A quick hello from an internet cafe on the island!
We’re having a great time…watching Jeanette and Nelson films, singing and preparing our talent show with the singers on our cruise, and just hanging out, swapping stories and eating 10 meals a day whether we need to or not!
I’m enjoying seeing that some of the first-time cruisers who were a bit timid on the first day – are now “part of the group” – laughing and making new friends. It’s just as I hoped it would be!
More updates and posting of photos later…or when we return. The internet connection is V-E-R-Y slow onboard so may wait till Sunday to give you pix. I have to say, it is a wonderful thing seeing Jeanette and Nelson on the big screen on a cruise ship. But very, very satisfying!!!!!!!
Last minute alert! If you have a passport and can get to Miami next weekend, you can still join us on this special cruise! Call Hallie at 212-874-1670 for last-minute cabin availability!
Here is the updated schedule of events for the Jeanette MacDonald–Nelson Eddy cruisers!
Feb 8 (Sun) Hospitality Desk 2:00 – 4:00 pm on the Lido deck in front of the glass elevators, 9th floor, for meet and greet, goodie bags and ID’s.
We will set up another short orientation meeting for everyone after dinner to coordinate the week’s events. Those wanting to sing on talent night will meet with Darryl Winston to help put together the talent show program and schedule rehearsal time.
Feb 9 (Mon) Lecture/Film 10:00 am to 1:00 in the London Dining Room. Film: Naughty Marietta. Sharon Rich will speak and answer questions.
Monday night is the Captain’s Formal Night – -all are invited.
Feb 10 (Tues) Ocho Rios
Feb 11 (Wed) Grand Cayman
Feb 12 (Thurs) Lecture/Film 10:00 am – 1:00 in the London Dining Room. Movie clips, special short subjects and filmed interviews will be screened. Guest speakers are Sharon Rich and K.T. Ernshaw, close confidante of Nelson Eddy. This is also the time for folks to share scrapbooks or memorabilia and tell personal stories.
A SCANDALOUS AFFAIR show is 4:00 – 6:00 pm in the Club Rio Lounge (this event is open to the public).
Book and CD signing/sale is in the Venezia Lounge 8:00-10:00 pm (open to the public).
Feb 13 (Fri) Cozumel
Feb 14 (Sat) Lecture/Film 10:00 am – 1:00 in the London Dining Room. Film: Maytime.
Talent Show and Sing-a-long screening of Rose Marie in Club Rio at 8:00 – 11:00pm.
Dinners for the group are set for 6:00 PM each night.
The schedule is still subject to revisions…stay tuned!
Here’s a screenshot of a real estate website that shows the two most recent owners of Jeanette MacDonald‘s home, Twin Gables, and also, the last purchase price.
The Hollywood actress Virginia Bruce has always been of interest to Nelson Eddy fans, if only because she co-starred with him in the 1939 film Let Freedom Ring.
Not many people know that Let Freedom Ring was originally supposed to co-star Jeanette MacDonald, and that it was planned as a follow-up film for Nelson with Jeanette in 1935 right after Naughty Marietta!
Of course there’s an added interest in Virginia Bruce because we know that she and Nelson dated for a time – not in late 1938 when they were filming Let Freedom Ring, but back in 1934 in Nelson’s early days at MGM!
Don’t forget that Jeanette MacDonald and Virginia Bruce also worked together in Jeanette’s first Hollywood film, The Love Parade. Virginia was one of Jeanette’s ladies-in-waiting.
But it is obviously Virginia’s connection to Nelson Eddy that most interests us, and what would have interested him beyond the obvious physical beauty. He went for young blonds, true, but not airheads. Virginia obviously had a keen mind; the biography reveals that at one time she thought to run for California legislature.
Scott O’Brien has done an excellent job in putting together Virginia Bruce‘s life story, and his book features several interviews with close friends and family. They provide a more personal view of the woman although sadly, she seems to have kept very much to herself. Her daughter with John Gilbert also did not share much of the intimate details with the next generation. It was up to them to rediscover Virginia through memorabilia and their somewhat limited personal interaction with her. O’Brien quotes one of her nephews: “She was very independent. She was in charge…like Hillary Clinton…a woman in charge. She wasn’t subservient. Maybe she was subservient to her husbands, but she was headstrong, especially for women in those days. ”
O’Brien also quotes Virginia Bruce: “Perhaps part of my tragedy will be that I do spoil men. I seem to be the type to attract men that are much stronger and more forceful than I am….Most of my theories about the relationships between men and women spring, naturally, from my marriage to John [Gilbert].” Of course, her short marriage to him was doomed due to his drinking. But it’s interesting that along with Nelson Eddy, she also dated Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart and other major Hollywood players.
Obviously Virginia Bruce had her personal demons. They are mentioned candidly in the book, because Scott O’Brien’s sources did open up to him. I wish they had even been more candid but I know from researching Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, there is often a tendency for sources to want to make these people look as good as possible, playing down the negatives. They don’t want to blurt out the bad stuff. They think they are protecting the person…and perhaps they are. But for posterity’s sake, we can lie to ourselves but we really do have inquiring minds…and we want to know all we can about how this lovely, gentle young actress became a lonely alcoholic in later years, despite having children and grandchildren.
