Los Angeles, Sunday, June 24 – Get your tickets now!
This weekend! Don’t miss it!
We have a very special presentation scheduled for this year’s Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy Birthday Bash to be held in Studio City, CA on Sunday, June 24. Fans will be coming from around the country (and elsewhere) for this so don’t miss it!
Tickets and more information are at this link.
June 20, 2012 @ 10:51 pm
Hi I was just checking to see how the Event was in New York June 10th and see if there were anyother announcements for the Event this Sunday, June 24th!!!!
Hope all is good and I am looking so forward to sunday, and I hope I can buy books and other media on sunday.
love, Sharon Goldberg Mercado
June 23, 2012 @ 3:18 pm
oh hello th
e nyc meeting was wonderful we always meet new and interesting folks but to be honest the best of all meetings are the one’s in california i can not attend this year but have flown out many time- they are great andd full of information and presentations..fine folks and the food is delish..so sharon if you can go i would definitely go you will enjoy it!
bernadette schwartz
June 23, 2012 @ 11:21 am
Hi Sharon. Yes, most items from our catalog are available at the meetings so yes, you will be able to shop at the meeting plus get your books signed. This should be an awesome event with a very special one-time video presentation so I encourage those who have not made reservations but think they might want to attend to please – just come! You will also get a chance to meet folks who knew or met Jeanette and/or Nelson…plus enjoy a special birthday cake in their honor!
June 23, 2012 @ 3:55 pm
NYC Meeting – June 10, 2012 Hi, I posting my summary from the NYC meeting. Hope everyone has a blast at the Calif. meeting!
It was wonderful meeting Bern, Maria and of course Sharon and family as well as veteran member Dick Barclay and new member Scott Levine and being able to talk freely about our mutual love of all things opera, old Hollywood and Jeanette and Nelson in particular. What a thrill to hold and read the two letters that Nelson wrote which Maria kindly brought to the meeting. Seeing that he addressed the envelopes in his own hand which means he probably affixed the 3 cent stamp to them himself (I touched something that Nelson’s tongue touched, chills). Also, the Christmas card that appeared to be hand lettered in red brush strokes wishing a Merry Christmas. Maria also brought a big, beautiful black and white photo of our DDG baritone.
Had a lovely talk with Dick Barclay, a tall, nice looking 81 year old with a bright and upbeat personality and he told me about meeting Jeanette and pinning an orchard on her that she later wore in her concert. I loved that I could look into his clear blue eyes and see the joy there 50+ years later. He was the source for the Robert Mitchum story. Dick is an Oscar winning producer of documentaries (winner for 1972’s Norman Rockwell’s World) and was working with Mitchum who did the voiceover for a documentary Dick was producing. After work, Mitchum would recount stories for them and he confirmed to Dick that Nelson was indeed looking for Gene in all the bars to get his signature; Mitchum was in one of those bars and saw Nelson.
It was a small intimate group and Sharon spoke informally and answered our questions. Sharon recounted for us the 1994 book signing tour, the business end of it, the campaign to discredit her story (which only helped publicize the book). Most of what she spoke of was covered in Sweethearts or MacEddy Today.
One thing we did hear about was the Jackie Kennedy-Onassis connection. Apparently Jackie read the manuscript when she was an associate editor at Doubleday, liked it and recommended it for publication. She or one of her family members had a personal connection with Nelson’s family (his father lived in Jamestown RI, the next town to Newport) and he sang at one of her engagement parties. However, Doubleday decided J&N were not relevant enough to generate sales so they declined. She told another funny story about another publisher who declined for the same reason, but loved Nelson and Jeanette and proceeded to serenade her with Nelson’s hits (Stouthearted Men, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, etc) over the phone. She said it was the nicest rejection she got. She related that she finally got published when she showed them the VHS sales of their movies to prove there was enough interest in them to sell books. Maybe now that all 8 movies are out on DVD, she’ll finally be able to get the financing for a documentary (fingers crossed all!)
Sharon also told me about her telephone conversation with Irene Dunn, it went something like, Yes, dear, they did love each other but that was really their business. The way Sharon recounted it I could really hear Irene’s voice and I knew it was true. Many of the “names” in Hollywood would not talk about it or denied it for the same reason. Given what Sharon went through in telling this story, I can understand the reluctance of some of her sources in being named. But as time goes on, we will see more and more identities of sources revealed.
Sharon is rightfully very protective of these folks, considering the backlash she has had to endure. She told me her intent was to take J & N off the pedestals and portray them as real human beings.
The Sunny interview – this was the same interview as the CA meeting in December, I think. He told about how he first met Jeanette at a concert, he brought a rose and asked her to sing “Only A Rose”, they pulled him up on stage and put him on the piano and she sang it to him. He said his face was as red as the rose. He was brought backstage and he comically recalled how her sister Elsie was there as her “bodyguard”/assistant and was very good at scaring away the fans. Elsie was helping Jeanette change out of her gown (behind a screen, just like in the movies). He also spoke about Nelson, how he met with him in NYC after Jeanette’s death, described the room, the rocking chair, Nelson smoking his pipe and in the same tremulous voice as when he broke down in the interview after Jeanette’s death, he recounted how remorseful he was, and blamed himself over and over for not making her marry him. I should have just “shaken the shit of her and taken her to Reno or Vegas or Maryland any f***ing place and married her.” Sunny recalled that was the first time he’d every heard the phrase “shaking the shit” out of someone. He also spoke at length of hearing the beauty of Nelson’s voice live and how records and films did not adequately capture it, especially the earlier recordings.
He described in such detail the building that was attached to a hotel where Nelson leased a suite when in NYC, it was on West 34th Street. At the time of the interview (mid-1980’s) he said it was still there. So after the meeting, I walked up to West 34th and found a building that fit the description, it advertised “Luxury Rentals”, I think it was the same building Sonny described.
Including Sharon, Jake and Juliet there were only 10 of us which was better for Sharon as she is still regaining her strength. We ended promptly at 4pm, Sharon looked tired so I said a quick good by to everyone and started out to explore the city a little, my backpack crammed full of J&N books, DVDs and magazines and my head full of J&N stories.