A Jeanette MacDonald project you can help with…
And here is the link to add your 2c to the Los Angeles Times‘ questions about whether Jeanette MacDonald should be included on the Hollywood Star Walk.
Voice your opinion at this link.
Entries Tagged as 'JEANETTE MACDONALD'
Photos of Nelson Eddy’s grave, Jeanette MacDonald’s crypt, June 2009
Nelson Eddy's grave - with flowers and flags from the Mac/Eddy Club, 6/29/09
Every year, the Mac/Eddy Club holds a Birthday Bash honoring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy on the last Sunday of June. Afterwards, or usually on Nelson’s birthday (since it’s always close to the date of our event) some of the fans visit their graves and place flowers.
The gals that were responsible for purchasing the urns in front of the grave markers – on behalf of the Mac/Eddy Club – made their yearly visit on Nelson’s birthday. The next day they visited Jeanette’s grave. They graciously emailed us pictures to share with you, along with this email:
Thank you for a lovely meeting on Sunday. Everyone truly enjoyed the Brent Perry interview.
We went to the Hollywood Forever cemetery to bring our birthday flowers for Nelson. When we arrived, no one had been there. We did our usual trimming and cleaning…We always put in an hour’s worth of trimming and grooming the site and placing our flowers before [the NEAS rep arrives], and add their flowers. We have been doing this for nearly 10 years.
I have attached the “after” (with our flowers) , complete with our flags for the Fourth of July to symbolize Nelson’s love of country. It would be nice if you would post the photo of the way we left the site with our flowers….Brian and Beryl [members from the U.K.] brought the lovely basket in the middle.
Today, we made a special trip to Forest Lawn to visit Jeanette’s site and took two small bouquets, each containing two pink roses which we placed on each side of her crypt in memory of Nelson’s love for her.
Here are the photos showing the lovely flowers. Thank you, gals, for your loving care every year, as always!
Jeanette MacDonald's crypt with roses placed in her memory, 6/30/09
Jeanette MacDonald – We Will Remember
Jeanette MacDonald
Birthday sale on Jeanette MacDonald’s books and DVDs
Jeanette MacDonald in Don't Bet on Women with Edmund Lowe
In honor of Jeanette MacDonald’s birthday June 18, get 10% off both her Autobiography and the collection of her handwritten love letters to her 1927-8 beau, Irving Stone.
Also, two of her rarest films, thought to be lost for decades, are available at 20% off today – Oh, For a Man! (1930) and Don’t Bet on Women (1930).
Happy Birthday Jeanette MacDonald – June 18
Jeanette MacDonald in Sweethearts (1938)
Happy Birthday, Jeanette MacDonald! Born today in 1903…106 years young!
For those of you wanting to see some of her films on TCM – nothing today – but starting next week there will be several of her films alone and with Nelson Eddy airing, as part of a month-long tribute to great movie directors – including Woody Van Dyke, who directed most of her MGM hits!
Below is the list of films on the TCM schedule – all times are Eastern. Nelson Eddy, also celebrating a birthday this month – June 29, will be featured in one of his solo films, as noted below. Set your DVRs or VCRs!
The Merry Widow (1934)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/23/2009 12:00:00 AM
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country. C AST: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Una Merkel. DIR: Ernst Lubitsch. Musical. BW 99 mins.
Naughty Marietta (1935)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/24/2009 12:00:00 PM
A French princess in Colonial America gets involved with an Indian scout. CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan. DIR: W.S. Van Dyke II. Musical. BW 104 mins.
San Francisco (1936)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/24/2009 02:00:00 PM
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the big earthquake. CAST: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy. DIR: W.S. Van Dyke II. Epic. BW 115 mins.
Maytime (1937)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/30/2009 01:30:00 PM
An opera star’s manager tries to stop her romance with a penniless singer. CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore. DIR: Robert Z. Leonard. Musical. BW 132 mins.
Let Freedom Ring (1939)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/04/2009 08:30:00 AM
A crusader returns to his Western hometown to root out corruption. CAST: Nelson Eddy, Victor McLaglen, Lionel Barrymore. DIR: Jack Conway. Musical. BW 87 mins.
Rose Marie (1936)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/25/2009 12:15:00 AM
An opera singer goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to hunt for her criminal brother.
CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, James Stewart. DIR: W. S. Van Dyke II. Musical. BW 111 mins.
The Firefly (1937)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/25/2009 10:00:00 PM
A Spanish spy masquerades as a singer to sabotage Napoleon’s forces. CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, Warren William. DIR: Robert Z. Leonard. Musical. BW 130 mins.
Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy – follow them on Twitter!
Fans of 1930s movie stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy can get frequent news updates at this link:
http://www.twitter.com/maceddyclub
Has Jeanette MacDonald’s home “Twin Gables” been torn down?
I have heard a few reports that the house at 783 Bel Air Road in Los Angeles was finally torn down. This was the home of Jeanette MacDonald, purchased for her as a wedding gift by her husband, Gene Raymond.
Above is a google earth photo of the house, known as “Twin Gables,” taken July 31, 2007.
If anyone is willing to drive by the address and take current photos of the razed lot and surrounding area, please email them to me ASAP and we’ll post them here.
The house, on a corner lot (you can see the road curving around it), was fairly small by movie star standards. Though Jeanette MacDonald’s marriage didn’t turn out to be all she thought it would be, she loved her home. She reluctantly moved out in the early ’60s when her health was failing.
I see in this picture that the gorgeous rose gardens in the back were already gone as of 2007. These rose gardens were tended by Nelson Eddy, who spent a lot of time at the house. Particularly noteworthy were the bright orange roses, in honor of Jeanette’s hair! I saw these same color roses still planted (and in disrepair) at their little hideaway home in Burbank before that house was torn down.
Anyone willing to drive over and take some photos for us?
What of the fate of the Jeanette MacDonald painting?
Above: A perfectly posed 1948 publicity shot of Jeanette MacDonald in her home, holding an open scrapbook showing her engagement party to Gene Raymond. The beautiful oil painting on the wall above her is the one whose fate we are wondering about.
Just thinking about what will become of the painting of Jeanette MacDonald that hung in her home for decades…
When she died – or rather, after Blossom’s death, as I remember, Gene Raymond gave it to the Motion Picture Home. My memory on this is a little fuzzy but I remember it was hanging near the galley in the main hospital building.
I am sure (or rather I hope) it didn’t remain there permanently…surely they could have found a more prestigious place for it than the kitchen. I always wondered why Gene didn’t make a stink about it. Maybe he thought it was amusing?
Anyway, who knows where it ended up or where it will go next if/when the Motion Picture Home closes?
Any leads…let me know, OK?
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