Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 29

BEST AVIJLIBIE COPY Uht Miznnn Bailg Star Tucson, Monday, June 9, 1986 Lri Advice 2C TV4C Comics 6C Dancer Fred Kelly is no slouch with words 1 mm 1 By Jim Radcliffe -r7TV'o Brothers Gene, left, and Fred Kelly practice at MGM studio lot in the 1950s I I iW The Arizona Daily Star Fred Kelly's a talker. He can and does recount story after story, hour after hour. About his brother Gene, one of Hollywood's best song-and- dance men. About himself, a former Broadway per- former and dancer and television director during the medium's infancy. About Queen Elizabeth and John Travolta, two of his dance students.

Quite simply, Fred Kelly a friendly, happy, confident man enjoys the hobby of oratory. Non-stop, lengthy oratory. "I'll get up and talk about Texas," he says. Of average height, Kelly is broad-shouldered and thickset. His round face and eyes that squint when he laughs are reminders of his celebrated older brother.

He is 69 and with the years has come balding, but it is only a ruse. Age has not dulled his energy, ambi-' tions, zest. His fire still burns: Kelly hopes to complete two books, one on tap dancing, the other a collection of show-biz memories. A handwritten letter from Debbie Reynolds politely says she has no time now for a Broad-' way musical that Kelly wants to produce. Forty-three years ago, Kelly married Dorothy, the girl next-door.

She is an attractive woman with an infectious smile and a Southern California tan. When-1 ever wife passes husband, she places a hand on his arm, shoulder or head. Last year, after spending several winters here, the Kellys moved year-round Into a home just northeast of Tucson. With three grandchildren in Tucson, and an-" other three in California, New Jersey wasn't right any-; more. Recently, Kelly talked about his past, present, fu-.

ture. There was little chronology to his oral biography. Kelly hopscotched about, banking off questions with answers that meandered into countless other anecdotes. This is Fred Kelly's story: Kelly the magician Kelly says he became addicted to the entertainment industry at the age of 2, after appearing in a vaudeville act. "I loved show business from that moment on, all the clapping and cheering." In high school, he toured Pennslyvania (he grew Up In Pittsburgh), West Virginia and Ohio as a magician.

His entourage included two young assistants; one of whom earned $25 a week and had a father making $12 a week in a steel mill, picking up dirty uniforms when the shifts ended. "Hell, I was cleaning up, (making) $30, $35," Kelly says. Brother Gene was stacking tires at a Firestone warehouse for $8 a week. "That's when he wanted to get into show biz." In television. In 1946, Kelly appeared in "Casey, Crime Photographer," a live CBS series broadcast in New York City, Philadelphia and Boston.

About 20 half-hour segments were completed. "I played Casey," Kelly says, "I was the During television's teething days, Kelly directed several embryonic shows, including Garry Moore's "I've Got' a Secret," Danny Thomas' show and also Steve Allen's, which later became Johnny Carson's. When Allen switched networks, Kelly was locked into a contract, but contends that Allen could have got-tenjijm out of it. "Steve at that time thought he was the whole show." Allen wrongfully tailored the program around his antics, Kelly says; Kelly, as the director, would have molded the program around a gaggle of guests. "I'm not bitter.

(But) he'd have been where is today." On Broadway Fred Kelly played parts in nine Broadway plays, he says, in such capacities as actor, dancer, director and choreographer. In the early '40s, when Gene left of Your Life" for the movies, Fred replaced nis brother. He recalls that a New York Times critic did not realize the switch, writing that Gene Kelly was -better than ever. In "This Is the Army," Fred Kelly directed and choreographed parts of the play and danced. When I Warner Bros, put together the 1943 film, Kelly was an extra and helped with choreography.

The early '70s found him with a small role in "Fol-'lies." But Kelly was also an understudy, and he says 4 he ended up portraying every major male role in the 'play during the next nine months. tThe queen-to-be After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, iKelly attended Cambridge University. World War II in- terropted his studies and the U.S. Army became home (he later finished his work at Cambridge, obtaining a master's in political science). Like many others in show 'business, Kelly was assigned to a unit of entertainers, used for propaganda.

