Gene Kelly, Creative Genius

Gene:  I believe in God, the American Way of Life, the freedom of the individual, and everything the Constitution of the United States stands for…

The oath I took when I entered the United States Naval Reserve binds me in conscience as strongly as it ever did. I will take up arms against any enemy of this country and willingly die. Loyalty is never tested by word, but by deed. Give me the deed and I will prove it.

 

This page will feature quotes concerning Gene’s political activities and ideals. I would not insult my American friends by daring to try to explain or discuss their political history in any way. All that I know about American politics is what I have gleaned during my study of Gene and his era, and by sharing discussions with American friends.

Gene’s political ideology played a central role in his life, so I think I should include information which I have gathered, if only to disabuse the minds of those who believe that Gene was a ‘movie star’, first and last, and had no other idea in his head but that of being ‘famous’, and of making money to spend on the good things of life.

All through his life he was what has been described as a ‘good left-wing Democrat’. He never wavered or changed his stance, even when to remain firm could have meant the end of his career. His first wife Betsy has said that his beliefs were set in stone, not open to negotiation.

On the other hand he was also a ‘hands off’ person, who would fight to the death to ensure that those of differing opinions from himself should be allowed to express them freely.

 

Motion Picture magazine,

 Betsy:  I think it was his attitude toward life, toward other people, that made me fall in love with him. In one of our first talks together, for instance, he asked me: “What do you believe in most?” Being sixteen I never thought very deeply about what I believed in most. Come to think of it, nobody had ever asked me! I just said, ‘Oh, I don’t know. What do you believe in most?’ And he answered, "In everyone having enough to eat." Simple little bombshells like that.

But as I soon learned, Gene loves people he's never even seen. Gene loves - it's a big word to use - Humanity. I am sure it was this attitude of his, toward life, toward people, a concept so different from any I had ever had, that made him different from anybody else and made me fall in love with him, and marry him.

 

St Petersburg Times. August 4^th 1984

What bothered Kelly most about the movie community was its hidebound nature. “It was very cliquish, very much a small town,” he recalls. “The actors, producers and directors were very naïve. You’d go into someone’s living room and talk about voting for Roosevelt for president, and two people who were Republicans would get up and leave. Thank God, that kind of stuff is long gone.”

 

Silver Screen. April 1947

Besides his career, he finds time to be an active member of the Screen Actors Guild board of directors; to work hard for the committee on veterans’ affairs of the Independent Citizens Committee, and even to do some political campaigning, On the latter score, he doesn’t beat around a verbal bush, like many actors who are afraid their political views will win disfavor from bosses or fans.

“I’m a Democrat and I made speeches for the Democrats in the Fall campaign. I don’t know why I shouldn’t say so. We’re still guaranteed freedom of speech. A good thing too. Imagine an Irishman named Kelly not wanting to make a speech about something or other!”

 

Salute. November 1946

Salute of the month, to Gene Kelly, for participating in the fight for a square deal for veterans as soon as he was discharged from the Navy. In New York, he served as chairman of both the Independent Citizens Committee rally at Madison Square Gardens to protest discrimination against Veterans, and the American Legion’s Operation Housing rally.

 

Lois McClelland. The Neighbours Are Talking. Motion Picture magazine, 1950

Beyond the mere accident of birth, Gene is actually a citizen of the world. He takes his rights and privileges as an American seriously, and exercises them. He belongs to forward-looking political groups, not just in name, but in body and in spirit. He’s amazingly well-informed and believes in the rights of the individual to express himself, be he factory worker, congressman or movie actor.

 

Seventeen magazine. September 1946

Kelly is matter of fact about playing his part as a citizen, at which he is no novice.. He appears at many rallies and meetings to promote ideas of economic security and understanding. But it isn’t the “thing to do” for Gene; he just takes it for granted – so he doesn’t talk much about it. “Prejudice is nothing but cowardice,” according to Gene. “If you’re bested by someone, a reference to his religion or color is an easy out. Kids are willing to examine their prejudices if they have any.”

A friend once complained to Gene about liberals talking among themselves, seemingly not accomplishing too much or converting anyone. “Don’t you think it’s worth it?” Kelly asked. “Seems to me that a single line of newspaper publicity from one of these rallies to get decent housing or jobs for veterans makes it worthwhile. I’d do a tap routine on every corner if it would help.”

