by Barbra Paskin-Shavua Tov, 22 Apr \u201822<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n HOLLYWOOD, California--- That beloved musical Singin\u2019 In The Rain celebrates its 70th<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n anniversary this month. Gene Kelly died in 1996 but his films have continued to entertain<\/p>\n\n\n\n audiences around the world. An artist ahead of his time, he revolutionised the world of dance<\/p>\n\n\n\n on screen with his stunning choreography and created some of the most iconic dance numbers<\/p>\n\n\n\n in American cinema, from Singin In The Rain to An American In Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n Gene Kelly (c) Barbra Paskin my move to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a late wintry morning and Gene Kelly and I were ambling along Pimlico Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gene was on the loose at the time. En route to see his daughter in Ireland, he\u2019d been grounded<\/p>\n\n\n\n in London for a few days by an Aer Lingus strike. We\u2019d met a few months earlier in Hollywood<\/p>\n\n\n\n when I\u2019d interviewed him for a book I was writing about actors and now he\u2019d rung me and<\/p>\n\n\n\n suggested lunch, an offer that was warmly welcomed. It was early days in my career and the<\/p>\n\n\n\n charm of the bedsit had given way to the usual pangs of hunger that typically struck by week\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So there we were, strolling down the road towards a little trattoria I knew at the end of<\/p>\n\n\n\n the street. As we started to cross over to the other side it began spitting with rain, which fast<\/p>\n\n\n\n gave way to a downpour that whipped my umbrella inside out. Barely out of my teens and<\/p>\n\n\n\n normally rather inhibited and well-behaved, something irrepressible suddenly washed over me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a whim I grabbed Gene\u2019s hand and began humming, singing and skipping across the road in<\/p>\n\n\n\n front of a London bus that screeched to a crunching halt. I can\u2019t imagine what the passengers<\/p>\n\n\n\n thought, watching the two of us as we splashed about in the deluge, our melodic voices<\/p>\n\n\n\n drowned by the sound of heavy rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I\u2019ll never forget that day when I achieved the rare status of having gone singing in<\/p>\n\n\n\n the rain with Gene Kelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s another landmark birthday to celebrate when the incomparable Barbra Streisand<\/p>\n\n\n\n turns 80 on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The quintessential Jewish actress of our time, she has created some unforgettable<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jewish characters on the screen \u2013 from Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and Funny Lady, and Dolly<\/p>\n\n\n\n Levy in Hello Dolly to the Jewish psychiatrist in The Prince of Tides and the girl who disguises<\/p>\n\n\n\n herself as a yeshiva boy in order to study the Talmud in Yentl. She also directed those last two<\/p>\n\n\n\n films, as well as A Star Is Born for which she made the lead role Jewish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbra supports numerous Jewish causes in America and Israel, many in honour of her<\/p>\n\n\n\n father, a scholar and teacher who died when she was just 15 months old. It was a loss she has<\/p>\n\n\n\n always mourned. A longtime friend of Israel, she established the Emanuel Streisand School of<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jewish Studies, named after her father, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. And she\u2019s been<\/p>\n\n\n\n awarded Israel\u2019s Freedom Medal in recognition of her exceptional service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was writing Dudley Moore\u2019s biography, Barbra broke her rule of keeping a closed<\/p>\n\n\n\n set (especially to the press) and graciously allowed me to accompany him during filming of The<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mirror Has Two Faces which she was directing in New York. And although often described as a<\/p>\n\n\n\n diva, I found her to be kind and inordinately patient with Dudley who had difficulty<\/p>\n\n\n\n remembering his lines. (Though we didn\u2019t know it then, he had begun suffering from a terminal<\/p>\n\n\n\n brain disease and after a few days he had to withdraw from the film.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Streisand\u2019s next milestone may be the publication of her autobiography, which she\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n been working on for several years, with occasional input from first husband Elliott Gould who<\/p>\n\n\n\n has a photographic memory. One thing\u2019s guaranteed \u2013 it\u2019ll be an instant bestseller and make<\/p>\n\n\n\n riveting reading as she reflects back over six decades as an actress, director and musical<\/p>\n\n\n\n performer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hope you\u2019ve been having a wonderful summer, and until next time, Shavua tov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Revisiting one of Barbra Paskin's earlier Letters LETTER FROM HOLLYWOOD for Nick Beck by Barbra Paskin-Shavua Tov, 22 Apr \u201822 HOLLYWOOD, California--- That beloved musical Singin\u2019 In The Rain celebrates its 70th anniversary this month. Gene Kelly died in 1996 but his films have continued to entertain audiences around the world. An artist ahead of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-from-hollywood"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2080,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions\/2080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Gene-Kelly-c-Barbra-Paskin-1980-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
And that leads me into a remarkable trip down Memory Lane from the mid-70s before<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Barbra-Streisand-scaled.jpg\")