Gene Kelly, Creative Genius
A personal celebration of his life and work
I have moved this section, highlighting Gene's involvement with many charities, from the 'I could encourage you' page. No doubt I will be adding to it as new information about Gene's many 'good deeds' comes to light.
Gene did a great deal of charity work and gave money and other assistance to many individuals and causes in which he believed. Most of this area 
of Gene's life remains private, as he would have wished, but I get quite annoyed when it is said and repeated that Gene was 'tightfisted'. The fact that he did not spend money on fast cars and other 'movie star' extravagances, is rather to his credit. I think so anyway. He also did lots of 'benefit' performances in aid of all kinds of people and charities.
Betsy Blair. The Memory Of All That. 2003.
For quite a few years…Gene helped several of the blacklisted writers, giving money for their families and trying to get them jobs under the table.
New York Times. March 12th 1941
The list of entertainers who will appear at the benefit show for the Greek Festival For Freedom, to be given at midnight, March 28th in Radio City Music Hall, will include…Gene Kelly…
American Cancer Society ad. 1971
I’m Gene Kelly and I have no predictions about the year 2000. But I do want to express the hope that by then, everyone will have quit cigarettes. Nice things happen when you quit. For example, just being able to quit gives you a great feeling of pride and satisfaction.
Silver Screen July 1947
Hollywood’s biggest stars honor the memory of Damon Runyon, famous newspaperman and columnist, by giving freely of
their talents at a benefit in Los Angeles for Damon Runyon Memorial Fund for Cancer Research…
Gene Kelly scored a big hit with his soft shoe number.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette. April 11th 1949
Gene Kelly plays a girl in the Trixie number for the big Friars Frolic on Saturday. The show shapes up as a riot.
St. Petersburg Times. April 18th 1949
For a change, the movie industry gave a benefit for itself Saturday night and raised $301,000 with the most star-filled show within memory.
The all-male Friars Frolic, given by the Actors’ Society, the Friars Club, played before a packed and glamorous house at the Shrine Auditorium. The audience paid up to $100 a seat to benefit the motion picture relief fund, which cares for the industry’s needy.
Here is what the patrons saw: Alan Ladd and Humphrey Bogart in a blackout skit…
A fast-stepping chorus line consisting of Peter Lawford, Ray Milland, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Fred 
MacMurray, Van Johnson, George Murphy and Robert Taylor in “this is our night with Trixie.” Trixie turned out to be Gene Kelly, in a wig and falsies… A soliloquy from Carousel, by Frank Sinatra. Spencer Tracy acting as straight man for Harpo Marx…Monologues by Bob Hope, Danny Thomas, George Jessel…Soft shoe dancing by Dan Dailey.
A comic ballet by…Dennis O’Keefe, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney…and Buster Keaton.
Jack Benny as leader of a hillbilly band and then as Gracie Allen… James Cagney…
Hollywood agreed there never was a show like it.
New York Times. May 6th 1949
St Mark’s Restoration Fund.
The 150th anniversary will be observed with a campaign for $225,000 to maintain and restore one of the few remaining 18th century landmarks. On the committee are movie actors John Huston, Gene Kelly and his wife Betsy Blair and members of many prominent old New York families.
Milwaukee Sentinel. June 13th 1953
Gene Kelly will dance a single performance with the ballet of the Paris Opera in July – for sweet charity.
Screen Album 1954
Kerry’s school needed dough for the PTA. In the midst of other chores, Pop took over. Blending professionals like himself, Cornel Wilde and Bob Cummings with fathers you never heard of, he cooked up a show that rocked the roof, stuffed the pockets of PTA and brought a nod from Kerry.
New York Times 21st June 1957
Film aids hospital.
Opening of The Happy Road [in New York] helps French Institution…others attending were Gene Kelly, star of the film, and Celeste Holm.
Chicago Tribune. December 23rd 1957
Gene Kelly played Santa Claus for the Hollywood Press club, then planed out for Switzerland to do the same thing for his daughter Kerry, in school there.
CONTRIBUTION TO CHARITY RECIPE BOOK 1967
A book of celebrities' favourite recipes, complied by Dinah Shore on behalf of "Women for:" - a volunteer, non-partisan organization
Los Angeles Times. November 13th 1967. And Joyce Haber. November 15th
Andre Courreges, Paris couturier…is in Beverley Hills for his American Debut…
The Courreges party at the Factory caused something close to panic in our populace…Gene Kelly worked wonders with the choreography…it’s a $250 per couple benefit for the Inner City Culture Center.
CEDARS-SINAI BENEFIT. 1974
People magazine. October 1974
22 YEARS LATER IT’S UNCLE GENE AND HIS UMBRELLA
It was positively raining nostalgia in Los Angeles’s 5,200-seat Universal Ampitheater. There on the outdoor stage was Gene Kelly, splashing with gusto through the dance routine that was the hit of the 1952 MGM musical, Singin’ In The Rain. It was the first time in 22 years that he had danced the entire rain sequence. So what if his soft-shoe routine was a touch soggy, his leaps a trifle foreshortened. Kelly is, after all, 62.
