- Gene Kelly, For Me and My Gal, 1941. Dailey and Eleanor Parker were dropped during rehearsals and rapdily replaced as Harry and Jo by Kelly and Judy Garland. She loved his his Pal Joey on Broadway and insisted on him making his screen debut as her co-star – in he first of three musicals as co-stars.
- William Lundigan, Down Among the Sheltering Palms, 1951. The Fox plan was Dailey and June Haver in a lame musical that was shel ed until March 1953! Haver quit and was suspended. Dailey simply went on holiday. For three months.
- George O’Hanlon, Park Row, 1952. Tough guy auteur Samuel Fuller financed his cut-price gift to American journalism. The Press loved it but Darryl Zanuck was right. To win the the public Sam needed stars. For example,Dailey as the Brooklyn Bridge jumper and Mitzi Gaynor as a barmaid. “Hell,” growled Sam, who invariably growled in CAPITALS, “that’s a MUSICAL!” Exactly what Zanuck was thinking. Which is how come Sammy paid all AND LOST IT ALL – $200,000.
- Dick Powell, Susan Slept Here, 1953. First choice Dailey was followed by Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum until Hollywood screenwriter Mark Christopher became Powell’s 58th and final movie role before TV producing and film directing. Debbie Reynolds was Susan and the US Catholic Legion of Decency (!) hated the title…but not by George Washington Slept Here in 1942.
- Dick Powell, Susan Slept Here, 1953. Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum and Mickey Rooney were listed succeed Dan Dailey … until Hollywood scenarist Mark Christopher became Powell’s 58th and final movie role before TV producing and film directing. Debbie Reynolds was Susan and the US Catholic Legion of Decency (!) was aghast by the title…but not by George Washington Slept Here in 1942.
- Ray Walston, Kiss Them For Me, 1957. Three US Navy pilots fiddle four days’ shore leave in San Francisco. Cary Grant woos ex-model Suzy Parker (partially dubbed by Deborah Kerr) while Ray Walston, Larry Blyden play with Jayne Mansfield. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther was not happy. The film was nonsense and Jayne was grotesque, artificial, noisy, distasteful. That was not all. “And dull.” Director Stanley Donen also hated the script. “But you don’t turn down Cary Grant.” Their next three, Charade included, were far better.
- Robert Preston, The Music Man, 1962. There was one only Harold Hill – and that rhymed with P… Jack Warner begged Cary Grant to do it. “Not only will I not star in it, but if Robert Preston doesn’t star in it, I will not see it,” he said – and used a similar line about Rex Harrison when Warner offered him My Fair Lady, in 1963.”Also refusing to steal Preston’s thunder: Milton Berle, Ray Bolger, Art Carney, Dan Dailey, Danny Kaye, Phil Harris, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.
- Gene Wilder, Blazing Saddles, 1973. The Western send-up’s creator and star Mel Brooks wanted an aged Waco Kid, by a now drunken gunfighter, having killed more men than Cecil B DeMille. Brooks tried Dailey: his health and eyesight were not good enough. Brooks even offered The Kid to… John Wayne. Who (pause) hadn’t been called Kid (pause) since (pause) Stagecoach in 1938.
Birth year: 1914Death year: 1978Other name: Casting Calls: 8