Why Isn’t Jeanette MacDonald Remembered?

There is a thread about her... or her husband about every six months here. Several people on the DL have met her. Pay attention.

She is remembered by those who care about such things. Her films with Rouben Mamoulian and Ernst Lubitsch are considered among the best movie musicals ever made. And among people who love operetta (and admittedly there aren't many) films like Rose Marie, Maytime and Naughty Marietta are classics.

And San Francisco is one of the all time Hollywood greats. Fewer and fewer people are into old Hollywood films. The people who cared and watched them in revival houses and on TV because they weren't around when the films first opened are dying off.

"Pay attention"?? Fuck off and die, cuntface at r1.

OP may well be a newbie, and even so, no one is required to have an encyclopedic memory of everything that has ever been posted on Datalounge.

She was delightful and hilarious …. and then started appearing with Nelson Eddy.

For a real treat - look for her never-picked-up TV pilot in which she plays a California housewife with Jane Darwell has her maid. Larrain Day and Leo Durocher guest star.

I have a hardcover book about her that I still haven't read yet.

I love her sister, Blossom Rock.

R3 you really must be new here.

1. By tradition, R1 is always an incredibly mean/bitchy comment, even if the tread is about cute puppies.

2, Yes one is expected to have an encyclopedic memory of everything that has ever been posted on (the) Datalounge. Everything since the first eldergay drew his face on a shovel and placed it in his front yard.

3. Even with the wonky search function, it would be easy to find the thread from last March. Yes, a mere five months ago.

I would have loved to have seen her in THE KING AND I. It was an amazing live performance, by many accounts.

You may enjoy her early stereo era RCA Living Stereo duet recreations/re-records with Eddy. It was one of those LPs that everyone had.

Jeanette with all those whippersnappers who stole her career in the 40s:

She couldn’t keep up, and was not a viable triple threat, hunny.

Her husband was very interesting — Gene Raymond, also an actor. He was the lead in the 1935 “Seven Keys to Baldpate”. One of the great B&W films.

🎶I never will forget, Mmmm... Jeanette MacDonald Just to think of her, it gives my heart a pang I never will forget, how that brave Jeanette Just stood there in the ruins and sang, aaaand sang...

A bitchy first comment at r1: traditional

A cunty first comment at r1: cunty.

Again: fuck off and die, r1.

Who?

She wasn't a fabulous bitch like Bette or Joan. She didn't have a memorable movie like Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind. She was pretty and a good actress but that isn't enough. Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner are going to be forgotten too. They weren't quite bitchy enough, and didn't have memorable movies. Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz are still playing after 80 years. Love ya Judy!

Wouldn't Elizabeth Taylor be remembered because her personal life was so public? In certain ways, E T is the epitome of what the term "movie star" conveys, and it's something that lies beyond the quality of the films themselves.

Jeanette MacDonald's problem is that operetta and soprano singing aren't held in regard anymore. But there will always be some people who respond to that style, and for them a movie like Naughty Marietta or even Sweethearts (which is at least a comedy and is in color) fills a void.

Jeanette was retired for years. People my age (40ish) remember stars like Elizabeth Taylor in their bloated older years. Jeanette and Deanna Durbin never had that.

These old movies used to play on tv and millions of children were exposed to them even if they weren’t paying attention. Now there are a billion entertainment options (although no streaming service shows old movies, what’s with that) and the classic film fandom is extremely niche. Options are great but I miss the feeling of a monoculture :(

Yes there was a time when The New York City Opera used to occasionally mix operetta with the more serious operas. Well that is gone for good. The New Moon was a fabulous production with an endless stream of gorgeous music. Now if you want operetta you'll have to find it on recordings and DVD.

Now you tell me how all that affected sweetness can sell tickets?

Those awful rosebuds on everything, those trills through ever so sligthly parted lips,"the flatter", "the little steps" in satin slippers - ever so dainty!

Her funeral in the mid 60s has often been said to be the death of Old Hollywood. Everyone came.

Basically in the 30s she shot her wad in the operetta films with Nelson Eddy and had nothing else left to say. So she went into retirement.

[quote]Her funeral in the mid 60s has often been said to be the death of Old Hollywood. Everyone came.

Not me. But I will admit my panties did get a little moist.

'Now you tell me how all that affected sweetness can sell tickets?'

