Allan Jones, with a beautiful tenor voice, publicly blamed Nelson Eddy for ruining his film career… out of jealousy, Jones claimed.
That Nelson Eddy was the cause is correct, but the reason why is not.
Here are the facts as Nelson himself (and others) explained it over the years.
Fact: Nelson and Allan were at one time good friends!
Fact: Nelson actually helped kick-start Allan’s career. Back in Philadelphia, in 1929 when Nelson was already an established concert and opera star, Nelson held a series of concerts at the Warwick Hotel, and chose to sing each concert with an up and coming opera singer. For the 1929 series, one of his guest singers was Allan Jones, a tenor who’d begun his career working in coal mines! Below is a reproduction from the book, Nelson Eddy: The Opera Years, of Nelson’s 1929 Warwick concert program cover.
Fact: when Allan came to Hollywood, his career quickly took off. He co-starred in two Marx Bros hits: A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
Fact: Allan next sang opera excerpts opposite Jeanette MacDonald in Rose Marie. These included segments from Romeo and Juliet and Tosca. But Allan made the mistake of hitting on Jeanette, even though everyone knew that she and Nelson were an item. Nelson was not amused at his friend’s betrayal. The result? a few lines of Allan’s solos as Romeo remained but his solo excerpt from Tosca (“E lucevan le stelle”) was cut.
Fact: They must have made up, with Allan apologizing, because they remained friends. They were involved, Nelson, Jeanette and Allan in a real estate deal together, for example. And at Christmastime, the three of them made a home recording of the Faust trio, giving the records out as Christmas gifts to their friends.
Fact: In early 1937 it was obviously that Jeanette and Nelson would not be getting back together. She’d announced her engagement to Gene Raymond in August 1936 but even until the end of that year, she and Nelson discussed reconciliation. They finally agreed that she was not willing to even partially give up her career to be Nelson’s wife, which is what he wanted. He didn’t want a “Hollywood marriage” and wanted her by his side. So… Jeanette and Nelson were broken up as a screen team as well, and her next film was The Firefly with Allan Jones. While they filmed, Nelson was away on his yearly concert tour. He returned to LA with the certainty that Jeanette was making a mistake by marrying Gene Raymond, and his intention was to convince her of this. This even with the studio snidely insisting he sing at Jeanette’s wedding, to which he wrote her a scathing letter, sarcastically suggesting which songs would be best. But still, even with this hurt, he wanted to sit down with her and hash out how they could compromise on a future together. Once back in LA, he spared no time coming back to MGM, only to learn that the very-married Allan Jones had once again hit on Jeanette! No matter that she was engaged to someone else, Nelson was not tolerating this again! He actually beat Allan up! And then went to Mayer and said, it’s either him or me, you decide!
This after the ironic fact that yes, Nelson did sing at Jeanette’s wedding and Allan Jones, as her current co-star, was a member of the wedding party, and they even stood next to each other in the photo below! Nelson looks miserable; the woman next to Allan is Helen Ferguson, Jeanette’s publicist. Then, Jeanette’s sister Blossom next to Helen.
Fact: Allan made one last MGM film with Judy Garland, moved to Paramount and later Universal. He never became the massive star he’d thought would be, and ended up in a few “B” pictures. In later interviews, he denied that Nelson beat him up but agreed that Nelson had him booted out of MGM and his film career crashed.
Note: The Firefly was a hit although it was primarily a diva solo showcase for Jeanette, and there wasn’t much chemistry onscreen between the two stars. But one consolation: Allan singing “The Donkey Serenade” was a hit and it remained one of his signature songs the rest of his life.