Nelson and Eddy….more online discussion of Celine Dion’s name choices for her twin sons. And, in particular, a comparison of a 20th century singing superstar (Nelson Eddy) to a 21st century singing superstar (Josh Groban).

Comparison of “our” Nelson Eddy to Josh Groban is not a terrible thing. I have been to a Josh Groban concert and it is very reminiscent of what a Nelson Eddy concert was like back then – a gorgeous male singer wowing the audience with “long hair” music….an almost-all female audience with women old and young swooning over every note…and screaming their applause.

Security these days is tighter than it was back in Nelson’s day, so Josh doesn’t have women rushing on stage mid-performance. But who knows…maybe Josh returns occasionally to his hotel room to find an eager fan hiding under his bed! That too happened to Nelson Eddy in his heydey.

For those of us who are younger and never had the joy of seeing movie star Nelson Eddy in person, we can at least get some idea of how wonderful/unique it is to have a gorgeous operatic singer to squeal over. I wrote once that Nelson Eddy was like a rock star of his day…and that was no exaggeration!

Thank goodness the 21st century bobby-soxers have a classical singer to adore!

Link

Let me say that we knew the Valentines’ Week Cruise would be wonderful but it apparently surpassed everyone’s expectations because by the second day, folks were already asking when the NEXT one would be scheduled!

We had planned to screen three full-length movies but I brought a lot of other “short subjects” just in case. It was a good idea, since it quickly became evident that three days of Mac/Eddy events planned was not enough for our gang. Many of them had been on several cruises and had no interest in the port excursions. Others were physically unable to participate in excursions. And even those that went on excursions wanted more Mac/Eddy time! So, we arranged for a private lounge to set up more morning screenings on port days. The ship was pleasantly empty those days and so it was more leisurely for us! After meals, some folks met up in a somewhat quiet area of the Lido dining room to continue chatting and visiting. We learned a lot about each other’s lives, dreams and goals.

K.T. Ernshaw’s talk was an eye-opener for the group, most of whom had never met her before. She was especially candid and answered questions that she had not previously discussed on a public forum. As soon as I can figure out how to get the video uploaded, I’ll let you know the link so you can watch it.

For many, meeting Ms. Ernshaw was a highlight. There is no better way to “research” for yourself whether Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy had an off-screen relationship than to talk to one of their friends, who was there in those years, and actually discussed it with Nelson at the time. In fact, Ms. Ernshaw’s decision to leave the U.S. and study acting in London was based in no small part on the fact that by 1949, Nelson was going through emotional turmoil with Jeanette and there looked to be no end in real future with Nelson. His life was too tangled emotionally. So apparently Ms. Ernshaw finally headed to London the following year without knowing that the Jeanette-Nelson breakup was “final.” Ms. Ernshaw was a young woman with her life ahead of her…would she have left America for 8 years had she known that Jeanette was soon to be out of the picture…at least, for the time being?

If I may digress for a moment, that is why I find it particularly sad that some folks questioning the Jeanette-Nelson relationship, didn’t avail themselves of the opportunity to meet Ms. Ernshaw. Hallie Neill, who coordinated and booked our cruise, later told me that one woman contacted her, saying that she and others were interesting in joining the cruise but could the part about the Jeanette-Nelson relationship be left out? These are the same folks that loudly proclaim there is no documentation or evidence that any Jeanette-Nelson affair ever happened, or that none of my sources are alive and therefore I made up all the quotes, etc., etc.

The musical production of “A Scandalous Affair” as an eye opener as well. The cruise group director saw one rehearsal and realized this was a class act with excellent singers. She immediately began to help us promote the show on the ship, informing a senior’s group and others about the show which took place on Thursday afternoon. In a lounge that held 400 or so people, it was very well attended. Afterwards one woman came up to tell me that this was the best event she’d attended on the entire cruise! I asked her to pass that on to the cruise group director who was standing right there – and she did. Brownie points for us – it was a real success!

That evening, we adjourned from dinner to another lounge for a book signing and CD signing (of “A Scandalous Affair”). It had been a long day with a screening of “Maytime” in the morning, the show’s rehearsal, the show itself, and me typing up programs and other notes on my laptop that had to be printed for the show. I sat by myself for a few minutes in the lounge before our group started trooping in. It was one of the few moments I had to sit quietly by myself. Awhile later Hallie and Ted joined me. Hallie was at last able to relax, with the show behind her. We talked about all the hard work it took to put the cruise together. We watched our group now filling the room, sitting together, chatting and laughing, good friends now.  I watched people that had been very shy at the beginning now outgoing and beaming…just a pleasure to observe. Hallie and I discussed it and decided yes, this trip was really worth it.

