Newspaper Notes - True or Not True?

[Steff]

 

Browsing old newspapers and doing researches quite often brings to light interesting newspaper/magazine notes, (sometimes questionable) comments made in columns, event announcements etc.

 

Are they true or not? Maybe they just are only wishful thinking of the writer or a way of sensationalism?

Just decide yourself .....

I am going to post such notes (text snippets) from time to time in this new thread.

Steff

[Steff]

 

Let's start with this newspaper note, from the "San Diego Union," Aug 13, 1959

(Louella Parsons column):

"A transatlantic telephone call from Mario Lanza to 20-year-old Connie Francis proves how eager Lanza is

to sign her for a picture with him.

Connie is an MGM recording star who currently has two records in the top 10. Mario became interested

after hearing her recording of "Frankie" and after having MCA send him her photograph."

Steff

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: I'd certainly take that old Louella's story with a grain of salt! I can't see how Connie would have fitted in with Lanza's screen projects ("Granada" and "Laugh Clown Laugh"), and, besides, he would have been accused of cradle-snatching with such a young co-star (three years younger even than Marisa Allasio).

If Mario wasn't keen on Doretta Morrow co-starring with him because she lacked an operatic voice, it's hard to imagine that he would have been happy appearing alongside a pop singer. Come to think of it, he wasn't enthused about making a film with Catarina Valente for the same reason.

Nice idea for a thread, by the way!

Cheers

Derek

[Steff]

Hi Derek,

 

You said:"If Mario wasn't keen on Doretta Morrow co-starring with him because she lacked an operatic voice, it's hard to imagine that he would have been happy appearing alongside a pop singer. Come to think of it, he wasn't enthused about making a film with Catarina Valente for the same reason."

 

But then I say neither of Mario's leading ladies in his last three films (Sarita Montiel, Joan Fontaine, Marisa Allasio or

Johanna von Koczian - I've always wondered about Johanna not having had a singing part, as she is a trained singer)

had a singing part. So with Caterina it definitely would have been different.

 

 

Incidentally,  a German magazin from August 1960 remarked:

 

"Mario and Caterina co-starring?"

 

CCC-Brauner is in the know of the international music market and the film business. The international stars are

Mario Lanza and Caterina Valente, for sure a team to become a box-office hit, and with chances of international

success. He already has Valente under contract, and he will immediately add Lanza to his circle of stars."

 

Steff

[Steff]

Interesting note about Mario and Bjoerling:

Filmland News by Harrison Carroll

Hollywood – Sweden is the newest country added to the itinerary of Mario Lanza’s European tour. On invitation of Metropolitan tenor Jussi Bjoerling, Mario has agreed to sing at the Stockholm opera house.

Come, what may, the star says he’ll take off in September for Italy where he will  study his operatic roles several months before trying them out on Europe’s critical audiences.

 

Nothing definitive yet about Mario doing “The Vagabond King” for M-G-M. Doesn’t Paramount still own it?                          

 

Also looks doubtful now that Deanna Durbin will come over here to make a comeback picture with Lanza. He’ll be disappointed. He was looking forward to appearing with her.”                                   (from the Boston Daily Record, March 13, 1952)

 

Steff

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: Interesting!! We know from other news reports that came out around the same time that Lanza was planning to go to Italy in September 1952, but this is the first I've heard about Sweden & Bjoerling. I'd love to believe it was true.

But, of course, even if The Student Prince had gone ahead with Lanza, there's no way he would have finished the film by September. After all, the recordings were only finished in mid-August.

Cheers

Derek 

[Derek McGovern]

And a P.S. to the above: not only would The Student Prince have occupied Lanza until at least the end of November (something that presumably wasn't apparent back in March 1952), but Betty's third pregnancy would have made it impossible for him to leave her side during the final months of 1952. (Of course, no one would have known that she was pregnant when that newspaper article was written.) So as sincere as I believe Lanza was to resume his operatic career at the time, fate really was against him that year, with his break-up with manager Sam Weiler, the collapse of his finances and the tumultuous battle with MGM all to come in rapid succession.

