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July 21, 2008

Jo Stafford, 90, recorded with Nelson Eddy in 1951, listen to mp3s here!

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Jo Stafford

Singer Jo Stafford passed away on July 16, 2008.

As a young girl, she wanted to be an opera singer but during the Depression years, she sang with her sisters in a pop group – “The Stafford Sisters.” She later sang with The Pied Pipers. Song of the stars she worked with included Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Lane, Johnny Mercer, Gordon MacRae and – Nelson Eddy!

On February 12, 1951, Nelson Eddy and Jo Stafford recorded “I Love You Truly.”

On February 23, 1951, they recorded three more songs: “Till We Meet Again,” “With These Hands,” and “When I Grow Too Old to Dream.”

Click on the links of the February 23 recordings to listen to or download mp3s of these songs.

July 18, 2008

Dr. Michael DeBakey, 99, could he really have saved Jeanette MacDonald’s life?

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Dr. Michael DeBakey on the cover of Time Magazine

Noted heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, who died on July 11, 2008, became famous to the general public in the mid 1960s after performing early arterial transplants on two high-profile celebrities, England’s Duke of Windsor (aka King Edward VIII) and 1930s movie star Jeanette MacDonald. But while the Duke of Windsor lived another decade, Jeanette MacDonald survived little more than a year.

While there are several reasons that MacDonald’s life was cut short, none of them have to do with Dr. DeBakey’s medical skill. I have not thoroughly checked to see whether any of his other celebrity clients failed so quickly after treatment – but, then again, it is unlikely that any of these other folks lived under such lonely and trying circumstances as did Jeanette MacDonald.

It is certain, though, that Jeanette MacDonald had a long history of heart problems. Her older sister Blossom Rock told me that MacDonald had a rheumatic heart from childhood. Their father died young due to a bad heart. MacDonald herself mentions having a heart attack as early as 1929; she had just turned 26. In a letter dated August 23, 1929 MacDonald wrote to her ex-boyfriend Irving Stone: “My heart attack is still palpitating so that also accounts, perhaps, for my disinterest in the big he men out here!” This handwritten letter was photographed and reproduced in the book Jeanette MacDonald: The Irving Stone Letters (page 145).

Heart problems were also mentioned in several contemporary accounts as contributing to her inability to sustain a pregnancy. I have been able to document four pregnancies by MacDonald’s co-star and off-screen lover Nelson Eddy during the 1930s and ‘40s (even though it is duly noted that she was married to Gene Raymond during three of them). There may have been other pregnancies, one in particular that I have seen mention of around 1942. This one even made the gossip columns – just a quick note to the effect that Jeanette MacDonald was hoping to have good news for hubby Gene Raymond when he returned from war, but alas it was not to be… or some such flowery statement. What might give this blurb credence is MacDonald’s documented response to Nelson Eddy telling her, during the filming of I Married an Angel, that his wife, Ann Franklin, was claiming to be pregnant. (And if she was, he told her he was not the father.) Her rival’s pregnancy turned out to be a false alarm, but MacDonald collapsed at this news and was so distraught that her sister Blossom had to stay the night to help console her.

I am also suspicious of MacDonald’s April 14, 1944 hospitalization in Santa Fe for “food poisoning.” In those days, celebrity “food poisoning” usually meant an alcohol or drug overdose (still does!) but this would not been the case for MacDonald, who was on a concert tour. Nelson Eddy’s over-reaction to her hospitalization was also suspicious (unless her life was in danger from actual food poisoning). He too was on tour, and became so distraught that he nearly canceled his New York Carnegie Hall appearance on April 15. Eddy agreed to go on but was not in good voice, as noted by the New York Herald-Tribune critic. During the intermission, Eddy received word that MacDonald was better. He then went back out to the audience, held up his hand to quiet them and announced: “If you don’t mind I am going to sing a song that is very dear to me.” Then he sang their famous duet “Indian Love Call.” (The same newspaper reporter noted that Eddy’s singing was much improved after the intermission.)

