Although I have no quarrel with Joseph's mostly astute comments about THE BELLE OF NEW YORK, I must question his assertion that Gene Kelly never wanted to do EASTER PARADE and faked an injury to get out of it. Can Joseph cite a source for this assertion? There are many sources that cite Kelly's injury as a real one. (As a contract player, how could he have faked it, anyway?) The only controversy at the time was that Kelly told MGM he'd hurt his foot during rehearsals, when in reality he'd broken it at his home playing one of his fiercely competitive games of football. Judy Garland -- Irving Berlin -- Arthur Freed producing -- why wouldn't Kelly have wanted to get in on such a project? It had "hit" written all over it, and of course that's exactly what it turned out to be when it was finally released with Astaire in Kelly's role.
-- Preston Neal Jones
-- Preston Neal Jones