Of the Marvelous Gene Kelly

Click image to view source

It’s no secret that I’ll always have a huge crush on Gene Kelly. It’s a shame he’s deceased. I would happily murder the majority of celebrities just to bring him back into the world *cough* Justin Bieber, *cough* Kim Kardashian. I’ve been in love with him ever since I watched Singing in the Rain for the first time when I was a child. What can I say? I was a classy ass five-year old, I’m very proud that he was my first celebrity crush.

I always wanted to be Kathy Selden aka Debbie Reynolds

The other night I was watching An American in Paris, and this rekindled my fondness for the beautiful Gene Kelly and the musical genre as a whole. He’s graceful and yet completely masculine in his motions, it’s like he can control gravity. One can’t help but smile when he is on-screen, especially when he’s dancing. At the same time he wasn’t afraid to be a bit silly. He’s credited with creating the American Musical Genre, which unfortunately is no longer brought forth in modern-day movies. There’s a reason why those movies are classics, why they are timeless – my heart belongs to the musicals of the late 40s – early 60s and it always will. Haters be damned.

Fred Astaire was the gentleman, Gene Kelly was the boy next door. Or as Bob Fosse once said, “He looked like a guy on your bowling team, only classier.” In hindsight maybe Gene Kelly (and yes, I do always say his full name) is where I got my obsession with class from. The quote below is from Time Entertainment magazine – I couldn’t express the differences between the two men better than this if I tried:

In the two men, oppositions abound. Fred was grace, Gene was energy. Fred was poise, Gene was power. Fred was ethereal, Gene was earthy. Fred was the Continental (he danced it too); Gene was all-American. Fred was top hat, white tie and tails, Gene was a baseball cap, T-shirt and jeans. (Can you imagine Astaire in a baseball cap? Can you imagine Kelly without one?) Fred would just materialize, a slim apparition who hardly noticed the impact he made; his attitude said, in a sidelong glance and sidewise murmur, “Ooh, is someone out there?” Gene came barreling toward you, arms outstretched in — not supplication, never that — an offer his smile told you he thought you couldn’t refuse.

– Richard Coliss (article)

Is it any wonder I prefer Gene Kelly? Even if for shallow reasons alone, I doubt most will disagree that Fred Astaire was never a beautiful man. I sent out a mass text to my friends with vaginas asking who they thought the sexiest male celebrity was, here’s the bulk of the answers:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, David Beckham, Lee Pace, Jason Statham, Jake Gyllenhaal, Trey Songz, Jude Law, Zac Efron, Brad Pitt, Michael Cera

While it’s not in question that these men are attractive, the majority of them don’t have the kind of attractive that transcends decades. Most of them have that look of trying to be sexy. Some I disagree about them being the sexiest male celebrity, cute sure, attractive yes, but sexy? hmm, not really. I’ll let you judge on that for yourselves.

Gene Kelly is not sexy, he’s beyond that – he’s handsome. To call him sexy seems like an injustice, sexy implies a fleeting heart-throb, or the kind of human being that makes ones mind instantly think something along the not-so-classy lines of, “I’d tap that,” or “I wanna lick him/her,” or “I wanna fuck him/her,” or “Damn baby! You a model or something?”

Like I said, Gene Kelly is classy, he makes you fall in love with him, not just lust after him. He’s handsome. If you want proof, look at these wonderful pictures of the late, great, Gene Kelly!

Click image to view source

Click image to view source

Click image to view source

Click image to view source

Plus … he could do that! (Click image to view source.)