Our last day at sea, Saturday, Darryl Winston worked with the other singers and put together an entertaining show of singing, comedy and anecdotes. He himself was a bit under the weather, suffering from an allergic reaction that gave him sinus problems. But always a trouper, he rose above it and sang a few numbers along with singers Maria Nazarenko, Carrie Renwick and Liz Wells. We will upload this show for you as well to watch.

Raymond Hughes, the excellent Metropolitan Opera pianist, accompanied both musical shows. He was not really a Mac/Eddy fan before the cruise. He had also never seen “Maytime,” so we all joked that he was a “Maytime” virgin. (He loved it, obviously.) After watching the films and asking questions along with everyone else, it wasn’t long before he felt compelled to read “Sweethearts.” Took it back to his cabin and later told me he stayed up half the night reading it and couldn’t put it down. For me, that was a validation that Jeanette and Nelson still sell themselves as artists – all one needs to do is watch a movie or two and you’re hooked! The off-screen story just adds to the interest.

One exciting outcome of the cruise was Hallie was a connection made that would allow “A Scandalous Affair” to have its New York City debut on April 19. There’s more exciting news about this but this post is lengthy enough so…watch for an from me tomorrow morning. In fact, there’s a lot going on right now, so stay tuned!

Here’s an excerpt from a book I wrote in which I mention the fascinating but sad adventure of trying to interview Susanna Foster for my book Sweethearts, about the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy off-screen love affair.

In 1983, I ran a two-part interview with Nelson’s Phantom of the Opera co-star Susanna Foster. The story behind the interview is an amazing one, but sad. Whether you like Foster or not as an actress or singer, she was a child prodigy and had an amazing vocal range. She should have had a lengthy and lucrative musical career, but as I was soon to discover, she had serious mental problems….

[I] asked around and learned that Foster had most recently been on the East Coast, kicked off Welfare and was living in her car. Then she returned to Hollywood, taken in by a gay fan. This kindly person was not wealthy, in fact he lived in a tiny one-room apartment on Cherokee off of Hollywood Blvd. The building was known as “Murderer’s Row” because there were so many incidents that occurred there, mostly drug-related.

I don’t remember where I first met Susanna; it was probably at some Hollywood-related event. I asked if I could interview her; she said yes. We set a day and time and I told her I’d pick her up in my car.

I have to say that she looked fabulous and young for her years. She was perky and well-dressed. At the designated time, I picked her up only to learn that she had gotten a new job as a telephone switchboard operator, and could I drop her off at her job? As I recall, it was a building just off Hollywood Blvd…

I have to admit, I wondered why she had a minimum-wage job as a switchboard operator. I pictured a row of girls answering phones together, like they did in the classic movies, and imagined what the other gals would think if this new employee revealed that she’d once been a movie star.

Well, I’m sure none of them had a chance to ask her since Susanna was fired that day; she’d only worked there about one or two days. I asked her why they’d let her go and she rambled on without giving me a clear answer. I didn’t press her, as it sounded like she was glad the job was over. We set up a luncheon date. Again, I wondered at her inability to hold down a job. I mean, how difficult could it be to answer phones for a woman of her talent and brains?

I let her pick the restaurant. she wanted to go to Musso and Frank’s, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. She hadn’t eaten there in years. So that’s where we ended up. Now, Musso and Frank’s is a pricey restaurant. But somehow, Susanna got the idea that Paramount Studios was picking up the tab for this meal and she kept telling me to order the most expensive item on the menu!…. She ordered an expensive dish and had several drinks, reminding me that we were spending the studio’s money, so live it up!

We spent a few hours at the restaurant [I taped the interview]…. I [published] excerpts of our conversation, with questions that Susanna actually answered in a lucid manner. In between that, there were some incomprehensible remarks….

In shuttling her back and forth to her apartment, there were more shockers in store. As I’ve said, the apartment was very small, like the size of a cruise cabin. It had two single beds, set up in an L-shape. There was a table with two chairs for eating. Susanna had a framed photo from Rose Marie and another one of just Jeanette. There were no photos of her anywhere in the place. There wasn’t much of anything in the place at all, except for the furniture. She offered me a drink but the refrigerator was bare, except for a bottle of wine. While I was there, one of her sons arrived. She told me he was a drug addict….

