Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy Blog

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.

Tags: NELSON EDDY by maceddy
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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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While still under contract at MGM, but before he became a film star, Nelson Eddy marked time giving concerts on the West Coast. He was counting the days until his contract expired and it’s likely he would have left MGM at the end of 1933…had Jeanette MacDonald not come into the picture.

Just as Nelson Eddy was “discovered” in San Diego early in 1933, when he replaced an ill Lotte Lehman at a scheduled concert, we find that in November of that year, he replaced an ill Lily Pons in Los Angeles. By the way, Jeanette MacDonald was in the audience for this concert.

11/14/1933 from Hollywood Citizen News

Nelson Eddy, popular baritone, who will appear next Tuesday night in concert at Philharmonic Auditorium will include on his program the popular cowboy song, “The Last Round-up.”

Eddy’s program at Philharmonic will be the same as that he offered at San Diego, where he was called to take the place of Lily Pons when she canceled her engagement at the southern city.

The Philharmonic concert is the only one on the baritone’s schedule for Los Angeles this season. He will appear, however, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in the Bay City on Dec. 22 and 23.

Tags: NELSON EDDY by maceddy
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Nelson Eddy’s Shortnin’ Bread recipe has been published in several places over the years but I thought you would enjoy it.

From an old movie magazine: “[Nelson Eddy] admits that much of his fan mail contains shortnin’ bread formulae from well-meaning listeners who try to fill his aching void. In desperation, Eddy conducted a month of experiments in his kitchen and now sends his own recipe for shortnin’ bread in retaliation. The pastry, a la Nelson:”

Prep time: 10 Min. Cook time: 25 Min. Serves: 18

Ingredients
4 cups sifted flour
1 cup light brown sugar
2 cups butter or other shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions
Mix dry ingredients. Work in butter.
Press on a floured board to 1/2” thickness. Cut to shape and bake in a moderate oven, 20-25 minutes.

Link

Tags: NELSON EDDY by maceddy
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11/8/1933 IDN Eleanor Barnes
“Nelson Eddy, the young American baritone who was with the Philadelphia Philharmonic orchestra, and who has been under contract at MGM since last June, has been engaged for two concerts with the San Francisco symphony orchestra, according to announcement today. Eddy’s contract will expire at MGM the middle of December, after filling the western engagements he will make a concert tour of the principal cities of the United States. He will appear in San Francisco December 22 and 23.”

Note: between this time and the end of 1933, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald sang on a birthday tribute to Marie Dressler and also saw each other socially…and Nelson was tested Jeanette’s upcoming film, Naughty Marietta. By the beginning of January, suddenly his option was renewed and he was named as Jeanette’s co-star.

Here is another newspaper blurb showing that they worked together in November 1933:

11/8/1933 EHE Radio
A special National Broadcasting Co. program will be broadcast with coast-to-coast hook-up. From New York this program will be re-broadcast by short wave to Europe.
Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of MGM will be toast master, and will introduce such notables as May Robson, Lionel Barrymore, Governor James Rolph Jr., Norma Shearer, Mary Pickford and Polly Moran. Those who will contribute musically are: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Jimmy Durante and Harry Jackson. Pete Smith, MGM publicity director, is in charge of the program.

And this:

11/9/1933 LAX MARIE DRESSLER BIRTHDAY FETE ON NBC TONIGHT
By Ray De O’Fan
Strike me pink, but I’d never imagine she could be so active at 62 years! Yet they say Marie Dressler reaches that milestone today in life today.

NBC thinks so much of the birthday party arranged for her that it will broadcast the ceremonies from MGM studios this evening over a nationwide hookup at 8:30 o’clock for one hour. KECA is the local outlet. Shortwave stations will pick up the program and rebroadcast it in foreign countries.

Jeanette MacDonald, whose voice has enthralled millions of motion picture goers, is going to pay her tribute and extend congratulations through song. Her number or numbers have not been announced, but they will be typically Jeanette MacDonald and that satisfies any demand.

