Another of the eight Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy films has been released on DVD!
Bitter Sweet is now available… It was their 7th film together and their second together in Technicolor.
The Jeanette MacDonald version of “Smilin’ Through” (1941), in Technicolor and co-starring her off-screen husband Gene Raymond, and Brian Aherne, has been released on DVD!
Jeanette looks beautiful in color playing dual roles. Trivia alert: the cameo she wears in this film was her own – a gift to her from Nelson Eddy. It belonged to his great-grandmother and he added diamonds to it.
The original cast of this project was supposed to be Jeanette with Robert Taylor and Jimmy Stewart. But Stewart joined the army and Taylor went on a two-month vacation with his wife, Barbara Stanwyck. Brian Ahern was signed to replace Jimmy Stewart. Gene Raymond wasn’t signed until after the first week of filming!
Nelson Eddy’s 1937 film “ROSALIE” (co-starring Eleanor Powell) has been released on DVD by Warner Bros. (Yes, MGM mogul Louie B. Mayer would be turning over in his grave to know that his rival Warner Bros. now releases the MGM library on DVD!)
You can order it by clicking on the photo above.
Enjoy!
Listen to him singing with Jeanette MacDonald…their most famous song…Indian Love Call.
Plus…In honor of his birthday we have released 4 new CDs of his music.
Click here for details.
June 18 is a special day for Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy fans. Happy 108th Birthday, Jeanette!
In Jeanette’s honor,the maceddy.com website is having a special sale on many items, with discounts ranging from 10-50% off. See everything that is on sale at this link. (Note: Lifetime Members get an additional 10% off their order!)
Here is some of Jeanette MacDonald’s music for you to listen to or download:
Dream Lover (from her 1929 first film, The Love Parade)
Will You Remember (duet with Nelson Eddy and yes, we will remember!)
Italian Street Song (just fabulous!)
San Francisco (the one and only!)
Farewell to Dreams (duet with Nelson Eddy, cut from the film Maytime, his favorite recording with her)
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
And Nelson Eddy’s praise and poignant comments about her on the day of her death:
On Sunday, April 10, 2011, Sharon Rich will be joining a large group of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy fans for a book signing afternoon on Long Island in Holbrook, New York. As of April 7, attendance is filled to capacity.
However, the Q&A part of the event will be going live on Skype with fans around the world participating and asking Sharon Rich questions.
If you are interested in joining the group via Skype you must join up with the Mac/Eddy Yahoo Group. Contact Bern, the group moderator, at this link to join and for more information.
These are the first 2 Jeanette-Nelson team films to be released on commercial DVD.
UPDATE: They are both available at Amazon.com.
Enjoy!
January 14 is a doubly sad day for fans of Jeanette MacDonald. For not only is it the day that she died at age 61 in 1965 but thirteen years later, Jeanette’s older sister Blossom died on the very same day at age 82.
Most of the time fans do not mourn siblings of their idols but in the case of Jeanette MacDonald, we owe much to Blossom. She fiercely loved her sister and throughout the decades was known to speak candidly about Jeanette’s life. Because of Blossom opening up her private phone book all those years ago and encouraging me to call this person or that…the personal story of Jeanette’s life began to be revealed. Not the Hollywood version but the stranger-than-fiction version which Jeanette – and Nelson – buried and publicly denied as best they could in their lifetimes.
It is because of Blossom’s feisty nature and insistence that her sister not be forgotten that we are all here today celebrating not only the life, movies and music of Jeanette MacDonald but the complicated and fascinating relationship she had with Nelson Eddy.
So today – January 14th – let’s celebrate the lives of two sisters. Blossom was no doubt Jeanette’s closest confidante and we have ample documentation to show how many times Blossom was there for Jeanette in moments of physical or spiritual crisis.
In the photo above, Jeanette and Blossom are pictured with their mother, Anna MacDonald.
If you would like to share your remembrances of where you were and how you learned of Jeanette’s passing in 1965, please email it to me.
Wow! It’s been 7 years since our club member Bernadette Schwartz took over the daunting task of running our Yahoo! group. This has provided Mac/Eddy Club fans a forum to discuss anything Jeanette MacDonald and/or Nelson Eddy. Bern, as she is affectionately called, has done a great job and I want to give her a hearty THANK YOU! It is not easy running a “social network” group as you can well imagine. Folks sometimes have strong opinions, bad hair days..or just need to vent. That Bern has managed to keep the “blips” to a minimum and has a happy, growing membership says a lot about her. As of today we have 91 people in our Yahoo! group.
I also want to give another hearty THANK YOU! to the co-moderator, Cecilia Rodriguez, affectionately called Cee. Cee is always there to help on projects and I think I related to you some time ago how wonderful and high-tech she was the last time she was in Los Angeles for the Nelson-Jeanette homes driving tour. Cee had the laptop and her cell phone going and was uploading photos and info right to the group in real time.
If you have not yet joined our Yahoo! group you should do so. We have a wealth of photos, music files, other documents and very cool memorabilia uploaded for members to enjoy. Also, we have among the group some that either knew Nelson/Jeanette themselves or have excellent connections about some of the information that I’ve written about the Jeanette-Nelson story over the years. In the group one can be as active as they like or just read the posts and keep up with the latest. Bern and the group also act as my eyes and ears for news items that come up pertaining to our stars. I can’t be everywhere and don’t profess to know everything…so I greatly appreciate the contributions of the group members to keep up with timely events for all of us.
I would like to thank two other Yahoo! group members in particular. First, Sandy Reed attends many of our club events and now live-blogs from all of them. This allows those that can’t attend our events to join us (at least in the virtual world!). Sandy has helped me out in other ways getting photos or info for me (and the group) sometimes at a moment’s notice. Thank you, Sandy!
The other person I want to thank is Vonnie Krotts. She does gorgeous Jeanette/Nelson artwork and provided this beautiful anniversary postcard on behalf of our Yahoo! group. Thank you, Vonnie!
Here’s to another 7+ years of all things Jeanette and Nelson!
The direct link to join our Mac/Eddy Yahoo! group is here.
Have a great weekend!
Sharon
