This Is Your Life: Howard Keel

Howard KEEL (1919-2004)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Howard Keel, actor and singer, was surprised by Michael Aspel while playing golf at the Lakes Country Club in Palm Springs, California, USA.

Howard, who was born the son of a coal miner in Illinois, USA, moved to California in 1930. After graduating from school, he worked various odd jobs before his landlady encouraged him to take singing lessons. He appeared on Broadway in Carousel and later Oklahoma, in which he also appeared in the London production in 1947. While in the UK, he made his film debut in The Small Voice.

Back in the US, he was signed by MGM Studios in 1949, and after making his musical film debut in Annie Get Your Gun, he went on to become a star of the golden age of Hollywood musicals, including Kiss Me, Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Kismet, and Oklahoma! During the 1980s, he starred in the hugely popular US TV soap opera Dallas.

"Get out of here! Get out of here! You gotta be kidding!"

programme details...

Edition No: 909
Subject No: 890
Broadcast date: Wed 22 Feb 1995
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Fri 10 Feb 1995
Venue: Television City Studios, Los Angeles
Series: 35
Edition: 17
Code name: Yacht

on the guest list...

Gunner - son
Kirstine - daughter
Leslie - daughter
Mico - grandson
Bodie - grandson
Judy - wife
Leonard Katzman
Charlene Tilton
Ken Kercheval
George Kennedy
Linda Gray
Chuck Gibbons
Kathryn Grayson
Jane Wyman
Robert Stack
Jane Powell
Russ Tamblyn
Dolores Gray
George C Scott
Kaija - daughter
Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan
Larry Hagman

production team...

Researcher: Sue Green
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Director: Brian Klein
Associate Producer: John Graham
Executive Producer: Peter Estall
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related page...

The Glamorous Life

Hollywood in the spotlight

Screenshots of Howard Keel This Is Your Life

Howard Keel recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, Only Make Believe...

On February 10, 1995, I was playing golf on my home course in Palm Desert, California, when an announcer and a cameraman approached our foursome on the greens and said, "This is your life." I had told Judy a hundred times I never wanted to be embarrassed like that. Like she listens to me.

Thames TV in London had flown to America to film their BBC episode. I showered, changed into a tux, and a limo drove us to Hollywood where our family and friends had traveled from around the country to surprise and roast me.

My friend from Gillespie, Chuck Gibbons, broke me up with his memories of our youth together. "Gillespie, Illinois, where the girls were."

Kathryn Grayson, Jane Powell, Ann Miller, who remembered her "Too Darn Hot" number from Kiss Me Kate when her bracelet caught on Kathryn's blonde wig. [Bigredbook.info editor: Ann Miller does not appear on Howard's tribute!]

Leonard Katzman who said. "For Kiss Me Kate, we were looking for a romantic leading man, and we thought immediately of Howard." George Sidney who told the audience MGM had three great dancers whom MGM called KAK; Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Howard Keel.

From the cast of "Dallas," Ken Kercheval and George Kennedy, reminisced. "We sat on the floor with a Scotch. I got me one, too, and that's the last I remember of that night with Howard."

Charlene Tilton and Linda Gray surprised me. Jane Wyman told the story of me losing her to Van Johnson in Three Guys Named Mike.

Robert Stack, who called me the best shot in Hollywood. I had won the West Coast championship in skeet shooting after practicing with him for three months. Robert is a world-renowned Olympic shooter himself.

Russ Tamblyn remembered when, during the filming of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the seven brothers, all with dyed red hair, jumped into a Cadillac convertible and drove to a nearby drive-in for lunch. We stopped the lunch crowd.

Dolores Gray said appearing in Kismet was the biggest thrill of her life. "Howard was a consummate genius and an angel to work with."

Judy wore a white pantsuit and sat smugly on the edge of her chair and smiled that she pulled something this big over on me. She'll never trick me like that again. I'm onto her now.

My children and grandchildren attended, as did many close friends and family members.

The BBC ran the show in England on February 22, 1995. This Is Your Life captured a record breaking 45-percent market share that night, reaching more than 11.7 million viewers. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher missed the viewing and asked that it be rebroadcast. She also requested and received a copy of that tape for her personal library.

Producer Malcolm Morris recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is My Life...

Doing This Is Your Life in America is exciting and a lot of fun but it's also a nightmare of organisation and very risky because you just don't know what is going to happen until you get there.

As the producer I'm responsible for the budget and the idea of spending many thousands of pounds and coming back to London without a programme is not one I relish. Then why go? Aren't there enough people in this country?

Good questions, but the fact is that with a series of 26 programmes it is important occasionally to have a change of scene. We would do more programmes inside Europe, but the main problem there is language. Like it or not, the country with the same language and the most people that are well known in Britain is America.

The most difficult thing with big American names is getting in contact with the families – wives, husbands and children. Usually the only way is through an agent and because we do not pay any fees, there is nothing in it for the agent but problems if things go wrong.

We do not tell any celebrity what we are doing and if they find out then we are forced to cancel the programme. Therefore it is no picnic getting to the right person. I am spoilt in this country because I can pick up the phone to most agents and managers and get all the cooperation I need.

We have been making programmes in America since 1987 so gradually we are becoming better known over there, but making contact was still the main problem in trying to reach Howard Keel. For years we had made approaches to his Hollywood management without success, but then I got lucky. Planning the Life on Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber I went to see Sunset Boulevard. Watching the show from my stall seat I suddenly realised I was sitting next to Mr and Mrs Howard Keel. I waited until the interval and then Howard Keel got up to go to the toilet. God bless his bladder, I said to myself.

I said hello to Mrs Judy Keel and luckily for me, she knew of the programme.

I looked around and saw Howard returning so without any more ado I asked her directly: 'I want to do Howard's life in Hollywood; can I call you?'

'Great idea,' she said and gave me her card. That simple approach cut across three years of phone calls to America.

We fell silent as Howard arrived but she did give me a huge wink as they left at the end of the show.

We went over to Los Angeles in January 1995, to be told that he was spending a few days at his home in Palm Springs playing golf. There was no choice but to follow so we flew the team and the cameras off to Palm Springs and laid our trap behind the eighteenth hole.

Howard Keel has been a world star for many years and he was bemused and amused by the sheer audacity of an English programme coming over to America to do his life. He agreed and the guest list was amazing; for no payment we got George Kennedy, Linda Grey and most of the cast of Dallas, and Jane Powell, Katherine Grayson, Russ Tamblyn and George C Scott were among the special arrivals, so it was quite a night. It was also remarkable because Howard made a speech to the studio audience at the end of the programme saying that he felt that it had been one of the most memorable occasions of his life.

Judy Keel said to me at the party afterwards how pleased she was that Howard had chosen to go to the lavatory when we met in London!

Series 35 subjects