"We were morale." an unofficial goodwill ambassador, Kelly was assigned to choreograph a show that played at the Lon-tdon Palladium. His students included members of the Mart A. Schaef or. The Arizona Daily Star Fred Kelly taps a few dance steps with his dog BB The Fred Kelly Dance Studio During the Depression, the Kelly familyopened a dance studio. Fred and Gene, while in high school, taught classes.

In the mid-1950s, Fred started his own studio in Oradell, N.J. For three decades, perhaps 500 youngsters each year spun and sweated with Kelly and other instructors. "There's hardly a Broadway show without one of my dancers," he says. John Travolta, while in kindergarten and first grade, danced at the studio. He returned during his junior high school years.

A natural dancer, Kelly says. "He took to it like like a German takes to beer. He was a good kid." Satisfied Fred Kelly is a family man, proud of each relative; pictures of them flood walls and tables in the Kelly home. Fred talks about his stage actress mother's talent, his salesman dad's career working for Thomas Edison, his Tucson son-in-law, a lawyer. Fred and brother Gene, who lives in Beverly Hills, get together once a year.

"We make it a point," Fred says. "We care for each other." When the two dancing Kellys huddle, talk can drift to comparing careers. "I always wanted to be the song-and-dance man, he always wanted to be the choreographer and director," says Fred. Each brother has done both and certainly found success but the Big Glory, the Real Big Money, found Gene Kelly, not Fred Kelly. Fred bet on television, but the public's fancy with the new medium did not come swiftly.

"After the war, I thought TV would be the big thing, I thought I'd be the Cecil B. De Mille of television." When television crews left New York for California, Kelly decided not to follow, instead launching his dance studio. He did not want to enter Gene's domain in Hollywood, where Fred's wife would have been known as "Gene Kelly's sister-in-law," he says. (Fred did dance a number with his brother in 1954's "Deep in My Heart." Who is the best dancer? "Gene always says I am, but that's malarkey," Fred Kelly says.) Fred Kelly insists he is satisfied; he doesn't want the problems that go along with fame. He has met the world's entertainers and leaders and enjoyed a full career.

He likes a life without notepads and cameras stuck in his face, without mobs staring at him while he eats in a restaurant. "We've had a great life," Kelly says. What has become "very important" for him is his relationship with youngsters. One of Fred and Dorothy Kelly's three children, rXt mP i Benjie Sanders, The Arizona Oaily Star Kelly performs before fifth-graders at Pueblo Gardens Elementary School Barry, died in 1973 at 29; a mosquito transmitted viral encephalitis, a crippling illness, to the boy when he was 2 years old. Barry's battle prompted Fred Kelly to help children.

During the '50s and early '60s, he participated in 26 United Cerebral Palsy telethons, working as a master of ceremonies and director. He regularly visits local elementary schools, combining magic with lecture. Kelly tells youngsters of health-conscious dancers who will not take drugs, fearing a career would evaporate. He deplores cigarette smoking: "It hurts you, and you die sloooooowww do you know what the kids called (cigarettes) when I was growing up? Coffin nails. "It's very important," he says.

may be Eleanor's favorite dancer, but you are my favorite," Kelly recalls the president saying. Roosevelt added, though, that Fred was in the only two stage productions he had seen since entering the White House. Kelly calls Ronald Reagan "wonderful and brilliant." Reagan had a part in the '40s in the film version of "This Is the Army," and Kelly was to teach him to dance. Reagan, though, didn't have the moves. Kelly says he asked the actor if the dance scene was uncomfortable for him, and Reagan said it was.

Kelly successfully lobbied to remove the dance scene. royal family. "In other words, the present queen of England was my student," he says. A dusty memory believes that Elizabeth portrayed Cinderella. Nearly a decade later, Gene Kelly met Queen Elizabeth.

Recounts Fred: She said, "Is it true you're Fred Kelly's brother?" Says Fred, "(Gene) said to me, 'Now I know how you With the presidents Fred Kelly's travels have led to handshakes with several presidents. He remembers Franklin D. Roosevelt: They met at the White House, Kelly says, after a "This Is the Army" stage production. "Your brother Shuttle disaster didn't affect completion of 'SpaceCamp' "If we had been wacky kids in space, I would have been embarrassed by the movie," she explains. "We ran the film (of the launch scene) two days after Challenger," Goldberg recalls.

"We'd tried to make it realistic, and when they went to full throttle, I got a lump in my throat. It was too much like the real thing." The movie, like the shuttle, was years in the making. Screenwriter-producer Patrick Bailey's inspiration came four years ago, when he visited Huntsville's Space Camp. Center Director Ed Buckbee gave Bailey his approval and encouragement with some initial misgivings. By late 1984, Bailey had drawn Goldberg's interest, and the producer had, in turn, secured agreements with ABC and Fox.

Goldberg, for his part, says "SpaceCamp" drew his interest for another reason: the attraction the space program seems to have for pre-teens. curtain failure" forces NASA to launch the craft with both solid-fuel booster rockets to prevent the destruction of the shuttle on the pad. That's close enough to the actual fiery rupture of one of Challenger's boosters. The movie's shuttle makes the same launch roll that viewers watched Challenger make just before it was destroyed and its seven crew members killed. Mission control's command for Andie to throttle the rockets to full power duplicates the one the Challenger crew was given.

Footage of an actual shuttle landing is used when the movie's young crew navigates a successful re-entry. Capshaw who had talked to Sally Ride about astronaut life says her first reaction to the Challenger accident "had nothing to do with the movie. I started crying." Thompson and Preston who attended a launch last summer had similar reactions. Later, Thompson adds, she had other feelings. By Lane Lambert Newhouse News Service NEW ORLEANS ABC Motion Pictures and 20th Century Fox found themselves in an uncomfortable position after the jan.

28 I Challenger disaster. Their movie I "SpaceCamp," shot last year, was unfinished, and company executives questioned whether a film whose story is about an accidental shuttle flight should be released at all. were all kinds of thoughts after the Challenger," producer Leonard Goldberg says. "Some people said it would have a negative effect on the film. Some thought it would have a positive effect.

I Some people said we should never release theilm. Some said we should release it instantly, and dedicate it to the Challenger "SpaceCamp" which features scenes filmed at Cape Canaveral, and the Alabama Space and Rocket Center's real Space Camp in Huntsville is about the ac cidental launch qf the shuttle.wjfji an astronaut and a crew of Space Campers on board. Hundreds of pre-teenagers attend the space camp throughout the summer, simulating shuttle missions and receiving lectures on space science. What ABC and Fox finally decided, the producer says, was to proceed on the movie's original launch schedule, which had it set for nationwide release Friday, the same day President Reagan received the report from his commission investigating the Challenger accident. So a movie born in the shuttle's early years and shot after last summer's successful Discovery launch will be released unchanged by Challenger.

Goldberg says the disaster demanded no change in the script or film. Kate Capshaw, who plays an astronaut in the film, says she and other cast members had the same feeling. "After Challenger, I looked at the script page by page," she says. "My first thought about the movie was, 'Thank God it's not a I wanted to know what happened jo Challenger because I thought we'd hve been in big trouble with the movie if the reason we went up was the reason Challenger exploded. "But when I re-read the script, I not only didn't find anything that was disgraceful, I thought it was uplifting, life-affirming." Capshaw Jones and the Temple of is Andie, a NASA astronaut who is one of the instructors at the movie's camp.

On board with her are Lea Thompson to the Kelly Preston Larry B. Scott of the and newcomers Tate Donovan and 10-year-old Leaf Phoenix. Launched into orbit to avoid an on-the-ground disaster, they must maneuver their way through a series of emergencies and misadventures to a safe landing. The film, directed by Harry Winer, features launch footage, and centers on a launch scenario that holds unsettling echoes of the Challenger explosion. The "SpaceCamp" crew is sent into orbit during a test firing when a "thermal.