I offered to give her money; she refused to take it. I offered to buy her some groceries; she said they didn’t need it. She said she was planning a comeback and she sang for me, to prove she still had her voice. She did sound great, her voice was a little deeper but otherwise pretty much untouched by time. I offered to help set up a small recital and to even get some press for her. She turend down all help but kept talking about her big comeback. Believe me, folks, it took some careful listening and obsrvation to see that she wasn’t operating on all circuits. She was a good actress and could get through an entire social event without people seeing this side of her.

You may quote from this interview as long as you provide a backlink to this interview.

You can read more of my comments on the late Susanna Foster as well as the lengthy two-part interview I did with her in my book Mac/Eddy Today, Volume 6. The excerpt above is © 2005 by Sharon Rich, all rights reserved.

I thought I would make one post on that site, try to set the record straight on a few issues, and then wish them the best with it. People can always email me directly if they have questions. Or just read Sweethearts. It’s a no-brainer, actually. I do occasionally visit and make a post or two on other sites, but have no intention of “trying to turn that site into a support forum for myself.” We already have a wonderful Yahoo group, and goodness knows I’m already pretty remiss in posting there – I’ve been that busy. Right here, though, I thought I might address Ktrek’s concerns.

First, in regards to your question re: why Jeanette did not want to work with Nelson, there are exhaustively detailed explanations in Sweethearts. But briefly: The problem with Maytime? Jeanette became engaged to Gene Raymond. The problem with The Girl of the Golden West? It was right after Jeanette’s marriage. The problem with Balalaika? Right after Nelson’s marriage and Miliza Korjus told me that she was offered Jeanette’s role, she turned it down (thought they were joking) and so it went to Ilona Massey. Don’t you find it interesting that within days after Nelson’s marriage in January 1939, Jeanette wrapped Broadway Serenade and then left MGM for many months…and balked at re-signing her contract? Why would this career-hungry woman known as the “Iron Butterfly” suddenly walk away and not make a film again for nearly a year? She had just had a huge hit with the movie Sweethearts and was crowned the Queen of Hollywood, she was used to making two films a year at MGM…but instead of capitalizing on that, she just leaves?….If you look at the chronology of events, there is most certainly a cause-effect pattern.

Just because Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy had a relationship, doesn’t mean it was smooth or even made much sense. They seemed to swing to such extremes, love or hate, no middling ground. One can study the Tracy-Hepburn relationship and also wonder why/how certain events in their lives didn’t make much sense. Or – if they really loved each other, why Tracy didn’t get a divorce so they could live happily ever after. No, there are many layers to such a story and complications that we may never understand. Just like Jeanette and Nelson.

Two more points. Ktrek, I’m familiar with generalized comments like ‘everything I write is bogus because everyone is dead now so it’s all made up or a figment of my imagination’. In truth, I published this information and earlier books/magazines while most everyone I quoted was in fact, still alive. And Sweethearts was published when Gene Raymond was alive as well. Some of my sources, Rise Stevens, etc., are still alive at this writing. And also, that’s why most of these interviews were audio or video-taped. And many of them will be featured in the documentary that I’m working on.

It’s also one reason that we’re having this upcoming Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy cruise in February. It’s a chance for folks to speak directly to people who were involved in the story, in some manner. What better chance to ask questions? Especially since no one is getting any younger, and with the passage of years there are fewer contemporaries left to talk directly to you and answer your questions. Let’s put it this way, many of my sources have spoken at our club events and therefore, others have access to them if they’re interested.

I noticed in your profile that you are a Star Trek fan. Then I’m sure you know who Judy Burns is. She’s best known for “The Tholian Web” but she was involved with several of the “Star Trek” projects and worked with producer Harve Bennett in the ‘80s when I first met her. She has written and/or produced several TV shows; her IMDB entry is missing a lot but you can still get an idea at her IMDB link. She wanted to interview all my sources and because she was at Paramount, her position wielded some clout and several people went on record that previously had not. She not only verified my research but found other sources that I had previously not known about. Gene Raymond had a lengthy lunch with her, and they spoke a few other times on the phone. (So Turk was not the only one with access to Raymond, by the way.)

