Frank, of course, was terribly in love with Grace Kelly. And there was never a girl he couldn’t get if he wanted. Of course, she regarded him as a nice kid from Hoboken. At the time he was just fascinated with her. Oh, it was obvious. Just obvious. Well, I don’t think he’d ever known anyone as well-bred, quite frankly. I mean, her father may have been a bricklayer, but those nuns did their job. So this was quite an adventure for him. He asked her out, but she was engaged to the prince. She was busy.
GARRETT: We had a wonderful time rehearsing “On the Town.” It was a very congenial group. We all kidded around a lot. Hugged each other when we came in, patted each other on the behind. But one day, I came in and gave Frank a pat on the behind and he scowled and said, “Don’t do that!” I thought, what’s the matter with him? And Gene Kelly explained that, when the men got fitted for their sailor suits, Frank was so thin–he weighed nothing–that he had to have a little false behind put into his. He was self-conscious about it, but he came around.
The first day we were filming “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” Frank had a close-up over my shoulder. When it was done, they were walking away and he said, “Hey! What about a close-up of my girl here?” They set up the cameras again, and I got my close-up. Another scene called for me picking him up and putting him over my shoulder. They wanted a double, but I said, “Wait, I can do it!” and I did. I never knew exactly how he felt about that.
