About Donald O'Connor

 He fascinated me. He was a most under-appreciated triple threat Hollywood talent. He could sing, he could dance, he could act. Donald O'Connor was one terrific entertainer as a child, as a teen and as an adult. He shines in the 1938 Paramount musical comedy, SING YOUR SNNERS. It's about three brothers who are a popular singing trio. O'Connor was about 11 or 12 and there he is, giving you screen charisma as he keeps up with stars Bing Crosby and Fred MacMurray as his siblings. I have loved Donald O'Connor movies ever since I was a kid in Los Angeles. When I was a boy in grade school, there was no such thing as VHS, DVD or cable TV. The local TV stations back then aired of lot of old movies. I'd get home from school and there would be a late afternoon movie on some station to lead into the local evening news. One station, Channel 13, had some of the 1940s Universal musicals starring Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan. Those two teen performers were sort of Universal's answer to MGM's Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Local ABC aired the Donald O'Connor FRANCIS movies of the 1950s.

Like millions of fellow classic film devotees, I love Donald O'Connor as Cosmo in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952). He lights up the screen with his every appearance. His dancing is sensational.

I read the Rita Moreno memoir and her account of being in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN really gave me more insight into his film career. She was almost more in awe of Donald O'Connor than she was of the classically trained Gene Kelly. His 1940s musicals as a teen/young adult star for Universal were surely popular. However, the studio gave those movies nowhere near the budget it gave to its Deanna Durbin, Abbott & Costello or even its monster movies. They were given a minimal budget and look as though they were shot in five weeks with no more than two takes required of the actors. But, in all of those movies, you see Donald O'Connor bringing his A-game to a production with a B-movie budget.

In 1950, Universal put Donald O'Connor in another movie with a bargain basement budget. The comedy, FRANCIS, has him as an Army soldier who encounters a talking mule. Francis was the mule. The comedy cost about $622,000 to make. It made $3 million at the box office. And that's the under-appreciation of Donald O'Connor that Rita Moreno points out in her memoir. FRANCIS was such a hit for Universal that it was the first of a franchise concluding in 1955. Donald O'Connor would get a role in an A-list musical like 1952's SINGIN' IN THE RAIN or Fox's CALL ME MADAM (1953) starring Ethel Merman or Fox's THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS (1954) starring Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe and Mitzi Gaynor, and then he'd have to go to Universal to make another comedy with a talking mule. A modestly budgeted comedy that would make millions.

Universal never gave Donald O'Connor an A-list musical project like MGM, 20th Century Fox and Paramount did.

For SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, Gene Kelly was the choreographer. For the two Fox musicals O'Connor did with Ethel Merman, MGM veteran Robert Alton was the choreographer. Durinng Donald O'Connor's very long association with Universal, his choreographer was Louis Da Pron. If you see O'Connor's dance numbers in Universal's 1948 musical western called FEUDIN', FUSSIN' AND A-FIGHTIN', you'll recognize the Da Pron influence in O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" SINGIN' IN THE RAIN number. In Universal's 1948 musical, ARE YOU WITH IT?, Lou Da Pron donned a bow tie, played a bartender and joined Donald O'Connor in this number.

If the hoofer wearing a hat looked familiar, he should. He's Lew Parker. On the classic hit sitcom, THAT GIRL (1966-1971), Marlo Thomas played Ann Marie, as aspiring actress in New York City. Lew Parker played Ann Marie's father.

After SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, Donald O'Connor made another MGM musical with Debbie Reynolds. She played an aspiring actress in New York City and he was a photographer for a top national magazine in 1953's I LOVE MELVIN. I love this number choreographed by Robert Alton.

Donald O'Connor's next film release in 1953 was Universal's FRANCIS COVERS THE BIG TOWN.