. Dorothy Kilgallen, “Guest Today Is Screen Star Gene Kelly,” Schenectady Gazette, September 14, 1948.

  9. Thomas, The Films of Gene Kelly, 82, 84, 85–86.

  10. “Gene on Merv Griffin, 1977,” I Dream of Gene, accessed May 20, 2015, http://i-dream-of-gene.tumblr.com/post/14037021344/i-worked-with-her-lana-turner-i-broke-her-arm.

  11. Bosley Crowther, “Lana Turner and Gene Kelly Top Cast of Three Musketeers,” New York Times, October 21, 1948.

  12. Esther Williams and Digby Diehl, The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999), 185.

  13. Simone, oral history.

  14. Morley and Leon, Gene Kelly, 128.

  15. Blair, The Memory of All That, 161.

  16. Yudkoff, Gene Kelly, 191.

  17. Fuller, “And Now, the Real Kicker.”

  18. Novick, interview with authors.

  19. Yudkoff, Gene Kelly, 189.

  20. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 148.

  21. Ibid., 150.

  22. Blair, The Memory of All That, 260.

  23. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 152.

  24. Doug Nye, “Gene Kelly’s Daughter Recalls ‘Wonderful Parent,’” Chicago Tribune, March 15, 2002.

  25. Novick, interview with authors.

  26. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 152; Novick, interview with authors.

  27. Hedda Hopper, “Gene Kelly Would Like to Appear in Dramas, Make Pictures for Tots,” Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1949.

  28. Fuller, “And Now, the Real Kicker.”

  29. David Soren, Vera-Ellen: The Magic and the Mystery (Parkville, MD: Midnight Marquee, 2003), 76.

  30. Ibid., 78–79.

  31. Ibid., 82.

  32. “Gene Kelly,” American Film, February 1979.

  33. “Words and Music,” Picturegoer, August 6, 1949.

  34. Sheri Chinen Biesen, Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), 89.

  35. Yudkoff, Gene Kelly, 190.

  36. Hal Erickson, The Baseball Filmography, 1915 through 2001, 2nd ed. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002), 454.

  37. Kilgallen, “Guest Today Is Gene Kelly.”

  38. Simone, oral history.

  39. Yudkoff, Gene Kelly, 195.

  40. Betty Garrett and Ron Rapoport, Betty Garrett and Other Songs: A Life on Stage and Screen (New York: Madison Books, 2000), 107.

  41. Williams and Diehl, Million Dollar Mermaid, 168.

  42. Ibid., 168–69.

  43. Ibid., 169.

  44. Ibid., 170.

  45. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 176.

  46. Cadman, interview with authors.

  47. Take Me out to the Ball Game, dir. Busby Berkeley, perf. Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams (1949; Culver City, CA: MGM, 1994), videocassette.

  48. Tina Daniell and Pat McGilligan, “Betty Comden and Adolph Green: Almost Improvisation,” in Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 77.

  49. Williams and Diehl, Million Dollar Mermaid, 170.

  50. Ibid., 171.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Spivak, interview with authors.

  53. Yudkoff, Gene Kelly, 195.

  54. Earl Wilson, “It Happened Last Night,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 12, 1966.

  55. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 94.

  56. Ibid., 92.

  57. Betty Comden and Adolph Green, “Yes Indeedy” (1948).

  58. Roger Edens, “Strictly USA” (1948).

  59. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 95.

  60. Bosley Crowther, “Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly in Take Me out to the Ball Game, at Loew’s State,” New York Times, March 10, 1949.

  61. Spivak, interview with authors.

  62. Bob White, “‘Music Is a World Language,’ Says Noted Film Genius,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1946.

  63. Andy Taylor Fabe, “The Return of Singin’ in the Rain,” Michigan Daily, March 28, 2002.

  13. You Can Count on Me

  1. “An Evening with Gene Kelly,” Film 74, BBC One, November 5, 1974.

