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Charles Walters, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

Updated Feb 11, 2024
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Charles Walters, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly
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Gene Kelly
February 3, 1996 Gene Kelly, Dancer of Vigor and Grace, Dies By ALBIN KREBS Gene Kelly, the dancer, actor, director and choreographer who brought a vigorous athleticism, casual grace and an earthy masculinity to the high romance of lavish Hollywood musicals, died yesterday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 83. Mr. Kelly's highly developed sense of the possibilities of dance on film invigorated classic musicals like "Anchors Aweigh," "On the Town," "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain." A gifted dancer with his own vibrant style, he also flourished as an innovative choreographer and director in the 1940's and 50's, the heyday of the big, splashy Hollywood musical. Mr. Kelly, who could also put over a song in a high, thin voice, brought to his films an inventive technique that enabled him to create unusual and imaginative dance routines that usually arose directly out of a plot or script situation. Thus millions of moviegoers remember Mr. Kelly dancing merrily in a downpour in "Singin' in the Rain," hoofing with an animated mouse, Jerry, in "Anchors Aweigh," hopping over garbage cans in a sequence in "It's Always Fair Weather" and, with the aid of special process photography, dancing with himself in the "alter ego" number from "Cover Girl." In addition to his movies, which included "The Pirate," "Brigadoon" and the drama "Inherit the Wind," Mr. Kelly was also a star on Broadway, where he created the title role of the heel as hero in "Pal Joey," choreographed "Best Foot Forward" and directed Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song." "I don't really know why I clicked," Mr. Kelly said many years later. "I didn't want to be a dancer. I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally. "In the 1930's, when I started, Martha Graham was the only dancer doing anything modern, but she did it all to classical music. I couldn't see myself doing 'Swan Lake' every night, and I wanted to develop a truly American style. The only dancer in the movies at that time with any success was Fred Astaire, but he did very small, elegant steps in a top hat, white tie and tails. I was too big physically for that kind of dancing, and I looked better in a sweatshirt and loafers anyway. It wasn't elegant, but it was me." Eugene Curran Kelly was born on Aug. 23, 1912, in Pittsburgh. His mother insisted that all five of the Kelly children take music and dance lessons, and in high school Mr. Kelly continued dance lessons while also playing on the football and hockey teams. His education at Pennsylvania State College was interrupted by the Depression, and his first job was teaching gymnastics at a summer camp for boys. He was later able to major in economics at the University of Pittsburgh and received a degree in 1933, but jobs were scarce and he went to work for a dancing school partly owned by his mother. Two years later, the school was renamed the Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance and soon a successful branch was opened in Johnstown. Meanwhile, Mr. Kelly directed plays produced locally and formed a dance act with his brother Fred, with whom he performed in a theater for children at the Chicago World's Fair in 1934. In the mid-1930's Mr. Kelly also redirected vaudeville acts that passed through Pittsburgh. Mr. Kelly did not decide to try his luck in New York until 1938, when he was 27 years old. His first job was as a Broadway chorus boy in 1938's "Leave It to Me," dancing while Mary Martin sang "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," but the next year he won critical acclaim for his featured role as the comic hoofer in William Saroyan's play "The Time of Your Life." That success led to his being cast in "Pal Joey," the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical, in which he played the unscrupulous central character so convincingly that John Martin, a critic for The New York Times, said, "He is not only glib-footed, but he has a feeling for comment and content that give his dancing personal distinction and raise it several notches as a dancing art." Mr. Kelly's ability to meld singing and dancing with characterization and the demands of the play's plot attracted so much notice that David O. Selznick signed him to an exclusive Hollywood contract. At the time, Mr. Kelly was appearing in "Pal Joey" at night and by day choreographing the Broadway musical hit "Best Foot Forward." In 1941, he left for Hollywood, where he was to bring a new vitality to dance on film and help change the whole concept of movie musicals. Mr. Selznick had no musicals planned, however, and lent Mr. Kelly to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio most noted for lavish musicals. His first film, in 1942, was "For Me and My Gal," in