The Baritone!

It was always about his music....before the movies, there was his music....
and after the cameras went away...the music played on.

The buzz began one cold January night at the dress rehearsal for a society opera called "The Marriage Tax". An enterprising reporter was in the hall and a week later let the whole town know that a young blond baritone was about to take the place by storm. So it was that Nelson Eddy's first critical acclaim came before he ever really played the role! "They had the first dress rehearsal of "The Marriage Tax" last week, and it's going to be a dandy. Nelson Eddy is to sing in it, and if you have ever heard Nelson Eddy sing, you will want to go for that alone, for that young man has a most gorgeous voice, let me tell you. I have heard him only once, but me I want to hear him again and often"
(Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, 1/21/1922)

Not long after his stellar performance, Nelson signed with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company, got himself a teacher, went on the radio and even cut a record of a song he wrote himself called "The Rainbow Trail". A tidal wave was rolling over Philly!

In 1927 a lot of exciting things were happening...the first solo transatlantic flight, Babe Ruth's 60 home run record, the first talking picture and I was born! But, in Philadelphia, all they could talk about was Nelson Eddy. I love this review...

"Singing an early Italian love song, his partner in song lost her place and leaned over to peek into the book of her fellow singer. Shyly, an arm, quite in keeping with the spirit of the music, crept around her waist, the lost spot was found, and the song continued to its end - with the arm in its place. The byplay brought amusement to the audience, which responded with noisy applause. (Philadelphia Bulletin, 4/27/1927) Nelson went to study in Europe that year. They wanted him to stay and sing in their opera but Nelson came home to Philadelphia and his growing band of fans. It is quite apparent to me, I was born too late!

In 1928 Nelson began his concert career billed as "the leading baritone of the Philadelphia Opera Company" with a repetoire of "28 operatic roles, 11 oratorios and hundreds of songs". But, of course, they didn't have to tell anyone who had seen him that he also looked like a blond Adonis and had a personality so charismatic that audiences were loathe to leave the hall! "Close to 7,500 people gathered inside and outside the Robin Hood Dell to hear the popular baritone..."(Philadelphia Bulletin, 9/1/1930)

And, in New York, one reviewer really caught the real Nelson at work.... "There is also a baritone who has suffered. He is Nelson Eddy, who failed to reserve a rehearsal studio before his recent broadcast over WABC. Arriving there, he found them all in use. Being a regular fellow, without the usual affectations of temperament, he simply stepped into a phone booth and rehearsed by himself without piano accompaniment. The difficulties of getting a piano into the booth were found too great" (New York Evening World, 1/8/1931) Gives a person visions of Superman, doesn't it? And of course, this one from a Cincinnati paper in 1932...

"...It is possible to predict that, equipped as Mr. Eddy is with every gift the kindly gods can present to a mere mortal, he will become one of the greatest, most justly famed of American singers. The handsome head of this fortunate youth will not be turned by success. He has the saving grace of American humor" (Cincinnati Times-Star, 4/2/32)

Now that's the kind of objectivity I like to see in a critic! On May 7th, 1932 the Philadelphia Courier reported that Nelson had "returned from a concert tour which took him through 23 states in 3 weeks". The tidal wave called Nelson Eddy was spreading across the land! But his life was about to take a sharp turn onto a much busier highway.

On February 28, 1933, Nelson was called to fill in for an ailing Lotte Lehmann and MGM's Ida Kovermann was in the audience. She saw, she liked and so did MGM.  So off he went to make movies. He tramped, he rode and he sang. Oh, how he sang. He sang love songs to Jeanette, and they said it was the perfect blend of two perfect voices. He sang to Eleanor, Ilona, Rise and Virginia and even Victor McLaglen! He became a matinee idol, so they say. But his heart wasn't there. He wanted to take his music back to the live audiences. So, between films, he sang his heart out on the radio, in Army camps and anywhere the folks gathered to hear him.

Then in 1947. the movies ended. The pundits predicted it was the end of Nelson's career. But Nelson fooled them all. He did a little radio and he did a little television ("The Desert Song", 1955) and then he took his music on the road..into nightclubs. His beloved audiences followed right along, across the country and around the world. Billboard crowed and Variety took out a double page ad. He was a hit on his opening night. For the next 15 years, he and his partner, Gale Sherwood, sang to packed houses every performance and they were sometimes sold out 2 years in advance. And everyone agreed he put his heart in every song. .

On March 6th, 1967, the voice and the heart were stilled and the world mourned. But the music still plays on, thanks to recordings and videos of his work and his many fans around the world. And late at night, while I play his music,I know they were right. Nelson did put his heart into every song. ..and now and then I can almost hear it beating.

For more on Nelson's music...www.dandugan.com/maytime

Some fun with Nelson....

"AAGH! What was in that stuff?"	"There's that elevator music again!"	"The bodyguard's off today and I have to get to the studio!"	"Hmmm? A ten- letter word meaning "Baritone?"

(Thanks for the idea, Joan)