“Gene Kelly: The Legacy” will be the subject of biographer and film historian Patricia Ward Kelly, who will speak at the Bowers Museum, Norma Kershaw Auditorium on Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. She met Gene Kelly in 1985 at the Smithsonian when he was host/narrator for a television special for which she was a writer.
The two instantly bonded over poetry and soon after, he invited her to California to write his memoirs, a job for which she recorded his words nearly every day for over ten years.
In capturing his amazing artistic contributions and the real feeling of his life story, the two fell in love, married and shared a tender romance that lasted until his death in 1996.
She currently serves as Trustee of The Gene Kelly Trust and is Creative Director of Gene Kelly: The Legacy, a corporation established to commemorate Kelly’s fame for nearly a century worldwide. She lives in Los Angeles.
Mrs. Kelly has appeared in “An Evening with Mrs. Gene Kelly” in several cities around the world, has been a panelist at the Bangkok International Film Festival and featured speaker at Cinematographer’s Day with her illustrated overview “Gene Kelly and the Revolution of Dance on Film.”
In 2007, she joined musician Michael Feinstein in his “Standard Time” Carnegie Hall/ASCAP performance, providing an intimate story about the songs of Gene Kelly. More recently, she brought her story to the Laguna Playhouse. Her presentation includes rare audio and movie clips that recount his life and demonstrate his amazing ability to energize dance on film. Her performance has been described as “mesmerizing.”
Tickets for the Patricia Ward Kelly event can be purchased at the door for $30. For more information and to assure your reservation, please contact Mary Staton at (714) 544-5549. All proceeds from this event support Segerstrom Center for the Arts and its education and community programs.
Marsha Corzine, Public Relations
