Gene Kelly Story

In the late 70's I was doing a bit of acting. I had recently been an extra in a Paul Newman movie, WUSA. I was asked to come to a blood drive, it was a blood drive for the actors fund. One of the members of the fund drive called me over to meet Gene Kelly. Gene was in his late 60's. I remember how small he was then, and he looked pretty frail. He couldn't have been nicer.

This part of the story came in 2024. My paternal grandparents lived in West Hollywood, on Rangely Avenue, just west of Robertson Boulevard, east of Doheny and just south of Melrose. My grandmother helped in the Kelly family owned dance studio, Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance, in Johnstown Pennsylvania. In 1941, when Gene was signed by David O. Selznick, Gene's mother called my grandmother and asked her if she could give Gene a place to stay in those early years. If I had only known that back in the 70's when I met Gene, we may have had a nice talk. The house had two apartments on the top floor. This is a colorized version of a B&W photo that was taken in 1938. The two sides of our family, the Ling's and the Brakke's, lived in the apaprtments. I can only assume that the ground floor had 3 bedrooms, one of which Gene stayed in. He didn't live there long as his career at MGM took off fairly fast.