Gene Kelly, Creative Genius
A personal celebration of his life and work
This page will focus on Gene’s relationship with the studios for whom he worked – primarily MGM. It is a new page so I will be adding to it as and when I can.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette. July 23rd 1941
Gene Kelly, the Pittsburgh lad…has just signed a long term movie contract with David O. Selznick, United Artists producer and will report to Hollywood October 1st for the leading role in the new picture Alfred Hitchcock is to direct…
Kelly’s move will cancel Abbott’s plans to tour Pal Joey next season…In New York yesterday Kelly said he had promised Selznick not to divulge the type of role he would have or the subject matter of the picture. His contract runs for five years but he has an arrangement which will permit him time out for stage work during that period if he cares to avail himself of the clause.
The Kelly independence was never more clearly demonstrated than when he flatly refused Hollywood’s first two offers for his services. The first time he was visiting on the Coast when a studio approached him.
“Can you pay me $10,000 a year?” Gene asked.
“Jumpin’ jive, no!”, the studio emissary gulped. “You’re an unknown!”
“Unknown or not, that’s what I’m making with my dance schools, so no thanks,” Gene said.
The second offer, made at the close of “Time Of Your Life,” was refused because Gene honestly felt he was not ready for a screen career…
His sensational success in “Pal Joey” brought Gene his third offer from Hollywood. This time he accepted it, and, in his usual impetuous fashion, expected to go to work immediately upon detraining. The two months he waited for his role in “For Me And My Gal” were pure misery. So was his first sight of himself on the screen.
“Shocked is a better word,” he amended. “The sight of my funny Irish kisser magnified that many times sent me out of the theater with the screaming meemies!”
Los Angeles Times. April 23rd 1944
“I can’t complain that Hollywood hasn’t recognised me as an actor. But dancers and singers are so scarce I just can’t say no when the studios ask me to play another one! I do insist that they allow me to alternate serious parts with dancing ones; if I ever did five musicals in succession I’d be typed for good.
“Sometimes I get the urge to go to New York and direct dance numbers in a play like I used to. But I realise a big movie corporation can’t adjust its schedules to suit me. And what with delays and all, I might be away six months. Maybe Freddie March can do it, going back and forth, but I couldn’t. The economical dent,” he grinned, “would be too big.”
Photoplay 1975
Gene: I never meant to stay out here [in Hollywood]: I loved New York too much. But I decided to try it for a short while. Selznick only wanted me to be a legitimate actor; he wasn’t interested in making musicals – he said he didn’t know how to do them! Still, he put me under contract but since he wasn’t doing much at the time he loaned me to MGM to make a film with Judy Garland and straight away I found myself a movie star!
After that I did a few more pictures, always with the idea of going back to new York, but when I went into the service in World War II I just longed to go to California to experiment with dances and film…
The kind of dancing I wanted to do was difficult for the studio to accept. I kept explaining to them that I wanted to do it my own way but they took it as an attack on musicals that they’d previously done. Luckily I had good friends who gave me opportunities and soon they let me experiment with different techniques.
I did a lot of experimental work that you couldn’t afford to do now, and that laid the groundwork for many things you see in movies and television today. It was a very exciting period for me in the Forties and early Fifties, right up until television took over, and when it did, musicals became too expensive to make.
John Updike New Yorker, March 1991
In Hollywood it was producer Arthur Freed’s unit at MGM, staffed mainly by sophisticated refugees from the East that carried the torch – and found in Kelly the dancer and choreographer who could embody their convictions.
Milwaukee Sentinel. March 20th 1944
Don’t think for a minute that MGM hasn’t realised what a bet they have in Gene Kelly since he staged so many of the dances in Cover Girl and did such a swell job of acting. They have had offers from every studio for him, but no dice. He is to be kept on the home lot to be starred in Anchors Aweigh.
Gene, BBC 1974
The great thing about Arthur Freed was that he had a good eye for talent, much more so than the so-called head of the studio who always – often – I should be more kind, I guess, took the credit.