Well why don't you get a time machine, go back to the 30s and ask the people on the long lines outside huge movie palaces what the hell they were doing paying good money to see a Jeanette MacDonald movie?

After her movie heyday was over, she actually became the biggest concert draw, appearing before crowds numbering 15,000 and more. She also appeared in Grand Opera with surprising success thanks to having studied with the legendary Lotte Lehmann.

She continued as a major concert and stage draw in the 1950's with two Carnegie Hall concerts and appearances on the stage in "Bittersweet" and "The King and I".

It was only due to health issues that she stopped working around 1959, at the age of 56. She continued getting offers including a planned stage musical with Liza Minnelli in 1963, a musical version of "Sunset Boulevard" that Hal Prince pitched to her in the early 60's and a film for Ross Hunter. She and Irene Dunne were also mentioned for the Mother Abbess role in the film version of "The Sound of Music" but MacDonald had undergone an arterial transplant from Dr. DeBakey in 1963 and never recovered her health before her passing in January of 1965 at the age of 61.

In the 70's, movie revival houses packed with some of the MacDonald films and those with Eddy. The Regency in New York, Theatre 80 St. Mark, the Vagabond in Los Angeles and the Castro, to name but a few, also played her earlier hits like "Monte Carlo" and "Love Me Tonight" to great acclaim. Alas, by the 80's, audience interest waned as people died off or grew elderly.

[quote]Her funeral in the mid 60s has often been said to be the death of Old Hollywood. Everyone came.

Everyone apart from those members of Old Hollywood that would live another 60 years.

Hopefully this thread won't attract the brigade of fangirl fraus who think she was in love with Nelson Eddy

Jeanette MacDonald was incredibly beautiful and photographed wonderfully.

Here's Jeanette years after retiring from the screen. I've always thought Irene Dunne was very pretty, but look at her next to Jeanette.

Jeanette had leathery skin in that pic

Funny how Judy Garland is the one true beauty in that photo of MGM lady talent at r9.

Anyone know who the lady on the extreme right is?

r29, Deanna Durbin

Oops, sorry. I meant on the extreme left. But thanks for responding anyway, r30.

I think the woman on the left might be Susanna Foster

Sheesh, R24, who was Jeanette's career advisor, Gary Morton?

A few random thoughts.

I love operetta and love all her films although her MGM films aren't the best examples of that now completely moribund art form, despite their adorable lavishness.

She was known as The Iron Butterfly and Eddy as The Singing Capon.

She and Irene Dunne were both staunch devout Roman Catholics and attended the same LA church. Close friends.

Despite her years of study with the divine Lotte Lehman, she had a tendency to sing sharp, a problem that increased as she aged. Most people who can't stay on pitch tend to sing flat.

She didn't really retire from MGM. MGM just started using her less and less until it finally didn't renew her last contract.

Lubitsch's dream project for years was a Technicolor, operetta style film of Der Rosenkavalier, with MacDonald as The Marschallin and a tenor Octavian. He never got the financing together to make it happen.

Maybe more later....

As I have posted previously, with an open mind I have listened to recordings of MacDonald singing live and was very pleasantly surprised at how well she sang. I have recordings including her live at Carnegie Hall (1950 and 1953), in "The King and I" (1956) at Red Rocks in Colorado as well as a 1959 production of "Bittersweet" with a cast including a young Donna McKechnie.

I could not find any flat or sharp notes with any of the live performances.

Here is something about her professional relationship with Lehmann.

Jeanette's last film for MGM as part of her original contract was a cheap flop called CAIRO in 1942 costarring non-singer Robert Young, except for a cameo appearance in one of those all-star studio WWII efforts called FOLLOW THE BOYS in 1944. War time audiences had moved on to Betty Grable's Fox musicals and the comedies of Hope & Crosby and Abbot & Costello and operetta was dead.

But she was invited back by her protector LB Mayer 4 years later to play mother to MGM's newest soprano Jane Powell in 1948's THREE DARING DAUGHTERS and it was clear Jeanette had left her leading lady days behind and was firmly into handsome matron mode. She made her final film THE SUN COMES UP costarring Lassie a year later and that was it.

I caught a few minutes of San Francisco on TCM recently, and was struck by how truly beautiful she was.

