Our annual Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy Los Angeles birthday bashes are always amazing but this year there was so much news – ranging from the devastatingly sad to the amazingly wonderful – that it was a 2-hour program!
Above, Linda Tolman brought the original silver charm bracelets given to Jeanette by Nelson. He added charms over the years which were added to a total of three bracelets, beginning with the clock charm, the honey bee and others. The bracelets are protected in a case but we were able to inspect them up close!
Others brought items that personally belonged to Jeanette such as her gloves, hairbrush and other items from her vanity table!
Some of the topics discussed at the meeting included the passing of Patrice Messina (who wrote the “Sweethearts” screenplay), a tribute to director Woody Van Dyke (his grandson and family attended), seeing the original and discussing the recently obtained Nelson Eddy Christmas 1935 love letter to Jeanette MacDonald, and other amazing research that over the last months has not only substantiated the Jeanette-Nelson story…but has verified specific facts and events and has added to our knowledge.
Above, Woody Van Dyke IV with Maria Escano and Madeline Bayless. Below, Vivienne Clowes-Hollins presents Woody with a framed photo she brought him from all the way from Australia!
Along with myself, the guest speakers included Bernadette Schwartz, Maria Escano, Angela Messino, Katie Gardner…and Woody Van Dyke IV who startlingly resembles his grandfather.
You can watch the video here. Thanks to all who participated and Tracy Wilborn for filming!
After all these decades and all the hundreds of original handwritten letters that were no doubt torn up or reportedly burned, one little ‘ol letter slipped through…and was just sold at auction.
And what a letter!
It was found among Jeanette MacDonald’s boxed-up belongings and surprise, surprise – these items were in the possession of of Clara and Tessa, in the Topeka home they shared, the two women who ran Jeanette’s largest fan club back starting in the last years of Jeanette’s life. They were the keepers of the flame for the Jeanette and Gene blissful marriage and eventually made sure every one of their magazine covers featured a photo of the “happy” couple. They were (in case you didn’t know) on lifetime salary from Gene Raymond and they did their jobs well.
What you should know is this: they DENIED any relationship ever between Jeanette and Nelson. And they made sure that anyone who came to them asking about it were told NO SUCH DOCUMENTATION EXISTED. In addition, they paraded out the happy Jeanette-Gene photos and letters to show how amazing that marriage was.
In one regard, perhaps you can’t totally blame the phony pretense because certainly Jeanette, Nelson, Gene, Blossom and others towed the party line for the public, press and those club publications. Irritating as it may seem now, all of them politely played out their politically correct roles. For decades.
One earlier letter of Nelson’s also slipped through and was auctioned, dated November 1934, at a time when Jeanette had rebuffed Nelson’s first marriage proposal and he was being very proper and gentlemanly, not to scare her off with his impulsiveness or acting “like an animal”. In that letter he calls her “Miss MacDonald” but blurts out: “I think you’re the grandest person in the world.”
And still ANOTHER piece of source documentation has been obtained, further shooting down the happy marriage myth with Jeanette speaking from the grave about her farce of a marriage via her 1963 desk diary. Between Jeanette’s diary and Nelson’s 1935 lovesick letter to her, these two handwritten pieces of documentation have shifted the playing field in a major way. No longer can those who tout the happy Jeanette-Gene marriage continue the facade or their lies. Nor can they deny that the Nelson-Jeanette romance was perhaps a troubled but surely passionate and star-crossed one.
In Nelson’s amazing 1935 letter to Jeanette, he calls her an “extravagant wretchess.” And just to clear up the definition of “wretchess,” a wretch is someone who is a poor unfortunate thing or a scoundrel. He’s calling her a girl version of that, or maybe mixing it up calling her a wretch and a princess? Like a special nickname he calls her when he lovingly scolds her or she annoys him. Whatever reason he calls her that, it is a loving nickname.
Some background to this letter: just a few months earlier Nelson proposed marriage to Jeanette at Lake Tahoe, she accepted and then there was an ugly breakup. For details of what happened read Sweethearts but in essence Nelson was so very, very VERY hurt and certain he was well rid of Jeanette – who seemed to care more about her career than her feelings for him.
Yet Nelson couldn’t help himself. He loved her and termed her “like a sickness” he couldn’t get over.