 The thirty-four-year-old dancer thinks maybe his consciousness of problems of bigotry and prejudice stems from the fact that he was always on the “fringe.” He has been barred from some organizations because he’s a Catholic. Neighborhood toughs in Pittsburgh taunted Gene about his religion. The Kelly fists answered such prejudice then – today his verbal attacks are less bloody but just as effective.

 

Irish America magazine. 1990

Interview with Michael Scanlon:

Scanlon: I recall seeing you at a rally for Bobby Kennedy in Los Angeles in 1968. Kennedy was late in coming to the rally and to keep the crowd entertained, you rose up from the audience and did a little waltz or foxtrot with a woman who was there.

Gene: You're right. I'd forgotten about that.

Scanlon: I can't quite recall what Bobby said that night but I do remember the cheer that went up when you did that little dance.

Gene: Well, being an ardent Democrat in the Kennedy-Roosevelt tradition, I was also a close friend of Bobby's. And so it was apropos that I should help out like that.

Scanlon: Were you always a Democrat?

Gene: Yes, I was always a Democrat since Roosevelt's time when I was in college – and I still am.

Scanlon: What about your fellow actor, Ronald Reagan, what do you think of his politics?

Gene: I never did agree with his “supply side” economics and I think the country is seeing the effect of that kind of economic philosophy now with the budget deficit and all the financial problems we are having.

But when it comes to aesthetics and art in America, we don't let politics interfere with any of that and I am grateful, of course, for the Lifetime Achievement Award which was presented to me by President Reagan a few years ago. As far as a personal relationship, I knew Reagan for years when we worked together in the Screen Actors Guild.

Scanlon: I understand you do a great deal of reading in politics and history.

Gene: Yes, history is a hobby of mine. I just finished the new book by Schama about the French Revolution and I found it very enlightening.

 

 Motion Picture 1950

He hates to be shoved around… He still hates to see anyone shoved around and frequently is willing to go to bat for his indignations...

Kelly is habitually…talkative, intelligent. Well-read, extraordinarily articulate with a mobile, animated face and emphatic opinions on a wide range of subjects

 

Keeping Up With Kelly. Photoplay 1945

Come six o’clock every evening, Gene pulled off his dancing slippers…and took over his duties as just another citizen. Important duties to him. Such as conferring with different committees, making short wave radio broadcasts overseas for the boys, planning a benefit to raise money for a recreation hall to help combat juvenile delinquency, or maybe boning up on some speech he’d been called to give, possibly at a political rally…Gene is intensely interested in politics and government, in the principles of fair play and security for all, more tolerance and better racial understanding….

You’ll always find Gene, whether it be politics or anything else, out slugging for the underdog, the little guy…

 

Picturegoer 1946

Gene…”the realist”, faced serious issues, with the attitude of a well-read man who “whatever the subject, supports an open mind without for a moment yielding his own convictions”.

 

      Hollywood Greats. 2001

He was just a good fellow who was for the underdog, who was for the unions, who was for the working man.

 

Los Angeles Times. October 25^th 1946

Roy Brewer and strike leader Herbert Sorrell, leaders of rival Hollywood union factions, early today agreed to take part in a long-distance telephone conference with the American Federation of Labor Arbitrators later today…the agreement was reached, it was said, after Gene Kelly proposed the idea...

 

From Take Me Along brochure, 1974

In January 1964 he travelled to the French-speaking countries in Africa, under the auspices of the cultural exchange program of the State Department and the USIA

 

Evening Independent. January 29^th 1964

Gene Kelly, back in Hollywood after a 24 day tour of Africa, reports; “I went into the back country every chance I got, to see the tribal dances. But in the cities they wanted me to teach American steps, especially the Lindy Hop. It was the favourite.” The Lindy Hop originated in New York City Harlem 30 years ago.

 

New York Times. 26^th January 1964

An American in this Paris of Africa, is on his toes. He has danced his way into the heart of the cosmopolitan capital of Senegal without once putting on his tap shoes. He arrived January 8^th on the first leg of a tour of seven African countries.

