He didn't just sing in the rain.

I remember sitting at the dining room table having a discussion with my then father-in-law, and the subject of Gene Kelly came up. He said that he couldn't stand Gene Kelly because all he ever did was that one dance in "Singing in the Rain" every time he was on television. Spoken like a person whose only exposure to the glorious movie musical was the little tidbits that were trotted out on Variety shows of the day, all of Gene Kelly's amazing career put into an edited, scaled down version on a 27 inch screen or smaller. I had to disagree with my father-in-law. Gene Kelly was not just this guy who danced around and sang in the rain. Was he an exceptional dancer? Yes, but he was so much more. He was a director, choreographer, actor, singer and don't even get me started on his athletic prowess. Today would have been Gene Kelly's 100th birthday, and I was listening to a story on NPR. Mr. Kelly said once in an interview, "If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I'm the Marlon Brando." If you watch any of Gene Kelly's dance sequences in any of his films, that certainly rings true. They are filled with athletic leaps and rolls and slides. At times you watch, and it is incomprehensible how a human could do what he is doing. I remember long ago seeing a clip of him dancing on the thin two by fours of the frame work of a house. No stunt double, no wires, just Gene Kelly being  nimble on his feet and mastering control of the way his body moved. It's astonishing. He did his own stunts in many movies. When you watch that clip, you can't believe the risk. One of the neatest things about living in the age of technology that we do, you can pull up almost anything on your computer in a matter of seconds and see it. A few years ago someone posted a link to this clip of Gene doing a dance on Roller skates. I'm lucky if I can stand on roller skates, he's tap dancing. When you watch it, there are several things that he does that if most normal people were doing them, they would land flat on their fanny. He stays upright and makes it look like he was born with roller skates on his feet.I am sure that every TV appearance Gene Kelly ever made they asked him to do "Singin' in the Rain" He was probably sick of it himself, but he was a true entertainer, and he gave the people what they wanted. Watch any of his films, and you can see he was about making people happy. And to all the haters out there of that famous dance number in the pouring rain, it's a classic. It's well done, and, by the way, when he shot that he had a fever of 103. How many of you could have performed that way with a raging fever? I love Gene Kelly and always have! Thank God his work is preserved on DVD! Because unlike my father-in-law, I can watch Mr. Kelly do that number over and over again!