[Armando]

Hi Steff and Derek: The key to the above mentioned article is “the star says he’ll take off in September for Italy where he will study his operatic roles several months before trying them out on Europe’s critical audiences.”

Yes, that’s precisely what he would have needed to do. But would he have been able to do that while tied to a Hollywood contract? Hardly likely, even if Betty hadn’t been expecting, since, as Derek pointed out, he would have been filming The Student Prince until late in the year.  Unless a special arrangement was reached with MGM, that would leave him with a mere six months, at best, to study a role and perform it a number of times, where? In only one opera house? When? Other than in the open air summer venues the regular opera season in Europe generally lasted from December to June. I can’t see it happening unless MGM granted him at least a couple of years off.  

Saluti

Armando  

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Armando: I can't imagine that MGM with Schary at the helm would have granted Mario any extra time off! Certainly not after all the delays he'd caused the studio the previous year with Because You're Mine. And as Barry Nelson pointed out to you, who around Lanza (with the exception of Spadoni, Antonio Cocozza and a few others) even wanted him to perform opera---or understood why it was so vital to his psyche to fulfill that dream? Almost everyone in his inner circle had a vested interest in him staying right where he was. 

Besides, in reality, the MGM contract never actually gave him the six straight months off  that would---in theory---have allowed him time to pursue his operatic goals. There would always be recalls for retakes months after principal shooting had been completed---or an extra song to be recorded for the credits, or promotional work, etc. That supposedly generous MGM contract was just an illusion. The break that Lanza had, for example, between finishing The Toast of New Orleans on March 6, 1950 and beginning work on The Great Caruso on July 11th that year was just four months.       

As long as Lanza was tied to his MGM contract, the only really practical option for performing opera, I feel, would have been the odd guest appearance with the nearby San Francisco Opera. And, of course, its director and founder, Gaetano Merola, was desperate to secure him. But even then, Lanza would have struggled to find the time to prepare. No sooner had he finished filming The Great Caruso, for example, in November 1950 than a grand tour was being organized by his manager, Sam Weiler, partly to capitalize on the enormous success that the just-released single "Be My Love" was having on the charts, and partly to promote the forthcoming Caruso film. Now, one could argue that Lanza should have said at this point, "No, I want to use this time instead to study for an operatic role." But who around him would have encouraged him to pursue that goal? Certainly not Weiler, who was getting 20% of everything Lanza made, and knew that a concert tour would be infinitely more lucrative than any operatic appearance. It all came down to money, not to mention the fact that a concert tour would have been a much easier (and less frightening) proposition than studying for and performing an operatic role. 

It really was a tragedy that when Lanza was finally free of his MGM contract, he was too broke and dispirited to seize the initiative and return to opera. But I can't help wondering if things might have been different if Merola hadn't dropped dead on the conductor's podium in August 1953. Merola had closely observed Lanza, even championing his talent to the press the previous year, when he marvelled at his "wonderful voice" and ability to come home from a day's work at the studio and sing a complete opera (at home)---just for the fun of it. What if Merola hadn't died in 1953? Could that fiery little Neapolitan have persuaded Lanza to pick himself up and return to opera---instead of wasting many more months on self-pity and the bottle? Ah, the "what if?"s....    

Cheers

Derek             

[Armando]

Hi Derek: As you have aptly pointed out it was impossible for Lanza to even think about the prospect of singing in an opera while under contract to MGM.

Merola was certainly determined to have Lanza perform at the San Francisco Opera and, who knows, had he lived he might have succeeded, but his task would have been considerable given that following the Student Prince episode, subsequent dismissal by MGM and constant bad press the Lanza psyche received a blow from which he never totally recovered. 

