Gene Kelly, Jack and The Beanstalk, and An Interview with Bobby Riha
Gene Kelly loved to work with children, and his scenes with kids were truly joyous and magic to watch. He had a saying: “If you can get kids to love you, they’ll do anything for you.” Indeed, when you watch the many scenes with children in Kelly’s movies and television productions, it is easy to see why the kids loved him like the Pied Piper. One of Gene Kelly’s television specials was the 1967 remake of the fairy tale Jack and The Beanstalk. Kelly wrote his own character into...
Read MoreGene Kelly in My Life As a Mankiewicz: An Insider’s Journey Through Hollywood
In his memoir My Life As a Mankiewicz: An Insider’s Journey Through Hollywood, Tom Mankiewicz devotes a few pages to Gene Kelly. Embedded below as a PDF, the first instance discusses (no surprises here) Kelly’s competitive spirit and hairpieces. Perhaps the most amusing part: He had three different toupees made for him. One was quite modest, his “I’m just sitting around with friends” toupee. The next was slightly fuller, his “I’m going into Beverly...
Read MoreDebbie Reynolds, A Ladder, Some Gum, and Gene’s Toupee
Our pal over at the New York Post, Lou Lumenick, is currently attending the Turner Classic Film Festival where, last night, he and many other fans screened the 60th Anniversary digital restoration of Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Lou also was there for Debbie Reynolds’s introduction. His report: Warners’ new 60th anniversary digital restoration of “Singin’ in the Rain” had its world premiere Saturday night at Grauman’s Chinese, and it’s a richly...
Read MoreThe Basics: Did Gene Kelly Wear a Hairpiece?
This entry is part 15 of 16 in the series Gene Kelly: The Basics. To lift viewers’ spirits, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) devoted yesterday’s schedule (Sept. 11) to films that celebrate New York City. Among the pictures shown: 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955) The Clock (Vincente Minnelli, 1945) Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977) On the Town (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1949) On the Town is not my favorite Gene Kelly musical, but I am still a...
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