It was lunchtime, and he was hungry, so he ducked into one of the thousands of hamburger joints that dot New York's sidestreets, slid onto a stool at the counter, and ordered one medium rare, please -- and don't spare the onions. "Coming up," said the waitress briskly, "right away, sir -- oooooooh!" and down went the burger on the floor and up went a pair of large, believe-it-or-not looking eyes. "Pardon me," she breathed, "but aren't you Gene Kelly?" The sailor glared, and shoved his cap further over his bright brown eyes, very tough-like. "What?" snorted Gene. "Me, a sissy dancer? I should say not! I'm a sailor!" "Well, I'm sorry, " the waitress muttered, "I didn't he'd eat here, anyway!"Gotta love the 40s vocabulary, the so-called quotes, stream-of-consciousness, and all of the exclamation marks!
Which goes to show how wrong a gal can be. Why, he even fooled his wife once, only it was before Betsy Blair became Mrs. Flying Irishman. He was dance director at New York's Diamond Horseshoe, and this pretty little redhead came around looking for a job. "Who recommended you?" they asked at the Horseshoe. "Why, that tacky-looking guy over there," said Betsy, "that janitor -- or stagehand." And she pointed right at the unabashed Mr. Kelly, who started goin' steady with her that night. But by now Betsy's used to his very un-Hollywood attitudes about clothes: When he was driving away from his pre-induction physical (he's out now!) a cop nabbed him for cutting a corner. In old clothes and with no license, he had to go to court and phone Bets frantically to rescue him! They're quite a couple, those Kellys, with Betsy studying Russian like mad and refusing to work at her husband's studio, anxious though she is to get into movies. "Imagine!" says Betsy. "He'd probably come traipsing out on the set and tell people I was the cleaning woman!"
Friday, November 23, 2007
Movie Magazines: Gene Kelly in Screen Album Oct-Nov 1946
One joy for Gene Kelly fans is finding old movie magazines with stories about him. Sometimes the "interviews" are quite amusing and they remind me of the old "Tiger Beat" and "16" magazines I used to read as a kid. Here's a brief story from Screen Album magazine in the October-November 1946 issue:
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2 comments:
You are so right Donna. I love to read articles about Gene in those old, musty smelling mags. Of course you have to take some of them with a pinch of salt, but they often give a little insight or bit of new information on our man. I sometimes have a problem choosing just a couple of quotes from an article, to put on my website. By the way, this one is new to me. It's great fun.
Thanks, auntsuzy! They are great fun to read. I hope I can find a few more "stories" to post. If only my grandmother didn't throw out my mom's stash of movie mags!
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