Pete Kelly's Blues

Film appreciation by Robert Siegel of The Digital Bits

Pete Kelly's Blues depicts a tale of violence set during the most violent years of contemporary history, the Roaring Twenties. The story is told as it happened to Pete Kelly, a cornet-playing jazz man from Kansas City. Pete and his Big 7 Dixieland Band are playing at a speak easy called Rick's and, when he meets the fun-loving and sexy Ivy, he begins to live the blues. Adding to Kelly's troubles, a big-time mobster named McCarg decides to make Kelly and his boys jump. When Pete resists, the action begins in true Roaring Twenties style. According to Webb, the character of Pete Kelly, and the dream of doing a film about jazz music, first came to him sixteen years prior to the production. Long a fan of jazz, Webb studied the history of the 1920's and reportedly became fascinated by the entertainment possibilities inherent in that era of great blues, bad booze, good-timing guys and two-timing gals. With these elements in mind, Webb assigned the story to Academy Award-winner Richard L. Breen, the man who wrote the highly-successful Dragnet film, and Pete Kelly's Blues was the result.

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The same air of authenticity that was the distinguishing mark of Dragnet was promised in the film. Everything from cigar rings to the cars are of genuine 1927 vintage, according to Webb. The large dollar bills of the 1920's were also sought and used, along with clothing from the era. Dances like the Charleston and the Black Bottom, that shocked the nation in the 20's, were performed in the film. Webb engaged 100 young couples to shake and shimmy through the dances in the costumes of that time, in a settling representing a large public dance hall. Dresses were knee-length, low-waisted and loose-fitting at the bottom line. When the feminine dancers kick their legs and gyrate in the hotter rhythms, they reportedly made Rock and Roll look minuet by comparison. "I engaged only non-professional dancers for this sequence," Webb would say in an interview. "I did not want them to be perfect in their steps like a professional. I intended to show a group of people of that period out for an evening of fun in one of the big public ballrooms popular then." The 100 couples were given frequent rest periods during rehearsals and takes, because of the strenuous and unaccustomed fast stepping - footwork that made the Mombo and Samba look like a slow ride on an escalator by comparison.

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For several months prior to starting their roles in the film, the actors portraying band musicians took music lessons on their respective instruments. Lee Marvin, enacting a clarinetist, studied with a clarinet teacher long before he studied dialogue for the part. Martin Milner, the drummer, and Herb Ellis, bass fiddler, disturbed neighbors with their musical efforts many weeks before reporting on the set. Bill Lazarus, high school drummer in the story, needed no practice. He was a professional and had drummed with several bands. Webb was not concerned with the quality of the music emitted by his actors, but only with their ability to resemble real jazz musicians on the screen. An outstanding Dixieland band composed of top Hollywood musicians did the recording for the film. The band that was heard, but not seen, featured the talents of Dick Cathcart, Matty Matlock, "Moe" Schneider, Eddie Miller, Joe Venuti, Harper Goff, George Van Eps, Nick Fatool, Ray Sherman, Jud De Naut and Perry Bodkin. What was interesting for the music and sound producers of the film was recording for Cinemascope, with its 4-track stereo capability. Sound men Leslie G. Hewitt and Dolph Thomas spent many weeks mixing the music for the new stereo format. Leslie would say of his sound mix, "This is fantastic, being able to present the sounds of the film in a multi-dimensional format that will be heard in many theaters in full stereo sound. I fully believe that this will forever change the way sound and music on film is recorded and the way it is enjoyed by the audience. The job is harder than a monophonic film, because you need to be very careful to remember that what will be played is not in an enclosed sound stage but in a large theater auditorium, and we have to make sure that it comes across well. We used Warner's screening room and several theaters in the L.A. area that were equipped to do Cinemascope to run tests on this. I feel the result was spectacular and I will certainly press my friends to see the film in stereophonic sound."

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A very rare trade publication advertisement from Warner Brothers.

A six-foot high instrument of the 1920's vintage is used in a key dance hall scene. Known as an Orchestrion, its piano-like strings are augmented with built-in drums, cymbals, a triangle and organ pipes. Research into such items as cigar bands, telephone numbers and canned goods occupied the production staff, taking months of research. Taste in cigars during the period was much different than it was in the 1950s. Telephone numbers were much shorter, many consisting of only 3 numbers. Even paper money was larger and so were the wallets that held it. Gil Kissel, prop man for the film, and an aide spent two weeks contacting tobacco companies to find enough 1927 brands to fill a cigarette girl's tray. Among the varieties found were Piedmonts, Picayunes, Omars, Kensitas, Home Runs, Milo Violets, Three Kings and Moguls. Kissel's diligent search, however, failed to produce the penny box of matches with the sandpaper strip on the side, which was different from those used at the time of the production, so Kissel made them himself. The historic sound equipment Warner Brothers used in the conduct of the first sound experiments was used as furnishings in the recording laboratory where Pete Kelly and his Big 7 cut an early record in the film.

The "Oscar Jynx" held no fears for Edmond O'Brien, 1955 Academy Award winner. "An actor who's been around as long as I have," he commented on the set, "isn't likely to be thrown off stride by getting an Academy Award. My attitude is business as usual. I was more than ordinarily nervous, although I'd told myself beforehand that this was just another day's work, just like thousands of other days for me. But I was nevertheless a little self-conscious and the only reason I can think of for being that way was that I had won an Oscar. And this after fifty pictures and fifteen years as an actor. When I was a stage beginner, playing a supporting role with Maurice Evans in Henry IV, I arrived at the theater one night and found my name had been added to the marquee. I dashed to the telephone to tell my family the good news, then walked into the theater and gave the worst performance of my life." In contrast to his role of a press agent in Barefoot Contessa, O'Brien plays a Kansas City racketeer of the violent 20's. O'Brien, in Chesterfield overcoat and sporting a red carnation in his lapel, is boss of a gang of hoodlums.

Jack Webb on the set during production.

Ella Fitzgerald in Pete Kelly's Blues and a rare photo taken on the set.

L to R: Peggy Lee as seen in the film and winning the Audience Award trophy as Best New Actress by the president of the Theatres Association.

Promotion included fashions from the film made
by several large U.S. clothing companies.

Various LP releases of Pete Kelly's Blues.