Encounters with Mario Lanza in Berlin

[Derek McGovern]

I receive a lot of interesting messages via our Contact page on Mario Lanza, Tenor, and a recent series of emails from a German gentleman named Gerhard Roeder have been no exception. 

At the age of 20, Mr. Roeder met (or saw) Mario Lanza on a number of occasions while he was filming For the First Time in Berlin in November 1958. At the time, Lanza was staying at the historic Kempinski Hotel on the equally famous avenue, Kurfürstendamm (see below, as it looked in 1958). Tenor Jan Kiepura, whose hit song---"Tell Me Tonight"---Lanza had sung on the Coke Shows was also staying at the Kempinski at the same time. 

Mr. Roeder and his young friends---all happily huge Lanza admirers (and students of singing to boot)---first sighted the tenor through the window of the lounge of the hotel. Lanza was with his For the First Time co-star Hans Söhnker. They then saw him stand up to greet Zsa Zsa Gabor, kissing her on the hand.  

Gerhard's first encounter with Lanza was in the hotel lobby. Mario raised his eyebrows as he saw his young admirer rushing towards him and "didn't looked amused." However, as soon as Gerhard apologized for his over-enthusiasm, "he smiled at me---his smile we saw so often in the movies---and I got my first autograph."

Lanza looked tanned (he'd been in Capri the month before) and well, apart from "a little darkness under the eyes" and had shorter hair than "the tower" he had in Serenade. "He looked only a little tired after a long day of filming." 

Gerhard and his friends saw Lanza on quite a number of occasions after that. "Most evenings he started after dinner to a walk on the Kurfürstendamm with his friends." These included Lanza's press agent, Sam Steinman (see below), noted cinematographer Aldo Tonti, and George Stoll (of "Pineapple Pickers" notoriety) and his wife. Betty Lanza later arrived in Berlin, and they would see Mario walking with her along the Kurfürstendamm.

Not wanting to bother Lanza, Gerhard and his friends didn't often speak to him. However, on one evening they happened to get talking, and Gerhard asked Lanza what he would be singing in For the First Time. Lanza mentioned "O Sole Mio" and other songs. When Gerhard replied that he and his friends were more interested in hearing him sing opera, Lanza added that "Vesti la Giubba" and the Otello Death Scene were also featured in the film.

"Wow!" Gerhard and his friends reacted, making Lanza break into a big smile.

They then tried to pin him down as to when he might return to Berlin to give a concert (telling him that he was bound to be a huge success), but he was non-committal.

On another night, Gerhard recalls, some over-zealous fans attempted to take close-up photos of Lanza with flash, but "we pushed them away." However, later in the evening, Lanza came out onto the steps of the hotel, held everyone's hands, and said in German "Gute Nacht."

Such are Gerhard Roeder's precious memories of those cold, "misty November days" 55 years ago. 

There is an epilogue, however: some weeks later, Gerhard was working in a record store in Berlin when George Stoll's wife entered the shop to buy the score of Aida. Recognizing Gerhard, she told him that she had just been speaking to Lanza on the phone, that he was "in good shape," and making a new album, Mario! She added (and not just to be polite, Gerhard felt), "I understand that you are a true fan. I will manage that you and your friends have a meal together with Mario when he [makes his] next film in Berlin."

And that's Gerhard's delightful story! The three photos here were taken by his (understandably) nervous girlfriend, and (of course!) without a flash. I think we're very lucky to be able to see these rare snapshots of Lanza, barely eleven months before his death. The balding man, incidentally, in the two pics below is Sam Steinman---and if you're wondering why Mario looks a little shorter than usual here, as Armando pointed out to me privately, that's because he's not wearing his usual "built-up" shoes here. 

Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Gerhard Roeder, for sharing these with us. (And that's the young Gerhard himself, by the way, partially obscured behind Lanza on the right.)

  

[Barnabas Nemeth]

Nice story. Unfortunately, he looked tired and far more older than his real age at that time.

Barnabas

[leeann]

It's impossible not to smile at this reminiscence. What a great story, a great memory. And an interesting comparison with the frenzy of fan attacks that also accompanied Lanza at other times and occasions. And Mr. Röder's story is certainly yet another confirmation that it was Lanza's operatic repertoire that was so important.

Thank you so much.

Even though Lanza does seem tired, unwell--a look perhaps exaggerated by the black and white photography and by the age of the photographs--the images seem to emphasize a gravitas to him now--the maturity reflected in his music of these last years. Lee Ann

[Derek McGovern]

As a one-time photographer myself (specializing in black and white), I know that grainy low-light photos are seldom very flattering to subjects (especially around the person's eyes), so I immediately thought, as  Lee Ann did, that these pics---if anything---probably accentuated Lanza's tiredness. 