  2. Reynolds, Debbie, 60.

  3. David Parkinson, “Dancing in the Streets,” Sight and Sound, January 1993.

  4. Singer, A Cut Above, 145.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals, 259.

  7. Ibid., 258.

  8. Daniell and McGilligan, “Betty Comden and Adolph Green,” 78.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Blair, The Memory of All That, 99.

  11. Ibid., 99–100.

  12. Cutts, “Kelly, Dancer, Actor, Director.”

  13. Garrett and Rapoport, Betty Garrett, 110.

  14. Simone, oral history.

  15. Soren, Vera-Ellen, 80.

  16. Philip Scheuer, “Top Filmmaker Still Song Writer at Heart,” Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1949.

  17. “Gene Kelly: Looking at the Future of Musicals,” Entertainment World, March 6, 1970.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Singer, A Cut Above, 146.

  20. Simone, oral history.

  21. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 156.

  22. Simone, oral history.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Parkinson, “Dancing in the Streets.”

  27. “Carol Haney,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 21, 1954.

  28. Norma McLain Stoop, “Gene Kelly,” Dance, July 1976.

  29. “Interviews,” American Film.

  30. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 118.

  31. Betty Comden and Adolph Green, “On the Town” (1949, Allthelyrics, accessed September 4, 2016, http://www.lyricsmania.com/on_the_town_lyrics_gene_kelly.html.

  32. “Gene Kelly,” Interview, May 1994.

  33. Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals, 267.

  34. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 158.

  35. Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals, 268.

  36. Updike, More Matter, 670.

  37. Bosley Crowther, “On the Town, Yuletide Picture at Radio City, Is Musical to Please the Family,” New York Times, December 9, 1949.

  38. “On the Town: A Fast Moving Song and Dance Show,” Time, January 2, 1950.

  39. Basinger, “Gene Kelly.”

  40. Dominic McHugh, Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist’s Letters (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 142.

  41. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 119.

  42. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 153.

  43. Hess and Dabholkar, “The Pirate,” 211.

  44. Betsy Blair, “I Married a Dynamo, 1949,” The Gene Scene, accessed September 4, 2016, http://genescene.blogspot.com/2008/02/genes-eternal-verities.html.

  45. Novick, interview with authors.

  46. Novick, interview with authors.

  47. Canfield, “That Old Black Magic.”

  48. Fabe, “The Return of Singin’ in the Rain.”

  49. Blair, The Memory of All That, 140.

  50. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 98.

  51. “Dancer Wife Divorces Elizabeth Taylor Escort,” Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1951.

  52. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 106.

  53. Blair, The Memory of All That, 166.

  54. “Gene Kelly,” Saturday Evening Post.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 161.

  57. Handsaker, “Writer Starts Something.”

  58. Fabe, “The Return of Singin’ in the Rain.”

  59. “The Black Hand,” Newsweek, March 27, 1950.

  60. Chaplin, Golden Age of Movie Musicals, 125.

  61. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 162.

  62. Chaplin, Golden Age of Movie Musicals, 129.


  63. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 162.

  64. Joe Pasternak, Easy the Hard Way: The Autobiography of Joe Pasternak (New York: Putnam, 1956), 231.

  65. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 167.

  66. Simone, oral history.

  67. Marion Kabaker, “A Charmed Life,” Chicago Tribune, November 7, 1993.

  68. Carleton Carpenter, interview with authors, October 20, 2015.

  69. Phillips, Charles Walters, 125.

  70. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 162.

  71. Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer.

  72. Ibid.

  73. Summer Stock, dir. Charles Walters, perf. Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Phil Silvers (1950; Hollywood: MGM, 1992), videocassette.

  74. Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer.

  75. Summer Stock.

  76. Bosley Crowther, “Metro Musical, Summer Stock, with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, Opens at Capitol,” New York Times, September 1, 1950.

  77. Pasternak, Easy the Hard Way, 233.

  78. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 160.

  14. Who Could Ask for Anything More?

  1. Sue Harris, An American in Paris (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 22.

  2. Blair, The Memory of All That, 161.

  3. Ibid., 162.

  4. Ibid., 163–64.

  5. Novick, interview with authors.

  6. Griffin, A Hundred or More Hidden Things, 136.

  7. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 230.