And she loved him. That was never the issue with them; the love and desire was there… so the ex sex was inevitable. And by December 1935 Nelson missed their personal relationship dreadfully and wanted to Jeanette to travel with him on his upcoming 1936 tour so he wouldn’t be alone. That would have meant her cancelling or postponing the film San Francisco. They quarreled about this and his desire to have his woman at his side while Jeanette claimed she could successfully balance both marriage to him and her career.
From this excerpt from Sweethearts (which I wrote twenty-one years ago without ever knowing about this letter) we learn what happened in December 1935:
…In desperation Jeanette finally arranged to see Nelson alone and tried to resolve things with him. They hashed out things over and over between periods of lovemaking, trying to find a way a union between them could work. This marathon lasted for over twenty-seven hours with endless hours of discussions and arguments and lots of tears – mostly Jeanette’s. Finally they had to agree that it would never work. They loved each other and they needed each other but they were too similar. Neither one was willing to give an inch or sacrifice their career goals. “I used to think that Love was the most powerful emotion,” Nelson said bitterly years later. “But I found out it wasn’t. Pride is the greater emotion.” In the end, they decided to part friends, knowing they would love each other always but determined to break both the spiritual and sexual bond….The romance, as far as either believed, was over forever.
And yet on Christmas Day, what was Nelson doing? Partying? Or taking time to sit down and think about Jeanette and write her a touching letter blurting out like a lovesick schoolboy that despite his attempt to be casual and “just friends,” he was still hopelessly in love with her.
This man was 34 years old, folks! And he already knew that he would “always be devoted to you.” All his life. As indeed he was.
For those who can’t read his scrawl, this is what he states in the letter, dated Christmas 1935:
Dearest Jeanette,
Thank you.
It’s beautiful, and I appreciate it more than I can tell you.
You are an extravagant wretchess, but I love you and will always be devoted to you.
Best Christmas and New Year’s thoughts to you.
Gratefully and fondly,
Your Nelson
I had never heard of this letter but to see how perfectly it fit in with Nelson’s torn emotions at that time – spending passionate hours with her and then determining that “it would never work”….well, this is the Nelson you see here.
So it’s a couple weeks perhaps after their brief reconciliation, he’s already going through “withdrawals” from her and showing what what a mixed up young man he was emotionally about her. Unfortunate that he was so stubborn and didn’t listen to his mother Isabel who wisely observed in her memoirs:
I had never seen Nelson so happy….As I looked at her [Jeanette], I thought how safe a man would be with her. Despite any career, with this girl a marriage vow would always come first. Alas, my son did not believe this and so the Gods forever ruled his peace away.
Folks, here it is in Nelson Eddy’s own handwriting – the answer is YES, he was hopelessly in love with Jeanette MacDonald.
So – I welcome you to shout it to the rooftops! And to the next person or publication you come across who tries to deny the Jeanette-Nelson romance – feel free to share this letter!
From the grave both Nelson and Jeanette are speaking now to us and in an ironic twist – their truths are revealed from those who lied and sought to hide the facts. But no more.
We are vindicated and validated and my thanks to all who have helped uncover the truth over these decades. And thanks to those who helped us obtain this important letter.
UPDATE: June 28, 2015 – Mystery solved!
The discovery of Nelson Eddy’s love letter to Jeanette MacDonald from Christmas 1935 begs a question: What was the gift that he was thanking her for?
Last night I held the original letter for the first time, handed to me by Maria Escano, in whose possession it will remain until it is donated to a museum. I studied the letter and read and re-read it carefully. For over two hours we sat discussing every gift we knew Jeanette had ever given Nelson but “beautiful” is not an adjective a man uses to describe cuff-links, ties, shirts, saddles, etc. What could it be?
And then it hit me, folks. Out of the blue – I knew. A painting of her! Yes indeed, and there was such a painting, a large oil painting of her as Naughty Marietta. In fact, I knew it was mentioned in my book Sweethearts.
So I grabbed my iPhone, opened the Sweethearts book on Kindle and searched for “painting of Jeanette”. And there it was, with chilling accuracy, an oil painting GIVEN TO NELSON BY JEANETTE AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT!
That the oil painting was discussed in a 1945 letter (from which this information was quoted and sourced) is what threw me off. I never understood why Jeanette would give Nelson such a painting in 1944…no date of this gift is given, only that it hung on the wall and had been a Christmas gift! It makes perfect sense for the 1935 holiday, with Naughty Marietta their first and only team movie released, Jeanette would have chosen such a painting for a gift for Nelson.
