Another Tantalizing Operatic What-Might-Have-Been?

[Derek McGovern]

I was intrigued to come across this article today in the 2 February 1952 edition of Billboard:

Mario Lanza has been set for a six-month stint with the La Scala Opera Company in Italy. The appearances will begin in September after the singer completes his next movie, The Vagabond King. Lanza is also negotiating with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York for four appearances with that group. The Met has long been reported anxious to get the flick-disk star to appear in its productions. (Story dated January 26.)

All of the above was certainly news to me! How accurate this reporting was, I'm skeptical about, though -- at least as far as the Met was concerned. Although it's true that as far back as 1946, the then-General Manager, Edward Johnson, had invited Lanza to join the Company, by 1952 the haughty Rudolf Bing had been running the show for two years and was not kindly disposed toward "that film singer."

The La Scala story has a ring of truth about it, though. "A six-month stint" may have been an exaggeration, but we certainly know that two years earlier Victor de Sabata had offered Lanza the opportunity to open the 1950-51 La Scala season. The offer was presumably still on the table in January 1952. There's also a reference by Lanza in an April 1952 letter to his US fan club to being invited to sing with the La Scala Company that year -- although he adds that, "It now looks as though I'll be kept busy here in Hollywood making three more pictures for M-G-M." 

Cold feet caused by the fear of being exposed to the scrutiny of La Scala's demanding patrons? I guess so. Betty was also pregnant again, and expecting in December, so I'm sure that that would have further weakened Mario's resolve. Ah, if only....

The other curious thing about this article, of course, is its reference to The Vagabond King as Lanza's follow-up picture to Because You're Mine! Could Billboard have simply confused it with The Student Prince, or was it really on the cards at that stage? The September time frame for completion is also surprising, as it would have meant beginning pre-recording within a short period of completing Because You're Mine, which Mario was still filming in January 1952.    

Curiouser and curiouser...  

[leeann]

ear Derek,

Aren't the Billboard archives a tremendous place to visit. They're so dense, and it's fun just to wander through, or it can be a place for some serious and useful data collection since early on, anyway, its audience was the recording industry, and certainly their data is the most accurate available in the day.  Certainly, they never failed to push Lanza--to predict success for new releases and report on his professional activities. Something like renewing his contract with RCA in 1954, is of course, documented. Other things--I suspect a bit comes undocumented from supposed Hollywood insiders, but I think it's fair to say the main thrust of their reporting was to help anyone associated with the recording industry to assess their market.

 I've been a Billboard fan since tracing their coverage of The Student Prince/MGM/Mario Lanza saga and finding the statement "Whether Lanza or Metro is to blame in the present situation, it's interesting to note that the studio has gone beyond the usual bounds in dealing with an artist that fails to show up for work."  And that would seem to be true, and at last, even in the short space of their brief articles--perspective and context!  (Now, I wish Variety would digitize as well!)

I wonder if the reference to The Vagabond King came from the prolific Hedda Hopper who let no whisper or casual comment pass unreported as if it were certified truth. She announced, also in 1952, that The Vagabond King was Lanza's next film. I attached the article; the reference is in the third paragraph with an interesting aside about Lanza's father.

I didn't know until I skimmed some databases just how popular The Vagabond King was in the early 1950s--among other things, in 1950 alone, it was staged for six nights at the Hollywood Bowl--the first time that venue had offered an operetta as part of its Symphonies Under the Stars and then, later that year it opened the prestigious Theatre of the Air from Chicago's WGN studios.

But that still doesn't answer where the La Scala story came from!  Best, Lee Ann

PS.  Billboard archives are available in two places that I know of: Google Books and on the Billboard site itself, if anyone wants to have a go.

[Steff]

Hello from Steff from the LanzaLegend forum. I just saw your interesting posts and wanted to contribute a little bit to the discussion:

There are quite a lot references in newspapers regarding Mario playing in the "Vagabond King."
When Oreste eventually got the leading role it was noted (The Tri City Herald; January 12, 1955): "That is the role often mentioned for Mario Lanza and
the young Maltese is bound to be compared with him ..."