which he starred as a small-time vaudeville hoofer opposite Judy Garland. It was a huge success, but MGM, after buying the new star's contract from Mr. Selznick, relegated him to relatively minor parts in "DuBarry Was a Lady," "Thousands Cheer," and the wartime drama "Cross of Lorraine." In "Cover Girl," co-starring with Rita Hayworth in 1944 on loan to Columbia Pictures, Mr. Kelly's career took off. With the aid of Stanley Donen, with whom he was to direct and choreograph several movies in years to follow, Mr. Kelly developed the celebrated "alter ego" solo dance with his ectoplasmic self, the character's conscience. Photographed separately, then combined on a single strip of film, the two Kelly images seemed to pursue each other up and down flights of steps, to threaten each other and leap over each other's heads. "For once, a dance on the screen is not merely a specialty but actually develops character and advances plot," wrote a New York Times critic. Mr. Kelly's choreographic inventiveness was credited with the success of the trail-blazing live-dance-with-animation sequence in "Anchors Aweigh" in 1945. He had a hard time persuading MGM officials that they should spend $100,000 and two months shooting an eight-minute number, in which he would dance with Jerry the mouse from the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon series. Simple live action and animation went back to silent-film days, but Mr. Kelly's idea involved color and intricate dance steps for himself and the cartoon characters, and required complex laboratory and processing work. For the charming sequence, Mr. Kelly first danced against a plain blue background, then animators filmed the mouse song-and-dance portion. What audiences saw was a composite picture made from the two separate films, with man and mouse happily dancing and singing. The procedure is common now, even in television commercials, but in the mid-1940's it was hailed as a cinematic breakthrough. After the war, Mr. Kelly's first big picture was "The Pirate," a 1948 spoof of swashbuckling adventures in which he again starred with Judy Garland, with whom he sang the rousing "Be a Clown." James Agee, the critic, found Mr. Kelly's performance "very ambitious, painfully misguided, by John Barrymore out of the elder Douglas Fairbanks." In "The Three Musketeers" (1948), Mr. Kelly did not dance, but as D'Artagnan he used his balletic skills to burlesque some fencing scenes. One of Mr. Kelly's most memorable dance performances came in the seven-minute "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" ballet sequence in "Words and Music," a 1948 movie that was only subliminally based on the lives of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Most critics agreed that about the only thing to cheer about the film was the Rodgers ballet, in which Mr. Kelly was partnered with Vera-Ellen. In 1949, Mr. Kelly made two films with Frank Sinatra, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and one of his all-time hits, "On the Town," which he directed and choreographed with Mr. Donen and filmed mostly on location in New York City. Mr. Kelly, whose co-stars included Betty Garrett, Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen, turned the film into an exhilarating, joyful experience that began with the brassy "New York, New York (It's a Helluva Town)" opening number and never let up in its mood of pervasive effervescence. "This film was a milestone," he said in 1977. "It was the first musical to be shot on location. We took the musical off the sound stage and showed that it could be realistic. But some of Mr. Kelly's most popular and artistically successful films were yet to come. In 1951, "An American in Paris," in which he received sole star billing, won eight Academy Awards, including best picture of the year, and a special Oscar for Mr. Kelly for his contributions to screen choreography. An integral part of the film was a 17-minute ballet conceived by Mr. Kelly and the director, Vincente Minnelli, as a means of showing the impact Paris has on the hero. Costumes, sets and dance movements for the ballet were borrowed from the styles of such artists as Dufy, Renoir, Utrillo, Rousseau, van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec and the music danced to by Mr. Kelly and Leslie Caron was George Gershwin's "American in Paris" suite."Singin' in the Rain," released in 1952, was one of the last of the big MGM musicals and it was, said Vincent Canby, film critic of The New York Times, in a 1975 appraisal, "a movie masterpiece." Again teaming with Mr. Donen, Mr. Kelly helped to direct and choreograph the affectionate spoof of the start of the talkies era in movies. The movie made splendid use of such Arthur Freed-Nacio Herb Brown songs as "You Were Meant for Me," "You Are My Lucky Star" and "All I Do Is Dream of You." In the title number, a love-struck Mr. Kelly, with an umbrella as his principal prop, sang and splashed ecstatically and obliviously through a downpour on an all-but-deserted street. The sequence is widely regarded as a classic piece of cinematic choreography.