  8. Stephen Harvey, Directed by Vincente Minnelli (New York: Harper Collins, 1989), 163.

  9. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 229.

  10. Simone, oral history.

  11. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 64.

  12. Leslie Caron, Thank Heaven: A Memoir (New York: Plume, 2010), 54.

  13. Simone, oral history.

  14. Caron, Thank Heaven, 54.

  15. “I’ve Got a Studio.”

  16. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 146.

  17. Singer, A Cut Above, 144.

  18. Thomas, The Films of Gene Kelly, 130.

  19. Loretta Britten and Sarah Brash, The American Dream: The 50s (Alexandra, VA: Time-Life Books, 1998), 24, 22.

  20. Novick, interview with authors.

  21. Caron, Thank Heaven, 65.

  22. Simone, oral history.

  23. Caron, Thank Heaven, 69–70.

  24. Ibid., 61.

  25. Ibid., 62, 70.

  26. Ibid., 61.

  27. Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 200.

  28. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 231.

  29. Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, 201.

  30. Chaplin, Golden Age of Movie Musicals, 133.

  31. An American in Paris, dir. Vincente Minnelli, perf. Gene Kelly, Leslie Carson, Oscar Levant (1951; Hollywood, MGM), film.

  32. Simone, oral history.

  33. Caron, Thank Heaven, 73.

  34. Ibid., 70.

  35. Ibid.

  36. S’Wonderful: The Making of “An American in Paris,” perf. Leslie Caron, André Guy, Claude Guy (2008; Hollywood: Trailer Park, 2008), DVD.

  37. Caron, Thank Heaven, 70.

  38. Roger Ebert, “An American in Paris,” Roger Ebert.com, October 2, 1992, accessed June 24, 2015, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-american-in-paris-1951.

  39. S’Wonderful.

  40. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 267.

  41. Caron, Thank Heaven, 71.

  42. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 240.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Ibid., 236.

  45. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, 440.

  46. James Robert Parish and Michael Pitts, Hollywood Songsters: Singers Who Act and Actors Who Sing, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2003), 452.

  47. Chaplin, Golden Age of Movie Musicals, 137.

  48. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 241.

  49. S’Wonderful.

  50. Levy, Vincente Minnelli, 214, 242.

  51. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 235, 327.

  52. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 132.

  53. Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals, 321.

  54. Ebert, “An American in Paris.”

  55. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 242.

  56. Caron, Thank Heaven, 65.

  57. Novick, interview with authors.

  58. Blair, The Memory of All That, 160.

  59. Laurents, Original Story By, 94–95.

  60. Chaplin, Golden Age of Movie Musicals, 67.

  61. Blair, The Memory of All That, 158, 159.

  62. Betty Comden, Offstage (New York: Limelight, 1996), 173.

  63. Minnelli, I Remember It Well, 243.

  64. Bosley Crowther, “An American in Paris, Arrival of Music Hall, Has Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in Leads,” New York Times, October 5, 1951.

  65. “An American in Paris,” Time, October 8, 1951.

  66. “Barbara Wolf, ‘An American in Paris,’ Film Buff 1976,” Gene Kelly: Creative Genius, accessed June 25, 2015, www.freewebs.com/geneius/bygollythesearegood.htm.

  67. Singer, A Cut Above, 146.

  15. Laughing at Clouds

  1. “Adolph Green,” Gene Kelly: Creative Genius, accessed July 5, 2015, http://www.freewebs.com/geneius/bygollythesearegood.htm.

  2. Daniell and McGilligan, “Betty Comden and Adolph Green,” 82, 83.

  3. Earl Hess and Pratibha Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain”: The Making of an American Masterpiece (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 57.

  4. Edwin Schallert, “In the Movie Field, Gene Kelly Proves a Quintuple Threat,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1951.

  5. “Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), December 20, 1949.

