“It’s not easy. One minute he doesn’t care and one minute he’s angry,” Jeanette MacDonald told Blythe Kearney, when she boldly asked Jeanette how her husband dealt with Jeanette’s relationship with Nelson Eddy. Watch through to the end of the video, as Jeanette’s comments about her life and career are found throughout the interview.
Blythe knew Jeanette from her childhood onward. As a child, Blythe spent a day with Jeanette and Nelson when they were vacationing together in St. Petersburg, Florida, as a private couple in the late 1940s. Blythe’s grandmother, Mary Blythe (of the Barrymore family), was Jeanette’s friend from their high school days; Jeanette would come and visit Mary in Florida every so often, and Mary attended both Jeanette’s wedding and her funeral.
Whether Nelson ever joined Jeanette at other times in St. Pete is unknown; for this visit around 1947 or ’48, Blythe was staying with her grandparents when he and Jeanette arrived together. Years later, around 1958, Blythe had a long talk with Jeanette, and they discussed Nelson, Gene, and Jeanette’s advice about finding love.
This video is an excerpt from the 3-hour interview; a more complete written transcript of it was published in Mac/Eddy Today, Issue #78.
What a difference in Nelson Eddy, so visible to see! In this short clip above of his appearance on November 30, 1952, we see a man who, as his mother used to comment when Jeanette was in his personal life, was “beaming like a headlight.” This is the change in his whole demeanor, voice and confidence when things were good between them.
Why is he so serene here? Let’s look quickly at the timeline. This show aired live exactly 18 days after Nelson had made a surprise last-minute appearance on Jeanette’s “This is Your Life” episode. Her reaction at seeing him was obvious to everyone, and her tears were probably even more obvious to him as it was to those viewing the episode.
But just before “This is Your Life,” this happened…
October 28, 1952. Nelson’s proposed TV pilot airs, “Nelson Eddy’s Backyard.” He has that weary sadness about him, being enthusiastic as he can be, but he doesn’t look happy. Watch it at the link below and notice Nelson’s own painting of Lake Tahoe on the wall behind him as he looks at the camera and sings “Wish You Were Here.” As we know, Lake Tahoe was so vital in his life with Jeanette; it’s where he proposed marriage to her before their relationship went south for a time.
November 12, 1952. Nelson is a surprise guest on Jeanette’s “This is Your Life” episode. For anyone under the impression that Nelson’s appearance was planned in advance, you can read the original script for this episode, reproduced in our Journal #72, that shows that Nelson was NOT planned to be part of this show. It was a last minute decision on his part.
As we have noted elsewhere in great detail, Jeanette struggles to keep her composure every time Nelson’s name is mentioned and she finally cries when he appears at the show’s end. They had been personally estranged and their separate personal lives stressful during this breakup. The complete show from Jeanette’s own collection, transferred from 16mm film is below. If you haven’t watched it, it’s necessary to view and see the various dynamics and different body language with both her husband and with Nelson. It tells you more about their personal lives than any written words could.
And next, on November 30, the video at the top of this page. Per Nelson’s interview comments, it was after their personal reunion in late 1952 that they sat down and tried to plan a professional (and personal) future together, ie, singing together in nightclubs. Nelson as we know went on to do this but it was too strenuous for Jeanette with her heart condition. Except for a short solo run, she bowed out of nightclubs. Whereas Nelson, of course, made a new career for himself, for literally the rest of his life.
In their films and now in their shows that have been surfacing in recent years, we see how they wore their hearts on their sleeves. It’s all there to see!
On November 1, 1963, Jeanette MacDonald signed her last will (though she added a short codicil in June 1964) and headed to Houston Methodist Hospital for a months-long stay. Look carefully at her name on the above hospital paperwork as part of her medical records: Mrs. JEANETTE RANDALL.
The address provided was an office one.
While more complete hospital paperwork attached to this was sold at the auction of Jeanette MacDonald’s papers in recent years, very early on in the 1970s, I learned that among the aliases that Nelson and Jeanette used together was the last name RANDALL. Yes, Nelson once jokingly made a hotel reservation for Jeanette (to meet him while he was on tour) under the comical name of Lucie Glutzenheimer, an example of his sense of humor.
But in general, they used more nondescript names. I was told Nelson didn’t use his real first name because it was too obvious. Yet I was told that they had financial matters together under the last name of RANDALL, including bank accounts. The folks I interviewed back then were not sure of what first name Nelson used with RANDALL but they said it was likely one of three family names that he often used as aliases: ACKERMAN, KENDRICK or ISAAC.
Years later I found among Nelson’s papers the script he wrote about the life of Feodor Chaliapin, in which he planned to star as the great basso. The screenwriter was named as “ISAAC ACKERMAN.” (And these sources didn’t know the existence of that script, by the way.)
More years passed, this hospital record using JEANETTE RANDALL finally surfaced and it was confirmed to me that Nelson used the name ACKERMAN RANDALL. So here is visual proof that the Randall surname existed in their world…
Below, Jeanette’s signed and dated will page, the very day that she flew to Houston. Soon after this, Nelson had to cancel his Australian tour for “health reasons”, hop on a plane and rush back to the US, where he was subsequently spotted in the Houston hospital visiting Jeanette. One wonders why, if Nelson was having throat problems as told to the press, a local Australian doctor could not have treated him. Instead, Nelson rescheduled the tour for 1964.
