Scholarship and its duty to history
(This is from a message I wrote to some published authors who have written about Gene Kelly, one of whom is a film scholar associated with a major university, when I respectfully challenged some info published online. The reply that I was some “fan of a dead movie star” was an attempt, I felt, to trivialize the research done by people whom they may feel are not members of their rarefied circle, but upon whose work some of these very same people draw for information. I am NOT talking about Hess & Dabholkar, who respectfully credited the work of the late Sue Cadman’s blog, Gene Kelly: Creative Genius.)
This is not about adulation of a dead movie star. This is about people taking seriously the biographical facts of one of history's most important artists--who has been overlooked for decades, and whose widow, who claims to be preserving his "legacy" would have us believe the only thing Gene Kelly ever did in his entire life was make movies. In scholarly treatises about Leonardo di Vinci or Shakespeare or Cezanne, Picasso, Dante (any historically important artist), I doubt people would be so cavalier with facts. I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound vindictive or petty: But it is the JOB of scholars to get facts straight. That is what scholars get paid to do if they are fortunate enough to carry the imprimatur and backing of a scholastic institution that lends not only credibility to their work, but also allows them access to all sorts of material no "ordinary" person can hope to access. And no where is that a more challenging endeavor than in trying to get accuracy in the history of Hollywood movie stars. Hollywood is a culture of "starvation", where people believe (rightfully) that "there isn't enough to go around", and it makes people do very self-serving things in their desperation to get "credit". Lies and fabrications, personal vendettas and gripes are interjected into stories all the time, and are substituted for facts.
To illustrate, I retell here one of the famous jokes about Hollywood: A writer had come to the end of his coping skills and energy when he had written himself into a corner he could not get out of. He finally collapsed into a heap of exhaustion and despair. While he slept, an elf came and finished typing his script, finding clever solutions to the plot, and giving the story a zinger of an ending. When the writer awoke and saw what the elf had done he said, "Oh,my! How can I ever thank you for what you've done?" The elf said, quietly, "Well, perhaps you could give me credit?" "Credit!" screamed the writer, capturing the elf in a jar and disposing of it posthaste.
You may feel that those of us who are trying to research this giant of 20th Century art in what was The art form of the 20th Century are trivial "fans". I assure you that is not the case. Scholars have a duty and responsibility to use the "passport" their credentials afford them to double check the information they share just the same as any journalist has a moral and ethical responsibility to double and triple check their facts before they share them with the public. Yes, I am holding your feet to the fire: I'm not doing that out of spite or smugness; I am doing that out of a dedication to a subject that did way more than dance his way across a movie screen. Kelly, whether he knew it or not, was a cultural force that challenged the rigid perceptions of what gender means--That started with Gene Kelly. His passion and determination to get lumbering mentalities to see that dance has always been a part of male identity and expression, that assigning unbending rules of what is "acceptable" or "unacceptable" based on what kind of "plumbing" one was born with has no basis in historical or biological truth. He was a harbinger of so much more than the astonishing effect he's had on dance. Gene Kelly was one of those humans who seemed to carry in his artistic vision a roadmap to some greater truth we all need to understand. As with so many great, visionary artists, he himself may not have always understood to where is artistic vision was leading; he was just compelled to listen to his inner voice and keep slashing his way through the forest of lies and misperceptions that blocked his path and drag all of us along with him. -- Starlight Inkwell
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