Scott O’Brien’s picture of Virginia’s later life rings true to my own experience. Virginia Bruce was in and out of the Motion Picture Home during the same years that I knew Jeanette’s sister Blossom Rock, who also lived there. I was always interested in meeting and speaking with residents that had known or worked with Jeanette or Nelson. Yet I never interviewed Virginia Bruce. I visited her a couple of times but she was not particularly sociable or chatty. She was there once because she broke her hip; I don’t remember all the details but we heard that she was an alcoholic. (Of course, you couldn’t drink when you were there in hospital area, although some who lived in the Lodge or bungalows bought their own liquor across the street, or had friends smuggle it in to them.) The book notes that she was also treated there for cancer and cirrhosis. And yes, what I really remember about that is that here was a very ill woman but – she still smoked!
That never ceased to amaze me, because many in the Motion Picture Home were chain smokers – as was Jeanette’s sister Blossom.
I did not immediately recognize Virginia Bruce when I met her; she was heavy and much changed. She seemed pretty much a loner and regretted that she ended up her life cooped up in a small hospital room. Some actors, like Blossom Rock, made the best of life there and kept a busy schedule. Larry Fine of The Three Stooges was another optimist; despite a stroke that debilitated him even more than Blossom’s stroke, he’d set up a daily card game with his cronies and they’d play and smoke together for hours at a time. Sometimes Moe Howard would join them and they’d laugh about the good ol’ days and welcome any other old-timer who wanted to hang out.
But Virginia Bruce wasn’t like that, she seemed more bitter. And it’s borne out by a poignant quote from the book made by her: “Do you think when I’m gone anyone will remember that I had awfully dreamy eyes?” And another: ” Do you know Norma Shearer is just down the hall? She was the biggest of them all and here she is, blind and dying, after all that, all that fame and riches and now this. Maybe I haven’t had it so tough.”
I highly recommend reading Virginia Bruce – Under My Skinby Scott O’Brien. And I applaud him for writing about a lesser Hollywood star that others might not have bothered with. Her story is compelling. There are lots of pictures -including some with Nelson Eddy (take another look at the cover!) and some discussion of Nelson’s relationship with Virginia Bruce. After I finished reading it, I put Let Freedom Ring on my DVD player to watch, since I had a new understanding of what Virginia Bruce was all about. For once – I watched her throughout the movie instead of Nelson Eddy.
And maybe that’s my highest praise to a fellow movie star biographer – if after reading it you want to revisit that star’s films again – you’ve done your job.
I have heard a few reports that the house at 783 Bel Air Road in Los Angeles was finally torn down. This was the home of Jeanette MacDonald, purchased for her as a wedding gift by her husband, Gene Raymond.
Above is a google earth photo of the house, known as “Twin Gables,” taken July 31, 2007.
If anyone is willing to drive by the address and take current photos of the razed lot and surrounding area, please email them to me ASAP and we’ll post them here.
The house, on a corner lot (you can see the road curving around it), was fairly small by movie star standards. Though Jeanette MacDonald‘s marriage didn’t turn out to be all she thought it would be, she loved her home. She reluctantly moved out in the early ’60s when her health was failing.
I see in this picture that the gorgeous rose gardens in the back were already gone as of 2007. These rose gardens were tended by Nelson Eddy, who spent a lot of time at the house. Particularly noteworthy were the bright orange roses, in honor of Jeanette’s hair! I saw these same color roses still planted (and in disrepair) at their little hideaway home in Burbank before that house was torn down.
Anyone willing to drive over and take some photos for us?
Above, baritone Wilbur Evans with son Michael and wife Susanna Foster. Evans starred in the West End production of South Pacific.
Forget Phantom of the Opera, Nelson Eddy, Claude Rains, etc. For Susanna Foster, the real horror movie was played out in real life.
It seems that Michael Evans (Susanna Foster‘s son) has finally now begun telling in detail on his blog the painful details of his mother’s childhood and life…incidents that he talked to us about at the New York club meeting that left us somewhat stunned but very sympathetic.
Susanna’s mother Adie, his grandmother, was a monster – made Joan Crawford look like Good Housekeeping’s Mother of the Year!
The story is one of such horror, that one is amazed that Susanna Foster could have a career at all and become a movie star while still a teenager. Here’s an excerpt:
The Larson’s lived a comfortable upper-middle class life until the crash of 1929, and then all hell would break loose for millions of Americans.
After about 1931 when the dollars mysteriously ran out, things swiftly declined; Les could not find work, if he did it was menial, sold type writers, fixing small appliances etc. They often moved every month, being evicted for lack of rent $$.
There were many ‘episodes’ of witness, here’s just a few mentioned through the prism of my mother’s denial;
Victoria’s [sister] Scarlet Fever-Quarantined sign on the door.
Gas company turned off the gas- no heat-no cooking.
Les [father] appealed to the gas company-they would not turn it back on.
Les was humiliated when he had to steal gas from the downstairs neighbor.