I never will forget Jeanette McDonald. Just to think of her, it gives my heart a pang.

with the success of ALWebber Phantom of the Opera I always thought one of these McDonald/Eddy vehicles could be revived for a new audience.... guess not. I don't know why they are so unappealing for following generations... breaks this eldergay's heart really.... LOL.

It's honestly quite fascinating to think of the strange yet immensely popular hold that operetta had on American audiences trodden down by the Depression. Not only Jeanette and Nelson Eddy, but for a brief time, opera singers Grace Moore and Lily Pons were huge movie stars, all but forgotten today. I guess there was some sort of escapism at play during a very dark period of history but it's hard to fathom the specific appeal, particularly then.

Is Jeanette MacDonald on TikTok?

r39, I imagine if you're living in dire poverty in 1935, the pure escapism of something like Naughty Marietta would be a joyous release.

During the 1930s and 1940s there were a lot of emigrees from Europe, who had grown up listening to opera and operetta. Classical music and opera were also a feature on radio starting from the 1920s, so this music was heard quite a lot during this time. It was almost what later might be called nostalgia, reminding them of the good times in the Europe they had left behind.

Irene serenades Jeanette...

I sincerely appreciate those 2 responses very much, r41 and r32. But I guess I'd have been the Hooverville camp hoping for a free showing of Busby Berkeley's next phantasmagoric effort. Or an Eleanor Powell tapdancing extravaganza from MGM.

I think what shown thru, as far as Jeanette was concerned, was her sense of humor and the fact that she was a singer who could laugh at herself.

She loved Judy's take on "San Francisco" and found "Little Mary Sunshine", a spoof of operetta films, to be a "delight". In the attached is a picture of her helping Nanette Fabray, in the early 60's, to look like Jeanette in the film, "Naughty Marietta" for a spoof skit that Fabray did. Jeanette had no prima donna airs about her and would sometimes remain, after a concert, to sign autographs for more than two hours. That graciousness came across on the screen and created a loyalty, in her fans, that was virtually unsurpassed in it's time.

How do we know Jeanette loved Judy's take on "San Francisco" or her thoughts on Little Mary Sunshine? Not that I necessarily doubt them but were these feelings documented somewhere, r44?

MacDonald would be horrified to hear herself compared to Callas by this ignorant poseur of an OP.

I’ve honestly never heard of that bitch before now.

And you're proudly stating that, r48...why?

Because it’s the fucking truth!!

I just find it odd to take pride in your ignorance.

Everyone else is proud of being ignorant! Why Not Me by The Judds

(R46) Jeanette had a fan club that began in 1937 and survived for decades after her passing. During her lifetime, she answered member questions in the quarterly magazines as well as wrote a letter to the fans. She was frequently asked by fan club members what she thought of various take-offs on her films and herself. She was very frank in responding and, in fact, had seen "Little Mary Sunshine" with Eileen Brennan, in New York. After the performance, she went backstage to congratulate Brennan.

In her unpublished autobiography, written in the early 60's, she made reference to Judy and how much she loved Judy's take on "San Francisco".

She and Judy had a mutual friend, composer Hugh Martin, who wrote the score for "Meet Me in St. Louis". Martin always stated, publicly, that Judy was his favorite second and Jeanette was a close second.

One of Martin's unproduced musicals was entitled, "Here Come the Dreamers" The 1961 project was planned for Jeanette MacDonald and Liza Minnelli, but aborted when MacDonald was diagnosed with a heart condition.

Jeanette was in attendance at Judy's fabled Carnegie Hall Concert.

Was Hugh Martin gay?

(R54) Absolutely!!!!

Was it Hugh Martin that referred to a guy's junk as "his arrangement"? Judy would crack up when he'd tell her that he had a new arrangement for her.

Why Not Me?

[quote]She was delightful and hilarious …. and then started appearing with Nelson Eddy.

To be fair, however, she was absolutely brilliant at responding to that block of wood as though he was human, especially during the long periods where he was singing at her.

Well, it's not like she was Sarah Bernhardt herself...

With Binnie...

Nobody knows who the fuck she is

But we know who you are, r61 and your posts are puerile...in every thread.

(R59) The Scree Actor's Guild in 1937 honored her ACTING performance in "Maytime", which Variety noted was the number one moneymaking film, worldwide, in that year. Eddy, on the other hand was noted by Edgar Bergen as being more wooden in his acting that Charlie McCarthy.