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Charles Walters
WRITTEN BY: Michael Barson Charles Walters AMERICAN DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER, AND FILM DIRECTOR BORN November 17, 1911 Brooklyn, New York DIED August 13, 1982 (aged 70) Malibu, California NOTABLE WORKS “Easter Parade” “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” dance directing (movie and theater) Charles Walters, (born November 17, 1911, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died August 13, 1982, Malibu, California), American dancer, choreographer, and film director who was best known for his work on MGM musicals. His notable directorial credits included Easter Parade (1948) and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). A former dancer, Walters choreographed such Broadway musicals as Sing Out the News (1938–39) and Let’s Face It! (1941–43) before moving to MGM. There he served as dance director on some of the best musical films of the decade, including Du Barry Was a Lady (1943), Girl Crazy (1943), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Summer Holiday (1948); he also handled some of the choreography for Ziegfeld Follies (1945) and The Harvey Girls (1946). After directing the short Spreadin’ the Jam (1945), Walters helmed his first feature film, the bubbly Good News (1947), with up-and-comers June Allyson and Peter Lawford. It was a success, and prominent producer Arthur Freed rewarded Walters with a major assignment, the period piece Easter Parade (1948). Despite initial production problems—Gene Kelly broke his ankle and was replaced by Fred Astaire, and Judy Garland had Vincente Minnelli (her then husband) removed as director—it was one of the year’s top grossers. The film, which features songs by Irving Berlin, centres on a dancer (Astaire) who, after his partner (Ann Miller) leaves him to pursue a solo career, hires a chorus girl (Garland) to take her place. Astaire and Garland were slated to return for Walters’s The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), about a husband-and-wife musical comedy team. However, an unstable Garland was forced to leave the project, which led to the reuniting of Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who had not performed together in a decade. Despite being a box-office success, it was the last film to feature the popular screen duo. Summer Stock (1950) paired Garland and Kelly, with Eddie Bracken and Phil Silvers providing able comic support; “Get Happy” later became a standard for Garland. In 1951 Walters directed his first nonmusical, Three Guys Named Mike (1951); Jane Wyman starred as a stewardess being courted by three men, one of whom was portrayed by Van Johnson. Although not as popular as Walters’s earlier productions, the film was a modest hit. Walters returned to musicals with Texas Carnival (1951), though it was largely forgettable, despite a cast that included some of MGM’s top talent: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Red Skelton, and Miller. Walters then reunited with Astaire for The Belle of New York (1952), but it failed to match the success of their earlier efforts. More popular was the sentimental Lili (1953). Leslie Caron gave a heartbreaking performance as a French waif who joins a carnival, and Mel Ferrer portrayed the bitter puppeteer who loves her. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Walters’s sole nod for best director; only Bronislau Kaper’s score (which included “Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo”) won an Oscar. In 1953 Walters directed Williams in the water musicals Dangerous When Wet and Easy to Love. That year he also made Torch Song, a melodrama with Joan Crawford as a difficult Broadway star who falls for a blind pianist (Michael Wilding). Although Crawford earned praise for her performance, the film was not a success when first released. However, it later developed a cult following as a camp classic. The Glass Slipper reunited Walters with Caron in a Cinderella-like fable with enchanting songs and dances, while The Tender Trap (both 1955) showed that Walters could mount a good romantic comedy; it starred Frank Sinatra as a womanizing agent who falls in love with an aspiring actress (Debbie Reynolds). Sinatra returned for High Society (1956), a musical remake of George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story (1940). The popular film, which featured a number of memorable Cole Porter songs, also starred Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly (in her final feature film). (From left to right) Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Celeste Holm in High Society (1956), directed by Charles Walters. (From left to right) Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Celeste Holm in … © 1956 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE Kabuki Theater. Unknown Artist, ’Scene at Kabuki Theater’, 19th century. From a private collection. The strongest ties of Kabuki are to the Noh and to joruri, the puppet theatre that developed