Despite heart problems, Jeanette MacDonald tried repeatedly to get pregnant during the WWII years, either to force Nelson Eddy to divorce his wife, or as a last resort – to raise the child within her current marriage. Certainly she pulled this maneuver in 1946 and 1947, even though now in her mid ‘40s. Documentation from contemporary letters reveal that her inner circle was concerned about such pregnancies and her weak heart, and Nelson Eddy was warned by her doctor that “another pregnancy could kill her.” This medical threat resulted in a seemingly final breakup of their physical relationship, at least throughout her remaining potential childbearing years.

In 1956, Jeanette MacDonald suffered a heart attack during a performance of The King and I at Kansas City’s Starlight Theater. According to cast member Peggy Seo, one number was cut from the show to lighten MacDonald’s work load.

In 1960, Jeanette MacDonald was attempting to write her autobiography with the help of noted author Fredda Dudley Balling. Balling later wrote that MacDonald was seriously ill and there were doubts that she would live to finish the book. (The manuscript remained unpublished until 2004, when it was released under the title Jeanette MacDonald Autobiography: The Lost Manuscript.)

In her final trip to New York City, Jeanette MacDonald consulted with psychic Phyllis Woodbury, revealing that she and Nelson Eddy had been in love all their lives and had married the wrong people. “The suffering got to her and she didn’t want to live anymore,” Woodbury told me in a phone interview.

Being forced into early retirement had also proved difficult for MacDonald, who was a singer/actress since childhood. In 1964, recuperating from Dr. Michael DeBakey’s arterial transplant, Jeanette MacDonald wrote: “I have simply been trying to get well, and this isn’t as easy as one would think. I suppose patience plays a large part in any recuperation – something which I ain’t got!”

Also working against her was the harsh truth of physical neglect in her final days. I spent over four hours interviewing Susan Nelson, the private duty nurse who attended Jeanette MacDonald during her last hospitalization at UCLA Medical Center, a scant two weeks before her death. On December 21, 1964, MacDonald was accompanied to the hospital by Nelson Eddy, while her husband Gene Raymond was prowling gay bars on Santa Monica Blvd. MacDonald had surgery for abdominal adhesions and was released on New Year’s Eve.

Susan Nelson and I carefully studied a calendar to gauge the sequence of events as accurately as possible. It seemed that after MacDonald’s release from UCLA, Gene Raymond requested that Susan Nelson continue to make house calls to check on MacDonald until January 4, 1965. After that, there was no private duty nurse in attendance. Susan Nelson told me, “She could have looked 105, 110 pounds to me when I first saw her in the hospital, but after two weeks of not eating much – I don’t know, I’m just guessing….She was too sick to be on a commercial plane. I know I told you she was getting out of bed but…to tell you the truth, I don’t know. I didn’t take her to the bathroom in the hospital. But I think I did in her home. She was very, very weak.” (Sweethearts, page 450)

Susan Nelson recalled that Gene Raymond asked on her last visit whether she might be willing to accompany them, should he decide to take Jeanette MacDonald back to Houston and Dr. DeBakey. But he never asked her. Additionally, Susan Nelson verified what I had previously learned, that Jeanette’s telephone was removed from her bedroom. This cut off her lifeline to the outside world. Her sister Blossom Rock, who was acting in the TV hit “The Addams Family,” came to visit usually early in the morning or at night after leaving work. Blossom’s next-door neighbor, Mrs. Cameron, remembered that Blossom was terribly concerned, as Jeanette was usually asleep when she did visit. Nelson Eddy, who was on the road singing, angrily reported that he could not get Jeanette on the phone and that the calls were being diverted to Gene Raymond’s apartment. Blossom told a chilling account of how, during one of her final visits, Jeanette was awake and dragged herself into the living room, weakly handed the phone to her sister and insisted that Blossom dial Nelson Eddy’s number.