Keeping Up With Kelly. Motion Picture 1945
Around the lot he’s known as a very intelligent, reasonable, levelheaded person, and with no temperament. There are few 
things that get a rise out of his Irish nature, chief of which is seeing an injustice done anyone. Then too, conscientious worker that he is, he dislikes lengthy interruptions whenever he’s rehearsing or creating a new routine.
He’s very popular with reporters who cover the Hollywood beat.
Jane Ellen Wayne. The Leading Men of MGM. 2006
Gene Kelly recalled: “At MGM everyone was simpatico, one with another. Everyone was pitching in. It was fun. We didn’t think it was work.”
Gene, BBC 1974
I never had any creative contact with Mayer. I don’t know anybody who did, except when he told them not to write about toilets or bathrooms because it would offend some mother in Illinois!
Hirschorn. Hollywood Musicals 1981 Foreword by Gene
The members of the group who worked at MGM during my tenure there were very serious about musicals. That is not to say we didn’t make them to entertain and uplift the spirit, but we thought that to do this effectively they had to be superbly crafted.
Michael Singer. A Cut Above. 50 film directors talk about their craft. 1998
Gene, on the ‘talented musical film directors working at MGM':
Well, Vincente Minnelli was there, Charles Walters…Stanley…The underrated fellow was Chuck Walters, who did such great work…At MGM we worked on a lot of pictures that we didn’t take credit for…[Chuck] did a lot of that. I did a lot of that. We didn’t beg for credit…In the old studio days everyone in the family knew who was doing what….I think we liked working together. And I think we did have camaraderie. But everything wasn’t easy…
Photoplay January 1946
Although Kelly’s contract with MGM is as a producer-director, he sees no immediate likelihood of his taking advantage of the terms. For the present he intends to confine himself to acting and devising and executing dance numbers.
“When I’m too feeble to walk around the set or emote, I’ll probably direct,” he says. “When I get real tired, I’ll produce. They’re very nice about all that at Metro.”…
Toledo Blade. March 5th 1950. Hedda Hopper
I like to direct…but my name as a director means nothing at the box office. As an actor or dancer I do. So if I take timeout to direct a picture, the studio likely loses money, because I could be utilizing that same time in acting in a film. That’s my problem, and I can see the studio’s viewpoint.
Seventeen magazine. September 1946
Gene is probably MGM’s most irreplaceable star because of his many talents. He’s identified as a dancer “just a bit better than anyone else,” and he also gets raves for his choreography, his dramatic acting (sometimes it even borders on the sinister) and his singing. He has an actor-producer-director contract at MGM and wouldn’t change the varied opportunity it gives him for a fatter immediate paycheck.
George Frazier. Magazine article. 1947
In addition to being an irrepressible boy scout, Gene is probably the most abundantly talented entertainer in the world…the most irreplaceable piece of property under contract to any motion picture studio. In an aggressive and ruthless profession Gene is outstanding for his complete unselfishness and loyalty.
Silver Screen. April 1947
Gene Kelly was handed a $50,000 bonus by his MGM bosses…just at the time when they were cutting down their list of players. Gene must be bringing in the silver at the box-office.
[Note. This may perhaps have partly been accounted for by the $25,000 payment he received for the story of Take Me Out To The Ball Game, though I have no evidence for that, just an idea. Or the amount may have been exagerrated.]
Photoplay June 1949
A twenty-fifth anniversary!
But on this occasion the celebrant – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios – gives presents instead of receiving them. So win a
present from a Metro star!
[Gifts included: a set of costume jewellery, a purse carried in the Forsyte Saga, a tennis racquet, a diamond ring and wedding band. Some of the stars included Van Johnson, Robert Taylor, Janet Leigh, Ava Gardner, etc. Ann Miller was giving away the shoes she wore in On The Town. To win you had to say which gift you were trying for, and complete a jingle.]
For twenty-five years now Leo’s roar
Has been the prelude to movies galore.
Long may he reign
In his movie domain
………………..…
[ Pretty ropey huh? With all the writing talent at MGM you would think they could have come up with something a little more exciting! Or even something which scanned well!]
Gene’s contribution was a Gruen wrist watch.