 

Chicago Tribune. February 3^rd 1964

WBBM’s current host Larry Attebery will talk to Gene Kelly via tape this afternoon, about Gene’s USIA tour of Africa.

 

Virgin Islands Daily News. November 14^th 1967

Gene Kelly: I think anyone who is a citizen of the United States should have the right to run for office. Just because that citizen was or is in show business should not exclude him from that right. I don’t know Mrs. Black [Shirley Temple] personally but even though I am a Democrat, I find her efforts to involve herself in public life admirable.

 

St. Petersburg Times. January 27^th 1963

President and Mrs. Kennedy spent two hours mingling with the Democratic Gala stars at the late supper afterwards in the L.B. Johnson house…Not only did some of the incredible collection of top performers perform all over again in the intimacy of the Johnson’s drawing room, but the President performed for them..

Every time one of the stars got up to sing, Gene Kelly, one of the emcees at the gala, called out, “Sing something Irish.”…Finally the President spoke up, “I’ll sing something Irish Let’s sing The Wearing Of The Green,” he told Gene. Whereupon the two did a duet the listeners called “out of this world”…Then came the hilarious part of the late show. Kelly rolled back the vice president’s rug a little, so he could do a soft-shoe to Carol Burnett’s vocalising…While she warbled Singin’ In The Rain, he danced. Calling out once, “Faster, Carol,” only to be mimicked by Carol, who promptly sang so fast he had to beg her to slow down.

 

St.Petersburg Times. June 16^th 1965. Merriam Smith

I have never seen anything quite like the Festival of the Arts, staged at the White House by Mrs. L.B. Johnson…It was fun….13 hours of excerpts from the finest of current American Art –literature, drama, films, ballet…painting, sculpture, photography…Gene Kelly, of Hollywood and Broadway, Charlton Heston and Helen Hayes were quite positive in their approval…after supper, Gene Kelly, still lithe and youthful after years as one of America’s more popular dancers, acted as emcee for the Robert Joffrey Ballet…and a brief concert by Ellington.

 

Pittsburgh Post Gazette. March 17^th 1967

The capital of the United States looks suspiciously these days at any Hollywood personality who drops in out of the skies…But Gene Kelly of Pittsburgh, put everyone at their ease immediately the other day. His visit, he said, had no political significance whatsoever.

“Besides,” Mr. Kelly told the dinner gathering of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters at the Staller-Hilton hotel, “I’m a Democrat, and in California the Democrats aren’t very popular with the voters right now. My mother called me from Pittsburgh not so long ago and asked me why I didn’t run for office, too. She said if George Murphy and Ronald Reagan were able to make it, so could I. After telling mom that they were Republicans and I was a Democrat, you know what her answer was? ‘You tell the Democrats to get themselves a new casting director.’”

People were saying, Mr. Kelly went on, that what this country needs besides a good five-cent cigar is a good strong third party.

“Well, we already have one,” he insisted. “It’s called The Screen Actors Guild.”…

[A TV interviewer asked] “Didn’t you once make a movie with the junior senator from your state of California?” [George Murphy]

“I certainly did, my very first one…”

“Have you called George yet?”…

I’m afraid I won’t have time,” Mr. Kelly said, “besides, I see him practically every day when he’s home. George lives just a few doors away from me in Beverley Hills…I used to run into George walking his dog in the neighborhood time after time during the Senate race, and it was a little embarrassing for both of us,” he chuckled, “because he knew I was out campaigning for Pierre Salinger.”…

Congressman William Moorhead thought it was unfortunate Gene Kelly didn’t still live in Pittsburgh.

“You’d probably be in my district,” he reflected, “and that would be another vote for me.”…

Not even on the return trip to the airport that night could Gene Kelly get away from politics. The limousine hired for the day for the Kellys was chauffeured by one Jasper Williams.

“You know who I recently chauffeured around Washington for two weeks?” Mr. Williams didn’t wait for a reply. “Ronald Ragan, that’s who!”

Mr. Kelly, tired but happy, slipped back into the plush upholstery and sighed:

“I guess I know when I’m licked.”

 

St. Petersburg Times. March 1970

Headquarters for Jesse M. Unruh, a candidate for Democratic nomination for governor in the November elections, recently announced an Entertainment and Communication committee to elect Jesse Unruh. Co-chairmen are Bill Cosby, Shirley MacLaine, Trini Lopez, Gene Kelly and Robert Wise.

