During the Golden Age of Hollywood, one particular star stands out compared to the rest. Gene Kelly, a man who can be regarded as a creative genius that changed the way people approached film musicals. Kelly altered the way film musicals were made by taking on the responsibility of being a performer, choreographer, and a director all throughout his career. At this point in time this had never been seen before, Kelly was reviving the movie musical industry like never before. Through his movies, he redefined what it meant to dance on the big screen, showing off his original skills and moves, bringing with him this sense of gusto while he danced around. People were taken back by such moves, unable to stop watching, Gene Kelly had something special and he knew it. His choreography and performances seemed so laid back and relaxed, but at the same time both innovative and compelling, almost magical (‘Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer’). Creating a lasting impact on both the worlds of film and dance, Kelley started out as the son of a theatrical manager and an actress.
He and his brother Fred dance acts for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1934. Years later, he made his Broadway debut in the chorus of Leave It to Me (1938), and later scored the antihero role of Joey Evans in the Rodgers and Hart/John O’Hara musical Pal Joey. Kelly’s work was taken notice by film producer, David O. Selznick, who then signed Gene to a seven-year contract. Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) was lent Gene Kelly by Selznick, he then proceeded to star in the movie For Me and My Gal (1942), where he worked alongside Judy Garland, another historically famous actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. At the time Judy Garland was much younger than Kelly, by about ten years, but still was already a major star in that era. MGM then bought out Kelly’s contract with Selznick. Gene Kelly was consistently butting heads with MGM, he continuously fought for the idea to expand the concept of motion picture musicals, knowing that his prime dancing days were a thing of the past, but his acting career was just getting started.
Kelly had a series of mediocre roles lined up, up until MGM loaned him out to Columbia Pictures for Cover Girl with Rita Hayworth in 1944. With this film Kelly was able to add choreographer to his repertoire when schemed up the dance sequence for the ‘Alter Ego’ number. A number in which he was a Brooklyn club owner romancing an up-an-coming actress/model (Rita Hayworth). Gene Kelly constructed his Hollywood musicals with integrated storytelling techniques, psychologically reeling viewers in, which is something that has yet to be seen during this time and changed the way films are made today. Once Metro Goldwyn Mayer realized what kind of talent Gene Kelly had, they withheld him from any other loans to other film production companies, limiting Kelly’s opportunities to star in other films like Pal Joey and Guys and Dolls. This then sparked the long line of MGM musicals that stared Gene Kelly, one of which Gene’s implemented his creative and approach to dancing and production by placing himself in the Anchors Aweigh.
A film wherein Kelly is in a cartoon-like environment, dancing with Jerry the Mouse and Tom the cat from Tom and Jerry (PBS). All these ‘firsts’ that Gene Kelly had done during his time, proved to be what set him apart from the others, what made his work truly distinct. Many compared Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly to be one in the same with their flashy dancing and basically being the only two famous male cinematic dancing during the 1940s and 1950s there wasn’t much to compare them to. To the average viewer at the time, the two of them must have seemed similar, but surely almost anyone can see that the two men’s song and dance routine are quite frankly very different. First off, the two of them started out from very different stages in life, Gene starting out on Broadway when he was thirty years-old, while Fred being thirteen years older than Kelly and starting out at the age of eighteen.
Gene’s primary concern was more towards advancing the art of cinematic choreography and the whole genre of musical films. Kelly and Astaire also differed in the characters that they played, Kelly played more brash, outspoken roles, which were more complex and demanding of him. In Hollywood Heyday, during the second time Dave and Tom went to visit Gene Kelly out in California, they discussed an issue of The New Yorker where Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike suggested the fact that ‘Kelly rarely seemed to pair up with a female partner to good advantage, the way Fred Astaire did throughout his career.’ This was then disputed by Kelly saying ‘I though Updike did a good job of summing me up, but he should know that the roles I was given were way different from Fred’s.
The mode of dance in the 1940s and ’50s was no longer ballroom like it was with the Fred and Ginger pictures in the 1930s.’ By stating the factual difference between the two, Gene Kelly entertains and acknowledges the fact that his own work is fairly unique and distinct even compared to the most similar actor to him during that time. The problem with this comparison is that it limits the real study of Gene Kelly’s style. Where Astaire could turn anyone into his partner, Kelly could turn anyone into an object/prop. I will discuss the three primary partners Kelly uses-women, men/groups, and objects/props – and what these partners tell us not only about the characters he portrays, but also about Kelly himself. Kelly is not the everyman everyone say to he is, but more appropriately he’s on his lonesome or the lonely man. His dance sequences with human partners are just mirror images of himself.
To Kelly, humans and objects/props were not partners, but instead an extension of himself. It’s as if Kelly had no (human) partners; he had the magic and fantasy of dance with himself. He reverts back to a child-like wonder and brings the audience with him. In many of his films, Kelly’s characters had a promising romantic relationship with the leading lady. These dance sequences would come as a result of his relationship with his female counterpart, but these women had a way of demoting Kelly’s characters from manhood to childhood. Throughout Kelly’s career, he was known for using everyday objects/props such as newspapers, trashcan lids, roller skates, and even animated characters in his dancing sequences. An example being in infamous scene of Singin’ in the Rain where Gene Kelly is constantly twirling an umbrella, jumping on lamp poles, and fiddling with his top hat.
Some of the objects/props that he uses are associated with childhood and adolescence, but more specifically they are everyday objects anyone would come across. When Kelly used every day, child-like objects/props in his dance routines, it was a way for his adult character to create a fantasy world for him to escape, express his emotions, and always remain in control. His childlike style mixed perfectly into a genre that was already filled with surrealist elements. A world where people break out into singing and dancing already has an adolescent charm to it, but Kelly pushed it even further into a new style of musical. Kelly created a new style of dancing when he came to Hollywood that was unlike anyone had ever seen. It was not just about his athleticism or ruggedness, but about the need to control everything around him.
He was an auteur, whose style was about perfection and control, and the most perfect musical numbers involved him and everyday objects. Kelly’s control behind the camera (through directing and choreographing) often appeared on the screen in his own performances. One exception would be when he taught some of his co-stars how to dance, but even then they were performing alongside him. Both Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds had never danced before being put on screen with Kelly (in Anchors Aweigh and Singin’ in the Rain respectively) and Kelly had the added task of teaching them how to dance. This complicates the ‘Everyman’ persona somewhat, as this control (even over his co-stars) suggests that Kelly was an individual who not only used his skills, but tried to teach them to others as well.