Evening Independent. August 25th 1949
The actor is now making The Knife, his first heavy dramatic role since before the war. He said he met with some opposition to a departure from musicals.
“Some of the execs. Would rather see me in a musical, where they are sure that my name would bring in a million. But others consider it kinder to give a change of pace to a guy who might be hobbling around in five years unable to dance.”
Los Angeles Times. October 7th 1951
Probably it is significant that on their 10th wedding anniversary…Betsy Blair presented her husband, Gene Kelly, with a contour chair for his office at MGM. It provides a big essential in his life today – a chance to rest. That is one thing Kelly has little or no time to do, because at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he is under contract, he is designated as a quintuple-threat man. This implies no end of duties…Kelly is today unique in pictures…
“I let myself in for plenty of work when I decided to experiment in choreography for the screen. But then I can’t complain; the studio doesn’t restrict me. They let me act, direct, design dance numbers, everything else. It could hardly be said that I’m suffering from a lack of variety….However I do feel that I need a rest because I cut short a European trip to prepare for Singin’ In The Rain which followed An American In Paris, both of which were demanding jobs.”
Los Angeles Times. July 25th 1954. Hedda Hopper.
Gene Kelly sat behind a desk in his office at MGM, an adding machine on one side, typewriter on the other, and telephone within easy reach. The only incongruous note in this otherwise business-like room was a bright-red contour chair on which rested a neatly folded afghan in a checkered design.
I wondered when Gene found time to curl up in the chair, cover himself with the afghan, and catch some shut-eye, for Orson Welles of the old days looks like a slacker compared with this dancing dynamo who acts, directs, produces, and on Sundays relaxes by playing volleyball.
Modern Screen. July 1953
Gene Kelly’s first contract with MGM was scheduled to expire. Kelly’s films had grossed over $75,000,000 for the studio, and Loew’s, Inc. had no intention of letting Kelly go.
In seven previous years the studio had paid him relatively little, especially when one realises that Gene worked not only as an actor but as a director, choreographer, and writer as well. As a matter of fact, he was regarded by the studio as a one-man unit.
In 1951,Kelly, according to Hollywood standards, should have been earning a minimum of$5000 a week. He was earning less than half that figure. Taxes, expenses, and commissions being what they are, he and Betsy had managed to put aside only a small amount of savings for the proverbial rainy day.
When Gene’s contract expired, he was offered many lucrative deals. He could have picked up $10,000 a week at Las Vegas. He could have shared in the profit of independent productions. He could have gone to another studio as a unit producer.
The executives at MGM knew all this. They knew most of all that they must under no circumstances lose Gene. After all, hadn’t his American In Paris won the Academy Award, the first time in ten long years an MGM film had garnered that honor?
What sort of incentive would keep Kelly at MGM?
One of the bigshots of Loew’s, Inc. had the answer. Congress had just passed a new tax law. A man could work outside of the U.S.A., and all his earned income after 18 months would be tax free.
The proposition was made to MCA, Kelly’s agents. They investigated in detail. They checked all the legal angles. Gene insisted that he would do absolutely nothing that was not 100 per cent legal and above board.
“Look,” he was told…”MGM has millions abroad in blocked currency. The only way they can use that money is to make pictures in foreign countries. It is no legal sin to make a film in London or in Paris or in Italy.”…
It wasn’t very long before pretty nearly everyone in Hollywood climbed aboard the 18-months bandwagon. Evelyn Keyes was the first, then Gary Cooper, Ava Gardner, Kirk Douglas, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Alan Ladd, Lana Turner…
Because of this Hollywood exodus, Kelly is bearing the brunt of public griping…
What does he have to say about it?
“I was asked to make motion pictures abroad. The tax advantages were pointed out to me. I’ve made pictures abroad before, even without the 18-months tax set-up. The law was passed by the Congress. It’s on the books and it’s proper and legal. I would sooner cut off my right arm than do anything shady.
“Actors don’t have very lengthy careers; that’s particularly true of dancers…In saving some money for my old age and providing for my family, I don’t see anything morally wrong…”
On the studio side of his life, Kelly is supremely a workman. “Your work,” he has been known to reflect, “comes first. As long as you stick to that, it’s your business what comes second. Forget it, and you’re a gone goose anyway.”