Maybe you would consider her a credible source. Let me point out her comments on Amazon, posted under her married name, Judy Jacobson, which I quote from here:

Keeping one’s promises, August 21, 2000
By J. Jacobson (Hollywood, California) – See all my reviews

Sharon Rich is an extraordinary woman. I know. I’ve known her since first reading “Farewell to Dreams” and asking her to actually document the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald story better before attempting to sell it to Hollywood. It was at this time that I began to insist that all of the interviews with some of Sharon’s sources be videotaped… or audiotaped… so that the research could be preserved even after the interviewees died. Many of them have, sadly, passed on. But the tapes survive! In those days, a co-writer and I insisted that Sharon meticulously database the whereabouts of all the principals from the moment they met until their deaths, and she did just that. She poured through documents — every kind of printed source (including the LA Times, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department logs, English newspapers, fanzines, Variety, etc) until she could darn near tell you on an hourly basis where Nelson, Jeanette, Gene, Ann Eddy, L.B. Mayer, and others were. While compiling the database, Sharon also came into possession of letters, unpublished autobiographies, and people who are still alive who can swear to the veracity of the information in Sweethearts. I can personally swear to meeting many of the people who knew Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. I can tell you, I have met Gene Raymond… interviewed him over lunch and also watched him meet one of his former lovers and Jeanette’s gay friends. I have talked to people who sat at Blossom Rock’s feet and heard the story first hand. I am convinced, from these interviews, that Blossom was not only in her right mind… but capable of telling the story (one way or another). Just because you cannot always speak doesn’t mean you cannot write or communicate in other ways. This book is true, and the sources are available for researchers to access. It’s a shame people like Turk do NOT make use of the invitation to do so. This is not only a terrific read, but it is the life work of a woman who made a promise to Blossom Rock to tell the truth about Jeanette. She has kept her promise.”

And here are her comments on the other biography by Turk:

Academic Indifference – History reframed, August 21, 2000
If this WERE a work of fiction, Turk’s book would not be so offensive, but I have spent well over twenty years interviewing people who knew Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. I am NOT Sharon Rich. I have spoken with Nelson Eddy. I have even interviewed Gene Raymond. I can honestly say the evidence is overwhelming that Jeanette MacDonald lead a different life than the one presented by Mr. Turk. It is not enough to just read a woman’s unpublished autobiography and talk to her husband. There are reasons why both might lie. Jeanette MacDonald did not want to shock her fans or bring down the public personnas of herself and Nelson Eddy when she wrote her autobiography. If Mr. Turk had taken the time to look at the evidence which refutes the “Gene Raymond” version of Jeanette’s life, then the book would have fulfilled its potential as a fairly accurate portrait of a complex woman living in a difficult period that straddles World War II. Once Jeanette met Nelson Eddy, he was a driving influence in her life. Nelson Eddy was not a monogamous man. He had many female lovers, and some of them are still alive to talk about him and his relationship with Jeanette, Gene, and Ann Eddy (a woman I have also had the “pleasure” of meeting). Had Turk taken the time to actually follow up the research on the Eddy/MacDonald relationship, he might have presented history in a much more accurate light. It’s a shame when an ordinary researcher blurs history by looking at it through “tinted” glasses. It is a sin when an academic does it, either accidentally or on purpose. Mr. Turk varnished the truth, rewrote it by omission, and basically did a disservice to both Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. I am curious why Mr. Turk did not accept Lina Basquette’s account of Nelson Eddy’s prowess with women. I am even more curious why he would insinuate that Eddy was gay when even Shelley Winters has recounted Nelson’s attempt to seduce her. The University of California should be ashamed for accepting the publication without looking at the research on the other side of the coin.

I would like to close by saying that…um, no, I’m not some “obsessed fan.” I am a film historian. However, it seems to be in peoples’ nature to argue two sides of every issue. As a biographer, I have had to severely revise or re-evaluate certain facts and events with the passage of years. As women kept coming forward, telling of their long-term relationships with Nelson Eddy, I realized that Nelson’s activities were not exactly as he had portrayed to his friends that originally spoke with me. And Jeanette had her own issues. So it isn’t always predictable as I originally thought. But it’s no less true because of that. Once again, study the events and the dates. Cause and effect. The timeline gives you a greater insight than anyone’s “opinion” ever will.