 

Los Angeles Times. May 1^st 1974

Justice in America. Fact or fiction? Will be the theme of the seventh annual Spring conference dinner sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation at the Beverley Hills Hotel…Gene Kelly will act as emcee…The main speaker will be senator Charles H. Percy…

It is ironic that it was Gene who introduced Betsy to his left-wing friends in New York before they were married. She has said that Gene was wiser than she was, he was more discerning in what he put his name to.

 

McGilligan & Buhle. Tender Comrades. 1997

Betsy, on being asked if Gene tried to talk her out of becoming a Communist:

He never tried to stop me from doing anything. He was always very free with me.

 

Hirschorn Gene Kelly 1974

Gene: The prejudice I encountered at college made a terrific impression on me, probably because I’d come from a family where the word prejudice was never mentioned….it had a lot to do with my thinking and future outlook on life.

 

McGilligan & Buhle. Tender Comrades 1997

Betsy Blair: Gene and Dick (Gene’s best friend until he was killed in the war) were, I would say now, Social Democrats, although they don’t really exist in America. But they were good left-wing people who believed in all the right things – trade-unions, anti-racism.

 

 Hirschorn 1974

Betsy: His friends were all left-wing intellectuals, and would hang around Louie Bergen’s, talking about Ibsen or the Spanish Civil War and other subjects of which I had never even been aware. I’d never met such stimulating people before…

Before I knew it, I’d become interested in socialism myself – I even attended some Marxist lectures, which Gene didn’t.

 

Photoplay 1945

Gene is intensely interested in politics and government, in the principles of fair play and security for all, more tolerance and racial understanding. Long before this year’s presidential elections made it fashionable for movie stars to shine…you could find both the vigorous young American and his vivacious red-haired Betsy hard at work, slugging away to help put across the bill, the proposition, the man they believed in their hearts to be right…Recently he went all out bitterly fighting a proposition he felt to be definitely anti-labor and against the little people. He addressed meetings at night and Betsy addressed circulars during the day.

 

New York Times January 1946

Gene Kelly, Paul Robeson and Jose Ferrer will speak on “The artist as a citizen,” tomorrow at Henry Miller’s theatre.

 

New York Times.  Sunday May 19^th 1946

Veterans and non-veterans at two American Legion housing rallies yesterday poured out complaints over the lack of housing. With Winston O’Keefe, executive secretary of “Operation Housing.” Gene Kelly presided as chairman.

 

Deseret News. October 24^th 1944

Dancer Gene Kelly even goes around ringing doorbells in his espousal of the Rooseveltian cause. When Truman…spoke, Judy Garland, Gloria de Haven and Danny Kaye sang and Gene Kelly danced

 

Chicago Tribune. March 15^th 1960

Atomic NATO opposed.

Among those signing the statement were…Gene Kelly…

 

Los Angeles Times. August 8^th 1963

Some of Hollywood’s highest priced performers gathered in the Lytton Center for visual arts and pledged to take part in the march on Washington in support of civil rights…Gene Kelly, Gregory Peck…

Much of what has been written about Gene’s political life comes from the time of the blacklisting, from the antics of the House Unamerican Activities Committee. I do not pretend to know much about this dreadful period in American history, but reading around the subject it seems quite bizarre and unreal. How could it have happened in a seemingly modern, civilised society? It was very real however, and the lives of many talented artistes, famous and unknown, were ruined. Many Hollywood figures were named as subversives during the hearings, which took place in the late 1940s and early 50s. Those on the ‘lists’ knew they would probably never work again unless they abased themselves, recanted any real or imagined allegiance to the Communist party, and named names of their former friends and associates. Gene was never a communist, he hated anything resembling regimentation. Betsy however was keen to join the Party, though they refused to have her, because of Gene’s fame.

 

Eugene Register Guard. June 19^th 1949

Tenney Committee. Gene: “I don’t know what Mr. Tenney is talking about. I am not a communist, never was, and have no sympathy with Communist activities. The only line I know how to follow is the American line.”

 

 

Gene, addressing a political meeting, LA 1947

I’m Gene Kelly. Now, first of all, about these crutches – I broke my ankle, Sunday…I didn’t do it on purpose, or for dramatic effect, as has been charged, I’m here because of the Constitution of the US and the Bill Of Rights, both of which I believe in and which I believe are being subverted by something called the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

 

Gerald Horne. The Final Victim Of The Blacklist, John Howard Lawson, Dean of the Hollywood Ten

Few were to adopt the viewpoint of Gene Kelly who lamented the ‘denial of free speech’ to which the screenwriter had been subjected, and posed the question that so few did – “What if he IS a communist?”. Kelly at that moment did not seem to recognise – or perhaps he did – that the era of the ‘blacklist’, the ‘friendly witnesses naming names’ before congressional committees had been kicked off in the Fall of 1947 with the summoning of Lawson. Later Reagan was to instruct the affluent smut-merchant Hugh Hefner that “Hollywood has no blacklist.”

 

Tender Comrades 1997

Marsha Hunt: I remember Gene Kelly giving me a warning one day. He said; ”Marsha, save your fire for when it matters. You are beginning to be heard. You’re perfectly right about what you say; I agree with you. But don’t waste your fire. Save it for a big issue, and then come on with your big guns. I know this board." [The board of the Screen Actor’s Guild]. And so he did. Most of them were extremely conservative.

Movie Yearbook 1947

On Gene: A former law student, his brain is as agile as his feet. He takes an active part in the troubled Hollywood labor situation as a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild special peace committees.

 

Dancer From The Dance: Gene Kelly, television, and the beauty of movement. Velvet Light Trap, Spring  2002

Kelly was a ‘good’ Hollywood liberal whose socialist leanings on issues of race and class often put him at odds with more conservative factions in Hollywood and Washington. In fact Kelly’s leftist and popularist politics were...in the right place, and put him in rather uncomfortable positions under the McCarthy backlash of the 1950s.

 

Motion Picture magazine

Betsy: …He went to Washington with the planeload of stars in support of the Hollywood Ten, and he didn’t recant as Humphrey Bogart did. For quite a few years afterwards Gene helped several of the blacklisted writers, giving money for their families and trying to get them jobs under the table...

 

Tender Comrades. 1997

On Gene’s trip to Washington with the celebrities in support of the Hollywood Nineteen.

Betsy: He came back disheartened by the tragedy that was happening, but he never would have said anything to dissociate himself from people or, like Bogart, said anything like “I am not a communist.” …Gene’s politics never really changed, and he stayed a supporter of people who were blacklisted…and gave money to people he really wasn’t friends with for years during the blacklist.

 

Tap Happy magazine article 1950

It is likely that even now he cannot find any deep personal regret for the junket that he saw purely as a crusade for the right of a man not to be shoved around. That it turned out to be something rather different cannot reflect on Kelly in the mind of anyone who knows him. To say or even imply that Gene Kelly’s sympathies extend any further into political ideology than a fierce feeling for the little guy is, in literal truth, absurd.

 

David Caute. The Great Fear. 1978

A Gallup poll taken after the hearings on November 29 showed that only 14 percent believed they [the ‘Nineteen’] should be punished for contempt, whereas 39 percent were definitely against such action. On October 15, a mass rally had been staged in Los Angeles by the Progressive Citizens of America, with Gene Kelly as master of ceremonies, in support of the Nineteen.

 

The Milwaukee Sentinel. April 9^th 1953

The sickle is finally losing its glamour…At this moment, our AFI, Hollywood stars, producers, directors…operating through the AFI’s Parisian office, have whipped together a new crusade in Europe with the specific approval of the man who sparked the last one – Gen. Eisenhower.

Working in flying squads with such European friends of America as producer Roberto Rosselini…are such film celebrities as Gene Kelly, Humphrey Bogart, John Huston and others now shooting on the continent.

Aim of their fight is to smash the seething but subtle campaign to seduce our military allies…in Europe into an era of good feeling in which the past will be forgotten.

The initial move in the pro-U.S. group’s counter-offensive will be a big Parisian demonstration featuring John Huston, Gene Kelly (who has been taking to the air with assaults on Soviet anti-Semitism), and Humphrey Bogart, among others. To this rally will be invited French movie stars and writers who have innocently been caught up in covert Communist manoeuvres…These French creative people will get a new slant on America from their own kind of professional talent, talking to them as members of trade unions…on the fight against the Commies in Hollywood. This task has been assigned to hoofer-director Gene Kelly.

