Utica’s “Great Artists Series” Mentions Nelson Eddy

Immersed in music culture

Roland Chesley was born in Rochester, N.H., on July 24, 1881. He came to Utica in 1931, transferred here from Albany as an agent for a school book publisher, Ginn & Co. He retired from that position in 1949 after 40 years of service. But even when he was so employed, he immersed himself in the city’s classical music culture, a tenor singing occasionally in B Sharp Musical Club programs and associating himself with Gertrude Curran’s inspiration to bring the best of classical music to the city.

After he retired from Ginn & Co., he was able to devote full attention to the artists’ series and to the many organizations in which he volunteered, most notably, the Utica Boys Club.

During Chesley’s long tenure with the Great Artists Series, he brought hundreds of distinguished national and international performers to the city. These include names such as Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Sergei Rachmaninov (sometimes Racmaninoff), Lily Ponds, Isaac Stern, Nelson Eddy, Van Cliburn, Mario Lanza and countless symphony orchestras from all parts of the world.

All of them performed at Utica’s illustrious Stanley Theater, which opened in September 1928.

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News about Nelson’s Halvern home (which was sold to Fred MacMurray)…

Former MacMurray home gets a remodel

Fred MacMurray, a leading man who co-starred in 1944’s Double Indemnity and played the father on the TV series My Three Sons, was one of those Hollywood actors who relished investing in real estate.

He purchased a wide range of properties, including orange groves and office buildings, although MacMurray and his family didn’t move much. By one account, the family lived in their Brentwood home for 56 years.

He died at age 83 in 1991. He was married for 37 years to actress June Haver, who died at 79 in 2005.

John Cottrell, a man Architectural Digest has canonized as one of the world’s top 100 interior designers, would like to buy MacMurray’s home, but it’s not yet available, he said, and so he leased it, promptly stripping the wallpaper and installing new carpet.

“I was as happy as a pig in mud,” Cottrell said. “I love to work on good American houses.”

The MacMurray house, built in 1939 for singer Nelson Eddy, has four or five bedrooms in about 7,000 square feet. It is on nearly 2 acres.

It isn’t listed for sale, but when it is, expect to see it come on the market in the vicinity of $10 million.

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Note: according to Nelson’s close friend K.T. Ernshaw, Nelson began work on this house a year or so earlier than 1939, with the intention of it being the home he shared with Jeanette MacDonald – where they would raise their children. After all the work he put into it – Nelson might not have sold it as quickly as he did had things turned out differently. He ultimately moved in to it with wife Ann Franklin and her son Sidney, Jr…. he had no children with Ann.

Connecticut opera program featured Nelson & Jeanette

“MERIDEN – When opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti completed his rendition of “Giorgio,” nearly 50 people at the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center watching the videotaped performance stood and cheered.

That was the reaction that Valerie Bubon, secretary of the Rosa Ponselle Fund, was hoping to get from her program, “Love in Bloom,” Sunday afternoon as she passed on her passion and knowledge of opera to area residents as part of the center’s monthly Sunday cultural series.

“My premise is you don’t need to know about opera to enjoy it,” Bubon said. “I want them to open their minds and their hearts to the music. The singing is beautiful and I want them to be able to enjoy that, that’s the most important goal.”

Starting with the silent film era, Bubon took her audience through a walk through 20th-century opera using examples such as the Broadway hit, “The King and I,” duets with 1930s stars Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald and classic performances from singers such as Pavarotti.”

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