While still under contract at MGM, but before he became a film star, Nelson Eddy marked time giving concerts on the West Coast. He was counting the days until his contract expired and it’s likely he would have left MGM at the end of 1933…had Jeanette MacDonald not come into the picture.
Just as Nelson Eddy was “discovered” in San Diego early in 1933, when he replaced an ill Lotte Lehman at a scheduled concert, we find that in November of that year, he replaced an ill Lily Pons in Los Angeles. By the way, Jeanette MacDonald was in the audience for this concert.
11/14/1933 from Hollywood Citizen News
Nelson Eddy, popular baritone, who will appear next Tuesday night in concert at Philharmonic Auditorium will include on his program the popular cowboy song, “The Last Round-up.”
Eddy’s program at Philharmonic will be the same as that he offered at San Diego, where he was called to take the place of Lily Pons when she canceled her engagement at the southern city.
The Philharmonic concert is the only one on the baritone’s schedule for Los Angeles this season. He will appear, however, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in the Bay City on Dec. 22 and 23.