This story is part of The Neighborhood, a project in which a group of PG reporters focus on Pittsburgh neighborhoods and communities, and directly answer questions submitted by readers. Submit your question here, or at the bottom of this story.
Tom McHale asks, “Where in Morningside did Gene Kelly live?”
Happy to answer this one, Tom, because it gave me a chance to trace some of the steps along Gene Kelly’s journey through Pittsburgh ... I say “some” because, with someone as active in the community as Mr. Kelly was, it is inevitable to miss a few. One thing’s for sure — siblings Gene, Fred and Louise Kelly were major forces as dance instructors and entertainers in the Pittsburgh of the 1920s and ’30s, and Fred and Louise kept Pittsburghers on their toes long after Gene left for superstardom.
MORNINGSIDE
The unparalleled star of Hollywood blockbuster musicals such as “Singin’ in the Rain” and “An American in Paris” was a Pittsburgher from birth and well into his 20s, but he never lived in Morningside, although he lived just blocks away, in Highland Park, and attended school there. The Kelly family was living on Mellon Street in Highland Park when Gene attended elementary school and was an altar boy at St. Raphael Parish on Chislett Street in Morningside.
POINT BREEZE
Harriet and James Kelly moved their family to 7514 Kensington St. in Point Breeze in 1924, when Gene was 12. He had four siblings — Fred, James, Michael and Louise — and they performed at local and vaudeville shows as “The Five Kellys.” A photograph from the Post-Gazette archives (top) shows Gene at the house with his first wife, Betsy Blair (they were married from 1941-57) as they prepared to leave for Europe, possibly to promote Gene’s 1948 film, “The Three Musketeers.”
EAST LIBERTY
Gene was active in football, baseball, gymnastics and hockey while attending the former Peabody High School (now Pittsburgh Obama), graduating in 1929. He continued to study dance as well as participating in athletics, and in later years, he would say that his aspiration as a teen was to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
PITT CAMPUS, OAKLAND
Gene enrolled at Penn State to study journalism, but the 1930 stock market crash hit many families hard and he returned to live at home and finished his studies at the University of Pittsburgh. There he got a degree in economics and entered law school before taking up entertainment full time, according to the detailed Pittsburgh Music History website. While attending Pitt, Gene was a member of the Cap and Gown Club, which staged shows four times a year at the Stephen Foster Memorial Theater and another show at the Nixon Theater. He received a BA in Economics in 1933, and enrolled in Pitt’s law school, but dropped out to pursue a career as an entertainer and creator of musicals.
SQUIRREL HILL
The Rauh Jewish Archives chronicles Gene Kelly’s relationship with the Congregation Beth Shalom on Beacon and Shady avenues in Squirrel Hill. The Beth Shalom Sisterhood hired the Kelly family for its annual fundraiser and paid Gene $15 a week to teach dance classes to children on Sunday afternoons. He also produced the temple’s “Revue of Revues,” a show held at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School in 1932. Mr. Kelly continued as an instructor and ran Beth Shalom’s show until he left Pittsburgh in 1938.
MORE SQUIRREL HILL
The last of the Kelly siblings, Louise, died in 2008 in Dothan, Ala., where her daughter, Kathy Campbell, carried on the family tradition, running The Kelly School of Dance. When the Kelly boys went off to war, Louise took over the Gene Kelly Dance Studio in Squirrel Hill and ran it for nearly 50 years. When she married another dancer named Bill Bailey, the studio was renamed the Bill Bailey School of Dance. Today, Bodiography Center for Movement resides at the former studio site at 5824 Forbes Ave. Several former students also recall the Kellys’ studio on Munhall Road in Squirrel Hill, and the family ran a dance studio at the corner of Main and Franklin streets in Johnstown.
OAKLAND
Gene Kelly was struggling to make it as a New York choreographer when he returned to Pittsburgh to choreograph and dance in the musical revue “Hold Your Hats” at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in the spring of 1938. It was there, at 26, Gene was seen by Broadway and Hollywood dancer-choreographer Robert Alton, who brought him to Broadway. From then on, it was “Gotta Dance” from Broadway to Hollywood.
DOWNTOWN
For 28 years, Pittsburgh CLO’s annual Gene Kelly Awards honoring high school musical theater excellence have been held at the Benedum Center, Downtown. The evening includes a highlight reel of Mr. Kelly's feats in movie musicals, words of encouragement from his widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, and serves as an inspiration for generations of performers aspiring to greatness.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
First Published: August 7, 2018, 1:00 p.m.
