Page "Gene Kelly" Paragraph 33

In 1970, he made another TV special: Gene Kelly and 50 Girls and was invited to bring the show to Las Vegas, Nevada, which he duly did for an eight-week stint – on condition he be paid more than any artist had hitherto been paid there.

He directed veteran actors James Stewart and Henry Fonda in the comedy western The Cheyenne Social Club ( 1970 ) which performed very well at the box-office.

In 1973, he would work again with Frank Sinatra as part of Sinatra's Emmy nominated TV special Ol ' Blue Eyes Is Back.

Then, in 1974, he appeared as one of many special narrators in the surprise hit of the year That's Entertainment!

and subsequently directed and co-starred with his friend Fred Astaire in the sequel That's Entertainment, Part II ( 1976 ).

It was a measure of his powers of persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire – who had insisted that his contract rule out any dancing, having long since retired – into performing a series of song and dance duets, evoking a powerful nostalgia for the glory days of the American musical film.

Kelly continued to make frequent TV appearances and, in 1980, appeared in an acting and dancing role opposite Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu ( 1980 ), an expensive theatrical flop which has since attained a cult following.

In Kelly's opinion, " The concept was marvelous but it just didn't come off.

" In the same year, he was invited by Francis Ford Coppola to recruit a production staff for American Zoetrope's One from the Heart ( 1982 ).

Although Coppola's ambition was for him to establish a production unit to rival the Freed Unit at MGM, the film's failure put an end to this idea.

In 1985, Kelly served as executive producer and co-host of That's Dancing!

– a celebration of the history of dance in the American musical.

After his final on-screen appearance, introducing That's Entertainment!

III, in 1994, his final film project was the animated movie Cats Don't Dance, released in 1997 and dedicated to him, on which Kelly acted as uncredited choreographic consultant.