Nelson Eddy also sings, as does Jimmy Durante, Polly Moran will be herself and Harry Jackson’s NBC orchestra will play.

Louis B. Mayer is toastmaster and speakers include Governor James Rolph, May Robson, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer and Miss Dressler.

Tags: JEANETTE MACDONALD, NELSON EDDY by maceddy
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If you have read my book Sweethearts, you know that one of Nelson Eddy‘s few “real” friends in Hollywood was Clark Gable. Nelson, as you know, had a walk-on role in one of Gable’s 1933 hits, Dancing Lady. The two men enjoyed the outdoors, hated the Hollywood phoniness and admired each other’s “maverick” personalities.

Here’s a blurb from an upcoming biography of MGM director Victor Fleming:

Clark Gable nearly walked off the set of “Gone With the Wind” because of racism, an upcoming book reveals. In “Victor Fleming,” a bio of the director of the beloved Hollywood epic, Michael Sragow describes how a group of black extras, upset at studio bathrooms with “White” and “Colored” signs, approached Gable. “I’ll be goddamned,” the jolted star told them. “He got on the phone to Fleming, who called the prop master and told him, ‘If you don’t get those signs down, you won’t get your Rhett Butler,’ ” writes Sragow. “The signs came down immediately.” The book’s out in December.

Again, if you are familiar with my book, you also know that Nelson Eddy was intolerant of racism.
Link

Tags: NELSON EDDY, Other Celebrities by maceddy
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Nelson Eddy built this house with plans to move in with Jeanette MacDonald in 1938. She had separated from her husband Gene Raymond and resumed an affair with Eddy, pending her supposed divorce. However, MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer insisted she call off the divorce after she miscarried Eddy’s child during the filming of their 1938 blockbuster film, Sweethearts.  For Eddy, all the joy of building his “dream house” was dashed when MacDonald refused to go to Reno for a quickie divorce, despite Mayer’s threats. He would live in the house with his new wife, Ann Franklin, for only a few years.

This house was purchased from Nelson Eddy by actor Fred MacMurray. How much remodeling was done we don’t know. If one of our readers was inside the house while Nelson lived there, please email me and let me know what has been changed!

To see the inside of the house, click here.

Link to original listing

Tags: NELSON EDDY, News & Events by maceddy
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This is the house that Nelson Eddy had built, based on a Colonial Williamsburg home that he had admired on the East Coast. According to someone who was in the house, there were a few secret passageways built in. Although I’m not certain exactly what date Nelson purchased the land, according to his longtime girlfriend K.T. Ernshaw, he planned to build the house for himself and Jeanette MacDonald in late 1938. According to a posting about this house, Kathleen Tuttle, author of “Sylvanus Marston, Pasadena’s Quintessential Architect,” relates that ‘Marston met with Nelson Eddy in Williamsburg, Virginia during the late 1930s in preparation for the design of Eddy’s home in Brentwood.’ This probably occurred during Nelson Eddy’s spring 1938 tour – when MacDonald was secretly accompanying him. (Not so secret actually – she did sit in the audience on occasion and even sang a number or two with him onstage. Plus, the press noted that she and Nelson ‘returned to Los Angeles together’ from the East Coast.)  MacDonald was pregnant with Eddy’s child and he hoped to raise several children in the new home. As we know, Jeanette MacDonald miscarried and never divorced her husband Gene Raymond. On the rebound, Nelson Eddy married Ann Franklin and they moved into separate bedrooms when the home was finished some months after their marriage in January 1939.

Specs on the house:

Keep your modern homes, your glass, your architectural, and your chatter of mixing indoor-outdoor space. Described as a “classic Williamsburg Colonial steeped in Hollywood history” this Brentwood home has “dark hardwood floors & remarkable detailing.” Eh, Hollywood history? At least one web site boasts that old timey actors Nelson Eddy and Fred MacMurray lived here. A six-bedroom, 6,513 square foot home on 1.4 acres, it’s listed at $8.995 million.

For pictures of the backyard and pool, click here.

Link

Tags: NELSON EDDY, News & Events by maceddy
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