New Book: Only Make Believe
Making all of this bearable, however, is the fact that Keel's career, on screen and on stage, is of interest. Surviving a childhood in Illinois with an alcoholic father who kills himself, Keel moves to Los Angeles and discovers at the age of eighteen that he has a singing voice. Soon, Harry Keel becomes Harold Keel, studying classical voice and opera while meeting a provocative thirteen-year-old named Norma Jean Baker.
Keel sings for Oscar Hammerstein and is signed to a three-year contract, going to New York, where he immediately subs for vacationing John Raitt in the original Broadway production of Carousel. "I not only sang beautifully. I gave much more of an acting performance than John Raitt did." Keel takes over the lead in Oklahoma!, but frequently alternates in the lead of Carousel, playing across the street. He sometimes plays Billy at a matinee and Curly at night. "After playing a part like Billy Bigelow, playing Curly was kind of a comedown."
Harold Keel is sent to London to open Oklahoma!, which is rapturously received by the English. Noel Coward makes a pass at him one night backstage, and Keel weekends with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
In 1948, Keel signs a seven-year contract with MGM, and is immediately asked to star in the film version of Annie Get Your Gun, forcing him to turn down the role of Cable in the soon-to-open Broadway production of South Pacific. He meets up again with Norma Jean Baker, now Marilyn Monroe, and the two begin an affair. He becomes Howard Keel when Hedda Hopper mistakenly calls him that in her column.
As Annie begins production, he works with Judy Garland, who shakes from nerves during the pre-recording sessions. Keel breaks his ankle during rehearsals, forcing the shooting to concentrate on Garland, who can't take the pressure and is fired. She's replaced by Betty Hutton, who "upstaged everyone in every scene....while {director} George Sidney held her down as much as he could, she was a fistful." Keel remarks after making Calamity Jane with Doris Day that "Doris would have been a much better Annie."
On Pagan Love Song, Esther Williams proves "very easy to work with." Although he's married, Keels falls hard for his Show Boat co-star, Kathryn Grayson, who "could be a caution at times." Keel recalls, "It was torture for Katie and me to pretend to be just good friends when our love for each other grew and grew." Loaned to Warner Brothers for Calamity Jane, Keel feels that "the part of Wild Bill Hickok was written so colorlessly that the only way I could play him was to underplay against Calamity."
For Kiss Me, Kate, "I was the last choice for the part" of Fred Graham/Petruchio. "I thought maybe I should try to get Oklahoma!, but I knew Gordon MacRae had the inside track...Gordon has the perfect voice for Dick Rodgers." During the shooting of Kate, Joan Crawford asks Keel, "Why in the hell don't you marry Kathryn? She's mad about you." On Rose Marie, Keel reveals that Bert Lahr "couldn't stand" Marjorie Main. Shooting Seven Brides, Keel notes that the dancing brothers "were all straight," and that leading lady Jane Powell "was going through a bad time over her romance with Gene Nelson."
He clashes with director Vincente Minnelli on Kismet: "Most directors don't know how to talk or handle actors and don't want to. Minnelli certainly didn't. Kismet was doomed from the start. Nothing planned fell into place." Keel ultimately insisted that Minnelli, who was particularly hard on Vic Damone, be removed, and that another director finish the film. Keel considers Jupiter's Darling with Esther Williams "my best performance at MGM." Surprisingly, while Keel takes Alfred Drake's Broadway role in the London Oklahoma! then steals Drake's two best Broadway roles Kate and Kismet on screen, Keel and Drake "became very good friends."
Hired for a New York City Center revival of Carousel, Keel insults the Julie, Janet Blair, who walks out, with Barbara Cook taking over. Keel stars in the short-lived Broadway musical Saratoga, co-starring Carol Lawrence, with whom he had "a brief encounter." The Saratoga experience is "very depressing." Keel is rejected for the role of Starbuck in 110 in the Shade, and hated his part in the national tour of No Strings. That show's director, Joe Layton, was "arch and opinionated and hard to have a conversation with.... He tried to make me the same as Dick Kiley. We didn't get along."
And then there are the many, many years of shows in stock, which take up a substantial portion of the book. There's South Pacific with Elizabeth Allen and later Jane Powell; Mr. Roberts for producer John Kenley in Ohio Keel sings "Some Enchanted Evening" at the end of the performances; Carousel with Inga Swenson; Kismet; and Camelot with Constance Towers "the best Guinevere of all" and Jon Voight as Mordred.
Karen Black's voice gives out as Keel's co-star in On a Clear Day..., then it's The Fantasticks with Anna Maria Alberghetti "once in a while she would smoke a little pot or something and wouldn't be totally there". He does Plaza Suite with Betty Garrett and The Most Happy Fella with Karen Morrow.
"The most demanding and satisfying role I've ever done" is Man of La Mancha, which he performs with Bernice Massi "the best Aldonza of all" and later with Lainie Kazan, a production this writer saw at Westbury, Long Island. Of Kazan, Keel writes, "She was the size of a baby whale...she insisted that we adapt to her way of playing Aldonza," and she showed "a lack of respect for other actors."
He does The Unsinkable Molly Brown, with Tammy Grimes recreating her Broadway role. Keel says, "I could hardly wait to get out of that show," and loses all respect for Grimes when her performance energy changes drastically when Josh Logan is in the audience. Keel does I Do! I Do! at a dinner theatre that's a converted bowling alley, tours in Shenandoah, then reunites with Jane Powell for the theatrical version of Seven Brides, which he feels doesn't work on stage.
Keel plays the West End and Broadway in the musical Ambassador, which flops in both venues. After severe career lulls which leave him broke, Keel is asked to join the TV phenomenon "Dallas" in 1981, a series filmed on the old MGM lot. Although Clayton Farlow is "the biggest wimp I've ever played," Keel stays with "Dallas" for twelve years, and, as a result, enjoys a revitalized concert career during and after the TV years.
Keel doesn't come across as a particularly attractive person in the pages of Only Make Believe. Still, he was there during the final years of the golden age of the Hollywood musical. So fans of those films may wish to check out Keel's book, even if they're likely to find the writing pretty poor.