Silver Screen June 1954
The bigger they are, the more sensitive they become. And I do mean the combined blast of Mary Pickford, Louis B. Mayer and David O’Selznick against Dore Schary for omitting mention of past and famous MGM producers on the “Toast Of The Town” TV celebration of the studio’s 30th anniversary. I’m sure Dore didn’t intentionally slight anyone. There was barely enough time to show film clips from old and present pictures and to meet some of the studio’s top stars in person. Incidentally, Debbie Reynolds was amazed backstage, when jittery Fred Astaire could barely hang onto his cane. Let’s face it, TV is the most nerve-wracking ordeal in the world.
Michael Singer. A Cut Above. 50 film directors talk about their craft. 1998
Dory Schary called the upstairs executives “the college of cardinals”. They went to a premiere and decided what should stay and what should go…The number that always seemed to go was the leading man’s ballad.
Johnny Green, Head of music at MGM (Thomas. The Films Of Gene Kelly 1974)
Gene is easygoing as long as you know exactly what you are doing when you’re working with him. He’s a hard taskmaster and he loves hard work. If you want to play on his team you better love hard work too. He isn’t cruel but he is tough, and if Gene believed in something he didn’t care who he was talking to, Louis B Mayer or the gatekeeper. He wasn’t awed by anybody…Gene’s a survivor, a good pupil of changing times.
Motion Picture May 1954
MGM spokesmen credit him today with having revolutionized the musical so far as films are concerned, and having advanced it to a new artistic and cultural level.
Sheridan Morley & Ruth Leon. Gene Kelly, A Celebration 1996
As well as being sociable with his fellow performers, Gene had the common touch and was on easy going terms with all and sundry at MGM – except perhaps the moguls.
Chris Ingham. The Rough Guide To Frank Sinatra. 2005
[On The Town.] The screen rights were bought by MGM before the show opened [on Broadway] but when it appeared, Louis B Mayer was apparently disgusted with the lusty tone and arty music, and shelved the project.
When Arthur Freed was appointed head of production at MGM however, Kelly, who was dying to dance to Bernstein’s music, persuaded him that it was a suitable follow-up to Take Me Out To The Ball Game and Anchors Aweigh.
Motion Picture May 1954
Some MGM officials were pretty leery about the outlook for An American In Paris, considering it rather a rich diet for musical comedy audiences used to chorus cuties. Kelly insisted, mentioning among other points that if this were true, which he doubted, it was time someone weaned them off it.
Certain MGM big shots are also nervous over Invitation To The Dance, a splicing together of three ballet sequences with no dialogue whatsoever. But Kelly’s faith in the public is as strong as ever. “I think they’ll like it,” he said recently. “And not just balletomanes or precious minorities. By ‘they’, I mean the people as a whole. So it’s an experiment, so somebody’s got to experiment. You can’t leave an art form static.” And assuredly Kelly has not.
Johnny Green (Thomas 1974)
Gene by now was the Neil Armstrong of MGM. (1952). He enjoyed great respect and admiration, and in Arthur Freed he had a powerful ally. It was almost a father-son relationship with the father having a near-reverence for the son. Also Gene is not simply a persuasive man – he’s a slugging persuader.
Gene on Louis B Mayer, 1994:
I hated the man. I thought he was bizarre and he never liked me. Fortunately I never dealt directly with him, and, of course, I made the studio money.
Rudy Behlmer. Behind The Scenes. 1982
Donen, Minnelli, Walters , Comden & Green, Lerner & Loewe, Astaire, Judy, Frank,
Donen: "There was nothing in the phone book that said ‘Freed Unit’…he had …a production man and a couple of secretaries, but the unit was a myth created by the fact that he had brought these people to the studio more or less…all worked with him more than anyone else, so we just seemed to be a unit....