In the Toledo Blade June 7,1953 Hedda Hopper stated: "Naturally, he's [Mario] not lacking film offers. Paramount wants him for the "Vagabond King," Warners for "Serenade," and Universal-International for a musical. The first two pictures he definitely wants to do, but he doesn't intend to step before a movie camera until he's gone out and won back!

I have three newspaper clippings which I am adding to my post. Please especially take note of the one dated from April 1952 which even reveals some more interesting plans.

[Armando]

In my opinion a debut in a major theatre like La Scala, in 1952, would not only have been out of the question but sheer madness on Lanza’s part and he knew it.  He was aware that it takes at the very minimum a year of solid operatic performances before you are exposed to the highly critical scrutiny of the Milan or New York critics.

 “You have to work up in opera,” he stated. And, of course, he was right. Earlier, in 1950, he could have taken up the offer to sing Andrea Chenier at the San Francisco Opera. He was not yet quite the household name he was to become only a year later and with solid coaching would have made a splendid Chenier. But it would have taken 4/5 months to study the part plus additional time for rehearsals as well as the actual performances.

How on earth was he supposed to do all that while at the same time finishing filming The Toast of New Orleans, record the soundtrack and film The Great Caruso, (with RCA recording sessions sandwiched in for good measure) all of which took up the better part of 1950. 

Let’s face it; he had to cancel his appearances in New Orleans as Alfredo in La Traviata the year before precisely for the lack of necessary time to work on the role.

Regarding the Vagabond King, it’s possible that MGM considered buying the rights from Paramount, but decided instead to refilm The Student Prince which they owned and didn’t have to pay for.

[Derek McGovern]

Great posts, everyone! But before I go any further, I'd like to extend a hearty welcome to Steff from Germany, who has just joined us today. I've long admired Steff's amazing research skills on all things Lanza (as seen in her numerous posts on the Lanza Legend), and I'm delighted that she's decided to be a part of this forum. Here is Steff's self-introduction:

Being a Mario Lanza fan I am interested in researching, knowing and discussing everything about this great tenor. I love sharing my knowledge and findings with like-minded people who, I hope, in return can "feed" me with their knowledge - it's a giving and taking. Apart from that I was invited to come here. Steff 

Getting back to the discussion at hand, no doubt it would have been very risky for Lanza, as Armando points out, to have appeared at La Scala in 1952 and exposed himself to the extreme stress of all that scrutiny. But from the February and April 1952 articles that Steff's unearthed by Sheila Graham and Hedda Hopper -- gossip columnists, admittedly -- it seems that Mario was planning to go to La Scala, as Betty is quoted as saying, in the autumn of 1952. How far advanced discussions were with the La Scala management (if indeed they'd even begun) would be fascinating to know. Presumably, they would have centered on a single role that he would sing, meaning that "the six-month stint" at La Scala mentioned earlier would have been largely devoted to preparations and rehearsals. 

Incidentally, I found Betty's comments very interesting in the April 1952 Hopper article that Steff attached. This is the first time I've come across any discussion from her about Mario's operatic ambitions, and she's bang on the mark when she talks about Andrea Chénier being "an exacting property" that "fits Mario's voice perfectly." Interesting, too, that she mentions her husband's plan to make "his operatic debut in America with some small company." Of course, Lanza had already made his operatic debut, but the plan to sing Chénier with a small company that year would have made much more sense than going to La Scala at a time when he had only two Pinkertons under his belt.

As for The Vagabond King project, it's clear now from these articles that, as Armando had suggested, MGM was planning to purchase the property from Paramount. But had it really "announced" the project, as Hedda Hopper claims in the 30 January 1952 article that Lee Ann attached here? Whatever the truth, it's obvious now that, contrary to the claims of Callinicos and Terry Robinson, The Student Prince was never set in stone as the follow-up to Because You're Mine; in fact, as late as April 1952 (according to Betty), things were still up in the air, with even a remake of Maytime being rumoured as the next pic!  