MacDonald was crowned "Queen of the Screen" in 1939, ten years after her first film appearance. She and Tyrone Power ("King") were voted the most popular male and female stars in films.

Ryan Murphy needs to do something about this.

Did Ms. MacDonald have any feuds?

Wasn't her husband, actor Gene Raymond, arrested for gay hookups in Hollywood at the height of Jeanette's popularity? That's enough scandal for a short mini-series right there.

(R66) Nope. You are obviously confusing her husband for her 8-time co-star Nelson Eddy.

Eddy was forced into a marriage with an older woman by L.B. Mayer in 1939 after Eddy became involved with Tyrone Power, when Power was loaned to MGM in 1938 to film "Marie Antoinette". Eddy "stalked" actor Tom Brown in 1936 and was "outed" by Louella Parsons in a column after she spotted them together at Musso and Frank, a Hollywood restaurant.

Eddy had a several year affair with actor William Tannen and was instrumental in securing him a featured role in his 1940 film, "New Moon".

When Producer Ross Hunter wanted to re-team MacDonald and Eddy for supporting roles in his 1963 comedy, "The Thrill of it All" (Arlene Francis and Edward Andrews ultimately played the roles), Eddy declined. Hunter told numerous friends that he felt that Eddy thought he'd be uncomfortable working for Hunter. When Hunter was a struggling actor in the 1940's, long before his producing career, Eddy picked him up for a dalliance.

As for MacDonald, she wasn't known as "The Iron Butterfly" for no reason. She refused to sign the typical 7 year contract with MGM and instead signed 3 contracts for 3 years each, wanting more control over her career and life. Other than a group of pathetically desperate fraus who want to believe MacDonald and Eddy loved one another, there were no legit rumors about their nearly 28 year marriage.

r65, there was a news item about Michael Radford (Oscar nominee for directing Il Postino, 1994) was attached to helm Sweethearts, an adaptation of Sharon Rich's fan fiction about an alleged Eddy-MacDonald affair, but I've seen no news items since 2019.

But wasn't there some sort of scandal about her husband Gene Raymond?

(R69) There were never any legit rumors about Raymond, who was a decorated pilot, eventually becoming a Colonel in the Air Force. He served in the Air Force and Reserves for more than 25 years.

In the film industry, he was a highly respected actor, producer, writer and director and even composed some songs that were sung by his wife.

He served on many Boards, worked tirelessly on behalf of the industry, volunteered his time for many causes and never had a hint of scandal during his life.

Ten years after MacDonald's passing, he remarried and around that time (1975) stopped acting but continued playing an active role in business and finances.

Hedda, Louella, Sheila Graham and other gossips hens never found even a glimmer of scandal around Raymond, while dropping hints all over the place about "The Singing Capon", Nelson Eddy and his nickname on movie sets, "Nelly"

(R68) Mounting a major motion picture of that scope would be expensive and frankly, there isn't a very large movie audience for that kind of singing or story. The majority of moviegoers would say, "Who?"

Researching such a project would probably uncover the reality that it wasn't true and call into question Rich's credibility as a writer.

Serious film scholars do not trust anything she says or writes and know that she exists in an alternate universe where her sycophants worship at her altar of lies. Didn't we have a President like that?

Actually...

R63, so? Natalie Portman wins acting awards and she sucks

Peter Bogdanovich made a very perceptive comment regarding MacDonald in a piece about Ernst Lubitsch. He noted that there is something slightly ridiculous about Jeanette's style of singing, which at the same time, is also very endearing. You have to go with both to appreciate her. She was lovely, she had enormous charm on camera and in person, and her series of M-G-M operettas in the 30s were always among the studio's top grossing films of the year.

The four films she did with Lubitsch - and Mamoulian's "L:ove Me Tonight" - filmed between 1929 and 1932, are today considered by film buffs to be among the finest screen musicals, though they are rarely seen today.

Unfortunately, time was not on Jeanette's side. By 1940-41, tastes were changing and younger star like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (who, not coincidentally, were being paid much less than MacDonald and Eddy) were making smash hit films. Jeanette was aging out of operetta ingenue roles - indeed, she was already pushing her luck in some of the later ones - and M-G-M's efforts to put her in more contemporary stories were not successful.

