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About Fred Kelly

by Joe Bousard

What can we say about the irrepressible Fred???  The man who still did cartwheels off the stage (in his seventies) while his wife, Dotty, looked on horrified!---scolding with love.   Fred---the improviser—the man who could tell stories forever---(and what he didn’t remember he embellished with relish!)  Playing for him in dance performances was great fun and full of vaudeville history and style.  Whether he was tapping alone or with his friend, Hal LeRoy, their teamwork and partnership made my piano sing with energy.  Hal would add drumsticks and rhythm to a stool or the floor and he and Fred would challenge each other to defy memory and gravity!!! Feet would fly and the two “dancing fools” would go at it!!!! Oh, and if Fred had to introduce me to an audience or to students he would use the info I gave him and then make up the rest----all rather truthful but quite “creative”.  I was the best in the world and had my own school and was the ultimate musician/teacher/voice coach!!   Thanks, Fred, for the fun, the hard work, the eternal dance recitals, the taping of hundreds of tracks from LPs for all the dance classes to perform---in the studio and in your basement! Thanks for the love and the friendship and the history that you lived and made and shared.  Thanks for the production of “Too Many Girls” at Pace College and the fun we all had at your home and around your pool with your family and friends. Your light will shine forever and we will always remember the energy, the stories, the cleverness, and the talent of Fred Kelly!!!  (Don’t you have a brother, (what’s his name?)—Eugene?)

Fred Kelly would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year.
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