So here is the background data: As we know, after Nelson’s marriage he moved his mother to the Pacific Palisades beach house and then to a couple different places briefly…and then in December 1944, he moved her into a new house in the Beverly Hills flats located at 526 N. Palm Dr. He always kept a room at his mother’s house.
And here I quote from the book which – again – I wrote the following over 20 years ago and had absolutely no knowledge that such a letter from Nelson Eddy was written or still existed!
[Nelson] told Ann that he needed to spend more time with his mother and he frequently stayed with Isabel. He had his own bedroom in her house and as well as a study and added a second bathroom upstairs so each would have privacy.
Ann was not allowed over to Isabel’s. Privately they were not on speaking terms but were socially polite when in public together at Nelson’s concert or radio appearances. Had Ann visited Isabel’s home she would be enraged for her husband’s study was a virtual shrine to her hated rival. A large oil painting of Jeanette as Naughty Marietta hung on the wall (a Christmas gift from Jeanette), the bookshelves displayed their records, stills, and picture albums, all the letters and cards she’d ever sent him he kept. Nelson had a movie projector in the room. His film collection included San Francisco which he loved for Jeanette’s opera scenes and Smilin’ Through.
Do you understand what this means, dear reader? Not only did Nelson Eddy love and appreciate the “beautiful” gift from Jeanette from Christmas 1935 but he moved that oil painting around from residence to residence where it was hung proudly in his “shrine” to Jeanette. Where nine years later, in December 1944, it was still displayed in his “study” at his mother’s home.
What happened to the oil painting ultimately? Who knows?
But at least one question is answered – what Jeanette’s gift to Nelson was. And much as he said he would always love and be devoted to her, the truth and verification of this was right under our noses all along!
There’s a lot of excitement and mystery about our upcoming Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy event on June 28. Last call for tickets, get them and details at this link.
You are not alone today. You have friends and fans worldwide who not only appreciate your talent but who give a damn about the sacrifices you made and the agonies that were suffered. They understand the troubles were in part self-inflicted but the consequences undeserved nonetheless. Good people like yourself should not have had to endure such pain.
Fifty years after your passing, those who helped keep the secrets have fallen by the wayside….and their lies and/or denials are now being exposed. We truly thought this would occur after the death of Gene Raymond; apparently that was premature but there’s no stopping it now in 2015.
From Nelson Eddy’s earliest known surviving written declaration of “I love you” to his “Dearest Jeanette”, to your own handwritten comments about how it really was to live with Gene Raymond in your last years, these are truths that are being reinforced at long last.
You can breathe a sigh of relief. And for that reason, on this particular birthday we post this photo of you with Nelson from 1938. You and he shared a private secret and there was hope for the future in what was probably one of your happiest birthday parties.
Forget the pretense anymore and embrace the truth.
When one looks at photos of Nelson Eddy around Jeanette MacDonald, there is no doubt that he liked to gaze intently at her. “He followed her around like a love-sick puppy dog,” was a statement made by several people. And as quoted below from Sweethearts, one of his long-time family friends recalled Nelson’s answer to how the filming was going on Naughty Marietta:
His explanation of the days’ events consisted solely of graphic descriptions of what gowns Jeanette was wearing and how she looked in them…details of her lovely shoulders, her beautiful skin, her low-cut bodice, etc. When Sybil cynically asked whether Nelson did anything else on the set except stare at Jeanette, her point went totally over his head.
Here’s another example:
And even a very grainy newspaper shot from the late 1950s. Yes, it’s poor quality but one thing is certain, Nelson is still just gazing at her.
Per Nelson’s own words, he was initially speechless at her beauty – “she would take your breath away”, he said. And even though he initially came on too strong, too intense, and even proposed marriage to her a week after their first date, he subsequently discovered his manners. After an initial bout of strong interest between them in late 1933 and into 1934, during which time Jeanette pushed for Nelson to co-star with her in Naughty Marietta (and the trades announced his casting), there was then a cooling-off period where Jeanette basically told him – no. This despite photos of them taken together at the studio in June and the fact that Jeanette had even earlier given him a dog, Sheba. So it took Nelson by surprise that he ultimately was given the role late in the year, he thought he had “blown it” with her.