The point is to show that we Americans aren’t the vacuous idiots the Russian propagandists try to paint us…

 

Motion Picture magazine. May 1954

Not too long ago, a handful of Hollywoodians, whether real mixed-up kids or in fact allied with rather sinister elements, got in trouble with Washington on suspicion of Marxist leanings. Kelly wasn’t one, but in company with a highly vocal group, nearly all big names, he went clamouring down to the Capitol to bellow about freedom of thought and speech. Kelly may at that time have been politically naïve or politically thoughtless. But he wasn’t naïve or thoughtless enough not to know that his crusade was an unpopular one and that he might even be putting his professional neck in a noose. It truly didn’t matter to him. Those who know him know that he was motivated by this same fierce, if misguided, feeling that man was not born to be shoved around, and in his view, that was happening here. It’s easy to see now that he was a wee bit mistaken. But you cannot question, any more than at other times, his integrity.

 

Tender Comrades 1997.

Jules Dassin, remembering Cannes film festival in the years after he was blacklisted:

"…Now, as we proceeded down the receiving line, backs were nimbly turned, the Hollywood stars held up champagne glasses to cover their faces…Things like that happened all the time at Cannes. I remember once going up to the Palais, where they were projecting one of my films, and seeing Gene Kelly approach the entrance. I kind of ducked away so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed by fleeing from me. He saw this. And I shall always appreciate him coming after me and saying, “What the hell are you doing? Are you avoiding me?” He took me by the arm and led me up the steps of the Palais. He was the only one I knew willing at that time to be photographed with me."

 

Criterion Collection Blog. On Jules Dassin.

For one thing, as much as we tried to get him to talk about the blacklist, he was extremely reticent to do so. He refused to “name names,” which I suppose would have been out of character. He would only specifically mention people who had gone out of their way to combat the hysteria—especially pointing out Gene Kelly. But Dassin refused to talk about the people who had taken the easy way out.

 

Edward L. Barrett, Jr. The Tenney Committee. 1951

This book has as its subject the Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, otherwise known as the Tenney Committee, between 1941 and 1949, when under the chairmanship of Senator Jack B. Tenney. In the Appendix can be found a letter written by Gene as a refutation of accusations made in the 1949 Final Report.

In the book’s introduction the author states his own point of view, which seems to sum up what Gene stood for all through his life:

“I believe that the non-communist left is an essential part of our society and must be preserved. I am convinced that the native agitator, without ties to a foreign ideology and operating within the rules of our democratic system, performs the invaluable function of calling attention to the dark and festering parts of our system.”

 

The following are some of the organisations with which Gene is ‘accused’ of being associated:

Sponsor, Progressive Citizens of America

Sponsor and speaker, P.C.A. organisation meeting.

Elected to Executive Board, P.C.A.

Speaker at rally to defend Hollywood Communists, sponsored by P.C.A.

Sponsor, Actors’ Laboratory Theatre, a Communist front and school.

Signer of protest advertisement defending Hollywood Communists, sponsored by Committee for First Amendment.

Vice-President, in 1946, Hollywood Democratic Committee, a C.P. front.

Officer, P.C.A., in 1947

National Chairman, 1948, of Young Progressive, major C.P. youth front.

 

This is part of his reply:

…Inasmuch as I was a sponsor and member of the Progressive Citizens of America, these references, as far as your listing goes, are true. I cannot comment on the way they are phrased or written into the Tenney Report, however, because as you will see by what follows, Senator Tenney can use a plain fact and load it with much more than mere innuendo.

As an example of this, under your heading, 1948 Fourth Report, let us begin with the material concerning me on page 60. It states that the P.C.A. staged a rally at the Shrine auditorium and catalogued this rally as a defense of Hollywood Communists. It also states that the rally was held for the ten Hollywood men who were cited for contempt and adds that Mr. Bartley Crum called them ’great Americans.’