Jeanette's career in opera was brief and limited. Given the limitations of her voice, she wisely focused on two roles from the French repertory - Gounod's Juliette and Marguerite. Her showmanship and beauty dazzled audiences, she got respectful reviews and always played to full houses. But the Met never came calling, much to her disappointment. And she 40 when she began her opera career. Tastes changed in the opera world as well, and the artificial style of much of French opera fell by the wayside by the late 1940s

Whatever the nature of Jeanette's relationship with Eddy was, there is no denying they had genuine chemistry on film. His good looks and outstanding voice more than compensated for his woodenness, and she, being a much more accomplished performer, was able made him look as though he were able to act. In the era of romantic screen pairings (Astaire-Rogers, Powell-Loy, Dick Powell - Ruby Keeler), they represented a 'cultural' option for audiences. She and Eddy seem to have had an enduring and amicable friendship through the years, appearing on radio together and on a few TV programs, as well as recording a very successful hi-fi album of their movie songs.

As for the Sharon Rich book, I've read it and find it hugely frustrating. The sourcing is atrocious. So many supposed 'witnesses' to romantic hijinks are presented under pseudonyms (what were they afraid of). A lot of the reporting from the 30s and 40s seems to come from fan correspondence - and it creeps me out to think that MacDonald, and particularly Eddy, had such obsessive stans that they were followed around and spied on by them. Every marriage is unique - some work and some don't, and partners may decide to have outside relationships, with or without each other's knowledge/consent. We will never know what went on privately in either marriage.

But the fact stands that both MacDonald and Eddy were married to their respective spouses for the remainder of their lives, nearly 30 years each. So all this talk of clandestine getaways and fist fights and failed divorce negotiations, while possibly true, seems not to have much of a solid basis. And the assertion that Jeanette regularly snuck off while on her concert tours to spend time with Nelson seems ridiculous. Does anyone believe that a star of that caliber would be traveling alone on long, multi-city tours, with no one else to handle her transportation, her costumes, her rehearsals? Jeanette did, of course, have a longtime assistant, a woman she had known from her days in the New York theater world, who accompanied her. The woman also lived for a number of years at the Raymond's home., and would have been a witness to many of the alleged goings-on.

Not a lot of Jeannette MacDonald movies to stream:

Criterion: The Love Parade; Monte Carlo; One Hour With You

HBO Max: San Francisco

Rent in HD on Amazon or Apple: San Francisco; The Merry Widow; Rose Marie; Cairo; New Moon

Rent in SD on Amazon or Apple: The Sun Comes Up; Bitter Sweet; The Cat and the Fiddle; I Married an Angel; The Firefly; The Lottery Bride; Three Daring Daughters; Maytime; Broadway Serenade; The Girl of the Golden West

Call me a cretin but I really don't see that much difference in the artistic merit of Jeanette's earlier Paramount film operettas compared with the mid-30s MGM films. I do see that she's sexier, younger, more fun in the Paramounts and Maurice Chevalier is, of course, far livelier than Nelson. But the films themselves......ehhh? They're just as archaic as the MGMs.

r76, the primary difference is that the earlier Paramount films are more sexually suggestive compared to the staid MGM films.

Well, if you find that sexually suggestive, then.....okaaaaay!

Just kidding, thanks for the response, r77. I suppose it was titillating in its day but the thrill (for me) is gone and I'd just as soon watch New Moon.

For me, there is something so incandescent about the MacDonald from the early years of her film career - right up to and including her 2nd MGM film, "The Merry Widow". Her radiance is so natural and her suggestiveness in this clip, just sparkles. I know its a question of taste and what one likes, but the woman certainly has star quality and a gift.

(R74) Jeanette's friend and later secretary and "Gal Friday"), Emily West (Wentz) was friendly with my folks for many years and was a remarkable woman who bristled at any rumors in the late 70's and 80's about the Raymond's started by "That Rich Bitch" (Emily's term to friends).

Emily was not fond of Nelson or his fans who she referred to as "fanatics".

She remained very close to Gene Raymond after Jeanette's passing and he made sure, as Jeanette had, that she was well taken care of.

Emily had a wonderful sense of humor but was also puritanical and would never have remained close to Jeanette and Gene if anything had gone on that displeased her. She could be blunt and direct when necessary, but could also be one of the kindest and most considerate individuals.

The "Mac Eddy" fangirls have to be one of the worst celebrity fandoms, right up there with Michael Jackson fans

(R81) Beautifully stated!!!

