Ryan over at Main Street Gazette finally added “Singin’ In The Rain” to his Great Movie Ride marathon DVD collection. Believe it or not, he had never seen the movie before. Myself, I like Gene Kelly and am a fan of “Singin'” in both the movie and stage musical format. Still, I had not come across this “Disney News” article from 1989 that Ryan has where Gene Kelly is interviewed, including a bit where Walt Disney helped Kelly out with a very important detail for one of his dances.
It was “Anchors Aweigh,” in which Kelly performs a hornpipe with Jerry, the cartoon mouse, that led to his long friendship with Walt Disney.
“If it hadn’t been for Walt, I wouldn’t have gotten that number on the screen,” he says. “The MGM people didn’t believe it was possible. I told them to call Walt. He said, ‘send Gene over here.’ I went to the studio, and Walt was trying to lick the same problem himself, experimenting with live action and cartoon characters in ‘The Three Caballeros.’ He agreed that my dance with the mouse could be done and phoned MGM to that effect, which was all they needed to hear. Walt and I became very good friends after that.”
Kelly even played a part in the current High School Musical craze. Read the whole article at Main Street Gazette.