Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy Blog

Nelson Eddy and the Hollywood Star Walk of Fame in the Los Angeles Times:

The Times is working on adding more biographical information about Nelson Eddy. Do you think Nelson Eddy should be a top priority for a more complete page? If so, leave a comment letting us know why.

As The Times continues to work on the Hollywood Star Walk database, readers are asked to help identify other stars on the Walk of Fame whom Nelson Eddy should be connected to, as well as locations in the world that were meaningful.

If you’d like to help with this project and give your comments, here is the link.

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Nelson Eddy

Nelson Eddy…43 years ago today he died at age 65, too young and too soon. While he brought pleasure to millions with his voice, his personal life wasn’t particularly blissful. There’s no doubt that stress and unhappiness helped lead him to an early death.

In the midst of this Oscar weekend in which Hollywood and the film industry is celebrated, this is one sad note for the many Nelson Eddy fans who still remember.

It is always a sore point that Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald never had one of their great films acknowledged by the Academy with a Best Picture Oscar.  Their movie Maytime, the highest grossing movie worldwide of 1937, wasn’t even nominated! In fact, it only received a single nomination for the score by Herbert Stothart.

I attended an Oscar party once and I held a real Oscar in my hands. It was heavy and yes, there was something special about it.

But all the awards in the world don’t replace undying loyalty and caring of filmgoers or fans that endures for half a century and even more. Or a movie that is entertaining, timeless and enjoyable as well as excellent – even decades after its first release. Being able to watch a film over and over – 20 or 50 or 100 times – and still love it and find something new to see or hear – now that is a Best Picture!

Thank you, Nelson, for the musical legacy you left us.

Sharon

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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

Tags: JEANETTE MACDONALD, NELSON EDDY, This 'n That by maceddy
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Nelson Eddy and his 1940s lifesize sculpture of actress Anna May Wong, limited edition replicas available at www.maceddy.com

As you may know, we own the original of Nelson Eddy’s excellent lifesize sculpture of the famous Chinese-American movie star, Anna May Wong. Although the sculpture is undated, we have a photo of Nelson working on it, and it would appear to be around 1947 or so. Although – on the back of it, Nelson signed his initials and then made a line of 4 dots, a space, then 3 dots. We don’t know whether this means 43, as in 1943?

We did offer this years ago and sold exactly one replica of it. Recently we’ve had some requests for it again but needed a few orders to cover the costs of prep work and a new molding to make it available again.

We have had enough interest to resume the project…and will offer it for this pre-launch at the same price as the other Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald limited edition busts, $795 plus UPS shipping. And we can ship worldwide.  The bust is lifesize but actually a larger piece because more of Ms. Wong’s torso is sculpted – not just a head shot. Many who have seen it think it is Nelson’s best sculpture.

You can learn more about the Anna May Wong bust and order it at this link.

Tags: NELSON EDDY, News & Events, Other Celebrities by maceddy
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Nelson Eddy

Here’s a great Nelson Eddy story…while filming “Maytime”, Nelson revealed that during his death scene, when John Barrymore comes to Nelson’s flat, says a few words and then pulls a revolver, Nelson’s scene was filming without Barrymore on the set! If you look carefully, you’ll notice that there are shots of Nelson at the piano, then rising and speaking to Barrymore, and then closeup shots of Barrymore as he does the grim deed. The two men are not in the same shot.

If you have a Nelson Eddy story to tell, please add your comments here.

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Nelson Eddy

Happy Birthday, Nelson!

You can make your own ringtone of his most famous duet with Jeanette, “Indian Love Call.” Here are the instructions:

Download it to your phone in the following ways: click on this link and download the mp3 file to your PC then transfer to your phone with a data cable or bluetooth. Or – download it direct to your mobile phone by WAP.

If you don’t understand the instructions above. then ask someone who is computer/cell phone savvy to help you! (That’s what I did!)

Enjoy!

PS: There is a sale today at www.maceddy.com on books about Nelson Eddy’s life and career:

Sweethearts, an eye-opening duo-biography of Nelson and Jeanette MacDonald.

Nelson Eddy: The Opera Years, includes reproductions of Nelson’s personal scrapbooks and the most comprehensive study of his pre-Hollywood career ever published.

The Rosary: The #1 best seller of 1911, Nelson Eddy chose this novel as a possible film vehicle for himself and Jeanette MacDonald in a proposed 1948 return to MGM as a team. The story is similar to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre but the hero/heroine are singers. A new introduction includes excerpts from written correspondence between Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald about the plot’s similarity to their own lives.

Nelson Eddy Lifesize Bust, self-portrait. Yes, Nelson Eddy was a man of many talents, including sculpting. This lifesize bust was done around 1942.

More Nelson Eddy news about the sculpture he did of actress Anna May Wong here at the link.

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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.

NOTE: If you will be in the Los Angeles area on June 28,  join us for a special afternoon celebrating the birthdays of  Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy! Details here!

Tags: JEANETTE MACDONALD, Los Angeles, NELSON EDDY, TV Schedule by maceddy
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Fans of 1930s movie stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy can get frequent news updates at this link:

http://www.twitter.com/maceddyclub

Tags: JEANETTE MACDONALD, NELSON EDDY, This 'n That by maceddy
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Nelson Eddy…No other words necessary, I guess, for those who loved him, his music, his films.

More photos at this link.

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In case you wondered what Kaye Ballard said about Nelson Eddy in her autobiography. She mentioned him once in the book:

By the way, I have recorded several albums in my life (including a version of Oklahoma! with Nelson Eddy, in which I sang the role of Ado Annie, that sold millions of copies) and never made a penny on any of them.

Tags: NELSON EDDY by maceddy
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