She sucked

Back with another puerile post, r83?

[quote]She sucked

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Why, yes, r84. How for art thou tonight?

I think her last two "comeback" films might have been somewhat more successful if she hadn't been paired with the unfortunate Jose Iturbi in the first, and the bland Lloyd Nolan in the second. MacDonald's screen persona really needed a strong male lead to play against. That is one reason why her films with Chevalier, Gable and most of her Eddy pairings worked so well, and the ones with the likes of Jack Buchanan, Ramon Novarro, Lew Ayres and Robert Young did not. She had no chemistry at all with Allan Jones in The Firefly, though he physically seemed the right type. And even Gene Raymond's casting in Smilin' Through did not work on screen, no matter how compatible they may have been in real life.

[quote]Why Isn’t Jeanette MacDonald Remembered?

I'm sorry, dear...Jeanette who?

This is her life...

(R87) I disagree about Allan Jones. Their chemistry is what makes a slightly overlong "The Firefly" work so well. Jones has genuine sex appeal and they have such a natural rapport on-screen. In comparison to Eddy, he's exciting and genuine. In fact, Jeanette wanted MGM to cast him opposite her in "The Girl of the Golden West" and he would probably have been more believable as a dashing bandit than Eddy.

In real life, Jeanette and Gene were very good friends with Allan Jones and his then wife, Irene Hervey. They often socialized together. Eddy's temper tantrum and threats to walk out of MGM if Jones was cast opposite MacDonald again, was one of the reasons that Jeanette cooled in her friendship with Eddy. She didn't enjoy those histrionics and even told MGM hairstylist, Sydney Guilaroff, that Eddy "...ought to save those historics to spice up his on-screen hammy acting..."

Allan Jones was adorable in The Firefly. He should have made more MGM musicals.

Allan & Son...

^

[QUOTE] although no streaming service shows old movies, what’s with that

Roku has a channel called Classic Reel that has tons of them. It costs $1.99 a mo th.

[R90] I feel that Allan Jones is just a bit too self-conscious in The Firefly, he's trying hard to make an impression on screen - which is probably understandable when the star is Jeanette MacDonald. The movie itself has enough plot for three films - it was Jeanette's big solo name above the title starring role, and they threw everything they had into the production. Honestly, though, it could easily have lost 20 minutes without being missed. I am always amazed at how lavish the film is for something so trifling.

I think Jones might have become a suitable partner for Jeanette but the story goes that Eddy was jealous of the competition and thwarted his career. I'm not so sure that is true, but that's the legend. And of course the fans of the day really only wanted to see MacDonald and Eddy together.

Jones was wonderful in Universal's Show Boat and fine in A Night at the Opera, but M-G-M really did him no favors. Only his voice was used in The Great Ziegfeld and he had small parts in Reckless and Rose Marie. His follow up to The Firefly, Everybody Sing, was a vaudeville pastiche and really not the right vehicle for him. Jones went on to Paramount and Universal with middling success.

"UN BEL DI" - The Sun Comes Up - 1949

The Voice of Firestone

i think Jeanette and Nelson also had a nightclub act they toured together around the time of the "Living Stereo" album in the late '50s. I know they never had a secret, years long affair but I think that over the years they basically had a professionally cordial professional relationship if for no other reason that they both realized they made their their best money when they worked with each other. Kind of like the relationship of late Gilbert & Sullivan.

On a personal note, my grandmother had that Living Stereo album and played it frequently which was my first exposure to operetta. Their mono 1930s Red Seal recordings for RCA of much the same material have fresher performances but not quite the charm nor the sound.

I love operetta and Jeanette MacDonald and Indian Love Call and it became one of the most recorded and most famous songs of the 20th century. A great favorite of Dwight Eisenhower and many, many others.

I also love country singer Slim Whitman's take on the song which was totally committed but quite deranged. And a huge hit on both the country and pop charts. Made him a star. His later stereo remake, if you want to search for it, was even more demented.

I used to get stoned and listen to Whitman's stereo Love Call. But I am weird.

(R 98) That 1959 album, "Favorites in Hi-Fi and Stereo, was recorded in 1957 and 1958 and went on to become a Gold Record Album, surprising the execs at RCA Victor.