Nelson Eddy was a shy man, initially very reserved and tongue-tied with Jeanette. His mother no doubt lectured him severely about how to properly court Jeanette (once she finally approved of her). Yes, it is incredulous to think that he was such a naive misfit in the wildness of early 1930s Hollywood, a man who courted an established movie star with flowers and letters and held back from being “an animal” as he later termed it. (At least until he was pushed beyond his limit with her.) He was a mixture of a Victorian gentleman yet so obviously overwhelmed by her that he comes off as – well, a love-sick puppy dog.
Below is a letter written by Nelson to Jeanette after she wired him, whether to congratulate him for his previous night’s opera performance at LA’s Shrine Auditorium (which she attended as the newspapers noted), or to congratulate him on being her co-star in Naughty Marietta, which began filming on November 12 . Can there be any doubt reading this that the man already adored her? Yes, he restrained himself but still, he could have just written, “Thank you for going to bat for me.”
For those who can’t decipher his scrawl: “Dear Miss MacDonald, – Thank you for the wire. it was terribly sweet of you and I appreciate it more than I can tell you. Some day I hope to get up courage enough to tell you I think you’re the grandest person in the world. Very gratefully yours, Nelson Eddy.”
I want to thank Elizabeth Nocero for sharing the original of this letter with us. Elizabeth has a classic Hollywood blogat this link.
In 1937, Jeanette MacDonald shocked the world by marrying a Nelson Eddy lookalike, Gene Raymond. The public didn’t understand it then and we still don’t fully understand it today. But there is a lot of written documentation that helps us get a better grasp of what went on.
This has come to the news forefront this year due to the selling off of the collection of the two women who ran Jeanette’s international fan club in the last few years of Jeanette’s life and until that group folded in recent years. The home shared by Clara Rhoades and Tessa Williams has been cleared out and the items are being sold.
Of course among the items are letters from Gene to Jeanette and vice versa that show a familiar, fond or loving relationship. So let’s put this into perspective. They were married, after all, and Jeanette went into the marriage thinking (or hoping, according to her letters) that she had really made the right choice. And there were periods of time during their married life when she was disgusted with or estranged from Nelson Eddy and she leaned heavily on Gene for support and comfort. He was basically there for her all those years, in whatever manner, and he was a protection for her so that others would leave her alone.
In my book Sweethearts I quote Nelson’s mother, Isabel Eddy, from a 1946 letter. Jeanette was in the UK but not well. She wrote letters to both men in her life – Nelson and Gene. According to Isabel, Jeanette’s letter to Nelson was upbeat and as a birthday gift to him, she included a carbon copy of a movie contract she had signed for their onscreen reunion. But the letter to Gene was more honest, she was miserable but could tell no one. Nelson found out about Gene’s letter and insisted on reading it. Per Isabel, “The thing that upset him the most was that she turned to Gene with the truth instead of him.” And she scolded her son: “As long as you keep on making her miserable with your temper, she will probably never feel that she can turn to you completely. I’m sure she discovered years ago that Gene is more reliable than you.”
What we do know for sure about the Jeanette-Gene marriage is that they had a social group of friends, they had many staged photo ops at their home, looking very domestic and affectionate. And many other photos at parties, premieres and their yearly anniversary. One has to wonder why so many of these photo ops were shot by studio or professional photographers. Why was it so necessary to repeatedly show photographic evidence of their domestic bliss?
Trying to make sense of a “Hollywood marriage” never works, believe me. I’m not sure many of them play by normal rules. And how can they? Actors are thrown together for love scenes, they go on location for months or on tour and there are many separations. Some marriages are based on agreements that the star will do what they do while working but don’t bring it home. When home, have a “normal” family and aim for domestic bliss. Whatever. The point is, movie stars aren’t just like us. They can’t be. Such massive stardom throws one into a fishbowl of scrutiny, there are people around you that are leeches and try to use you or capitalize on knowing you, etc. There’s usually only a small circle of people that can be trusted.
We are aware that Gene Raymond did a cursory screening of what was sent to Clara and Tessa for safekeeping. They complained that he had tossed out a lot of stuff before sending the balance to them. And they themselves screened what they had. Being on the payroll (for life), they presented what was authorized. They were fully aware, for example, that Jeanette was born in 1903 but since the public was told 1907 – which she managed to have on her drivers license and other documentation such as her crypt- that was the date they would claim as accurate.