It seems obvious to me that Mr. Tenney’s committee is consciously distorting fact for an effect. At the time this rally was held there was no such thing as the ‘Hollywood Ten’ because the hearings had not been held in Washington as yet and no one had been cited for contempt…There were nineteen of these so-called ‘unfriendly’ witnesses at this rally and although some of the nineteen may or may not be members of the Communist Party, this had nothing to do with the object of the meeting. For a Legislative Committee Report to distort fact for effect…is a depressing thing. Anyone reading this paragraph of the Tenney Report would naturally assume that this meeting (at which I did function as Master of Ceremonies) was held to defend ten communists who had been cited for contempt by the United States Congress. I must believe this is what Senator Tenney wanted it to look like, because I’m sure even he knows it’s a good old American custom to stand up and disagree with anyone we please; whether it is a member of Congress, a committee, or even the President of the United States.

…I’m listed as one of the ‘audience sponsors’ of the Actors’ Laboratory Theatre. Although this sounds quite incriminating, what it actually meant was that we bought a group of tickets and got seats to see the best theatre presentations then existing in Los Angeles. Imagine having the finger of suspicion pointing at you because you go to the theatre!…

By the way, isn’t the Actors’ Laboratory a school where the government sends veterans on G.I. loans? And if so, does this implicate General Omar Bradley?

On page 210 it states that the Committee for the First Amendment is a Communist front for the defense of Communists and Communist fellow-travelers. There can be nothing further from the truth. The purpose of the committee was to protest the tactics and cheap sensationalism of the Thomas Committee and its resultant effect on creative thought in Hollywood...people who sponsored them far exceeds Senator Tenney’s list, which reads like a Who’s Who of Show Business…

Page 251 states that I was a Vice-President of the Hollywood Democratic Committee. That is true, but this was not one of those ‘series of fronts’ entrapping ‘Hollywood’s innocents’ as the committee’s statement reads. This was an organization which frankly, besides having in mind the support of liberal causes, had for its main purpose the support of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the forthcoming election which was looming up as a very tough one for him…

On page 311 it lists me as a speaker at a Musician’s Congress Symposium. This is not true. I never appeared at such a symposium.

I am listed as one of the vice-chairmen of the P.C.A. This is so. I was a member of the P.C.A. from its organization up to the Spring of 1948; - when I resigned.

On page 303, it lists me as National Chairman of the Young P.C.A. This is an honorary title and at the time I was glad to let them use my name because they were the younger branch of the P.C.A., i.e. colleges and universities, of which I was a vice-chairman….

It would be interesting to all of us in Hollywood if someone could compile a complete list of every name Tenney has listed as a member of a Communist or Communist front organization during the tenure of his chairmanship. I imagine it would include so many people in the motion picture business that it would be ludicrous…

 

Gene’s FBI file was declassified in January 2004, and makes very interesting reading. It does not inspire confidence in the organisation! The full text, including Gene’s letter to the Department of Naval Intelligence in March 1954, can be read at www.thememoryhole.org

 

Various memos concerning Gene’s alleged ‘communist activities’ are included, from the Navy Department to Hoover at the FBI, dating from March 1949, through to February 1955.

The first one states that the ‘Office of Naval Intelligence will appreciate being apprised of current information on this Reserve Officer.’

Among the 'accusations' are that Gene was a Director of the Screen Actors Guild, a Vice-Chairman of the Hollywood Arts, Sciences, Professions Committee of the Progressive Citizens of America, and that according to xxxxx he had ‘been described by xxxxxx, (a prominent figure in the Bay Cities Communist Club of Santa Monica), as a ‘very favourable person’.

Also, in May 1945 ‘Kelly was reported to have presided at an open meeting of the 59^th Assembly District Victory Council.'

Along the side of the letter is a handwritten addition which says that ‘Reply not necessary – see memo from Kelly…dated 8/4/49…suspect (the next word is not clear, it could be ‘left’ but that would not make much sense).

In the next letter there is mention of an investigative report in January 1952, and a letter dated 19/12/52 refers to 'derogatory information on Kelly, part of which was reported by xxxxx'. It states that Naval Intellignece is 'preparing to process Kelly under the provisions of the Service Loyalty Program.' They wanted to 'contact xxxxx to obtain a statement from him concerning his knowledge of Kelly's communist activities.'

In February 1955 there is a letter from the Navy Department to Hoover, which includes Gene's letter dated March 1954. It states that Gene resigned from the Naval Reserve under honorable conditions in August 1954

 

 In March 1954 Gene wrote his long letter to the Head of Naval Intelligence at the Navy Department. In it he stated his beliefs and listed all of the organisations he had belonged to. From the above, it is clear that he had been under suspicion since 1949 or earlier, of being  in cahoots with communists and their supporters. A ludicrous idea, but we can never really understand the hysteria whipped up by the scaremongers who wanted to root out all left-wing influence in Hollywood and in all of America, because of the fear of Communist propaganda being subversively introduced into the medium of film.  The letter is very revealing and gives us a unique insight into Gene's life and persona. Though I have a suspicion that, although what he wrote was true, he was writing what he thought they wanted to hear. One passage which is illuminating is when he talks of Betsy being a 'joiner of classes', after admitting that she attended left-wing classes while in New York, before they married. He said she also attended many other classes including necktie making!! Thus implying that Betsy was a bit of an airhead, not really understanding what she was doing when she flirted with communism. I cannot believe he wrote that without Betsy's consent, maybe they chuckled about it.

These are a few quotes from the letter, which takes the form of answers to various questions which had been put to him by those investigating his activities.

I am filled with rage when reading it, because of the humiliation he must have felt in having to write it in the first place, and because from all I have read and learned about Gene, he was a loyal American who loved his country and always expressed what he thought best for his fellow-countrymen. As Betsy said, "He loved humanity."

 

I have never been a member of the Communist Party, USA, or any Communist Party, or any organisation with the word “Communist” attached to it…I could no more consider being a Communist than I could consider becoming a member of a voodoo sect.

 

I did actively engage in opposing the Un-American Activities Committee under J. Parnell Thomas. I felt at that time that they were doing Hollywood not only an injustice but were inhibiting the free use of our medium as a form of expression and as a mirror of American life….I felt that the methods and the attitude…were wrong…I went to Washington to protest this in all good faith, but as in all my other activities I did this as an American should do it –not subversively but out loud and for all to see…My mind was immediately changed on this by the attitude of the ten men cited for contempt…After my return I refused to participate in any more activities in their behalf…An interesting sidelight on my journey to Washington…was the fact that the day I arrived there I participated in a US Navy radio program calling for re-arming and preparedness…

 

We joined…organisations to try to implement our usefulness to this country which we all love, and to do a little extra work in our roles as citizens….Most depressing is the fact that because of the particular business we are in in Hollywood and the publicity attendant to it, people like myself have given up joining ANY organisations. Since 1947 I have not engaged in any extra-curricular activity outside of the Parent-Teachers Association.

I’m sorry for this, because as one to whom this country has been most kind and who has prospered and enjoyed all the benefits of living in a democracy, plus happiness and financial success, I have always felt I owed the country something and tried to pay it back by being an extra good citizen.. Why must they always confuse the liberal-minded citizen who wants social reform within the framework of our democracy, with the subversive who wants to overthrow that democracy?

 

Having gone through school in the depression years and come out of that era of despair into the years of social reform as inaugurated by Franklin D Roosevelt, I became an ardent New Dealer and a believer in social reform to guarantee insurance that a country as prosperous as ours wouldn’t go through that awful time that it did when I was coming into manhood.. In my own family and among all my relatives I saw them all victims of want and fear in the midst of plenty. Whether one agrees with me or not, I believed that Roosevelt and the New Deal branch of the Democratic Party symbolised the best hope politically for this country.

 

While Vice-President of the Screen Actors Guild, I was one of several actors who in 1946 broke the Communist-dominated unions who were trying to gain control of the labor side of the motion picture industry…During the 1948 campaign…I worked, as I had before, for Truman.

 

Los Angeles Times. October 1^st 1967

The Smoke House comes of age next month…twenty one years ago…the motion picture strike was getting out of control and Gene Kelly cancelled an opening night reservation at the café to fly to Chicago in an attempt to end the dispute.

 

Evening Independent. November 17^th 1947

Ronald Reagan was elected as President of the Screen Actors Guild. There was a call to disavow communism, and for members to have to sign an affidavit to say they are not communists. Gene Kelly was elected Vice-president with William Holden and Walter Pidgeon.