And if you’d like to speak to someone who actually “knew” Nelson Eddy in a very personal way, I suggest again that you take the opportunity to meet author K.T. Ernshaw on the upcoming cruise. Some of you in the UK, like Di, might recognize her from 1950s British TV or theater. At any rate, I never knew of her existence until long after Sweethearts was published in hardback. You can read more about her here.

Update: Wow! While writing this post I just received another email…and learned that the moderator was going to pull down her group so Di did it herself. That was fast! Such a shame. Well, maybe now you can understand some of the hysterical mud-slinging and wild accusations that some folks indulge in. This is surely a passionate subject. I mean, we’re talking about people who died decades ago, and why would people consider it such an outrage that these co-stars in 8 films had SOME involvement? Get over it, folks!

Noted heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, who died on July 11, 2008, became famous to the general public in the mid 1960s after performing early arterial transplants on two high-profile celebrities, England’s Duke of Windsor (aka King Edward VIII) and 1930s movie star Jeanette MacDonald. But while the Duke of Windsor lived another decade, Jeanette MacDonald survived little more than a year.

While there are several reasons that MacDonald’s life was cut short, none of them have to do with Dr. DeBakey’s medical skill. I have not thoroughly checked to see whether any of his other celebrity clients failed so quickly after treatment – but, then again, it is unlikely that any of these other folks lived under such lonely and trying circumstances as did Jeanette MacDonald.

It is certain, though, that Jeanette MacDonald had a long history of heart problems. Her older sister Blossom Rock told me that MacDonald had a rheumatic heart from childhood. Their father died young due to a bad heart. MacDonald herself mentions having a heart attack as early as 1929; she had just turned 26. In a letter dated August 23, 1929 MacDonald wrote to her ex-boyfriend Irving Stone: “My heart attack is still palpitating so that also accounts, perhaps, for my disinterest in the big he men out here!” This handwritten letter was photographed and reproduced in the book Jeanette MacDonald: The Irving Stone Letters (page 145).

Heart problems were also mentioned in several contemporary accounts as contributing to her inability to sustain a pregnancy. I have been able to document four pregnancies by MacDonald’s co-star and off-screen lover Nelson Eddy during the 1930s and ‘40s (even though it is duly noted that she was married to Gene Raymond during three of them). There may have been other pregnancies, one in particular that I have seen mention of around 1942. This one even made the gossip columns – just a quick note to the effect that Jeanette MacDonald was hoping to have good news for hubby Gene Raymond when he returned from war, but alas it was not to be… or some such flowery statement. What might give this blurb credence is MacDonald’s documented response to Nelson Eddy telling her, during the filming of I Married an Angel, that his wife, Ann Franklin, was claiming to be pregnant. (And if she was, he told her he was not the father.) Her rival’s pregnancy turned out to be a false alarm, but MacDonald collapsed at this news and was so distraught that her sister Blossom had to stay the night to help console her.

I am also suspicious of MacDonald’s April 14, 1944 hospitalization in Santa Fe for “food poisoning.” In those days, celebrity “food poisoning” usually meant an alcohol or drug overdose (still does!) but this would not been the case for MacDonald, who was on a concert tour. Nelson Eddy’s over-reaction to her hospitalization was also suspicious (unless her life was in danger from actual food poisoning). He too was on tour, and became so distraught that he nearly canceled his New York Carnegie Hall appearance on April 15. Eddy agreed to go on but was not in good voice, as noted by the New York Herald-Tribune critic. During the intermission, Eddy received word that MacDonald was better. He then went back out to the audience, held up his hand to quiet them and announced: “If you don’t mind I am going to sing a song that is very dear to me.” Then he sang their famous duet “Indian Love Call.” (The same newspaper reporter noted that Eddy’s singing was much improved after the intermission.)

Despite heart problems, Jeanette MacDonald tried repeatedly to get pregnant during the WWII years, either to force Nelson Eddy to divorce his wife, or as a last resort – to raise the child within her current marriage. Certainly she pulled this maneuver in 1946 and 1947, even though now in her mid ‘40s. Documentation from contemporary letters reveal that her inner circle was concerned about such pregnancies and her weak heart, and Nelson Eddy was warned by her doctor that “another pregnancy could kill her.” This medical threat resulted in a seemingly final breakup of their physical relationship, at least throughout her remaining potential childbearing years.