Susan Nelson had last attended Jeanette MacDonald on January 4th; on the 12th, the then-doorman at the Wilshire Comstock said he was recruited to carry MacDonald down from the apartment to the car, when Gene Raymond finally took her to the airport and onto a commercial plane back to Michael DeBakey.

It is not surprising that both Blossom Rock and Nelson Eddy blamed themselves, in part, for Jeanette’s death on January 14, 1965 at age 61. Perhaps Dr. DeBakey could have given her a few more years of quality life had she returned to Houston immediately after leaving UCLA, when she still had some physical strength and was in good spirits. But by the time her husband, Gene Raymond, deigned to take her back via commercial airline to Houston and Dr. DeBakey, she was emaciated and it was too late to save her. “She was in very bad heart failure,” DeBakey told the press at her arrival, and he tried in vain to stabilize her for surgery. Justify Raymond’s actions as you will; there are many who will never forgive him for denying her round-the-clock care in her final days.

For more detailed description of Jeanette MacDonald’s final days, please consult my book Sweethearts: The Timeless Love Story Onscreen and Off Between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.

Sharon Rich

July 15, 2008

Ryman Auditorium – Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry – where Jeanette and Nelson sang!

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Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, as it looks today - Grand Ole Opry

Here’s an interesting article about the Grand Ole Opry today…and a list of famous folks that appeared there in earlier years:

Roy Acuff
Fruit Jar Drinkers
Dolly Parton
Maude Adams
Don Gibson
Anna Pavlova
Tori Amos
Alma Gluck
Adelini Patti
Bill Anderson
Betty Grable
Norman Vincent Peale
Marian Anderson
Martha Graham
Minnie Pearl
Eddy Arnold
Jose Greco
Mary Pickford
Chet Atkins
Emmylou Harris
Webb Pierce
Gene Autry
Hawkshaw Hawkins
Lily Pons
Erykah Badu
George D. Hay
Tyrone Power
Ballet Russe with Nijinsky
Helen Hayes
Elvis Presley
Tallulah Bankhead
Katharine Hepburn
Ray Price
Ethel Barrymore
Bob Hope
Jeanne Pruett
Jeff Beck
Indigo Girls
Basil Rathbone
Sarah Bernhardt
Chris Isaak
Jim Reeves
Jon Bon Jovi
Stonewall Jackson
Keith Richards
Alessandro Bonci
Spike Jones
Tex Ritter
Victor Borge
Gully Jumpers
Marty Robbins
Rod Brasfield
The Jordanaires
Roy Rogers
Fanny Brice
Hellen Keller
Will Rogers
James Brown
Mark Knopfler
Eleanor Roosevelt
William Jennings Bryan
Pee Wee King
Jeanie Seely
The Byrds
Lenny Kravitz
Jean Shepard
Emma Calve
Fritz Kreisler
Dinah Shore
Giuseppe Campanari
Dorothy Lamour
Ricky Skaggs
George Carlin
Jerry Lee Lewis
Connie Smith
Carter Family
Louvin Brothers
Hank Snow
Enrico Caruso
Lyle Lovett
John Phillip Sousa
Johnny Cash
Bela Lugosi
Bruce Springsteen
Carol Channing
Loretta Lynn
Dr. Ralph Stanley
Charlie Chaplin
Uncle Dave Macon
Stringbean
Patsy Cline
Barbara Mandrell
Edward Strauss & Vienna Orchestra
Harry Connick Jr.
Dave Matthews
Strauss Festival with Oscar Strauss
Katherine Cornell
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Rev. Billy Sunday
Crook Brothers
Metropolitan Opera Company
Ernest Tubb
Doris Day
Chicago Orchestra with Theodore Thomas
Grant Turner
Neil Diamond
John McCormack
Rudolph Valentino
Little Jimmy Dickens
Jeanette MacDonald
Vatican Choir
Isadora Duncan
Giovanni Martinelli
Vienna Boys Choir
Bob Dylan
Harpo Marx
Porter Wagoner
Nelson Eddy
Joni Mitchell
Billy Walker
Everly Brothers
Bill Monroe
Booker T. Washington
Douglas Fairbanks
Rev. Dwight L. Moody
Kitty Wells
W.C. Fields
George Morgan
Orson Welles
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Helen Morgan
Dottie West
Flatt & Scruggs
Anne Murray
Mae West
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Jim Nabors
Wilburn Brothers
Whitey Ford
Carrie Nation
Hank Williams Sr.
Pete Fountain
Willie Nelson
Tammy Wynette
Lefty Frizzell
New York Symphony
Faron Young
Nelly Furtado
Buck Owens
Neil Young
Ignace Jan Paderewski