Therefore, while the timing was ideal by the end of 1953 (when the Student Prince started filming with Purdom) Lanza had lost his confidence as we were to witness a year later with the disastrous TV appearance and in 1955 with the even more disastrous fiasco in Las Vegas.  

Most artists are vulnerable, sensitive people and Mario was a prime example. You need to have a pretty thick skin in show business, be it the theatre, films or performing arts in general. It’s a cut throat environment full of envy and back stabbing. Mario didn’t fit the bill. He was both oversensitive and particularly vulnerable, but then if he hadn’t been he wouldn’t have sung the way he did and we would be the losers.  

Ciao

Armando

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Armando: Your post---especially the last paragraph---sums up my frustration with those who point to Lanza's behaviour after the MGM break-up as "proof" of the man's insincerity about returning to opera. Of course Lanza was in no shape emotionally, or even physically, to step out onto an operatic stage in the aftermath of the MGM fiasco---except, perhaps, with the aid of some extraordinary support from the right people. And yet the man is criticized (by one of his biographers, no less) on the Singing to the Gods documentary for not having gone back into opera immediately after the Las Vegas fiasco instead of making Serenade. Putting aside the fact that Lanza could hardly have reneged on his commitment to Warner Bros, especially at that late stage, how on earth anyone thinks he could have faced an audience of the toughest critics at that point is beyond me.

I know it seems to the skeptics that we're always making excuses for Lanza's career choices, but I do feel that many of these people have little or no understanding of what it's like to be an exceptionally sensitive artist.  

Cheers

Derek             

[Armando]

   

Hi Derek,

The skeptics need only talk to the likes of Joseph Calleja, or any other opera singer for that matter, and then they will stop making ridiculous statements about an aspect of performing about which they understand absolutely nothing.

I have both mixed with and personally known many opera singers and often discussed the Mario predicament with them. Without fail, they not only understood the difficulty of combining a mega Hollywood career with an operatic one but were also amazed at the body of work that Mario was able to produce under those circumstances.

As they say-ignorance is bliss!

Saluti

Armando

[Michael McAdam]

Great discussion here, Armando and Derek. Very readable and sobering.

That's it then; my mind's made up. To hell with my opera singing; I'll stick to playing my guitar! ;-)

 

Mike

[leeann]

Dear Derek and Armando, I totally agree with Mike! Thank you for these substantive posts. It seems to me there are some extraordinary themes in your comments that have to do both with Lanza himself and with the way he's interpreted. Working backwards, biographical narratives are never static; there are good ones and bad ones, comprehensive ones and superficial ones, but I don't think the stories are ever finished.  The best we can say is "the most definitive to date." (Of course, that would be An American Tragedy!)

But biographical stories are is told and retold from the point of view of the time in which they're written.  I have often thought that most biographies of Lanza look at him and yes, judge him, using the same criteria as critics and cultural guardians did in the 1950s; they reinforce early stereotypes, value judgments, and even gossip both about Lanza's voice and his persona. And this spills over into the popular biography and there's been little evolution. Apocryphal evaluations of Lanza still hold sway, and that's beyond too bad. What we know about Lanza, what we know about the times in which he lived and sang, and how we evaluate great music have changed since these earlier writings. Calleja's comment and your analyses are examples of a more realistic--and yes, even more objective interpretation.

We've had some really good threads here--too many to link--about Time Magazine, The Student Prince, the lip-synching episode. But these stories are often mistold or misinterpreted. For example, wasn't Lanza's insistence on artistic integrity one of the big keys to the arguments surrounding The Student Prince, yet that gets subsumed in "fat and bad-tempered" iterations. These would have to be devastating events to recover from, both because of Lanza's artistic sensibilities, but also because of his enormous and rapid leap to fame in the movie industry, and of course, the personal and professional changes that came to Lanza with MGM's transition from Mayer to Schary. We're more aware of the hazards of those experiences today, I think, than in Lanza's day. Some celebrities coped; some couldn't. I think, too, that many creative people are more open and willing to talk about their craft and the intense personal impact their professional work (think Heath Ledger in Batman or James Gandolfini in The Sopranos) has on their psyches, on their everyday lives--unlike the highly controlled and programmed interviews and press coverage under the studio system in Lanza's day. Male vulnerability wasn't a big topic of conversation in those days or even considered a good thing. Macho was better.