“I admit I thought it was an old-hat thing to do,” says Kelly. But he didn’t want to turn down a host like Frank Sinatra, especially for a benefit for a $100 million Cedars-Sinai hospital expansion in L.A. “After all, that dance was a lot of fun – a piece of cake.”
Kelly soon found out differently. The 12 stagehands assembling the set floundered about in their yellow slickers and rain hats. Rehearsal after rehearsal, something went awry…After three frustrating hours, all was ready for the show.
…”In the movie we went down a real street with cobble-stones,” said Kelly. “On this plastic surface I’m still slightly nervous about falling down. I’m holding back a bit.” One hedge against disaster: 15 pairs of shoes with special sole traction.
“Handling the umbrella in the water seems much more difficult,” he conceded. “Twenty-two years later, it’s Uncle Gene and his umbrella.”
The sell-out audience stood and cheered, Sinatra sang, Cary Grant emceed and Jack Benny played the fiddle. With people plunking down from $20 to $5000 per ticket, the estimated take for the evening was well over $2million.
Los Angeles Times. January 24th 1976
…And Gene Kelly will co-host the 3rd annual radiothon for St. Judge Children’s Research Hospital, February 12th.
Los Angeles Times. March 11th 1976
…Such as Gene Kelly and Ricardo Montalban are supporting the annual Boutique Fantastique and Rummage sale by mothers of Good Shepherd Catholic School Parents Club.
Center Theatre Group Volunteers
Los Angeles Times. May 19th 1977
1st Gala Benefit at the Ahmanson. Gene Kelly the compere (“A fancy way of saying I’m to explain what’s happening”) has been on the CTG Board of Directors for 10 years…Theater with a capital T.
Dallas Morning News. April 12th 1987
Fairmont Hotel. March 24th. The Mental Health Association of Dallas County hosted the Galaxy Ball…Gene Kelly attended.
Los Angeles Times. February 2nd 1989
On the auction block at A Vision Of Home were 15 photos taken by Mohammed Ali…Angela Lansbury…Martin Sheen…other celebrities were on hand…Real life photographer Berry Berenson…judged Whoopi Goldberg’s, and Gene Kelly’s to be the best…Gene Kelly’s is a rose on his patio. The stars donated Polaroid shots to raise funds for the Homeless.
Below is a list of some of the charities which Gene supported. It is taken from the letter which Gene wrote to the Navy Department in 1954, after he had been accused of contributing to left-wing organisations. He was pointing out that he and Betsy gave money to many many organisations, some of which were diametrically opposed to the ideals of communism.
Permanent Charities Committee Catholic Scholarships for Negroes
Sister Kenny Foundation Cedars of Lebanon Hospital
National Conference of Christians and Jews Children’s Home Society of California
Denver Hospital and Sanatorium Crippled Children’s Soc. of LA County
International Rescue Committee Florence Crittenden League
American Friends Service Committee Disabled Am. Veterans Service Found. .
Negro Actors Guild
Father Flanagans Boys Home
Catholic Actors Guild Freedom House
National Variety Artists Inc. Girls Vacation Fund
Volunteer Service Photographers Girlstown, USA
Boy Scouts of America Gold Star Wives Service Foundation
Foster Parents Plan for War Children Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind
Motion Picture Relief Fund Guild of the Infant Saviour
National Home for Jewish Children Hollywood Bowl Emergency Fund
Christmas Seal Fund Fa. Marchand, Holy Cross Ch. Hawaii
Ballet Theatre Foundation Hospitalised Veterans Music Service
Union Rescue Mission Sister Lus Maria…Mission
Hollywood Studio Club Lavelle School for the Blind
Jewish Nat. Home for Asthmatic Children Nat. Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
American Indian Fund March of Dimes
American Red Cross Mary Macarthur Memorial Fund
American Relief for Korea Meals for Millions
Arthritis and Rheumatism Fund Nat. Ass. For Mental Health
Boy’s Athletic League Nat. Child Labor Committee
Brothers of St. John of God Church of the Good Shepherd
California Inst. For Cancer Research Care Nat. Wildlife Federation
Riverdale Childrens Home Mickey Finn Youth Foundation
Damon Runyan Fund Parent Teachers Association
Salvation Army Sacred Heart High School
Save the Children Federation (Korea) Y.M.C.A
John Tracy Clinic Y.W.C.A
United Jewish Welfare Fund Military Order of the Purple Heart
United Negro College Fund Hollywood Guild Canteen
Catholic Youth Education Fund Mount St. Mary’s College
Boston University Trinity Church Consecration Fund
American Legion India Famine Emergency Committee
