May 2013

Their story is truly universal…The Times of Oman has written a feature article about Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
Click on the photo to see the original article, which we except below.

The sun was setting on America’s Lake Tahoe on a chilly autumn evening in 1943 as Hollywood’s legendary singing stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy knelt together at the water’s edge and pledged their undying love. This was not a Hollywood weepie.

There was no one else at this lonely and beautiful spot as Eddy and MacDonald renewed the vows of love they had exchanged eight years earlier in 1935 while filming their most famous musical, Rose Marie.

But this time the pledge was secret and for real. It was also doomed because both stars were suffering the agony of being in loveless marriages to other people. A series of incredible events had prevented them from ever being  married in real life, although it happened several times in movies. The stress of keeping their love secret had resulted in nervous breakdowns and even a suicide attempt.

Had the truth come out, the scandal would have wrecked both their careers. So they kept their love secret, both hoping that some day and somehow, they would be able to be together. In the meantime, they could only express their feelings to each other and as they knelt by the lakeside Jeanette took the $40,000 diamond ring Eddy had given her and which she wore concealed on a cord around her neck, and handed it to her lover.
He slipped it back on to her finger with a kiss and the words: “Your life is bound to me for ever.” Then they returned to the remote cabin in the hills for the next three days — their legal partners believed they were on movie location. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy had made a string of block-busting musicals in the 1930s and 40s and were Hollywood’s most successful partnership.

And while occasional rumours circulated about their friendship, the real truth only came to light when Nelson’s Eddy’s detailed accounts of their long and passionate affair were discovered after his death.
In the meantime, Jeanette MacDonald’s apparent romantic life was keeping the gossip writers busy. In the late 1920s she dated Irving Stone — hundreds of love-letters she wrote him were found in his apartment after his death. Then in 1928, George Richie became Jeanette’s manager and later fiancé — it was rumoured they later married but Jeanette always denied it.

In 1935, she met actor Gene Raymond and used the relationship as a smokescreen to begin a clandestine affair with Nelson Eddy with whom she was starring in Rose Marie. She later called the summer she spent filming on Lake Tahoe “the happiest time of my life.” While on location they became secretly engaged. When Jeanette became pregnant, she was ordered by studio boss Louis B. Mayer to have an abortion. She never revealed who was the child’s father, but in his memoir, Eddy admitted that he was.

The following year Jeanette married the long-suffering Raymond and remained his wife until her death. The relationship was an unhappy one — Raymond was constantly unfaithful and Jeanette told Eddy: “I only come alive when I am with you.” During the time they were movie partners MacDonald and Eddy built up the illusion that they didn’t like each other much and Jeanette actually walked off the set when they were making Naughty Marietta and refused to return until Eddy had apologised for his rudeness.

In fact in private they were planning to run away to Reno and get quickie divorces but Jeanette took pity on Raymond and refused at the last minute. Jeanette MacDonald’s last years were dogged by heart trouble and when she was rushed to hospital in 1963, Nelson Eddy, appearing in Australia, flew back to be at her side.

In 1964, as her health again worsened, Eddy approached the pioneer heart surgeon Dr Michael DeBakey in the hope that he could improve her condition. The surgeon agreed and preparations were made for surgery but it was too late. Jeanette MacDonald died on January 14, 1965 aged 61 with Nelson Eddy holding her hand. Only after her death did Nelson Eddy reveal his true feelings for Jeanette MacDonald. Appearing on the television Tonight Show he broke down in tears after whispering: “I loved her so much…” In an unfinished biography found in Jeanette’s apartment it seemed that she had similar feelings. “When I saw Nelson for the first time I thought he had everything a man should have,” she wrote. “And for ever afterwards I never had a reason to change that opinion…” 

Here’s an article that appeared to help promote our club meeting this last Sunday in the Pittsburgh area.

Let me say that our Facebook group page was just started in February 2013 and the numbers are increasing.  Apparently size DOES matter so if you are on Facebook please join our group and help our presence there to grow! Click on this Facebook link to join.

Below is an excerpt from the Pittsburgh News-Gazette article. (Click on the photo above to see the entire article.) We had a lively meeting and the Mayor of Heidelberg, PA attended with his wife!

Fan clubs keep the flame alive for stars fading from memory

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Doris Day. Bing Crosby. The stars of another era have their devoted followers.
May 19, 2013 12:27 am

Barry N. Wood, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald fan club, has a large collection of memorabilia of the movie stars at his home.

Barry Wood is a devout Presbyterian, but today he’ll also be worshipping at the altar of two other gods.

As president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the International Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy “MacEddy” fan club, Mr. Wood, 71, of Houston, Pa., will be hosting a local meeting at his Washington County home with Sharon Rich, international president of the club.

Even for those who have never heard of the singing screen duo — and they are out there — this should be a lively meeting.