In 1956, Jeanette MacDonald suffered a heart attack during a performance of The King and I at Kansas City’s Starlight Theater. According to cast member Peggy Seo, one number was cut from the show to lighten MacDonald’s work load.

In 1960, Jeanette MacDonald was attempting to write her autobiography with the help of noted author Fredda Dudley Balling. Balling later wrote that MacDonald was seriously ill and there were doubts that she would live to finish the book. (The manuscript remained unpublished until 2004, when it was released under the title Jeanette MacDonald Autobiography: The Lost Manuscript.)

In her final trip to New York City, Jeanette MacDonald consulted with psychic Phyllis Woodbury, revealing that she and Nelson Eddy had been in love all their lives and had married the wrong people. “The suffering got to her and she didn’t want to live anymore,” Woodbury told me in a phone interview.

Being forced into early retirement had also proved difficult for MacDonald, who was a singer/actress since childhood. In 1964, recuperating from Dr. Michael DeBakey’s arterial transplant, Jeanette MacDonald wrote: “I have simply been trying to get well, and this isn’t as easy as one would think. I suppose patience plays a large part in any recuperation – something which I ain’t got!”

Also working against her was the harsh truth of physical neglect in her final days. I spent over four hours interviewing Susan Nelson, the private duty nurse who attended Jeanette MacDonald during her last hospitalization at UCLA Medical Center, a scant two weeks before her death. On December 21, 1964, MacDonald was accompanied to the hospital by Nelson Eddy, while her husband Gene Raymond was prowling gay bars on Santa Monica Blvd. MacDonald had surgery for abdominal adhesions and was released on New Year’s Eve.

Susan Nelson and I carefully studied a calendar to gauge the sequence of events as accurately as possible. It seemed that after MacDonald’s release from UCLA, Gene Raymond requested that Susan Nelson continue to make house calls to check on MacDonald until January 4, 1965. After that, there was no private duty nurse in attendance. Susan Nelson told me, “She could have looked 105, 110 pounds to me when I first saw her in the hospital, but after two weeks of not eating much – I don’t know, I’m just guessing….She was too sick to be on a commercial plane. I know I told you she was getting out of bed but…to tell you the truth, I don’t know. I didn’t take her to the bathroom in the hospital. But I think I did in her home. She was very, very weak.” (Sweethearts, page 450)

Susan Nelson recalled that Gene Raymond asked on her last visit whether she might be willing to accompany them, should he decide to take Jeanette MacDonald back to Houston and Dr. DeBakey. But he never asked her. Additionally, Susan Nelson verified what I had previously learned, that Jeanette’s telephone was removed from her bedroom. This cut off her lifeline to the outside world. Her sister Blossom Rock, who was acting in the TV hit “The Addams Family,” came to visit usually early in the morning or at night after leaving work. Blossom’s next-door neighbor, Mrs. Cameron, remembered that Blossom was terribly concerned, as Jeanette was usually asleep when she did visit. Nelson Eddy, who was on the road singing, angrily reported that he could not get Jeanette on the phone and that the calls were being diverted to Gene Raymond’s apartment. Blossom told a chilling account of how, during one of her final visits, Jeanette was awake and dragged herself into the living room, weakly handed the phone to her sister and insisted that Blossom dial Nelson Eddy’s number.

Susan Nelson had last attended Jeanette MacDonald on January 4^th; on the 12^th, the then-doorman at the Wilshire Comstock said he was recruited to carry MacDonald down from the apartment to the car, when Gene Raymond finally took her to the airport and onto a commercial plane back to Michael DeBakey.

It is not surprising that both Blossom Rock and Nelson Eddy blamed themselves, in part, for Jeanette’s death on January 14, 1965 at age 61. Perhaps Dr. DeBakey could have given her a few more years of quality life had she returned to Houston immediately after leaving UCLA, when she still had some physical strength and was in good spirits. But by the time her husband, Gene Raymond, deigned to take her back via commercial airline to Houston and Dr. DeBakey, she was emaciated and it was too late to save her. “She was in very bad heart failure,” DeBakey told the press at her arrival, and he tried in vain to stabilize her for surgery. Justify Raymond’s actions as you will; there are many who will never forgive him for denying her round-the-clock care in her final days.

For more detailed description of Jeanette MacDonald’s final days, please consult my book Sweethearts: The Timeless Love Story Onscreen and Off Between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.

Sharon Rich