during the 17th century. Playing Around: Fact or Fiction? Walters moved away from musicals for his next pictures. After the World War II comedy Don’t Go near the Water (1957), he made Ask Any Girl (1959), a predictable looking-for-love-in-the-big-city romp that nonetheless was a hit, thanks largely to the performances by Shirley MacLaine, David Niven, and Gig Young. Walters worked with Niven and Doris Day on his next picture, a lively adaptation of Jean Kerr’s play Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960). The domestic comedy was one of year’s highest-grossing films. Walters returned to musicals with the circus spectacle Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962). The fine cast included Day, Jimmy Durante, and Martha Raye, but the songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were the true stars of the show. The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) allowed Walters to adapt a more current Broadway musical, and he made the most of it, getting the performance of Reynolds’s career (and her only Oscar nomination). The popular movie follows the life of Molly Brown, who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Walters’s final feature film was the romantic comedy Walk, Don’t Run (1966), a pleasant remake of George Stevens’s The More the Merrier (1943); Cary Grant, in his last movie role, portrayed a businessman in Tokyo who ends up playing matchmaker during the Olympics. Made for Columbia, it was the only motion picture Walters had worked on in almost 25 years that was not an MGM production. In the 1970s he worked on several television projects, notably two TV movies that starred Lucille Ball. He retired from directing in 1976. Michael Barson
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Judy Garland
She was so close to Si Seadler that after her opening at the Palace we were invited to her party at El Morocco. She said, "Si. You have to dance with me." It was a wonderful night. Born June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA Died June 22, 1969 in Belgravia, London, England, UK (barbiturate overdose) Birth Name Frances Ethel Gumm Nicknames Baby Gumm Miss Show Business Joots Height 4' 11½" (1.51 m) One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, Judy Garland was a much-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals. She was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in Minnesota, the youngest daughter of vaudevillians Ethel Marion (Milne) and Francis Avent Gumm. She was of English, along with some Scottish and Irish, descent. Her mother, an ambitious woman gifted in playing various musical instruments, saw the potential in her daughter at the tender age of just 2 years old when Baby Frances repeatedly sang "Jingle Bells" until she was dragged from the stage kicking and screaming during one of their Christmas shows and immediately drafted her into a dance act, entitled "The Gumm Sisters", along with her older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm. However, knowing that her youngest daughter would eventually become the biggest star, Ethel soon took Frances out of the act and together they traveled across America where she would perform in nightclubs, cabarets, hotels and theaters solo. Her family life was not a happy one, largely because of her mother's drive for her to succeed as a performer and also her father's closeted homosexuality. The Gumm family would regularly be forced to leave town owing to her father's illicit affairs with other men, and from time to time they would be reduced to living out of their automobile. However, in September 1935 the Gumms', in particular Ethel's, prayers were answered when Frances was signed by Louis B. Mayer, mogul of leading film studio MGM, after hearing her sing. It was then that her name was changed from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, after a popular '30s song "Judy" and film critic Robert Garland. Tragedy soon followed, however, in the form of her father's death of meningitis in November 1935. Having been given no assignments with the exception of singing on radio, Judy faced the threat of losing her job following the arrival of Deanna Durbin. Knowing that they couldn't keep both of the teenage singers, MGM devised a short entitled Every Sunday (1936) which would be the girls' screen test. However, despite being the outright winner and being kept on by MGM, Judy's career did not officially kick off until she sang one of her most famous songs, "You Made Me Love You", at Clark Gable's birthday party in February 1937, during which Louis B. Mayer finally paid attention to the talented songstress. Prior to this her film debut in Pigskin Parade (1936), in which she played a teenage hillbilly, had left her career hanging in the balance. However, following her rendition of "You Made Me Love You", MGM set to work preparing various musicals with which to keep Judy busy. All this had its toll on the young teenager, and she was given numerous pills by the studio doctors in order to combat her