Happy Birthday, Gene Kelly!

Why yes, it is that beautiful man's birthday.

In honor of his birthday, we're throwing a craft-along.

You can join in by sharing your GK-inspired craft (all mediums welcome!) in the Flickr group. There's no deadline, there's no rules, just a bunch of crafters in love with the dancing man.

For me, the crush started the first time I saw Singin' in the Rain. I was 8 or 9 and we rented it from the library. I'm pretty sure it was the first musical I ever watched. It's definitely the first time I saw dancing like that.

I was completely transfixed…until the weird staircase scene (the woman, with the length of fabric…I just don't get it. Still.)
The most quotable scene, this one! (Long people, have short faces and short people have long faces…)

It soon became my watch-when-sick movie and it's never failed to lull me to sleep or make me forget about how icky I feel.

Which is why it was tragic when it was one of the movies stolen when  our house was broken into.

It was also the very first movie we replaced (just a week later Jay came home with another Singin' in the Rain. And a Wayne's World. But that's a story for a different craft-along.)

But confession:

I've never seen another Gene Kelly movie. Clearly, this is to be remedied. I've got Summer Stock and An American in Paris on hold at the library (so retro!) and Xanadu (never seen it! my child-of-the80s-cred is in question!) and (thanks to Rachel!) Anatomy of a Dancer cued up for tonight on Netflix Instant.

And for the craftalong?

I'm thinking an amigurumi Gene (like my Wimpy Kid) or perhaps a series of yarn, one for each movie I watch?

What will you make?

PS. Wanna OD on GK? Check out this great YouTube Playlist while you read the posts from the other craft-alongers: Diane +  Rachel
(share your link in the comments and I'll add you here!)