
07/22/2024
Gene Kelly and Carol Lawrence rehearsing a dance number for his NBC television special, Pontiac Star Parade, 1959. Lawrence recollected, “Gene Kelly saw me in West Side, came backstage, and said, ‘I want to do a TV special with you, kid. Can you come to California next week?’ He was one of the reasons I went into show biz, but I said I had a contract and wouldn’t get time off until the next year when I had two weeks. He said, ‘Okay, I’ll wait for you.’ I thought he was going to dance with Cyd Charisse and maybe I would have one number, but it was just him, Donald O’Conner, and me. I died and went to heaven.” Photo by Tony Karp.