Adie [mother] was paradoxically a “wonderful mother”/ nurse- Svengali- like.
Waking them up at 4am to clean house (very drunk)- “come on, come on everybody up, we got to clean this place.”
Dragging the girls across the floor by their hair when rage would frequent Adie.
Suzanne coming home from school to find the apartment wrecked, human feces on the kitchen walls with Adie slumped over the kitchen table, drunk and puking.
Terrific fights; where furniture was broken and bones nearly.
Kathleen [sister] would hold her breath and turn blue “…when she couldn’t get her way..”. Maybe just to survive.
Suzanne’s almost fatal bout with pneumonia.
Exceedingly lonely times for Suzanne, at 8 years would become the sole caretaker of her baby sisters “Baby” and “Sister.”
Michael Evans was a friend, he spoke at a MacDonald/Eddy New York luncheon, detailing some of the harsh realities of his family’s life and his mother’s mental illness. He expressed that his greatest fear was that he would eventually have mental issues as several other family members had suffered through in his mother’s and grandmother’s generations. Sadly, this proved out. He died in 2017.
1892: Birthdate of German –born American director Ernst Lubitsch. His movies are witty and sophisticated, with a fine and malicious sexuality: in all of them there is the famous “Lubitsch touch”, that is an unconventional way to make a picture, based on his sarcastic sense of humour and his scornful view of life. Lubitsch had turned his back on his father’s tailoring business to enter the theater, and by 1911 he was a member of Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater. His first film work came in 1912 as an actor. Gradually, he abandoned acting to concentrate on directing and in 1918 he made his mark as a serious director with Die Augen der Mumie Ma (The Eyes of the Mummy), a tragic drama starring Pola Negri. Lubitsch subsequently alternated between escapist comedies and grand-scale historical dramas; he enjoyed great international success with both. His reputation as a grand master of world cinema reached a new peak after the release of his spectacles Madame Du Barry (Passion, 1919) and Anna Boleyn (Deception, 1920). Lubitsch left Germany for Hollywood in 1922, invited by Mary Pickford. She allowed Lubitsch to sign with Warner Bros., where he established his reputation for sophisticated comedy with such stylish and delightful films as The Marriage Circle (1924), Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925), and So This Is Paris (1926). In 1928, when sound arrived in Hollywood, Lubitsch joined Paramount Pictures. With his first talkie, The Love Parade (1929), starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, Lubitsch hit his stride as a maker of worldly musical comedies (and got himself another Oscar nomination). With the beginning of the sound era, he created witty and sarcastic dialogue, and malicious and bizarre comedic situations. The Love Parade (1929), Monte Carlo (1930), and The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) were hailed by critics as masterpieces of the newly emerging musical genre. But whether with music, as in MGM’s opulent The Merry Widow (1934), or without, as in Paramount’s delicious Trouble in Paradise (1932, certainly his best film), One Hour with You (1932) and Design for Living (1933), Lubitsch continued to specialize in sophisticated comedy. He made only one other dramatic film, an antiwar picture, titled Broken Lullaby (aka The Man I Killed, 1932). In 1935 he was appointed that studio’s production manager and subsequently produced his own films and supervised the production of films of other directors. In 1939, Lubitsch moved to MGM, and directed the divine Greta Garbo in Ninotchka, a satirical and scintillating comedy in which the great actress laughed for the first time on the screen. Then he directed the delightful The Shop Around the Corner (1940), with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as a pair of secret admirers. He went independent to direct That Uncertain Feeling (1941, a remake of his 1925 film Kiss Me Again, and the cynical anti-Nazi comedy To Be or Not to Be (1942), Carole Lombard’s last picture. Lubitsch spent the balance of his career at 20th Century Fox, but a heart condition curtailed his activity. The last great picture made by the director is certainly Heaven Can Wait (1943), an elegant and ironic comedy. The plot is about Henry Van Cleve (played by Don Ameche) who presents himself at the gates of Hell only to find he is closely vetted on his qualifications for entry; surprised there is any question on his suitability, he recounts his lively life and the women he has known from his mother onwards, but mainly concentrating on his happy but sometimes difficult twenty-five years of marriage to Martha (played by the beautiful Gene Tierney).In March of 1947 he was awarded a special Academy Award for his “25-year contribution to motion pictures”. He died later that year of a heart attack, his sixth. His last film, That Lady in Ermine, with Betty Grable, was completed by Otto Preminger and released posthumously in 1948. At the director’s funeral, the great Billy Wilder said, “No more Lubitsch,” and William Wyler responded, “Worse than that. No more Lubitsch pictures”.
Here’s a reminder to watch/record “The Merry Widow” with Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier on January 28, 2009 at 4 pm eastern time. Note: they will have a 4-minute little bio of Jeanette four minutes before the film starts, in case you want to catch that as well.
Nice article about the history of Technicolor, although one incorrect statement noted about the fact that Jeanette MacDonald didn’t want to make Technicolor films? Still, there are some great pictures, they do mention Jeanette and Nelson Eddy films (why wouldn’t they?) and it’s an informative article.