"Arthur Freed got his way…the producers…here were all envious of Freed because he had direct access to Mayer. Arthur was courageous, he would have new people doing everything. He was gung-ho for anyone he thought had talent. Because of The Wizard of Oz Mayer thought Arthur Freed was a god – and he WAS a god, with the sort of power he accumulated"...
Comden & Green: "They had a superb music department…it was a group of experts living in a tiny building where they did all the arranging and they were brilliant.
"That’s what the big studios had – all their departments so everything was easily at hand…a roster of stars, music department, costumes, props, it was all there to be pulled together"...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. July 1st 1974
Gene: I’ve seen the big studio system change, but it hasn’t broken down completely. People aren’t bound by contracts like they used to be. MGM was always good to me, very generous, but there were a few times – in the cases of Pal Joey and Guys And Dolls – that I would have liked to been able to switch studios. It was very rare when studios loaned each other stars – which made us feel like professional ballplayers.
Interview Magazine 1994
Gene: What is always most difficult in musicals is the bridge from dialogue to music. In the old musicals, they just said, “I love you”, and started singing. Finally, the public said, “This isn’t real.” That’s something we changed at MGM. You have to stay in character or come out of that character in some kind of fantasy way, but not lose the character.
Gene, Films Illustrated 1980
We had a very close repertory at MGM. We would often do things for which we got no screen credit….we just did things for fun.
Gene, magazine article 1974
I was lucky to be doing what I loved. Life there was a massive adventure for me, an unending experiment.
Gene, Reflections TV interview 1994
The first time you do anything, you are in trouble. That is the story of my career. Every time I did a new thing I had to go up and talk to the executives.
Rudy Behlmer. Behind The Scenes. 1982
Divorcement: The movie studios could not own chains of theatres – it pulled the plug on the whole studio system.
Film Buff. February1976. Barbara Wolf. The Art Of Gene Kelly.
From 1948 on, when television’s impact really began to be felt, it was profit from the musicals alone which saved MGM from immediate bankruptcy. For example, between mid 1948 and 1949, Freed’s films brought in a combined profit of over $14million, while the losses from all other productions came to more than $13 million. Because only musicals were making money, MGM naturally continued to invest in them, so generously in fact, that they soon overwhelmed the relatively limited market and started killing each other off….Between them, American In Paris and Singin’ In The Rain cost $5 million and brought in almost $16 in their first issue…
The studio subsequently made little use of Kelly, yet neither would it release him when such plums as Guys And Dolls, Teahouse Of The August Moon, and, above all, Pal Joey, were held out to him by other studios. His main energies went into futile attempts to win his freedom, with defeat on both fronts: he lost the roles anyway and what was left of good relations at MGM into the bargain.
New York Times January 9th 1956
Gene Kelly’s exclusive-service contract with MGM is being terminated by mutual agreement, although it still has two years to run.
Los Angeles Times. August 30th 1966
If I were to go to any studio with an adult, original musical, I doubt very much if any of them would be interested – at least, it would be very hard going. It is very hard to get a musical off the ground if it has not been brought from Broadway…
Still, you can’t call the studios villains. They want built-in profits
Pittsburgh Post Gazette. December 13th 1968
It’ll probably go down in history as Gene Kelly’s only regret. If he had remained with MGM for two additional years back in the fifties, he would have fulfilled the requirements for a pension and collected $25,000 a year for the rest of his life. MGM, at the time, had no musicals on their schedule and Kelly wasn’t about to sit around doing nothing.
St Petersburg Times. August 4th 1984
“I never thought I’d be in the movies for long. When I signed my contract with David O. Selznick, he had to agree that I could go back to Broadway whenever I wanted to. I didn’t like Hollywood at all at first.”…
The studio system provided a hothouse environment for its stars…but the atmosphere at times became suffocating, Kelly remembers. “It was a form of serfdom,” he says, without any apparent bitterness. “At the same time we were able to create a musical repertory group at MGM unlike any other in the world.”…
Kelly has no regrets about his movie career. “It was a golden time for all of us at MGM,” he says. “We were supported very well, in part because the producers never knew exactly what we were going to do. We had advantages working in musicals – all the script would say was ‘A dance number follows.’ We had the freedom to make it up as we went along.”
