Gene Kelly… An American in Pasadena

March 13, 1978

Directed by Marty Passetta ~ Written by Buz Kohan ~ Choreography by Gene Kelly

The title puns on Kelly’s 1951 film An American in Paris and where the special was taped (and where Kelly made his home) Pasadena, California. 

The city of Pasadena is known for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade. In addition, Pasadena is also home to many cultural institutions, including the Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena Symphony,  and the Ambassador Auditorium. 

Featuring Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Gloria De Haven, Kathryn Grayson, Betty Garrett, Cyd Charisse, Cindy Williams, Liza Minnelli, and Janet Leigh. Natalie Wood was scheduled to appear on the show, but had to back out at the last minute. Also in the cast is Bridget Kelly, his daughter, and specialty dancer Alex Romero.

Gene Kelly was an Oscar-winning performer, choreographer, and director who did four films with Lucille Ball between 1943 and 1967.

• DuBarry Was A Lady (1943) 
• Thousands Cheer (1943) also with Gloria DeHaven & Kathryn Grayson
• Ziegfeld Follies (1945) also with Cyd Charisse & Kathryn Grayson
• A Guide For the Married Man (1967) directed by Gene Kelly

A Hollywood legend for his effortless dancing, Kelly died in 1996 at age 83.

The special integrated film clips from some of Kelly’s most popular films, including Brigadoon (which inspired “Lucy Goes To Scotland”) and Singin’ in the Rain (which was performed in “The Hollywood Unemployment Follies”). 

In an interview about directing the special, Marty Pasetta described Kelly as a “workhorse.”

The 60-minute special was taped at Pasadena College In February 1978 and aired March 13th on CBS. It was a black-tie fundraiser for a Los Angeles Charity. 

Coincidentally, the special aired on a Monday night, just like nearly all of Lucille Ball’s new programs.

The special opens with exterior footage of the theatre with dancer’s dressed as in An American in Paris, as well as Jerry, the cartoon mouse Kelly danced with in Anchors Aweigh (1944) as some of the formally attired audience looks on.

Since the show aired a week before St. Patrick’s Day, Kelly enters down the theatre aisle leading a bagpiper band and wearing an emerald green top hat. 

Lucy is discovered in the audience, shouting for Arthur Godfrey (who was not in attendance). 

On March 27, 1978, Lucille Ball and Arthur Godfrey both participated in “CBS On The Air” representing Monday nights in the week-long celebration of their first five decades.

On the special, Kelly and Ball recreate the Cole Porter song “Friendship” from their film Du Barry Was A Lady.

In the film, however, the song was a trio with Red Skelton. 

Lucy strips off her skirt showing of her legs for the number. 

“Friendship! Friendhsip! Just the perfect blendship!”

Lucille Ball also sang the song (with Vivian Vance) on her television show “I Love Lucy” in the episode “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3). While the song is now closely associated with the 1934 musical Anything Goes, it was actually written for Ethel Merman and Burt Lahr to sing on Broadway in DuBarry Was a Lady (1939).

Lucy played Merman’s role in the 1943 movie version of DuBarry with Red Skelton and Gene Kelly. When Lucy and Ethel perform it here, she repeats some of the same choreography she did in the film. Merman, unhappy that Lucy took her role in DuBarry and was now singing ‘her’ song on national television, insisted that “Friendship” be inserted into a 1954 TV version of Anything Goes starring Burt Lahr that she did just six months later. The song has remained in Anything Goes ever since. The song has been performed as both a duo and a trio.  

LUCY, THE KELLY GIRL

The first time Gene Kelly shared the small screen with Lucy (as well as Desi and Cyd Charisse) was for the 30th Anniversary of MGM on “Toast of the Town” hosted by Ed Sullivan. It was aired on Valentine’s Day 1954. 

Lucy and Kelly next turned up on the same TV show with “Jackie Gleason’s 51st Birthday Celebration” in February 1967. 