There is a pattern with Jeanette and her relationships with her men. We can observe it starting with Bob Ritchie, her manager. They initially had a hot and heavy romance, he became her manager, they broke up a few times, reunited, then the relationship finally “changed” (Jeanette’s own word) within about 2 months of her meeting Nelson Eddy. Ritchie knew his romantic days were numbered when Jeanette called upon him to drive her all over California so she could attend Nelson’s concerts. But even then, Bob remained in the picture as her manager and her “guardsman.” That’s what she called him and that was a necessary role in her life. And guess what – his family said he was still in love with her and would have dropped everything and come back to her at any time had she given him the nod.
During the early days of Jeanette’s romance with Bob Ritchie – 1928 – Jeanette was dating another man, Irving Stone. Theirs was an intimate, sexual relationship, according to her letters to him which are reproduced and fully transcribed in the book Jeanette MacDonald: The Irving Stone Letters. You can see for yourself that I also reproduced some Bob Ritchie love letters that she wrote (hand-wrote) around the same time she is professing her love for “Big Irving.”
In other words, Jeanette had two men that she was dangling at this period of time. She was (eventually) honest about that in her letters to Irving but anyone reading these letters would assume she was head over heels with this guy, he was her one-and-only, etc. Below is beginning and end of a sample letter that demonstrates this.
She starts the letter “My darling -” and the last page ends with “I am yours always, (Baby) Looks worse than it sounds. Jeanette” And in the letter she discusses a book she left in the hotel (presumably they were together?) and is reassuring him that if she writes him a short letter it doesn’t mean her love is on the wane.
Irving Stone is another one who adored her long after the sexual relationship ended. And she continued to write him warm, loving, intimate letters over the years which helped him always feel he had a special place in her heart. And indeed he kept these letters all his life!
Another example: Jeanette’s first major relationship with Jack Ohmeis. And on the tail end of it in 1927 she writes Irving about this awkward moment when she spent the evening with Ohmeis: “I saw the ex and, my dear, I could hardly look him in the eye and when he made love to me I was very much afraid I’d ‘fess up but I know that wouldn’t have helped matters and every once in awhile during the evening I found myself thinking of you and you & me. Well, you can imagine.” (See letter below.)
The point of this commentary is to show that what was written in letters may not have shown the whole story. Jeanette had a knack for making her men feel important whether she was still intimate with them or not. She still cared for them and demonstrated that in her writing. And she was, after all, a very good actress. One for one, these men never truly got over her.
Fast forward to June 1935 when Gene Raymond and Jeanette meet on the doorstep of a party. What was happening in her life?
Just this, her romance with Nelson Eddy appeared to be irretrievably on the rocks. “I remember seeing Nelson for the first time and thinking he fulfilled most of my requirements in a man…” wrote Jeanette in her Autobiography. But the problems were simple and straightforward: Nelson wanted to get married immediately. He wanted a non-competitive wife and mother for his children. He didn’t want to play second fiddle to Jeanette’s career. He wanted his wife touring with him and at his side. And when Jeanette turned down his demands or asked if they could come to a compromise, stubborn Nelson refused.
After Jeanette’s refusal to bow to his wishes, Nelson later gave this bitter interview to Sheilah Graham: “[Movie actresses] are egotistical, insincere, self-centered, and look like animated paint-boxes. The whole place is like a madhouse. Most film actresses are incredibly boring. I haven’t met one that I’d even vaguely like to marry. But it isn’t entirely their fault. Movie actresses are forced to lead an unnatural life. When they come to Hollywood their personalities are changed. They must be selfish and ruthless, or they won’t get beyond their first featured role.”
Translation: he understands why Jeanette is the way she is but if she really loved him, she’d drop everything for him. Nelson was a man with a temper and we can see his seething rage here.
Enter Gene Raymond. And it’s easy to understand how Jeanette went for this “rebound relationship.” Because, as Jeanette later termed it, Gene appeared to be “like Nelson without the rough edges.” Yes indeed. There were enough similarities between the two men so that it made sense to Jeanette.
Again with some hints from her autobiography, we see what she considered to be Gene’s plus points:
1. He looked a bit like Nelson.
2. He had a similar wretched childhood that had severely scarred him, a possessive mother and deadbeat father. Just like Nelson.