MacDonald and Eddy never toured in a nightclub act. Eddy and soprano Gale Sherwood did tour together in nightclubs from the early 50's until Eddy's passing in 1967.

Jeanette and Nelson did work together, frequently, on the radio and made two television appearances together (1956 and 1957).

(R96) "The Sun Comes Up" is a visually stunning film and the first film that Andre Previn scored. Jeanette is very good in a mostly dramatic role, bringing a warmth and realness to her part. Not a classic by any stretch but she sings 3 or 4 times and does some wonderful comedic scenes with both Percy Kilbride and Margaret Hamilton.

MGM and Joe Pasternak wanted her to do another film for the studio in 1950 and the plan was to team her with Nelson. The enormous success of "The Barkley's of Broadway" in 1949, which brought Fred and Ginger together again, made the MacDonald-Eddy reteaming plausible. However, Eddy refused to commit once he was faced with a clause in his contract with regards to his personal behavior - behavior that had earned him the forever wrath of L.B. Mayer previously. He was to "conduct himself, in all ways, as a respectable married man..." At the time Eddy was in a relationship with another man and he would not agree to forego that relationship during the term of the one-picture contract he would sign with MGM and Pasternak.

I didn’t know Allan Jones and Irene Hervey got a divorce.

(R103) Allan and Irene were married for 21 years (1936 - 1957). Allan's drinking problems contributed to their marriage breaking down. They remained friends, however, and were supportive of their son's career.

[quote]At the time Eddy was in a relationship with another man and he would not agree to forego that relationship during the term of the one-picture contract he would sign with MGM and Pasternak.

R102, do you have any thoughts as to the identity of the man? I have often wondered if Eddy had some kind of relationship with Ted Paxson, his longtime accompanist from the late 1920s until Eddy's death in 1967. I believe Paxson was married and had a family but he and Eddy traveled together almost constantly for years. Paxson was not an especially good-looking man, but neither was Ann Eddy a particularly comely woman.

On the other hand, the Sharon Rich book suggests that Eddy's singing partner Gale Sherwood was his love interest in the 50s and 60s. I don't think Sherwood ever commented one way or another about Eddy's personal life.

(105) Yes, it was Theodore Paxson.

Gale Sherwood had no interest in Eddy beyond their singing together. She much preferred the company of younger men. She and Nelson had a comfortable working relationship but it never went further. She admired Paxson's musical abilities and never passed judgment on his relationship with Nelson.

How much of Maytime was shot in Technicolor before production was shut down after Thalberg's death and then restarted in black and white? Over the years I've read everything from less than half to nearly the entire picture. Does any of the color footage survive?

r107, according to IMDb, production on Maytime began August 21, 1936; Thalberg died September 14, 1936; production resumed October 29, 1936 and completed in January, 1937. Probably only a quarter of the movie had been filmed by the time of Thalberg's death. More trivia:

When filming began in 1936 (in color), the original opera finale was also recorded, staged and shot. This was to have been Act II of Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca", one of the few operatic works with major roles for baritone (Scarpia) and soprano as equals (Tosca). It also allowed Jeanette MacDonald to sing the famous aria "Vissi D'arte". By the time shooting recommenced in black and white, this idea was scrapped and replaced with an elaborate fake Russian opera "Czaritza" created by Herbert Stothart to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, presumably to allow for a big Duet (in "Tosca", she murders Scarpia by stabbing him through the heart!). The rewritten story of "Maytime" presumably demanded it. Sadly, the Technicolor "Tosca" sequence does not appear to have survived, which is a pity as it would have been fascinating to see MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in a major operatic sequence and in color.

If any color footage from the first Maytime survived after production was shut down, it was probably lost in the disastrous M-G-M fault fire in the early 60s that destroyed much of the studio's silent films and color sequences.

Dore Freeman who worked at MGM for more than 40 years, was able to secure some of the color footage shot when the studio changed hands, yet again, in the early 1970's.

For "special friends", he would screen the "Tosca" sequence.

The ONLY time he offered to make it publicly available was when he offered it to Jack Haley in 1973 for use in the film he was working on - "That's Entertainment". Haley, who disliked operettas and sopranos, declined the offer because he had his own take on the MacDonald-Eddy series planned for the 1974 release. He made a single sequence from "Rose Marie" something comic that audiences laughed at when taken out of context.