Link 

July 10, 2008

Mickey Rooney singing in Atlantic City through July 11

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Mickey and Jan Rooney in “Let’s Put on a Show!”

The New York Daily News reports that Mickey Rooney – now 87 – is still going strong! Tonight and tomorrow, he is performing “Let’s Put on a Show!” at the Atlantic City Hilton with his wife Jan, as part of his 85th Anniversary Tour!

He is perhaps the only movie star left from Jeanette and Nelson’s era to still have an active career entertaining.

Mickey Rooney, as you know, starred in one of Nelson’s very first movies, Broadway to Hollywood (1933). Nelson sang one number and was barely seen in the film at all, since all though his number, the camera was busy filming a fight between Frank Morgan and Alice Brady.

I saw the show a few years back and Mickey Rooney is, well, still an energetic if elderly Mickey Rooney! You can’t help but be nostalgic for the 1930s when he sings and talks about those MGM years. So, I would recommend that you go if you can, who knows how many more chances we will have to see him perform.

“It was such a different era then,” Rooney told the Daily News. “The songs had so much meaning. what Jan and I do is blend talent and multimedia. We sing, we do a little dance, we show some film clips of my early days in Hollywood. I play a piano. Jan sings. And everybody goes away happy. We love doing it.”

From the Daily News: “The Brooklyn-born entertainer, who turns 88 in September, says he is up to taking the show ‘anywhere they want to see it.’ It covers everything from his first movie, Not to Be Trusted, in 1926 to A Night at the Museum in 2006….

“I’ve always loved what I’ve done,” Rooney says in explaining why he keeps going. “I’ve done over 350 pictures” – enough to make the Guinness Book of Records this year as the actor with the longest career on both stage and screen. Nevertheless, he is moved when younger actors seek him out.

“I was at the Screen Actors Guild Awards earlier this eyar sitting backstage when Brad Pitt approached me and said he wanted to mee me. Then Angelina Jolie…Then Tom Cruise came by. I was so surprised,” Rooney recalls, his voice cracking. “All I ever wanted to do was give people a good time,” he says.

Link for tickets and information.

Mickey Rooney’s website (which hopefully will have updated tour dates for the rest of the year)

July 10, 2008

Fun, photoshopped pictures of Jeanette and Nelson!

maceddy Jeanette & Nelson Photos

Amazing the fun folks can have with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy…

Link

«‹ 90 91 92 93›»

Today in J/N History

1938 Producer Hunt Stromberg "laughs at reports" that the cause of the 5- day production shutdown of "Sweethearts" was due to "fights" between Nelson and Jeanette. We don't know the exact event that caused this but if it was not the "fight" when Gene Raymond gave Jeanette a shiner, it might have been the incident where Jeanette laughingly shoved Nelson a little too hard and he toppled off the staircase used in the "Every Lover Must Meet His Fate" number which sent him briefly to the hospital. Director Woody Van Dyke also made a statement about the supposed "feud" saying, "Believe me, there are no finer friends in all Hollywood than Nelson and Jeanette - and I know."

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