Gene Kelly movies." "Anchors Aweigh" became one of the most successful films of 1945 and Kelly was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In "Ziegfeld Follies" (1946)—which was produced in 1944 but not released until 1946—Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire, for whom he had the greatest admiration, in the famous "The Babbitt and the Bromide" challenge dance routine. After Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1946, MGM had nothing planned and used him in a routine, black-and-white movie: "Living in a Big Way". The film was considered so weak that the studio asked Kelly to design and insert a series of
The Astaire Story session – "Mr. Top Hat"; "The Irving Berlin Songbook"; "Steppin' Out: Astaire Sings". In the EU, after the original recording's performers'/producers' rights expired, additional European releases appeared under different names, e.g. "Jazz Time" (Proper) 2003; "Oscar Peterson and Fred Astaire: Complete Norman Granz Sessions" (Jazz Factory) 2005. Recorded at Radio Recorders, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, December, 1952: The Astaire Story The Astaire Story is a 1952 album by Fred Astaire. The album was conceived of and produced by Norman Granz, the founder of Clef Records (and later Verve Records), who was also responsible for the Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts,