Gigi began as a novella written by French author Colette in 1945. She published the charming story of a young girl being trained in the art of becoming a courtesan in turn-of-the-century Paris very late in her career - she was 70 years old at the time. Colette herself considered the work only a trifle, but readers found it enchanting. It became her most famous and beloved work and gave Colette, as Vincente Minnelli said in his 1974 autobiography I Remember It Well, "a final blaze of fame, as well as her greatest fortune."

A French film version of Gigi was made in 1949, and in 1951 writer Anita Loos adapted the story into a hit Broadway play starring a then unknown actress named Audrey Hepburn in the title role.

Director Vincente Minnelli and producer Arthur Freed had always wanted to do a project with the Gigi material, although actress Leslie Caron believes it was she who first suggested the idea to Freed. Caron, who was already an established star at the time, was in the midst of making the 1953 film Lili when Freed approached her. According to her 2009 memoir Thank Heaven, Freed came to the set of Lili one day and asked her if she had any ideas for projects that she might like to do for MGM. Caron had always loved Colette's Gigi and suggested that she would be perfect to star in a movie version of it. According to her, Freed thought for a moment and then said, "I'll get back to you on that." Five years would pass before she heard anything further about it.

Minnelli and Freed had enjoyed a long and successful creative collaboration. Together they were responsible for some of MGM's most memorable musicals including Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), An American in Paris (1951), and The Band Wagon (1953). In 1958 musicals, which had once been the crowning glory of MGM, were on the decline along with the studio system. The popularity of traditional standards and show tunes had dwindled with the introduction of rock and roll music during the 1950s. However, Minnelli and Freed believed that Gigi was the perfect material for a musical and should be made on a grand scale.

The duo approached their friend, writer and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, about working on a musical version of Gigi. Lerner and his creative partner, composer Frederick "Fritz" Loewe, were just finishing their new stage show My Fair Lady, which would soon make them the toast of Broadway. "I've always loved working with Alan," said Vincente Minnelli in his 1974 autobiography. "He has a marvelous quality of adapting and synthesizing other people's work to another medium, while maintaining the spirit of the original." Lerner shared the same admiration for Minnelli. "...each frame of his films is a work of art..." said Lerner in his 1978 memoir The Street Where I Live. "Vincente has a thorough knowledge of music, lyrics, comedy, and drama and there is no one who can photograph a musical number with as much skill and imagination." The two had previously collaborated on the MGM musicals An American in Paris (1951) and Brigadoon (1954).

Lerner was enthusiastic about writing the screenplay for Gigi and contributing lyrics for the songs. He immediately asked Loewe if he would be interested in writing the music and working together again on this new project. Unfortunately, Loewe turned Lerner down flat at first. He was dedicated to working in the theater exclusively now, he said, and he didn't want to work on any movies.

Though Lerner was disappointed, he agreed to work on Gigi without Loewe. "I agreed on two conditions:," said Lerner, "the first was that if I created a part that warranted it, every effort would be made to get Maurice Chevalier; and the second, that Cecil Beaton would be asked to design the sets and costumes. Arthur [Freed] agreed."

There were a couple of reasons that Lerner felt so strongly about using beloved French actor Maurice Chevalier, who had been a big star in early musicals of the 1930s such as Love Me Tonight (1932) and The Merry Widow (1934). "I felt that a musical personality, such as Chevalier," said Lerner, "was essential to the film: there had to be someone whose singing would be expected. The other characters could sing, but they were not singing roles." The other reason was more personal to Lerner. "[Chevalier] had been an idol of mine ever since every little breeze started whispering Louise," he said, referencing one of Chevalier's most famous songs.

Lerner went to work on the Gigi screenplay, collaborating with Vincente Minnelli to create a first-rate version of the story. Lerner noticed that in Colette's novella there was an occasional mention of a peripheral character - Gaston's uncle, Honoré Lachailles. He felt that this part, if fleshed out, could be perfect for Maurice Chevalier.

In addition, Vincente Minnelli also made sure that the part of Gigi's mother was all but cut out of the story. It was a part he had found "tiresome" in the Broadway play version. "We didn't include her as an actual character for two reasons:," said Minnelli, "Her off-stage presence could be used for comic effect. Since she had forfeited the upbringing of Gigi to Madame Alvarez, her mother, bringing her into the film in any concrete way could detract from the main story line. The loving relationship between the old woman and the young girl could be more clearly developed." In the end, the role of Gigi's mother was changed to being only an off-screen voice.

As preparations for Gigi began, Lerner still had not found a composer with whom to collaborate for the songs. He decided to try one more time to convince Frederick Loewe to do it. "I told him the least he could do was read the bloody script," said Lerner, "and he admitted that sounded reasonable. To add a little seasoning, I said I felt it was essential that the score be written in Paris. It would not only be fun...but unquestionably it was bound to help the atmosphere of the score to write it in the country in which the story takes place. Fritz took the script home with him and bright and early the next morning he telephoned to say he loved it and wanted to do it." Everyone was thrilled that Gigi would now be another potentially brilliant Lerner and Loewe partnership.

In the meantime, casting began for Gigi. Alan Lerner was thrilled when Maurice Chevalier agreed to play Gaston's rakish uncle Honoré. While he and Loewe were working on the score in Paris, they were able to spend some time with Chevalier who was performing his one man show at a nearby club. They found Chevalier to be extremely amiable and eager to work. Once Lerner and Loewe visited Chevalier at his house in order to play him some of the songs they had written for Gigi, including Chevalier's opening number "Thank Heaven For Little Girls." According to Lerner, "He listened politely, thanked us, and took the music and departed. Fritz and I had no idea if he liked them or not. The next morning he called and asked if he could come and see us again at three o'clock. I said to Fritz, 'Oh, Christ! What's wrong?' As the clock struck three, in he came. 'I love the songs so much,' he said, 'that I worked on them all night.'"

Chevalier even provided inspiration to Lerner and Loewe as they worked on the songs for Gigi. "It was to Alan Lerner that I told my philosophy of love, how in these later years I had abandoned any tempestuous romantic involvement," said Chevalier in his 1960 memoir With Love, "how I was not any more the man to play that game, and how I had no deep regrets about it." Lerner then asked Chevalier if he was actually glad that it was all behind him. He replied, "You're never glad of it, but you can be satisfied if you have had that side of living in a beautiful way." The poignant exchange triggered Lerner and Loewe to write "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore," one of Chevalier's loveliest numbers in the film.

Chevalier, who was coming up on 70 years of age at the time, had no way of knowing how much Gigi would change his life so late in his illustrious career. In fact, he told Newsweek magazine before Gigi came out that he was even thinking of retiring. "I am sixty-nine. As soon as I finish [Gigi], I will prepare a one-man show, a farewell tour," he said. "When it's over, that will be the end of my long career as a live entertainer." Little did he know that the success of Gigi would keep him in great demand for many years to come.

For the title role of Gigi, producer Arthur Freed was eager for Lerner and Loewe to find out if Audrey Hepburn was interested. Hepburn, who had been hand-picked by Colette herself to portray Gigi on the stage, was staying in London when Lerner and Loewe visited her. Hepburn, according to Lerner, was gracious, but did not want to play Gigi again. According to Leslie Caron in her autobiography, however, it was Hepburn who approached MGM about playing Gigi only to be told that the film was being written especially for Caron.

When Hepburn said no, Arthur Freed then asked the pair to meet with Leslie Caron who was also in London at the time. Lerner described it as "a rather tense meeting," but Caron was interested. She was French and had already played Gigi in a London stage production, so she felt that the part would come naturally to her. Everyone agreed. Minnelli, who had introduced Caron to audiences by directing her in her first film An American in Paris (1951), looked forward to working with her again.

