He was a star in comedy and musicals. Yes, that pensive young man pictured above is Howard Keel, who for a decade starred in MGM hits, and misses. How much do you remember about him.
As usual, questions today, answers tomorrow.
1) How many films did Keel make with Kathryn Grayson.
2) In which film did he play a dual role? Hint — it wasn’t a musical.
3) Did Keel portray Ann Blyth’s father, or lover on screen?
4) Keel was a major star on Broadway. Did he play the lead in Oklahoma or Carousel?
5) His first film was a foreign film. True or False?
6) After retirement from films he returned to the stage, but then shot back to stardom on TV. On what show?
7) Although Annie Get Your Gun established him as a star and grossed over $7 million, it wasn’t his biggest hit. What was?
8)When his contract at MGM was over he went to Europe and made his second (and final) foreign film. What was it. (this is a tough one!)
HOWARD KEEL…
His initial and most enduring fame came from being MGM’s resident baritone in some of the studio’s most popular musicals. While MGM had famous musicals featuring dancers Kelly and Astaire and musicals starring female singers such as Judy Garland, MGM wanted someone on the level of Warner Bros’ Gordon MacRae. Enter Howard Keel…
1) Three
2) CALLOWAY WENT THATAWAY
3) Father
4) Oklahoma in London
5) True
6) Dallas
7) SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS
8) INVASION OF THE TRIFFIDS 1963
The ladies at the studio swooned and so did the public who found his robust, barrel-chested, smiling, 6’4″ handsomeness and that deep voice a sure cure for the blues. He starred in four of the studio’s biggest musical hits and was loaned to Warners to costar with Hollywood’s most popular female star in another monster hit. It seemed he could do no wrong. It seemed.
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (1950) was a big, splashy, famous musical extravaganza from Irving Berlin that wowed Broadway for 1,147 performances with Ethel Merman in the lead role as legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Keel would play Oakley lover and fellow sharpshooter, Frank Butler and Judy Garland would star as Annie…
We know it didn’t work out that way and by all accounts this was a troubled production. Despite making coworkers’ lives agony, Garland was beloved by many. So when she was fired from the production for her ongoing lateness, absences and drug-related problems, Keel, Louis Calhern, Keenan Wynn and most of the large company were not happy.
The studio went outside its gates to replace Garland with Betty Hutton and the role ideally suited her. I can’t recall whether Hutton was a hellion on the set or not (at her home studio, Paramount, she often was) but she claimed she was made to feel very unwelcomed at MGM. Her coworkers barely spoke to her and she claimed Keel was one of those. There may be no people like show people (from the film’s big hit There’s No Business Like Show Business) but it was certainly lost on Hutton. She said making Annie was the worst experience she ever had on a film set.
None of this is apparent while watching it and it does seem odd indeed that Keel would take part in such actions with it being his first Hollywood film. But over the years there would be comments made about his temperament on film sets. Nonetheless, a few of his leading ladies would work with him more than once so either they put up with his shenanigans or he didn’t display them to everyone.
Keel likely would have said that the tragedy of his career was that he was never able to truly prove his mettle in dramatic movies. Personally, I thought he did prove it but the movies in which he did it were not outstanding. He did, however, leave a wonderful legacy of musical films.
Anyone else care to COMMENT?