3. He was moody, like Nelson.
4. He was a “gentleman” early on, again like Nelson. Nelson may have proposed to Jeanette a week after their first date but being slapped down and told he was moving way too fast, he subsequently backed off, stopped pushing romance and kept his hands off her until much, much later. He courted her properly with flowers and gifts, was respectful and rather shy and put her on a pedestal. In Jeanette’s autobiography, it appears that Gene did the same. “Not that anything was serious between us,” Jeanette wrote about Gene. “We simply recognized that we liked each other, perhaps more than we should. We hadn’t kissed. He was so downright gentlemanly I was convinced he didn’t love me and never would.”
5. Gene was supportive of Jeanette’s career and would never stand in her way. And he was smart to learn from Nelson’s perceived failings. Jeanette writes that she told Gene: “I always said I’d never marry an actor…they’re all right to act with, but I don’t know that I’d care to live with one for the rest of my life…Two careers, you have double temperaments to cope with. Double philosophies. Double everything.”
6. Once it started to get more serious, Jeanette gave Gene a dog, Tray. Just like she had given Nelson Sheba.
7. Gene didn’t want children which suited Jeanette just fine – at the moment. Total opposite of Nelson. But of course, then Jeanette wrote in her autobiography of how she came back from her honeymoon knowing that she and Gene would never have children. One is awestruck that she didn’t know more about Gene before she married him.
8. Same for her comments in the autobiography about how she had to learn to adjust to Gene after his marriage. She did not seem to know him all that well before.
9. Gene was 5 years younger than Jeanette – 7 years younger than Nelson. When Nelson and Jeanette had disagreements early on, he took up with others. One cannot doubt that wearing Gene on her arm was a subtle slap at Nelson. Gene was her boy toy and showed Nelson that she was desirable.
9. Jeanette had to win over Gene’s mother, it was a challenge she relished and took on much as she’d had to convince Isabel Eddy. It worked with Isabel but not with Gene’s mother “Mrs. Kipling.”
10. Jeanette notes in the autobiography that she and Gene didn’t become intimate until some time after she returned from filming at Lake Tahoe. The excuse given was her final showdown with Bob Ritchie, who came to Tahoe in the aftermath of her unhappy breakup with Nelson. (Bob Ritchie thought he stood a chance again to regain Jeanette’s affection but instead she turned to Gene.) Same as Nelson, it was many months after she met Gene that they took the relationship to the next step. But additionally, it’s interesting that she waited until there seemed no hope of reconciliation with Nelson before she took that next step with Gene.
It is fascinating to look at these telegrams that were recently auctioned, to really see how in love or not Jeanette seemed to be with Gene early on.
The first one is dated September 1935 and she writes Gene from Tahoe: “You win, stop, you are cute as hell…”
The second one is more interesting. Dated September 12, 1936, she is back at Chambers Lodge (Lake Tahoe). Why? Was she there alone or what? She writes: “I guess your (sic) growing sweeter every day and I guess these beautiful roses help prove it and I guess your about the nicest person I know which I guess is the reason I like you more and more. Now I guess its your turn to guess.”
Whoa! Let’s look at this in context. She has been, since August 20, ENGAGED TO MARRY Gene Raymond.
They have been engaged for less than a month and she “likes” him more and more?
Where’s the “I’m madly in love with you and why aren’t you here with me?”
Was she actually alone at Tahoe? Did she go there to reflect about her life and the pivotal events that happened there the previous year? Was this yet ANOTHER failed attempt at a reunion with Nelson? Was he there with her? Returning to the place that briefly meant something special to them…as they would do in the coming years – return to Tahoe and Chambers Lodge?
The previous month, August 1936, Jeanette had yet again a “final” breakup with Nelson. Which was followed by her mother’s announcement of Jeanette’s engagement to Gene. At the same time, Jeanette and Nelson began filming the “first” Maytime. Things were now very tense between them. And then the producer, Irving Thalberg, died. Production was shut down. We know that by October 7, Jeanette was in New York where Bob Ritchie’s best friend asked her if she was happy now that she was engaged to Gene. To his surprise, Jeanette broke down in unhappy tears!
We learn now that Jeanette returned to Tahoe before making that trip to New York. And the question is, why and with whom? It certainly wasn’t Gene as the telegram was sent to him in Beverly Hills.