  6. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  7. Singin’ in the Rain, dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, perf. Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds (1952; Hollywood: MGM, 1992), videocassette.

  8. Daniell and McGilligan, “Betty Comden and Adolph Green,” 80.

  9. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  10. What a Glorious Feeling (Los Angeles: Turner Entertainment, 2002), film.

  11. Reynolds, Debbie, 86.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 52.

  14. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 152, 157.

  15. Reynolds, Debbie, 87, 88.

  16. Phil Roura and Jane Furse, “Gene Kelly, Famed Hollywood Dancer, Dies at 83,” New York Daily News, February 3, 1996.

  17. Doug Nye, “Anatomy of a Father,” Beaver County (PA) Times, March 4, 2002.

  18. Pat York, Going Strong (New York: Arcade, 1991), 157.

  19. Novick, interview with authors.

  20. Reynolds, Debbie, 89.

  21. Ardmore, “Holy Man or Holy Terror?”

  22. Daniel Bubbeo, “Gene Kelly’s Widow Patricia Chats about Her Late Husband and Singin’ in the Rain,” Newsday, July 11, 2012.

  23. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 106.

  24. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 186.

  25. Reynolds, Debbie, 90.

  26. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 162.

  27. Prelutsky, The Secret of Their Success, 186.

  28. Mindy Aloff, “Remembering a Hoofer: An Interview with Donald O’Connor,” Dance View Times, October 13, 2003.

  29. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 196–97.

  30. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  31. Simone, oral history.

  32. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  33. Cyd Charisse and Tony Martin, The Two of Us (New York: Mason Charter, 1976), 200.

  34. Bernard Weinraub, “A Portrait of the Dancer, Perfectionist and All,” New York Times, February 28, 2002.

  35. “Cyd Charisse,” Gene Kelly: Creative Genius, accessed July 7, 2015, http://www.freewebs.com/geneius/icouldencourageyou.htm.

  36. York, Going Strong, 158.

  37. “Gene Kelly,” Nova, July 1972.

  38. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 160.

  39.
Ibid., 168.

  40. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  41. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 156.

  42. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 165, 164.

  43. Ibid., 169.

  44. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  45. Parkinson, “Dancing in the Streets.”

  46. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 135.

  47. Blair, The Memory of All That, 164–65.

  48. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  49. Hay, MGM, 282.

  50. Simone, oral history.

  51. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, 447.

  52. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 205.

  53. Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals, 369.

  54. Tom Dancy, “At Home Abroad,” Modern Screen, July 1953.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Blair, The Memory of All That, 164.

  58. A. H. Frank, The Girls’ Book of Ballet (London: Burke Publishing, 1953), 95.

  59. Blair, The Memory of All That, 183.

  60. Levy, Vincente Minnelli, 216.

  61. Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals, 344.

  62. Ibid., 346.

  63. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 175.

  64. Bosley Crowther, “Singin’ in the Rain, Starring Gene Kelly, Ushers in Spring at the Music Hall,” New York Times, March 28, 1952.

  65. Hess and Dabholkar, “Singin’ in the Rain,” 185.

  66. Crowther, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  67. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  68. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 169.

  69. Baer, “Singin’ in the Rain.”

  70. Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer.

  71. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling, 171.

  72. James Robert Parish and Gregory Monk, The Best of MGM: The Golden Years, 1928–1959 (Westport, CT: Arlington House, 1981), 185.

  73. Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer.

  74. Blair, The Memory of All That, 183.

  16. What a Day This Has Been

  1. Blair, The Memory of All That, 223.

  2. Ibid., 203.

  3. Ibid., 190–91.

  4. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 194.

  5. Ibid., 195.

  6. “Devil Makes Three, Melodrama Filmed on Location in Europe, Is Globe’s New Feature,” New York Times, August 30, 1952.

  7. “Gene Kelly,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 30, 1952.

  8. “Traveling Man, Magazine Article 1952.”

  9. Fordin, MGM’s Greatest Musicals, 370.

  10. Blair, The Memory of All That, 189.

  11. Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 195.