So, I guess I'm saying we have a wider range of dynamics, broader contexts to consider in retelling the Lanza story, and understanding them leads us, actually to a story of his life that has some pretty relevant implications for today,  that resonates in the present. As well as being able, as Armando says, to listen "amazed at the body of work that Mario was able to produce under those circumstances. I hope you'll talk some more! Best, Lee Ann

[Armando]

Hi Lee Ann: In your excellent post you say,

“Male vulnerability wasn't a big topic of conversation in those days or even considered a good thing. Macho was better.”

Exactly --vulnerability was the least of their concerns. The studios were interested in making money for the shareholders and the stars had to obey orders or else. A lot of them did, some, like Bette Davis, didn’t.

But the majority were content with making films. In Mario’s case, the conflict consisted of being torn between the unexpected overnight fame and fortune as a major film star and the increasingly vanishing prospects of an operatic career.  

Mario’s friend, the actor Barry Nelson, a remarkably intelligent person, really said it all when he stated,

“In a theatrical environment you don’t always act with sheer logic. If you do, you are usually avery technical kind of performer and technical kind of performers are usually quite easy to get along with. They’re very logical, but they’re not very interesting or exciting. Mario was exciting, but he paid a very high price for that. When you go into a machine like MGM was, for someone like Mario, it became a predictable conflict. A machine able to project him to great heights and at the same time a machine that would confine him terribly.  It’s very hard to get it both ways.”

Cheers

Armando

[Armando]

Hi Mike: If only some of the know all would stick to playing a guitar!

[Steff]

 

Here's a „new“ one:

"Mario Lanza in Best Voice"                                                                                                                               "Shuns Offer to Sing at Coronation"    by Hedda Hooper Hollywood.

 

Mario Lanza’s voice is better than ever. How do I know? I spent three hours with him. I heard him sing personally and listened to the score he recorded for “The Student Prince.” In both instances he was superb.

Lanza showed me an offer he had from London to sing during the Coronation for more money than he’d ever seen before. He told me he turned it down for two reasons – first because he didn’t think he was worth that much salary; and second, because after all the hullabaloo over his Metro contract, he feels that his first loyalty is to Americans, who made him a star. He has picture offers from every studio in town. (From the Evening World-Herald,  May 9, 1953)

 

Steff

 

[Steff]

 

How about this?

Lanza May Move to London with His ‚Mario, The Great’   by Erskine Johnson

Hollywood – (NEA) – Exclusively Yours: Mario Lanza will sing again – but it may be in England. Just fired by MGM in a year-old row over his failure to report for “The Student Prince,” I hear the singer is plotting with Sir Alexander Korda to film “Mario, the Great” in London, with music by Nick Brodsky, who wrote “Because You’re Mine.” Lanza owns the script.

There could be a hot legal fight over the British film, though, because of MGM’s $ 800,000 lawsuit against the star for alleged costs on the unfilmed “Prince.”                                                                         (from the “Trenton Evening Times”, April 22, 1953)

 

I see that Armando mentions Korda in his book. Not only Lasky but Korda too, had plans to film the life of Caruso starring Mario.

 

Steff 

[Steff]

Now, that we have the discovery of a new Mattinata rendition, I wonder what happened to the following venture:

 

 

   

 

[Derek McGovern]

That's a very curious find, Steff!

 

Of course, in early April 1951, Lanza was still very much on tour, and his only free month would have been May, with the Coke Shows beginning the following month, closely followed by pre-recordings for Because You're Mine. 

 

Looking up Cathy Mastice, whom I'd never heard of, I see she was a 26-year-old mezzo-soprano at the time with some operatic experience.  (She may still be alive too, Steff, if you were in a mood to track her down :) Certainly, she was still with us in 2010.) But soprano Margaret Truman? I can't imagine that Lanza would have been too thrilled about her potential involvement. (He'd already made his feelings clear about her particular talents in an amusing photo at the Hollywood Bowl in 1947 :)) Ezio Pinza, on the other hand---now that would have been interesting! I've always thought it a shame that he didn't appear alongside Lanza in at least one musical scene in The Great Caruso.

 

I wonder how advanced plans for this "experiment" ever got? And what would have been the "B" side of the disc?!

 

Hmm. I would definitely take this story with a grain of salt :)

 

Cheers

Derek 

[Armando]

Margaret Truman as Gilda -heaven forbid! About the only one who appreciated her singing was her father, US president Harry Truman who threatened to punch a critic on the nose after reading a particularly scathing review of his daughter’s “singing talent.”

Armando

[Steff]

Hi Derek and Armando,

 

I knew that you would like the idea of Mario singing/recording with Margret Truman !!!!!! :)

When I read the newspaper note I, like you Derek, thought about Mario's gestures when he stood in front of the Hollywood Bowl poster.

 

Incidentally Derek, did you notice that Mastice also worked with Emanuel Balaban, and even the same year as Mario, 1947? (I see you mentioned Balaban's Broadway operas on the "Who is Who.").

 

http://naxosdirect.co.uk/items/menotti-the-medium-the-telephone-beverly-dame-catherine-mastice-emanuel-balaban-evelyn-keller-marie-powers-marilyn-cotlow-rogier-frank-naxos-historical-8.111370-170456

 

 

However, somehow I tend to believe that the story about the Rigoletto experiment was true. To make it just a good and sensational story worth a newspaper note by Danton Walker or any other columnist they certainly could have chosen a more well-known female singer than Mastice, right?

 

 

Steff

 

 

 

[Steff]

Ciao Armando,

 

speaking of Margaret Truman, I've always wondered if the story is true that she was asked to replace Mario in Las Vegas after he cancelled/was cancelled.

 

Steff

P.S.: the photo (Margaret Truman in 'Rigoletto,' 1953) is from

 

http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/2012/01/margaret-truman-1953-rigoletto.html

 

[Steff]

What about this one:

 

 

[Armando]

Hi Steff: As far as I know the Las Vegas offer was only a rumour which was denied by Margaret Truman herself. Since the story surfaced on March 12, 1955, which was about a month before Lanza’s non- appearance at the New Frontier, it had nothing to do with replacing him.

Ciao

Armando

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff

 

I hadn't realized there was a connection between Cathy Mastice and Emanuel Balaban, but I did know that the former appeared in works by Menotti (whom, of course, Balaban was associated with).

 

As for that Hedda Hopper story, I guess the call from the attaché to the Indian Ambassador did happen, as he's mentioned by name, but I'd be very surprised if the film idea ever progressed beyond that point. Probably just a rush of excitement over Lanza's splendid "Song of India," which had been released just the month before. (Song of Indian doesn't make grammatical sense, by the way, but then Hedda Hopper was never concerned with accuracy of any kind :)) 

 

One thing's for sure, though: all these film projects that were mentioned in the press after Lanza's break-up with MGM sound a heck of a lot more interesting than Seven Hills of Rome!  

 

Cheers

Derek 

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: Here's another purported Lanza movie---this time the bizarre claim that Mario is planning to appear as a singing cowboy under the direction of Seven Hills of Rome's Roy Rowland. Ha! 

                                                                                                                                                                                                   The Daily Globe, 17 January 1958

[Steff]

Hi Derek,

Just by coincidence I had come across a similar newspaper note just the other day.
What film plans will we find next?!!


Steff