In fact, Gerhard himself has just confirmed that in an email to me. He says that Lanza definitely looked better in person than in these photos. Lanza had a little darkness under the eyes---typical, Gerhard says, of other Southern Europeans he has seen (such as Domingo)---but didn't look especially tired. Gerhard also shared a few other memories:

"I only once [saw] Mario in a bad mood [during his last week in Berlin]. I was waiting before the reception, Mario came out from a telefon-box after a call. Maybe the news [had] been bad for him. His face was very angry." Perhaps wisely, Gerhard decided not to speak to him that day! 

He also twice saw Lanza sitting in the Kempinski Hotel Verander, speaking with "two elegant Italians" in Italian. On one occasion, Gerhard and his friend Klaus (despite having very little money) ventured into the Verander while Lanza was there, observing to their surprise that he was drinking only mineral water :) A journalist who later questioned Gerhard and his friend about what they had seen Lanza imbibing was disappointed by their truthful answer! 

Gerhard and his friends also met Betty (on the same evening that Mario had told them about the musical selections in For the First Time), and they found her very friendly.

By the way, I've corrected the spelling of Gerhard's surname in my original post. It's actually "Roeder" (my mistake).

Cheers

Derek 

[Michele]

Hi Derek,
Thanks for this story of Gerhard's meeting with Mario.  I just wish I'd been the one to at least see him but to meet him as well, just wonderful.
Michele

On Saturday, May 10, 2014 11:29:28 PM UTC+8, Derek McGovern wrote:

I'm just bumping this fascinating thread back up to the top of the list for the benefit of anyone who missed it the first time round. 

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Michele: I'm sure you're not the only person to have read Gerhard's account and wished s/he could have been there :) I was just thinking: if Armando hadn't emigrated to Australia in 1952---and remained in Italy---I'm sure as an enterprising teenager, he would have done his utmost to meet Mario (even if it meant knocking on the door at the Villa Badoglio!).

As for Gerhard, if indeed Mario had returned to Berlin and Mrs Stoll had kept her word about organizing a meal with him, just imagine what they could have talked about! Gerhard, being a highly musical person and an opera lover, would have been able to discuss the For the First Time soundtrack as well as the Mario! album (one of his favourite records) with his idol. But at least he got the chance to be told by the man himself about some of the opera content in FTFT. I loved Gerhard and his friends' "Wow!" reaction to this---and, of course, Lanza's big smile! 

[Derek McGovern]

Gerhard Roeder has very kindly sent me two more photos from his 1958 encounters with Mario Lanza in Berlin. It's great that he keeps finding these things! In the photo on the left, that's Gerhard (wearing glasses) with his friend Klaus, photographed as they were looking at their idol. 

[Armando]

On Monday, May 19, 2014 11:17:38 PM UTC+10, Derek McGovern wrote:

Hi Michele: I'm sure you're not the only person to have read Gerhard's account and wished s/he could have been there :) I was just thinking: if Armando hadn't emigrated to Australia in 1952---and remained in Italy---I'm sure as an enterprising teenager, he would have done his utmost to meet Mario (even if it meant knocking on the door at the Villa Badoglio!).

You can bet on it, Derek! Had I still been in Italy nothing would have stopped me from meeting Mario. I was so looking forward to his coming to Australia on the announced concert tour when the news of his tragic death struck like a thunderbolt.

Many thanks to Gerhardt for sharing those precious memories.

[Derek McGovern]

I'm just bumping this fascinating thread back up to the top of the list for the benefit of anyone who may have missed it the first time round.

[kuzmish...@mail.ru]

Hi, everybody! About 2 years ago I was corresponding with a lady from Berlin, Mrs.Űrsula Muller (born in1937) who had sent me several photos of Mario and Betty made in late November 1958. Unfortunately I don't know how to post these photos here. They were dressed in the same way as on the photos above.The photos were made when they were leaving the cinema after watching "Witness for the Prosecution", the last Tyrone Power's film. Mrs.Muller, then a young girl, was working as an usher in that cinema.Their administrator gave the staff a strict orded not to bother Lanzas with questions or autographs. And so they did.But at the exit Űrsula heard how Mario and Betty discussed the film and mentioned late Tyrone Power with great sadness.Mario looked tired and depressed, but when a young man(not the one on the photo above)approached him for an autograph,he gave it, though without his usual smile or any comments. After it they quickly left by car which was waiting.
If you can tell me how to post the photos I'll gladly do it.

[Derek McGovern]

Hi: It would be great to see those photos.

There are two ways to post photos here: You can either attach them to your post by clicking on "Attach a file" (see left, below) or insert them directly into your post, one at a time, by clicking on the image that I've circled in yellow below (underneath "Canned response").

Good luck!

[kuzmish...@mail.ru]

Hi! It seems that Űrsula's photos are from the same origin as published above, though are a bit different. Unfortunately on my I-pad the instruments for enclosing photos you've shown are absent.