Nelson Eddy
Nelson Ackerman Eddy ( born June 29, 1901 in Providence, Rhode Iceland, † March 6, 1967 in Miami Beach, Florida) was an American opera singer and film actor. His greatest popularity gained by Eddy eight joint film appearances with Jeanette MacDonald, with whom he formed a solid on-screen couple in the 1930s and 1940s.
Life and work
Nelson Eddy studied as a child singing and 1924 he won in a competition and gained thereby the opportunity to perform in front of the Philadelphia Opera Society. The conductor of the Philadelphia Civic Opera, Alexander Smallens began to train and promote Eddy. The late 1920s, Eddy has performed with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company and sang a wide repertoire of 28 operatic roles, including Le nozze di Figaro. In addition, Eddy has also performed with the Savoy Company, produced the popular operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan. Eddy studied briefly with David Scull Bispham to switch later to William Vilonat. In 1927, he went together with his teacher to Dresden, which at that time was under American singers as vital training station. A commitment to offer with a small German opera leaned Eddy then, however, from and returned to the United States, where he pursued a concert career in the next seven years and rarely appeared on opera stages. In 1928, Theodore ( Ted ) Paxson his piano accompanist and friend. The close cooperation had to Eddy's death inventory. The singer also changes in later years often his teacher and tried again and again new vocal techniques. In his house he ran a recording studio where he studied his own performances. The recording technique fascinated him so much that Walt Disney's animated film The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met ( Make Mine Music) self-developed three- voice harmonies (soprano, tenor, baritone) contributed.
Film career
The film industry in Hollywood was on Nelson Eddy attention when he stepped in a sold-out concert hall in Los Angeles on February 28, 1933, at the last minute as a replacement for Lotte Lehmann. On his appearance was followed by 18 curtains and several film offers. Eddy signed a seven year contract with Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, per year allowed him three months concert tours. Concert appearances were for Eddy increasingly lucrative fame with the film; on opera stages, however, he sang only sporadically. Eddy made his debut in 1933 in I dance for you, a revue film, which proved the popular duo Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. The dancer Fred Astaire was in the opulent strips also made his first appearance in the sound film. The producers of MGM initially did not know what to do with Eddy, took in the first film, a purely his voice and left him in the following only occur for individual songs. Since the audience reacted to low, Eddy acquired in 1935 next to Jeanette MacDonald the male lead role in the adaptation of Victor Herbert's operetta Naughty Marietta. The film was a surprise hit and signature song Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life brought an Eddy his first Gold Record. The film was nominated for an Oscar, won a Photoplay Award and was chosen by the New York Film Critics as one of the ten best films of 1935.
MGM produced in the following years, seven more movies with the on-screen couple MacDonald / Eddy. The audience responded positively to the usually very elaborately produced operettas. One of the greatest successes were Rose-Marie from 1936, in which Eddy the two popular songs Song of the Mounties and Indian Love Call sings. The biggest financial success had the two stars in 1937 with the film Maytime, which grossed at the box office over 4 million U.S. dollars. The song Will You Remember earned him another gold record. Sweethearts from 1938 was the first film, MGM produced in three- strip Technicolor process. The film, which won the Photoplay Award among others, told as a comedy, the adventures of a pair of stage that occurs in the eponymous operetta by Victor Herbert for years. The screenplay was written by Dorothy Parker and play as the first film of the two stars in the present. Nelson Eddy appeared in the years with other leading ladies, so in Rosalie with Eleanor Powell and balalaika, where he performed alongside Ilona Massey. The Chocolate Soldier was the adaptation of a Viennese operetta by Ferenc Molnár. In addition to the Met singer Risë Stevens Eddy appeared in a dual role. It took until 1940 before the two singers came back again with New Moon, the adaptation of a musical by Sigmund Romberg on the canvas. In the same year the two were making yet Bittersweet, one produced in Technicolor film version of the eponymous operetta by Noel Coward. After the financial disaster of I Married an Angel decided both stars to cancel their contracts with MGM. 1942 left Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald MGM. Eddy signed with Universal in 1943 a contract for two movies: Phantom of the Opera and Follow the Boys. The elaborately produced in Technicolor movie musical Phantom of the Opera was based next to the famous novel by Gaston Leroux songs by Edward Ward. Eddy came in next to Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, was with the film then but so dissatisfied that he broke off the ongoing filming of Follow the Boys, in which he would have been seen again on the side of Jeanette MacDonald and Universal left.
For his latest films Eddy went with changing production companies under contract. Knickerbocker Holiday was based on a popular musical by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson. In addition to Charles Coburn and Constance Dowling Eddy appeared in the role of a young newspaper owner who falls in 17th century New Netherland with the policy in conflict. For the Walt Disney animated film Make Mine Music Eddy set to music in 1946, the sequence The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met Using a technique he had developed in his home studio, Eddy sang for the soundtrack polyphonic pieces (among a sextet ) and even sang all vocal ranges from bass to soprano. Under the title The Operatic Whale RKO brought this sequence in 1954 as a short film out again. In his last movie, the Western Outpost Eddy came again next Ilona Massey.
Recordings
From 1935 to 1964 Nelson Eddy played a more than 290 records, including songs from his films, opera arias, operetta and folk songs and pop. In the years 1935-1938 were Eddy and MacDonald at RCA Victor jointly under contract, which allowed them einzuspielen the popular duets from their films together. 1938 Eddy signed a contract with Columbia Records, who finished the record marketing these duets. Only in 1957 was once again issued a joint of Eddy and MacDonald sung record.
Radio, TV and club appearances
From the mid 1920s until his death, Nelson Eddy appeared more than 600 times on the radio. In addition to his many guest appearances, he hosted a number of programs themselves (eg The Voice of Firestone, 1936; Vicks Open House, 1936; Chase and Sanborn Hour The, 1937-39; Kraft Music Hall, 1947-48 ). 1942/43, he had his own show on CBS. Eddy frequently used his radio shows to promote the careers of young singers. From 1952 to Eddy guest starred frequently on television.
Since concert performances lost after the spread of television on profitability, Eddy came in the early 1950s to the decision for the long- term security of its income a vaudeville number ( nightclub act) to develop, with which he could occur at alternating venues. The number had its premiere in January 1953. Eddy's stage partners were the singer Gale Sherwood and pianist Ted Paxson. The show number was extremely successful with the public, was for 15 years and witnessed four tours to Australia. Jeanette MacDonald Nelson Eddy death took with emotionally strong. During an appearance in the Sans Souci Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, he broke due to a cerebral hemorrhage on stage together. A few hours later, in the early morning hours of March 6, 1967, he died. Eddy is in addition to his wife Ann, who survived him by 20 years, buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Private life
1939 Nelson Eddy married Ann Franklin Denitz who had been previously married to director Sidney Franklin and her son, Sidney jun., Brought into the marriage. My children went from this marriage, which lasted until Eddy's death in 1967, not prominent. Since the late 1930s, Eddy will be entered into a love affair with his co-star Jeanette MacDonald. Among the followers of the couple this theory is hotly debated and very controversial. A biographer of the screen couple, Sharon Rich, suggested in her book, MGM boss Louis B. Mayer had MacDonalds marriage arranged with Gene Raymond, to prevent a marriage between MacDonald and Eddy.
Effect
Throughout his 40 -year career, Eddy was invited with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honored (per 1 star for movie, song recording, and radio), he left his footprint in the cement at Grauman 's Chinese Theater, earned three gold records and was on the third inauguration ceremony for President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sing.
Filmography
Films with Jeanette MacDonald are marked with an asterisk *: