Autumn leaves....spring's colorful winter blanket.

Ghost Voices…
   ..the actors we never see!
 

When actors can’t do everything a role requires, someone is hired to do it for them. A vocal double is used when singing or speaking is the problem. These essential players are almost always uncredited for their work and, because studios want dubbing kept secret, even detailed cast lists refuse to give up the “ghost”!
                          

Jeanette MacDonald....

...singing "In Any Language".

Vocal dubbing is necessary when an actor in a musical doesn’t sing at all (i.e. Margaret O’Brien or Lana Turner)or a singing actor doesn’t do well with a particular vocal range or dialect. Marni Nixon took over for Marilyn Monroe for just one short line in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (see Issue#33) but Marilyn did all the rest. According to the American Film Institute (AFI) even golden soprano Jeanette MacDonald had a little help from vocal double Ann Harriette Lee for a dialect ditty “In Any Language” for the “Tokay” sequence in “Bittersweet” (1940). Some cast lists go way out on a limb and credit Lee with “stunts”!
                         

Gogi Grant

Studios also call in vocal doubles when actors, although accomplished singers, have voices or vocal styles that do not create the image the role demands. Ann Blyth, who sang beautifully in several MGM musicals, was dubbed by popular vocalist Gogi Grant in “The Helen Morgan Story” (1957). While Ann looked like Helen, Gogi sounded more like her. Of course, in “The Jolson Story” (1946), Larry Parks let Al Jolson sing for himself. Ava Gardner, who could sing very well, was dubbed by Annette Warren in “Show Boat” (1951) but, because of recording restrictions, when it came time to do the LP soundtrack, it is Ava’s voice you hear.

Dennis Morgan

Then there was the problem of vanishing actors. Allan Jones was scheduled to do a cameo role in “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936) and had already pre-recorded the music when he decided not to do the bit. Dennis Morgan(then Stanley Morner) was put in the role but, to save money, the studio used the old soundtrack. When Dennis opened his mouth, out came Allan. Too bad because Morgan was a marvelous singer in his own right. Almost the same thing happened on the set of “The Student Prince” (1954) when Mario Lanza became ill after pre-recording the soundtrack. But Lanza was still credited with the vocals the Edmund Purdom lip-synched.
              

Virginia Verrill, Jack Haley and Lucille Ball

When Jean Harlow sang, you really heard Virginia Verrill, Virginia also sang for Andrea Leeds in “The Goldwyn Follies of 1938). But, in this case, it was Virginia who demanded absolute secrecy. After the orchestra scored the music, she went into a locked stage and did the vocals to the playback. It was flawless. Virginia is probably best known for her onscreen appearance in “Walter Wanger’s Vogues of 1038” when she introduced the classic “That Old Feeling”.
                             

Douglas Shearer

Movie dubbing came along with the birth of sound in 1929. It was clear that some silent stars had voices that didn’t register well on film and as a consequence, many careers went bust. Music and sound effects were already being recorded but not the dialogue. One of the pioneers in the process of recording and blending soundtracks on film was Douglas Shearer, sound director at MGM. He eventually won 12 Oscars for Best Sound Recording.      
                     

Ingrid Thulin

Angela Lansbury

In early films, dialogue dubbing saved many careers and even made a few. British actor Lawford Davidson was reportedly paid $500 a week in 1929 (big bucks back then) to do the talking for  actor Paul Lukas who still had a heavy Hungarian accent. Even as late as 1962, Angela Lansbury was the voice for Swedish actress Ingrid Thulin in the remake of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. Angela herself was dubbed in several film musicals even though she sang successfully on Broadway.
                 

Jean and Debbie exchange voices..or do they?

Those early days of ‘ghosting’ was dramatized in the 1952 classic “Singing in the Rain” with Gene Kelly. Debbie Reynolds and Jean Hagen. But what you see on the screen is not necessarily what you hear. The script calls for Debbie to sing for Jean whose shrill, nasal voice just doesn’t cut it. But what is actually on the soundtrack is Jean (in her natural voice) dubbing Debbie who is dubbing…Jean! And when Debbie sings with Kelly in the duet it is..Betty Royce. Dizzy?
                  

Another strange “dubbing-or-not” story is the one about Lauren Bacall and Andy Williams. It seems that director Howard Hawks couldn’t find a female singer with a voice low and husky enough to be Bacall’s in “To Have or Have Not” (1944) so he hired an unknown male vocalist by the name of Andy Williams to dub her vocals. But when Lauren began to sing along with the playbacks, Hawks liked her version better. So it was out with Andy and in with  “Slim”.
                    

Lauren Bacall

Andy Williams

Today dubbing is accepted as part of movie making and more actors are taking charge in the roles they play. Sissy Spacek sang the role of Loretta Lynn herself in “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980) and won both  a Best Actress Oscar and a Grammy. Joaquin Phoenix did the same thing  for Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line” (2006). And no one can top Meryl Streep when it comes to dialects.  When ghost voices are used today, they are usually named in the cast with no studio to hide them. So hopefully, Hollywood is alive and well and their “ghosts” are no longer in the closet.

To learn more about Hollywood’s “ghost voices” see