Remembering Howard Keel
My family was always big on classic movies / musicals. I was raised on a healthy dose of Astaire, Rogers, Keel, Powell, Hayworth, Garland, Hepburn, Grant, Peck, etc, etc. Howard Keel died a couple weeks ago at the age of 85. He will always be remembered in my heart as that tall-rugged-seriously-good-baritone-voice guy.
My favorite movies starring Howard Keel include: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Kiss Me Kate, and Kismet. Kismet was one of the last musical productions put together by MGM before they pulled the plug on musicals all together. What a sad day that was!
Keel had a relatively rough childhood and eventually made his way to California from Illinois after his father’s death. He was only a eleven at the time and supported himself as a mechanic. He later began work for Douglas Aircraft where coworkers were among the first to notice his lovely untrained voice. He was eventually noticed by Oscar Hammerstein, and the rest is history. It’s quite the sweet "American Dream" tale.
Keel may have been moderately successful later in his life with some good work done in plays and TV, but I believe that his real success lies within his dashing musical roles.
Now I just need to figure out which of his movies are on DVD… D. help me out.
We had a little memorial film festival in honor of Howard, a couple of weeks ago after he died. Here’s what I’ve got of his:
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) his first film
Show Boat (1951)
Calamity Jane (1953)
Kiss Me Kate (1953)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Kismet (1955) (recorded off of TCM — not on DVD)
plus That’s Entertainment 1, 2, 3.
Howard was also in some Westerns, Across the Wide Missouri (1951); Ride Vaquero (1953); War Wagon (1967) and one sci-fi show, Day of the Triffids (1962) and he appeared on Dallas for 10 years
Comment by D. Fletcher — November 29, 2004 @ 11:41 am
So I wonder why Kismet isn’t on DVD yet… Blast, it’s my second favorite! But Annie Get Your Gun, Show Boat, and Kiss Me Kate all make up for it. And Seven Brides for Seven Brothers… why do I not own that yet? I’ve seen it at least a dozen times, the least I could do is reserve a spot on my shelf for it.
Comment by Bob Caswell — November 29, 2004 @ 11:45 am
I first knew Keel through Dallas. What charisma! Only later did I realize his B’way fame. You’re right about a serious voice… we watched Kiss Me Kate recently and he had volume to spare.
Comment by Steve Evans — November 29, 2004 @ 11:46 am
You should get 7B/7B, Bob. There’s a new DVD (put out in October) which contains 2 complete versions of the movie! 1953 was a watershed year (read: odd) for Hollywood, in that movies were switching over to the new widescreen processes. 7B/7B was made in Cinemascope, but the studio (MGM) also insisted on a flat 1.77:1 version, for any theaters that couldn’t get the Cinemascope equipment. The two versions use the same pre-recorded musical numbers, but are completely different in every other way! The “flat” version looks markedly better on DVD, because it hasn’t ever been used, so the negative was in good shape.
About Howard’s voice: it wasn’t untrained — he spent years in his early twenties trying to get into opera. It’s a big voice, but rather covered on top. Sometimes he sounds like he’s singing with a mouthful of potatoes.
Kismet is terrific, but it needs a major film restoration before it can make an acceptable DVD. This movie was shot on Eastman color stock film, in Cinemascope, and it is terribly faded and run-down.
Comment by D. Fletcher — November 29, 2004 @ 11:54 am
My wife is a huge Howard Keel fan. My daughters love Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.
Comment by Bryce I — November 29, 2004 @ 11:58 am
You’ve sold me, D.! I may wait until after Christmas just to make sure I don’t get it as a gift (hint, hint, email me for my address). About Howard.. Opera? I read like seven biographies on the guy in the last week and also looked into his life a bit when I was in high school… I don’t recall opera being mentioned once. Do you mind if I call you on this one and ask for some more info? I am really curious.
About his trained [sort of] voice. Leave it to D. to remind us of how a musical person isn’t quite perfect!
Comment by Bob Caswell — November 29, 2004 @ 12:28 pm
You mean, online bios? Or actual books? I can’t imagine that there are seven books about Howard Keel.
I just meant, when he discovered he had a voice, probably when he was working as a mechanic, he went and found a number of good voice teachers, and learned arias like everybody else. He probably didn’t have good enough technique to get into opera, but was perfect for musicals, because he could sing and he was good looking.
As for legitimate “baritone” voices, I like Gordon Macrae’s voice better, though Howard certainly did well.
Comment by D. Fletcher — November 29, 2004 @ 12:34 pm
Here’s a quote from an obit in the LA Times:
At 20 he was living in Los Angeles and he was befriended by a cultured woman who took him to a Hollywood Bowl concert featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett. Keel was inspired, and he started taking vocal lessons. His first semi-professional opportunity came as a singing waiter at the Paris Inn Restaurant in downtown Los Angeles at $15 a week and two meals a day.
Six foot three (1.9 meters) and a gawky 140 pounds (63 kilograms), Keel was painfully shy. He worked for five years during World War II at Douglas Aircraft, and the experience helped his confidence.
He sang in recitals and opera programs and was summoned to an audition with Oscar Hammerstein II, who was looking for young singers to play Curly in the growing number of touring “Oklahoma!” companies.
Comment by D. Fletcher — November 29, 2004 @ 12:44 pm
I don’t care much for Annie Get Your Gun. But how could I have forgotten Kiss Me Kate? And I’ve never seen Kismet–though, to be honest, I’ve never heard anyone praise it before Bob’s claim above…still, for completion’s sake, I ought to check it out. So that’s two more for my list. Thanks, Kulturblog!
Comment by Russell Arben Fox — November 29, 2004 @ 4:52 pm
Not sure about the appropriateness of this, but we’re having a terrific discussion about the “death” of musicals over at my other board. The thread is called, “Cinderella, or What Happened to Musicals?”
http://p069.ezboard.com/fsondheimandusfrm2
Comment by D. Fletcher — December 8, 2004 @ 3:17 pm