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Happy birthday, Jeanette MacDonald!

Happy birthday today to Jeanette MacDonald!

Some quotes about her life:

“I have worked terribly hard, maybe even much harder than I should have. And you only find this out after you can look back over your experiences and see why you should have accepted things more instead of pushing, as I’m sure I did.”

“I guess there isn’t much I haven’t done. But I think I missed having children. That’s the biggest order I never filled. It just wasn’t in the cards, I guess.”

“I never realized how much movie stars man to people. Not what you do or what you say but just your presence, your being there. It makes you feel embarrassed and rather humble and happy all at once. To be able to bring that much pleasure to people makes me a very lucky woman. Very lucky.”

 

Today in J/N History

1948 “Three Daring Daughters” is released. (Jeanette and Nelson originally were to do this film together; MGM insisted on Jose Iturbi instead.) Jeanette sings “Sweethearts” (from the 1938 film with Nelson). With the intro lyrics she looks at Iturbi, who is accompanying her (and with whom her character is in love). But when she gets to the main part (a duet with Nelson in their film) she turns and sings instead to the orchestra! This curious fact is covered up by shooting her face in closeup so you don’t notice how very odd this is that she does not face Iturbi.

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