Ms. Rich, of New York, is the author of “Sweethearts,” a lurid expose of the secret love affair between the two — complete with suicide attempts, illegitimate pregnancies and marriages to others — that lasted for nearly three decades.

“Seeing them on the screen, it’s almost a spiritual experience,” said Mr. Wood of MacDonald and Eddy, who made eight film musicals together between 1934 and 1942. “There’s something about the quality and timbre of their voices that touches my soul.”

As fan clubs go, the MacEddy club probably can’t match the size of Justin Bieber’s, or Elvis’. As of Friday only 249 people “like” the MacEddy Facebook page. Of course MacDonald and Eddy haven’t been around for a while. Both died in the mid-1960s.

And therein lies a problem: a certain generation of studio-protected gods and goddesses created during Hollywood’s Golden Age have probably reached their sell-by date — or at least their fan clubs have.

Whether founded out of loneliness, obsession or as part of a long-ago publicity stunt dreamed up by a studio flack, some fan clubs dedicated to these mid-20th century icons endure, while others don’t. Some are in bricks-and-mortar shrines, often in dusty, out-of-the-way hometowns, others are online and have Facebook pages. All of them are trying to remain relevant in a noisy pop culture that produces new stars every day.

Jimmy Stewart’s museum in Indiana, Pa., has had its financial woes, although recent contributions by Bridgeville native Ken Schultz have eased pressures somewhat. On Interstate 95 in North Carolina, there are signs pointing to the Ava Gardner museum in Smithfield — which eagerly solicits donations from “Ava Advocates” on its website. At the Mario Lanza Institute in Philadelphia, the once famous movie star and singer gets a trickle of visitors each day.

Doris Day — who is still alive (at age 89 or 91, depending on the source) and living in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. — has only one fan club left (in Australia), according to the DorisDayTribute.com page, which was clearly founded to keep nosy fans at bay. (One FAQ: “Can you help me meet Doris?” Official, exasperated response: “No. This site is a fan tribute and we don’t have a direct hotline to Ms. Day.”)

***

So just who are these celebrities, anyway?

Thomas O’Guinn, a professor of business studies at the University of Wisconsin, wrote a paper published by the Consumer Research Association nearly 20 years ago — “Touching Greatness: The Central Midwest Barry Manilow Fan Club.” He defines a celebrity as “one who is known by many, but knows far fewer, and is the object of considerable attention.”

A fan club may be fueled by a desire for community, bonding or a surrogate family (“large phone bills from calling other Barry Manilow club members are common,” he said).

Also, especially among teenagers, there may be a strong identification with the celebrity, “since no one is searching for an identity harder than a teenager, who may change one every other day,” he said.

Then there’s the religiosity aspect — a wish by the fan to be spiritually transported or healed by a celebrity possessed with supernatural properties that border on the miraculous.

During his interviews with members of Barry Manilow’s fan club, “someone would say, ‘well, so and so had a really bad case of the flu, and then Barry met them, and they got better.’ ”

In one fan’s bedroom, loaded with photos and posters and bobblehead dolls of Mr. Manilow, “the highest status things in the collection were actually touched by Barry,” Mr. O’Guinn added, including a bottle of Perrier he’d drank.

When Mr. O’Guinn visited Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (now known as TCL Chinese Theatre) in Los Angeles, people engaged in the same ritual over and over again — “almost a liturgical act. They would stoop down to be photographed placing their own hands or feet in the impressions left by the stars.”

“People don’t just look at the footprints, they have to touch them to make it real. It’s the proof of existence,” he said.

Actually, Mr. O’Guinn said he still has a Bic pen that Tennessee Williams gave him.

“I was a freshman English major at the University of Texas and Williams was coming to the campus to speak. I got there early, and the drinking age was 18 then, so I went into this bar where the only other person there was Tennessee Williams. So I sat next to him and we talked and drank for 45 minutes until his handlers tracked him down and took him away.”

For his troubles, Mr. O’Guinn got Williams’ autograph — and the pen, which he keeps in his safety deposit box.

“One hundred years from now, we’ll probably still have fan clubs for Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Michael Jackson and the Beatles, but I wouldn’t put Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald on that list, or even in the top 100,” he said.

Ms. Rich begs to differ, noting that a film script about the star-crossed, adulterous couple is in the works.

“I get emails from people as young as 13 who say ‘I just saw “Naughty Marietta” on Turner Movie Classics and I loved it.’ ” she said. “If there is a way to watch their films, there will be another generation of fans,” she said.

Mr. Wood, host of today’s event, notes that the frame around his car’s license plate says “Nelson Eddy Jeanette MacDonald” and people always honk their horns.

“To me it’s a thrill whenever I run into anybody who likes them, too. I have a lot of MacEddy T-shirts and I wear them all summer, and people will stop and say something, people who share the same joy and appreciation that I do.”