Arabella-and-Co Baritone Corner

Woody Van Dyke found Jeanette semi-conscious on her dressing room floor after kicking in the door. An empty pill bottle was nearby. The studio doctor and Mayer were called while Woody tried to rouse Jeanette. She was rushed to the hospital in Mayer’s private car to avoid the press and her stomach was pumped. Jeanette was then sent home to recuperate…from a “nasty cold”!

Jeanette does her radio show from home while nursing a "bad cold"!

The newspapers were soon humming about the newlywed Eddys who had returned from their elopement to live in their own respective homes. The press was told that Nelson and Ann hadn’t found a new home to suit them as yet. When Nelson went on his scheduled concert tour in February, Ann went with him. But, halfway through the tour, Nelson sent her home, angry over the way she was treating his fans and her veiled innuendos about Jeanette. Now that they were married, Ann didn’t bother to play nice.

When he returned home in April, Nelson found his mother and new wife barely speaking, and that didn’t sit well. He decided to end the honeymoon phase of his ill-fated marriage by asking for a divorce. Ann refused and Nelson knew instinctively that if he persisted, Ann would gladly drag Jeanette’s name through the mud. He gave up and moved in with Ann, but never took any of his personal belongings with him. They also had separate bedrooms.

Jeanette went back to work to finish up the last scenes of “Broadway Serenade” with Lew Ayres. She avoided any contact with Nelson whenever possible but saw his mother every chance she had, asking about him. Nelson felt her pain as well as his own and put it all down in a small diary he gave his mother to give to her. In late February, Nelson’s solo film “Let Freedom Ring” was released and Variety called it “Momentous!”. Two months later, Jeanette’s “Broadway Serenade” was also released to less than favorable reviews.

In August, 1939 when Nelson returned to his Chase and Sanborn radio hour, he received a good luck telegram….from Jeanette! The following week she sent another one…a sign that things were improving.

In September, the studio scrapped “Bittersweet” (the plot was too similar to “Maytime”) and “New Moon” was proposed instead. Production began in November and Nelson sent flowers to Jeanette’s dressing room everyday. However her attitude toward him remained cool and that reflected badly on the screen. Then Woody was reassigned to a Spencer Tracy film on another lot and producer Robert Z. Leonard took over directing.

He changed some of the casting and deleted footage. But the close scenes between the lovers continued to be lackluster. Leonard decided to shoot the “Wanting You” scene anyway, hoping that would create more chemistry. He was right. Suddenly Nelson and Jeanette came alive and when they kissed, it caused a furor on the set. Someone said it was so hot it actually melted the backdrops. The lovers were back and everyone knew it.

Just before his st wedding anniversary rolled around, Nelson again asked Ann for a divorce and again she refused, adding that she had enough on him to create a real scandal. The gravity of his situation took quite a toll on Nelson beginning a long series of illnesses that would plague him for years. After his concert tour Nelson collapsed. When he got out of the hospital, he recuperated at his mother’s house where Jeanette could visit but Ann was not allowed. Soon Mayer was getting reports that the two were seeing each other again and the dire threats from the front office resumed. His best informants....Ann and Jeanette’s mother!

"Bittersweet”, the team’s 2nd color film, began filming in midsummer, 1940 and again Nelson and Jeanette came to the project nervous and miserable. Jeanette was becoming more and more terrified of Mayer’s threats. Woody was directing and beset with problems already..a botched script, a disgusted playwright and ill-fitting costumes. He hated seeing his “kids” unhappy, too. But his “kids” decided on their own that they couldn’t be apart so they began to find time together in very creative ways. But there were also public appearances with their spouses to allay Mayer’s suspicions. It has been noted that Jeanette and Gene appeared more often together than Nelson and Ann.

The finale for “Bittersweet” was finally shot in midsummer. Nelson didn’t actually participate in the final scenes because he had been killed off earlier by George Sanders in the shortest duel on record. (Our staff member, Jess, calls it “death by poking”). It became the first MacEddy picture ever to lose money!

Coming in the next issue: Two more solo movies…Nelson’s brawl with Mayer…”I Married An Angel”…Leaving MGM…..Woody’s death….Ann’s “planned pregnancy”!

For more on the love story, read “Sweethearts” by Sharon Rich and visit www.maceddy.com

I want to share this poem I copied from a lady at my first MacEddy meeting 2 years ago in King of Prussia, PA…the author of this poem won $5.00 (!) from Modern Screen magazine in Sept 1937…

Part V…..