tiredness on set. Another problem was her weight fluctuation, but she was soon given amphetamines in order to give her the desired streamlined figure. This soon produced the downward spiral that resulted in her lifelong drug addiction. In 1939, Judy shot immediately to stardom with The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song, 'Over The Rainbow', earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette on 29 February 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Now growing up, Judy began to yearn for meatier adult roles instead of the virginal characters she had been playing since she was 14. She was now taking an interest in men, and after starring in her final juvenile performance in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) alongside glamorous beauties Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr, Judy got engaged to bandleader David Rose in May 1941, just two months after his divorce from Martha Raye. Despite planning a big wedding, the couple eloped to Las Vegas and married during the early hours of the morning on 28 July 1941 with just her mother Ethel and her stepfather Will Gilmore present. However, their marriage went downhill as, after discovering that she was pregnant in November 1942, David and MGM persuaded her to abort the baby in order to keep her good-girl image up. She did so and, as a result, was haunted for the rest of her life by her 'inhumane actions'. The couple separated in January 1943. Vincente began to mold Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in The Clock (1945), and it was during the filming of this movie that the couple announced their engagement on set on 9 January 1945. Judy's divorce from David Rose had been finalized on 8 June 1944 after almost three years of marriage, and despite her brief fling with Orson Welles, who at the time was married to screen sex goddess Rita Hayworth, on 15 June 1945 Judy made Vincente her second husband, tying the knot with him that afternoon at her mother's home with her boss Louis B. Mayer giving her away and her best friend Betty Asher serving as bridesmaid. They spent three months on honeymoon in New York and afterwards Judy discovered that she was pregnant. On 12 March 1946 in Los Angeles, California, Judy gave birth to their daughter, Liza Minnelli, via caesarean section. It was a joyous time for the couple, but Judy was out of commission for weeks due to the caesarean and her postnatal depression, so she spent much of her time recuperating in bed. She soon returned to work, but married life was never the same for Vincente and Judy after they filmed The Pirate (1948) together in 1947. Judy's mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations toward people, especially her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She also began an affair with aspiring Russian actor Yul Brynner, but after the affair ended, Judy soon regained health and tried to salvage her failing marriage. She then teamed up with dancing legend Fred Astaire for the delightful musical Easter Parade (1948), which resulted in a successful comeback despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical. Afterwards, Judy's health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, which caused her much distress. She soon regained strength and was visited frequently by her lover Frank Sinatra, but never saw much of Vincente or Liza. On returning, Judy made In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which was also Liza's film debut, albeit via an uncredited cameo. She had already been suspended by MGM for her lack of cooperation on the set of The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), which also resulted in her getting replaced by Ginger Rogers. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Judy was suspended yet again before making her final film for MGM, entitled Summer Stock (1950). At 28, Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM, and her second marriage was soon dissolved. Spouse (5) Mickey Deans (15 March 1969 - 22 June 1969) ( her death) Mark Herron (14 November 1965 - 9 January 1969) ( divorced) Sidney Luft (8 June 1952 - 19 May 1965) ( divorced) ( 2 children) Vincente Minnelli (15 June 1945 - 29 March 1951) ( divorced) ( 1 child) David Rose (28 July 1941 - 8 June 1944) ( divorced)
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Amanda S. Stevenson
For fifty years I have been a Document Examiner and that is how I earn my living. For over 50 years I have also been a publicist for actors, singers, writers, composers, artists, comedians, and many progressive non-profit organizations. I am a Librettist-Composer of a Broadway musical called, "Nellie Bly" and I am in the process of making small changes to it. In addition, I have written over 100 songs that would be considered "popular music" in the genre of THE AMERICAN SONGBOOK.
My family consists of four branches. The Norwegians and The Italians and the Norwegian-Americans and the Italian Americans.
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