Today would have been Gene Kelley's 100th birthday. I was always in awe of him even before I understood his impact on American film or could even identify what charisma is. He just had IT. I read his biography and he was also a very fierce man with strong political opinions and harbored no guards when naming them. He had modest roots like me in Western PA, although I would have had no idea at the time. He was a tireless advocate of the arts and his close circle of friends. Work hard, play hard. The old question where "if you could bring any one person to the dinner table for a conversation........" it would likely have been Gene at the top of my list.