That's Entertainment, Part II together for the first time since the 1946 film "Ziegfeld Follies", and for only the second time in their careers. (It was the last time 76-year-old Astaire danced on film, though the veteran actor continued to make film and TV appearances into the 1980s; Kelly would go on to appear in the 1980 musical "Xanadu".) According to film historian Robert Osborne, in specially-filmed introductions produced for Turner Classic Movies, it was Astaire who suggested to Kelly that the two take advantage of this potentially last-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform together, something Kelly actually wishes for out loud during his narration of
Gene Kelly The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won three. In 1970, he made another television special: "Gene Kelly and 50 Girls" and was invited to bring the show to Las Vegas, Nevada—which he did for an eight-week stint on the condition he be paid more than any artist had ever been paid there. He directed veteran actors James Stewart and Henry Fonda in the comedy western "The Cheyenne Social Club" (1970), which performed poorly at the box office. In 1973 he worked again with Frank Sinatra as part of Sinatra's Emmy nominated TV special, "Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra".