Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy
When the dynamic duo of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy appeared on radio programs such as Cecil B. DeMille’s Lux Radio Theater and The Screen Guild Theater, they were a hit.
MacDonald came to be a frequent guest of Eddy’s on his many radio shows such as The Electric Hour and The Kraft Music Hall. MacDonald also had her own radio show, Vicks Open House, from September of 1937 to March of 1938.
MacDonald had a long and brilliant radio career beginning with a 1929 broadcast of the Publix Hour. Later, she would appear on a ceremony broadcast in 1931 of the Academy Awards. At one point she was performing on a weekly live radio show while also filming, touring and making records. After fainting on stage during a radio broadcast, she cut back on her schedule.
Nelson Eddy began his career in opera singing classical music such as Strauss, Alban Berg and Ottorino Respighi. After he and MacDonald became singing sensations, Eddy appeared on many radio programs with MacDonald, such as The Railroad Hour, starring Gordon MacRae. There were also condensed radio versions of their films together, including The Merry Widow, Sweethearts, The Sun Comes Up and Smilin’ Through.
The two had certain chemistry, both in personalities and voices, which would carry them far in all aspects of the entertainment business – radio, stage, screen and television. MacDonald and Eddy were dubbed, “America’s Singing Sweethearts” of the 1930s and starred together in movies that included Naughty Marietta, Rose Marie and Maytime. Eddy once surprised MacDonald as she was hosting a war bonds program called Guest Star.
MacDonald and Eddy made a stunning couple in person – she, a petite redhead and he, a tall, blonde with classic good looks. When they first appeared together, during the shadowy days of the Depression, fireworks lit the stage and later the screen as they made radio and movie history that would last forever.
Rumor has it that MacDonald and Eddy also had an off screen romance and that it was shushed by MGM studio boss, Louis B. Mayer. They eventually married others – Jeanette married actor, Gene Raymond on June 16, 1937. Eddy sang two songs at her wedding – “O Perfect Love” and “I Love You Truly.” Nelson Eddy married Ann Denitz Franklin, former wife of director, Sidney Franklin on January 19, 1939 in a quiet ceremony in Las Vegas.
Jeanette MacDonald was born on June 18, 1903 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died on January 14, 1965. Nelson Eddy was born on June 29, 1901 in Providence, Rhode Island and died on March 6, 1967 of an aneurysm as he was performing on stage at the Sans Souci Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.
Happy listening my friends,
