Sidney, famed director of Hollywood musicals, dies

Monday, May 6, 2002 | 10:49 a.m.

Asked what he most wanted to be remembered for in the film industry, Oscar-winning director George Sidney told the Sun earlier this year, "I made pictures that people enjoyed."

That he did. Whether it was Jerry the Mouse from the Tom and Jerry cartoons dancing with Gene Kelly in "Anchors Aweigh" in 1945 or Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley singing and romancing their way through "Viva Las Vegas" in 1964, Sidney's films were full of the stuff that made going to the movies fun.

Sidney, who directed dozens of musicals, won three Academy Awards for short subjects and produced the first televised Academy Awards show in 1953. He died Sunday at his Las Vegas home of complications of lymphoma, his wife, Corinne Sidney, said. He was 85.

"My husband kept his sense of humor to the end," Corinne said. "Recently, his doctors told him he could either undergo chemotherapy or have a radical operation. He said, 'I was in show business, and I know how everything ends.'

"When the doctors left the room, he winked at me and said, 'You see, Corinne, we just beat them out of a $100,000 operation.' "

Private services for Sidney will be in New York and Los Angeles.

Sidney, who was president of Hollywood's directors' guild for 16 years, won three Oscars for the short-subject films, "Quicker 'n a Wink" in 1936, "Of Pups and Puzzles" in 1937 and "The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture" in 1953.

In the 1930s Sidney also directed more than 35 "Little Rascals" comedies, which remain among America's more popular short films. But they were far from his proudest work.

His wife said Sidney never had children because of his experience with that cast. Sidney told the Sun, "they were little bastards ... I hated them for one reason: They had no talent."

His other feature-length films of note included "Ziegfeld Follies" in 1946, "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1950, "Show Boat" in 1951, "Kiss Me Kate" in 1953 and "Bye Bye Birdie" in 1961, which launched Ann-Margret's career.

In a March 29 interview with Ann-Margret before the opening of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" at the Aladdin, she told the Sun: "My two mentors were Mr. Sidney and Mr. (George) Burns."

Sidney said Columbia Studios came to him in the early 1960s and said they wanted him to make a picture with Presley and Ann-Margret.

"They had a story that he (Presley) went out in the desert and dug for oil," Sidney said. "I decided to make a love story, one to show the good side of Vegas that I always loved."

The Sidneys moved to Las Vegas from Beverly Hills five years ago.

"The town embraced us and we love Las Vegas," Corinne Sidney said.

In 1998 George received the first lifetime achievement award from the CineVegas International Film Festival.

Sidney was born Oct. 4, 1916, in Long Island City, N.Y., to a wealthy show business family -- his father was a Broadway producer and his mother was part of the headlining Mooney Sisters act. Sidney's film career began at age 5, when he appeared in the silent Tom Mix western, "The Littlest Cowboy.'

In 1927 he appeared in the Frank Capra-directed film "For the Love of Mike," which was the debut of Claudette Colbert.

Capra advised him, "When you grow up, don't be an actor, be a director. Tell everybody what to do," Sidney said.

At age 14 Sidney moved to Los Angeles and told studio producers he was 20. Sidney got a job as a messenger boy at MGM. He quickly moved up to sound man, editor and, by age 17, screen test director.

Future stars he screen-tested included Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Janet Leigh, Peter Lawford, Tony Curtis, Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, Red Skelton, Lana Turner and Tyrone Power.

Sidney, who as a teenager played four musical instruments and was a member of the local Musicians Union, made musicals his genre of choice. But he called John Ford, the maker of classic Westerns, his greatest influence as a director because Ford's films "always had a rhythm to them."

In the 1950s Sidney left MGM to work as an independent producer for Columbia, directing "Pal Joey" with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth.

Sidney was president of the Screen Directors Guild from 1951 to 1959, the year before it merged with the Radio and Television Directors Guild to form the Directors Guild of America. He was president of the merged guild from 1961 to 1967 and was the first recipient of its president's award in 1998.

At age 52 he retired from directing.

"I wasn't burned out," Sidney told the Sun. "I was in fantastic physical condition. I had done all I wanted to do -- I wanted to entertain people, and I think I did that."

Sidney kept his finger on the pulse of the industry after his retirement. Before this year's Academy Awards ceremony, he told the Sun, he liked "'Moulin Rouge' ... but I think 'A Beautiful Mind' probably will take it." He was right.

In addition to his wife, Sidney is survived by a stepson, Benjamin Jack Sidney of Las Vegas, and a brother-in-law, Wes Parker of Los Angeles.

The family said donations can be made in Sidney's memory to the Directors Guild of America's Education and Benevolence Foundation, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.