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Legendary actor and dancer
Donald O'Connor's own story is pure Hollywood. Literally
singled out by a talent scout during a stage performance,
O'Connor instantly went from traveling Vaudeville performer
to a star on the screen during one of the most spectacular
eras moviemaking has ever seen. With a resume over 70
films long, the 77 year-old O'Connor can rest assured
his place in cinema history is golden. Now, as his most
memorable film Singin' in the Rain is set for a 50th anniversary
DVD release, the man trained by acrobats looks back on
making the world's most famous movie musical. Interview
by Karen Idelson
Singin' in the Rain may be the world's most famous
and most loved movie musical. What's it like to look
back at work you did 50 years ago and realize it had such
an incredible impact?
I think it's absolutely wonderful. I think really
with this kind of energy behind it, it's like the
very beginning of the movie when you've just previewed,
and you go out and talk to various press around the country.
It's very exciting. It's wonderful.
You were all on a tight schedule shooting this film
and a lot of the "effects" in this film had
to be done right there on the set. Do you remember how
it was to work under those conditions?
I think the funniest to me is when Gene was filming the
main title song Singin' in the Rain out in the rain. They
were on the back lot and, of course, it was open and they
had to enclose it with a tarpaulin. When they started,
he's signing, so happy and he looks great, and the rain
is coming down, and just at a perfect timing each droplet
seems to have its own beat.
All of a sudden somebody takes a close look at Gene and
he's shrinking. The clothes are actually shrinking.
No one took into account that the tweed material shrinks,
so they're going crazy trying to find cloth now to
make him suits. About every 30 minutes, they'd have
to make another suit for him. Actually you'd be talking
to him in between shots, and you'd actually see the
material start to rise in his pants and his cuffs. It
was really hysterical; it was funny. Gene was a dignified
man, and particularly in his work. When all of this started
to happen beyond his control, it got to him too. He was
hysterical. That to me is about the funniest I've
ever seen in anything.
Your signature number in this film is "Make ‘em
Laugh." How that number developed and how long did
it take to film?
The number started, but naturally Roger Eden came to
me and handed me this music, Make ‘Em Laugh. I looked
at, Gene looked at it, and he said, "Why don't
you take the girls," Jeanie Coin, and Carole Haney,
his assistant choreographers, "and see what you can
come up with?" So I said okay. I got a pianist, I
took the girls into a rehearsal hall, and I began to sing
and did a pratfall. They laughed and I said write that
down.
Whatever they laughed at the most, that's what we
did on the screen. Most of that stuff that you see is
done for the first time and it stayed there.
How long did it take to film it?
One day. Yes, I had to do it in one day because my body,
as I progressed in the number doing pratfalls, it was
on cement. They couldn't give me good old wood. Anyway,
I'm doing these pratfalls on cement, and my body,
my knees, ankles, and toes, everything started to hurt.
We saw right then we had to shoot fast, get the number
done in one day, and we did it. We did it in one day and
it was absolutely miraculous.
Now two days later I go in on the set, and I get applause
from the guys with the lights way up high and the people
on the floor, like the opening of a Broadway show. I said
isn't this marvelous? Stanley said, "That number
is just great. It's fantastic. Do you think you could
do it again?" I said oh, sure, anytime. He said,
"Well great, you're going to do it again tomorrow."
What had happened was they had inadvertently, the cinematographer
or one of his assistants didn't see that the aperture
on the camera wasn't correct. It was open and it stuck,
so that whole number was fogged out. It looked like a
ghost doing his thing. So I had to do it all over again.
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