THAT'S ME IN THE SECOND ROW
PART 9
We were now the "Old Farts" in the business. We were physically getting older, and could not do what we did 30 years ago. So, we retired. After the three of us retired, we sat around the house. It was quite an adjustment for people who have worked hard every day of their lives for the last 50 years. We did not make love as often as we did, but we had plenty of companionship!
At that point I called a lawyer in and he wrote up our wills. Each one of us would be the heir of the others, and the finances for all of us, for our final years, was set up. I also had him draw up a Real Estate Corporation to handle the properties I had purchased, along with the unsold property my father has bought. There were only four owners of stock in this company: me, my sister, my amaretto and Peter. While the lawyer dealt with us, (he made plenty of money for his services) I had him transfer some property (in what was to become Silicon Valley) to my niece and nephews who were into computers. The lawyer had figured out how to do this without paying taxes. My nieces and nephews were now very rich Irish Catholic youth! The final strings of our "Golden years" were now tied up, and we wondered what we were going to do with our remaining time?
We began to get phone calls asking what was it like? We answered as best we could. Then a local college called, asking if we would be interested in teaching a college class on the making of movies in the "Golden Years." This involved having to prepare "class plans," with names and dates, thus we had to write up notes. These notes became the basis of this book. All royalties (and our salaries) were assigned to the local college I taught at.
In writing this book, I had to pick and choose as to what episodes to retell. I did not tell all, as some stories were interesting unto themselves, but did not contribute to the purpose of this book. Through my friendship with Mr. Freed I continued to work through the years, and had a small part in making some of the best MGM musicals. I drilled the dancers in the "Gotta Dance" sequence in "Singing in the Rain." There was an interesting story on this film. In the 30's, Arthur Freed was a lyricist, and his songs were in many films. He gathered up copies of all the songs he had written, and dumped them on the desk of Comden and Green (who had been imported from Broadway.) He said "Write a musical using these songs." the result was "Singing in the Rain." All of the lyrics in this movie, with one exception ("Moses Supposes"), were written by Freed. As the songs had been used in previous musical movies, the score was not eligible for an Academy Award nomination.
There is another interesting insider story, and that involves Donal O'Conner's rendition of "Make `em Laugh." In a previous film there had been a number called "Be A Clown" with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Freed had written his own lyrics and gave them to O'Conner with Cole Porter's music. Mr. Porter was aware that his music was used in the film; but he never said anything! He was not paid for his work and did not get credit. I personally think his silence was because he saw the finished number and he realized that Donald O'Connor had produced an immortal cinematic Gem, an underrated number most often overshadowed by Kelly singing "Singing in the Rain."
With Mr. Freed, I worked on the Ballet in "An American in Paris." That was an interesting experience! The idea of having a 17 minute ballet in a major movie was Laughable; But the power of Mr. Freed, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donnen was such that it came to be. I drilled the dancers, and made an appearance in the ballet. If you look at the ballet, there is a character rotating a feathered pole, that's me!
There was one other interesting story in the making of "An American in Paris." Irene Sherif did the costumes As was the custom of the time, she made sketches of each costume. When it came to the ballet costumes, she was not satisfied with plain sketches, so, working from her imagination, she sketched in backgrounds. She came to see the ballet filmed and was amazed to discover that the set decorator had made her background sketches into scenery.
I include these three stories as proof that I was there! To me, the greatest tragedy in movies was when Donnen and Kelly fell out. Why they parted ways is not for me to tell. The genius of Freed, Donen, and Kelly, acting together, came to an end. I think we all have lost something GREAT as we lost great films when the studio system died.
I am now retired. I did what I wanted to do and made plenty of money. Now-a-days, I spend my time preparing class lessons and writing my book. I rarely see current movies. I had a good life!