A Vagabond King movie with Lanza in 1952? Now that would have worked too -- perhaps as well as The Student Prince (with the right script and decent co-stars & direction). 

Cheers

Derek       

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Lee Ann: I couldn't agree more about the Billboard archives. Once I start exploring them, I can't stop! For instance, a couple of days back, while searching for something on the Cavalcade album, I came across this tidbit about Lanza's RCA contract stalemate in July 1952 -- a momentous point in his career just before he started recording the songs for The Student Prince and his break-up with manager Sam Weiler:

July 26 -- Renewal of Mario Lanza's recording pact with RCA still hung fire at press time as negotiations between the label and its high-selling tenor broke down. Radio Corporation of America Veepee Manie Sacks is on the Coast handling the Lanza talks. Sacks said that the contract which expired last month still remained unrenewed, and there were no definite indications of an immediate successful conclusion of a new pact. According to some sources, difficulty in re-signing Lanza is blamed on his high demands. These, according to some reports, range as high as a $2,000,000 guarantee for a seven-year period to be paid to him in regular payments over twenty years. [Note from me: I find that figure hard to believe. An earlier report in Billboard on 14 June 1952 stated that talks had "completely collapsed" over Mario's demand for $800,000 over 20 years.] Some feel such a contract would be giving Lanza everything but Nipper's collar, hence the deadlock.
Other diskeries, aware of Lanza's pact expiration, have swarmed down on the solid-selling tenor, only to find that his heart still belongs to Red Seal. Indications are that Lanza will eventually re-sign with Victor, only after coming down in his demands.   

I bet in the wake of the massive-selling Student Prince album just two years later that RCA regularly thanked its lucky stars that negotiations were ultimately successful! 

[Steff]

Derek,

First let me thank you for your warm welcome! Much appreciated.

Regarding the "Vagabond King" and MGM planning to purchase the property from Paramount, it is interesting that I found this newspaper note: "MGM bosses look puzzled over Mario's claims that the studio will let him star in 'Carrousel' and 'The Vagabond King.' MGM doesn't own either property." This was printed on March 24, 1953 in the Southeast Missourian.

A for Mario Lanza and La Scala, you mentioned the six-month stint with the Opera Company and that according to the Febr 2, 1952 Billboard issue it was planned for September of the same year.  Interestingly, Hedda Hopper wrote at about the same time in "The Pittsburgh Press" (Febr. 27): "Mario Lanza is doing three radio shows weekly, in addition to rehearsals, hasn't finished his picture at Metro, and is trying to learn 12 operatic roles - the minimum required to study with the La Scala Opera Company in Italy, which he plans to do starting in September ."

In 1949 Hedda Hopper had already mentioned (The Pittsburg Press Nov 18) that Mario Lanza planned to spend a year studying with the La Scala Opera Company in Italy. We know that the Metro contract would only allow him to spent half of the year with doing other projects. According to Hedda Hopper Mario wanted to make "two pictures in a row," which would have given him time to have a complete year off to study in Italy.

I understand that at the beginning of 1950 Mario planned to make his opera debut at La Scala in fall. The plans were put on ice because Betty was expecting a baby that same year.

1952 was the year to finish "Because You're Mine" and to make another picture (Vagabond King or Student Prince?), and - according to Bob Thomas (The Owosso Argus Press, Jan 4, 1952) Mario planned to leave America for 18 months to make about three films in Europe, to realize his La Scala appearance and to give concerts in Europe and South-America. Yet, the Milwaukee Sentinel March 27, 1952 wrote: "Maytime ahead for Lanza" -  As sure as death and taxes, "Maytime," one of the most beautiful musicals ever written, was bound to be remade. Now Mario Lanza has been told that "Maytime" is for him. He was also set to appear with the La Scala Opera Company in Milan this year, but MGM has exercised its option, cancelling the opera commitment until later."  Another reason to cancel his Scala plans in 1952 for sure was Betty's pregnacy which also kept him from coming to the Royal film performance in Nov 1952 to present "BYM").