Alan Lerner knew that it would be something of a challenge to cast the role of Gaston, Gigi's dashing suitor. "The role of Gaston was not a simple one," he said. "It takes considerable style and skill to play a bored man and not be boring." Lerner had always thought that actor Dirk Bogarde would be perfect for it. Bogarde was interested, but was unable to get out of a previous contractual obligation. "Everyone was deeply disappointed," said Lerner, "but no one as much as I. Only I, who knew him well and knew his voice, had been sitting at the typewriter seeing him and hearing him every time I wrote a speech for Gaston."

It was Freed who suggested using French actor Louis Jourdan. Lerner knew that Jourdan looked the part, but was worried about whether or not he could sing. Lerner and Loewe met with Jourdan in Paris to find out. "To our delighted surprise," said Lerner, "he was not only extremely musical, but had a most charming voice." The only thing that concerned them was that playing a bored bon vivant was tricky. Jourdan, they noted, was very serious by nature, and they wanted to make sure that Gaston's boredom was played with a twinkle in his eye. "Finally I decided to play safe," said Lerner. "I rewrote the boredom and made Gaston constantly angry that he was bored. To drive the point home, Fritz and I wrote a brisk, buoyant duet for him and Chevalier called 'It's a Bore.'"

To play Gigi's grandmother, Madame Alvarez, Minnelli and Freed chose British actress Hermione Gingold. Gigi was her first American film. "To cast an actress as hopelessly British as Hermione Gingold for the part of the French grandmother was, I suppose, not to the liking of the purists," said Minnelli. "But she offered so many other treasures to us - she was warm as well as funny - that we took the liberty. I've never regretted it."

The most difficult role to cast in all of Gigi was that of Aunt Alicia. "We went through hell finding a romantic creature for the part of [Aunt] Alicia," recalled Minnelli. "She'd been the greatest courtesan of them all, and the actress we chose would have to suggest the eminence she'd been through her present mellowing appearance." The part was originally offered to veteran actress Ina Claire, but she had already retired from the silver screen and declined to participate. It was production and costume designer Cecil Beaton who recommended they use English actress Isabel Jeans, who turned out to be a perfect choice.

Together Lerner and Loewe created a wonderful, fresh new score for Gigi which delighted Minnelli and Freed. "Alan and Fritz would call Arthur and me from New York to perform each song as it was completed," said Minnelli. "We were totally charmed, and eager to start planning the ways in which their songs would be mounted." Minnelli wanted a more natural, less choreographed style to the musical numbers of Gigi. Because of this creative choice, he wouldn't be able to fully utilize Leslie Caron's trained dancing skills, but he felt it was important that the numbers seem organic and spontaneous to keep with the breezy spirit of the story.

One problem that Minnelli and Freed anticipated on Gigi was with the Production Code office, which felt that the subject matter of courtesans was potentially too risqué at the time. "The story's attitude was French, and of the period," said Minnelli. "Men of the time were expected to keep mistresses, and to show them off at Maxim's. Courtesans were the movie stars of the day, their every dido elaborately splashed in the pages of mass publications as they might be in fan magazines today." The Production Code Administration (PCA) specifically objected to the part of the script in which Gaston tells Gigi that if she is "nice" to him he will be "nice" to her. Gigi responds, "To be nice to you means that I should have to sleep in your bed. Then when you get tired of me I would have to go to some other gentleman's bed." The PCA insisted that these lines be removed. Minnelli pleaded with them to let him keep the lines in. For the time being, to Minnelli's immense relief, the PCA agreed to wait and see how the scene was shot before making a final decision.

One thing that Vincente Minnelli and Frederick Loewe were adamant about was that Gigi would have to be filmed on location in Paris. It was a very French story, and Paris itself was as much a character as Gigi or Gaston, and they wanted to be certain that the film captured the spirit of the city authentically. Instead of the usual sites of Paris such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, Minnelli wanted Gigi to show the green natural beauty of Paris - the parks, trees, and gardens.

by Andrea Passafiume