Hello! Just a quick reminder about tomorrow’s club event in Studio City, California!!
We are having a new guest speaker and everyone attending will get a special gift. I think you will find the event highly informative…fun…and a celebration of Jeanette and Nelson’s birthdays!
Although I turned in a “final” headcount to the hotel, we did make allowances for the those of you that may decide to come at the last minute. So – just show up!
Jeanette MacDonald & Lassie in The Sun Comes Up (1949)
Those who cling to the image of André Previn as a Wunderkind in a turtleneck may be gobsmacked to learn that April 6 marked his 80th birthday. In the course of a multifaceted career, Mr. Previn has distinguished himself as a symphonic conductor, a chamber musician, a jazz pianist, and a composer of symphonic and chamber music, opera, Broadway shows, concert song, popular American song, and Hollywood film scores. To mark this banner year, Mr. Previn has been involved in an exhausting international performance schedule….
Of his modus operandi as a composer, Mr. Previn asserts: “No notebooks or sketches. I just get to work on the first blank page. Even if I throw out the first week’s work, I’ve got to write something down. Once I’m over that hurdle, I write very quickly. It’s a habit that comes from my shabby Hollywood background,” he says with a chuckle, “writing scores under strict deadlines for MGM.”
Mr. Previn wrote his first soundtrack exactly half a century ago. It was for a distinctly minor picture, “The Sun Comes Up.” “Jeanette MacDonald, Lloyd Nolan and Lassie — go figure that billing. In any case, I was a kid at the time and just thrilled to see my name on that screen. After that, MGM knew I could handle their assignments, so I got an endless stream of cheap, fast movies. I like to think I’m writing better music than that now.”
“I also grew up during the World War II years and can remember that families were issued food stamp rationing books allotted by the government to make food purchases. War stamps and war bonds were sold by the government at post offices and banks to help the war effort. Blackout drills were held throughout the war years. War bond rallies to help raise money were successful in helping to win the war. At these rallies, some movie stars would appear and I was fortunate to see Marlene Dietrich and Jeanette MacDonald, two well- known actresses at that time.”
More thoughts on the birthday of Jeanette MacDonald:
Implacabile Deasays:
Let the critics say what they will regarding Miss MacDonald’s vocalism. I found out what opera was by watching her movies. The charm and vitality that she exuded could serve this current generation of singers well.
What a beautiful lady…
mrmystersays:
Dea – J. MacD was perhaps the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I met her once backstage at a performance of Faust in Hartford; she had come to watch the tenor as she was singing the role of Marguerite the following week in Philadelphia. MacD had come back stage to see D. Kirsten after the performance; I happened to be in Kirsten’s dressing room when J. came in — unbelievable beauty. The hair! The skin color! The sculpted face …. the nuanced and vivid speaking voice! NOW, if only her singing voice had been able to match that! But it did what was needed at the time, and as to you, she brought operatic experience to millions of people. God bless her; I loved her! But I preferred to listen to Steber and Kirsten and Traubel and Flagstad!