I saw the "Tosca" sequence at Freeman's home in 1979 but have no idea what happened to it after he passed, some years later. While most of his collection involved his friend, Joan Crawford, he had been good friends with Jeanette and often escorted her to film openings in the 50's and 60's, when her husband was working in a play. Jeanette and Dore attended the 1962 opening of "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" and Jeanette was interviewed by several reporters at that opening.

Maytime had nothing to do with original stage show other than the title and Will You Remember. The plot was blatantly lifted from Bitter Sweet It's still a wonderful film.

By the time the pair filmed Bitter Sweet they were visibly too old for the characters.

I know a 22 year old who has no idea who Sally Field is. When I showed her a photo, she still had no idea. I said she was forrest gump's mother. She had heard of the movie but had never seen it.

Colorado Love Call

Knowing that he didn't want to give up his bf to work at MGM again actually makes me have some respect for Eddy

First I've heard about the color photography on Maytime so have to ask - why was it scrapped? What did Thalberg's death have to do with decision? What's the story?

Curious, too, if any DL film buffs have any insight into why it took so long for color photography to be employed more by MGM. Was it considered too garish before it was perfected (I guess in the 1950s?). Were the other major studios equally wary/afraid of color photography?

The added expense associated with the Technicolor process was one reason. MGM, despite having an enviable record of success, was reticent to add to the costs of their films, many of which were extravagant in black and white.

They used the three-strip Technicolor process for the end of the 1934 musical, "The Cat and the Fiddle", Jeanette's first film at Metro. Many felt the make-up needed for Technicolor made women look almost clown-like. Instead the studio settled for using the less expensive sepia process. They used that for the May Day sequence in "Maytime" as well as in "The Firefly", "The Girl of the Golden West" and "Broadway Serenade" among other titles.

Mayer had been so displeased with the storyline to the original, technicolor "Maytime" as envisioned by Irving Thalberg, who was taking an active role in its production, that after Thalberg's passing, Mayer had the film scrapped and an entirely new story written including replacing such cast members as Frank Morgan and Paul Lukas as well as the Director. Because of the enormous amount of money spent on the aborted effort, Mayer felt that shooting the new script in B & W with the sepia sequence, would save about $ 400,000.

The January 5, 1938 issue of Variety noted, in a headline, that "Maytime" had been the top moneymaking film, worldwide, released during 1937. Perhaps the added expense of Technicolor might have made it even more successful.

"Sweethearts", released in December of 1938, was the first film released by MGM in Technicolor and proved to be a blockbuster hit. It starred MacDonald, Eddy, Frank Morgan and Ray Bolger, among others. It received a Special Academy Award for it's Color Cinematography.

[quote] "The Barkley's of Broadway"

Oh, dear.

Thanks for all that info, r116.

I'm surprised the public didn't somehow make more of a demand for color films, though I'm not sure how they would have expressed that.

Person to Person

I want to read more about Nelly’s gay life. What are some good sources?

MacDonald's charm comes across beautifully in this "What's My Line" episode from December of 1952. She even references her upcoming (January of 1953), second Carnegie Hall appearance. (Her first was in 1950).

She comes on about 15 minutes in. At 49, she looks lovely and is very amusing.

That sold-out concert necessitated the use of police to control the mob which demanded more encores and did not want MacDonald to stop singing. My parent's attended and said they'd never seen an audience that loved the artist as much as they loved Jeanette.

[quote]My parent's attended and said they'd never seen an audience that loved the artist as much as they loved Jeanette.

They obviously weren't at MY Carnegie Hall concert!

But did she ever appear in the legitimate theater?

[quote]My parent's attended

Oh, dear.

(R123) Jeanette began her professional career on the stage in New York in 1920. Between 1920 and 1929 she appeared in more than half a dozen shows on Broadway. In her last starring role in 1929 in a musical called, "Boom Boom", one of the featured actors was a man named Archie Leach. Archie became Cary Grant and whenever they'd meet in Hollywood, Jeanette always called him Archie, which he loved.

In 1929 Jeanette went to Hollywood but did work on the stage again in the 1950's in "The Guardsman", "Bitter Sweet" and "The King and I"

(R122) Actually Jeanette was in attendance at the concert and visited with Judy backstage afterwards.

What I should have noted was that it was an audience unlike any at Carnegie Hall for a classical singer as opposed to a more popular music concert.