THE UNIVERSALISM OF GENE KELLY'S TALENT AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE MASTER'S WORK ON THE 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN CULTURE

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the life and work of the world-famous American-Irish dancer, actor, singer, director, film producer and choreographer Gene Kelly – winner of the US National Medal in Art, honorary “Oscar”, two “Golden Globe” Awards and three dozen more prizes.

The epoch in which Gene Kelly worked and lived influenced the directions  of his life and creative path. That is why the paper  consideres te pecularirties of that unique time. Moreover, it was the epoch, environment, culture and ideals that revealed, nurtured, and thus honed the many facets of his universal talent.

The 1920s went down in American history as the “decade of prosperity”. It was then that the idea of “American exclusivity” became widespread. It was claimed that the country had reached a stage of "crisis-free development." However, the economy in those years was not regulated by the state, and the stock market developed spontaneously. All this, in the end, led to overproduction, deflation, overheating of the stock market, and thus to the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange. This, in turn, led to the beginning of the Great Depression. The next ten years were a time of mass unemployment and strikes, ruin of farms and closure of enterprises.

But despite the challenges that America faced in the 1930s, the nation's creative potential wasn’t destroyed, but on the contrary: this period was marked by the greatest achievements of American culture. And this is thanks to the “New Deal” of the 32^d President of America Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Namely, anti-crisis measures, in particular, the Federal Project Number One, which consisted of five different parts: the Federal Art Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theater Project, the Federal Writers' Project and the Historical Records Survey.

The following are important facts from the biography of Gene Kelly. For example, Gene linked his future to sports. But the Great Depression, which has led many families to poverty, forced him and his brother Fred to perform dance numbers in clubs for money. And that was the beginning of his dancing career.

However, the economic crisis proved to be a fertile ground for the flourishing of the entertainment industry. These years have been especially successful for Hollywood. Cinema has become the main place of escapism from the depressing reality. It gave people the illusion that everything would be fine. This time was later called the “Golden age of Hollywood”, during which a number of stunning pictures were created. And it is Gene Kelly who will play far not the least role in this, becoming not only one of the leading actors in music films, a Hollywood star of the 40's and 50's, but also creating dozens of great films that will enter the golden fund of world cinema.

The work also explores a unique synthesis of various abilities of Gene Kelly and reveals all aspects of his talent. The artistic value of Gene Kelly's work is then elucidated and its impact on twentieth-century American culture determined.          

Gene Kelly became the creator of his own unique life path not only due to the social conditions of the era, but also such traits as hard work, modesty, devotion, demanding of himself and others and ambition (in the good sense of the word).

As for the universality of Gene Kelly, it lies in the combination of the author's worldview with a high level of giftedness and talent. This, in turn, led to a significant level of development of his diverse creative abilities. Moreover, his genius was fully manifested in cinema. After all, Gene Kelly's work was not only at one time distinguished by a high level of perfection and novelty. His talent and originality, as it turned out, are still of great global importance.