Gene Kelly was a presenter at the 1968 Emmy Awards where Lucille Ball won for Best Actress in a Comedy Show. It was aired on NBC. 

Lucy and her husband Gary were spotted in the audience in “Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back”, a 1973 Frank Sinatra special with special guest Gene Kelly. Lucille Ball did not perform or speak. The show was nominated for two Emmy Awards and was issued on DVD. 

In 1976, Lucille Ball and Gene Kelly were both part of a four and a half hour extravaganza celebrating 50 years of the peacock network.

That same year, Lucy and Kelly were both on the dais for “The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Danny Thomas” another NBC outing for Lucy.   

Also in March 1978, the same year as “An American in Pasadena”, Lucy, Sinatra, and Kelly participated in NBC’s “A Tribute to Mr. Television Milton Berle”.  

Just after the turn of the year 1980, Lucille Ball and Gene Kelly are a few of the many guests of Frank Sinatra celebrating his 64th birthday and 40th year in show business. Taped at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas it aired on…NBC!

In 1980, after several years of moonlighting at the peacock network, Lucille Ball finally signed a contract with NBC. To announce her change in networks, NBC produced the 90-minute special “Lucy Moves To NBC” which featured many of the NBC stars and special guests, including Gene Kelly.  

At a Hollywood restaurant, Lucy and Gale Gordon encounter Gene Kelly.

Gloria DeHaven was also in the special in a show-within-the-show sitcom segment titled “The Music Mart” performing opposite Gene Kelly’s friend and co-star Donald O’Connor. Lucy has a cameo as Sister Hitchcock, a character named for director Alfred Hitchcock, who often did cameos in his own films. 

In 1985, Lucille Ball joined Cyd Charisse, Janet Leigh, and Frank Sinatra for “The Friars Club Presents a Salute to Gene Kelly” on NBC. Also in attendance was Natalie Wood, who backed out of “An American in Pasadena” as well as fellow Hollywood hoofer, Fred Astaire. 

PASADENA POTPOURRI 

In the 1960 film The Facts of Life, Kitty (Lucille Ball) and Larry (Bob Hope) are two friends from suburban Pasadena embarking on a flirtation.

The exterior shots of the Beardsley home in the 1968 Lucille Ball / Henry Fonda film Yours, Mine & Ours is located in Pasadena, California. Coincidentally, the 2005 remake was filmed at different home in Pasadena.

In “Lucy and the Soap Opera” (TLS S4;E19) the gardener (a heavily disguised Lucy Carmichael) says he has a family of 97 with cousins in Pasadena, Glendale, Rodondo Beach, Cucamonga, and ‘Horrywood’ (“a little suburb between Anaheim and Azusa”). Later, disguised a the little old lady, Lucy repeats the same list of cities.

In “Lucy and the Ex-Con” (HL S1;E15) Lucy and Wally Cox go undercover as typical little old ladies named Abigail Throckmorton and Lydia Perkins. Cox adds “of the Pasadena Perkins’.”  This played on the tremendously popular 1964 song “Little Old Lady From Pasadena” by Jan and Dean.

In a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy,” guest star Liberace tries on his light-up jacket and says “This’ll really turn them on in Pasadena!”  He could be referring to his senior citizen female fans – the “little old ladies from Pasadena” – as the song says. 

The Emmy Awards were often hosted at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. In 1981, Lucille Ball was both presenter and honoree. She received a standing ovation, which moved her to tears. 

The action of the short-lived “Life With Lucy” takes place in South Pasadena, California. Lucy (Barker) and John Ritter performed in a play at the Pasadena Playhouse, a real-life theatre that hosted many name actors, including Charles Lane, a character actor seen on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.” Others included Florence Bates, George Reeves (raised in Pasadena), Eve Arden, Ruth Buzzi, Max Showalter, Jamie Farr, Moroni Olsen, Robert Preston, and Eve McVeagh.