Kathryn Murray, 1999/08/06
Fred Kelly, who taught Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret to swing dance during World War II, died Wednesday in Tucson Arizona, from leukemia. He was 83. The youngest of "The Five Kellys," Fred Kelly appeared only once in a movie with his much more famous brother Gene, in 1954's "Deep In My Heart". But he had a long and productive career as a tap dancer, teacher, choreographer and director.
When Gene went to Hollywood, Fred joined "This Is The Army," toured military bases for two years during World War II and then performed frequently on Canadian television.
Mr. Kelly received three Tony awards, for acting, comedy and dance. In the early '50s, he choreogaphed NBC's "Colgate Comedy Hour". He also directed more than 1,000 hours of "The Steve Allen Show" and was credited with introducing the mambo and the big apple dances to New York City and inventing the cha-cha. He opened a dance studio in Oradell, N.J., in the mid-50s, and one of his young students was John Travolta. For 24 years he served as professor of dance at Pace University.
[Another obituary has this story about Mr. Kelly "inventing" the Cha-cha-chá] While still working for the Latin Quarter, he choreographed a show for a competing club, Havana Madrid. Working with the great Latin band leader Tito Puente, or so the very plausible story goes, he put together a Latin number based on the Lindy, except that the dancers moved sideways. They threw in a cry for the orchestra: "cha cha cha!"
Thus, it is said, on Aug. 2, 1948, the cha-cha was introduced to America. But its prophet was identified as Frederico Calais (allegedly Gaelic for Kelly), to disguise Mr. Kelly's moonlighting. Years later, as Mr. McGowan tells it, the Smithsonian Institution called Mr. Kelly asking for help in finding Mr. Calais to record the achievement properly.
Harold Nicholas, 2000/04/07
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Fred Kelly, 2000/03/17