Before the year was out, she and Nelson would reconcile again briefly- twice – while filming the second Maytime.
Curiouser and curiouser!
In the next section of this article, I will discuss a few other written items which seem at first glance to, well, warrant a second glance. Let’s balance them against what Jeanette wrote in her Autobiography since she is surprisingly candid at how her marriage floundered after WWII. “On the surface, Gene and I were a contented, well-adjusted couple with most of the social graces,” Jeanette wrote. No wonder certain people (including Gene) never wanted that manuscript to be published.
Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald photographed on a date together, attending an LA operetta performance of Maytime. This photo was taken before they made the film version.
We have seen another shot from this backstage moment. The right side of the photo was cropped in every magazine or newspaper that ran the photo…so we could barely see that Nelson’s left arm was around Jeanette’s waist. One has to wonder if that cropping was intentional. But this photo is even more interesting. His hand is no longer on her waist. Look at the finger play between the two of them with their left hands.
This is an intimate moment and one can observe Jeanette’s self-assurance with Nelson holding her tight to him even though he has that flirtatious smile for someone else. She looks radiant and we can see that they are together and happy at this time.
We have read and heard many accounts of people who saw Nelson and Jeanette together at parties or events where observers watched the intimacy between them and commented on it. Here is one such example. When you read in Sweethearts this quote from Charles Blackwell, who saw Nelson and Jeanette at a party together during the war years – as a couple – you can get a visual idea now:
“[They] looked very much in love. I remember his hands on her waist the whole time. She was dazzling and everyone commented on how happy they looked…They couldn’t keep their hands off each other.”
This screenshot from the movie Sweethearts shows us again that Jeanette MacDonald was very pregnant during the summer of 1938. But what’s different about this shot is the side of Jeanette’s gown that is showing. We can see that the dress has been altered, the left seam opened, the waist area enlarged and appears to be fastened now with a Velcro-type forerunner or some other manner that isn’t precise since it rides up a bit above the waist.
Thanks to Katie Gardner for capturing and sharing this photo.
Here is a photo of Nelson Eddy taken in Canada in February, 1965, about a month after the death of Jeanette MacDonald. I’ve had a small photo of this for many years but now seeing it larger, it has even more impact.
Despite the evident socializing going on – notice Gale Sherwood watching and gently smiling – Nelson is in his own world. His face looks vacant and terribly sad. He’s very thin. He looks lost.
I don’t know about you but I find it difficult to look at this picture. And yet it shows us visually what many fans and acquaintances commented about in the days or months after Jeanette’s death when they met or spoke with Nelson – when he wasn’t on show.
My screenwriter friend Judy Burns met Nelson around this time, she knocked on his door at the Ashdale house, he answered and invited her inside. Her observation on that short meeting: “Nelson Eddy was the saddest man I ever met. He had miles on him and you could see it in his face. Jeanette said he wouldn’t outlive her by long and he didn’t. He went down fast once she was gone and you could see his loss and his pain.”
Another account related by Angela Messino: “I was talking with an older gentleman who saw him in one of the famous and elegant Hollywood bars in the 1960s. Nelson was seated at a round table, all by himself with a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne in front of him and a single glass. He said he was the saddest man he’d ever seen.”
Nelson Eddy, once the highest paid singer in the world, died 48 years ago today. A man who fiercely guarded his private life, he took his last bow in a most public manner and place. The night of March 5, he was in Miami performing his nightclub act. He was about to sing a solo number which, unbeknownst to his audience, was a “private moment” that he took in each performance to sing a number that was a special message to the woman he had loved and lost two years earlier, his 1930s co-star Jeanette MacDonald. This night, he tried to begin the song but according to the audience member eyewitness account as quoted in Sweethearts:
He…kept on talking and holding on to the left side of his face which I believe seemed to be getting numb. He said that he couldn’t seem to get the words out and that this had not happened to him before and would we, the audience, bear with him. All this time he held onto the mike and was slowly walking towards the band. He asked if there was a doctor in the audience as he felt sick…
Nelson asked his accompanist to play another song, saying that maybe the words would come back to him.
Those were the last words he spoke. A massive stroke felled him, he was taken to the hospital and died the next morning, March 6, 1967, without regaining consciousness.
Photos and newsreel footage of his funeral can be seen here.