Incidentally, speaking about Mario appearing at leading European opera houses, Sheila Graham wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 21, 1953 that Mario had told her "I have offers to give concerts at Covent Garden ...." True or not?

Steff

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: I think we have to treat anything that Hopper wrote with a very healthy dose of skepticism, unless it's a direct quote from someone (e.g. the comments from Betty about Mario's operatic and film plans). Hopper was, after all, merely a gossip coIumnist (and a vindictive one at that), and we all know how ridiculously inaccurate (not to mention, mean-spirited) her comments were about Lanza after his death -- particularly in her book The Whole Truth and Nothing But. It annoys me that Lanza's Wikipedia entry now includes quotes from Hopper taken directly from that piece of garbage!

I don't accept for a second, for example, that Mario would have had to learn a minimum of twelve operatic roles in order to sing at La Scala. Hopper's claim makes no sense to me. If Mario had accepted Victor de Sabata's offer for him to sing Andrea Chenier at La Scala, he would have been required to be completely familiar with that role alone -- not eleven additional ones :)

Having said that, making "two pictures in a row" so that he could free himself up for a year does make sense if he was serious about singing on the operatic stage.  MGM wouldn't have liked the idea, though. For one thing, they would have wanted him on hand in Los Angeles to do publicity work for his films when they were released. The MGM executives couldn't have cared less about Lanza's operatic aspirations!

I don't know anything about Mario having offers to sing concerts at Covent Garden, and given the low point in his life when he reportedly said that, it may well have been pure bravado on his part. That's not to say, of course, that Covent Garden wouldn't have been interested in him. But concerts at Covent Garden, rather than an operatic appearance, don't quite add up!

Thanks for sharing those items with us.

Cheers
Derek

[leeann]

Hi, Derek, I was just posting as your post came up, so here it is:

The question, true or not, is perhaps one key here. Newspaper articles are subject to a variety of historic contextual and subjective interpretations.

Hedda Hopper, Sheila Graham, Louella Parsons, and other gossip columnists weren't that concerned about veracity; truth wasn't their primary priority; fact-checking wasn't part of their journalistic scenario. Power lunches and private conversations were. Hopper, among others, leveraged rumour with studio and celebrity power politics. And that's workable,  as long as we understand what gossip columnists did in her heyday, if we look at  where they fit. In fact, as an article in The New York Times states, " 'there was a fey quality to Miss Hopper's columns, owing to dictating, little editing, and no fact-checking". Her journalistic scenario is very much a product of how gossip columnists operated during the studio system. They were power brokers, and she was among the best.

Armando covered her perfectly (not that he needs validation) in American Tragedy. He explained her relationship with Lanza.That personal relationship was different from her columns that talked about studio rumours of potential films, for example. The latter might have come from stage hands; they might have come from studio heads.  And yes, they might have come from the stars themselves, including Lanza; it's clear by now how he loved gaming or teasing people under different circumstances. Hopper was under no mandate to document. Hopper drew on whatever sources gave her information, and people were anxious to do so. She created her own role as an intermediary between Hollywood and the fans; between studios and the public; between stars, the studios and the public. She was perhaps a consummate arbiter.

I think right now, Jennifer Frost  (the source of the New York Times quote) is the  au courant interpreter of Hopper's socio-cultural perspective. You can read excerpts from her book, Hedda Hopper's Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism, on Amazon (the link is for US) and on googlebooks and for those who have access, via articles via Project Muse.  As an aside, interestingly, Hedda Hopper was  a bigot by today's standards--anti-Semitic and totally un-emphathetic to African-American perspectives. And her viewpoints swayed Congressional committees, Oscar awards, and public perceptions. Remembering, it was the post-World War II era and the beginning of the Cold War. She  was further right than Dory Schary when it came to anti-Communism. Egad. Nonetheless, she was  quite amazing for her time.

So, it seems likely that the answer to true or not needs to come from sources other than Hedda Hopper and Sheila Graham et al.

[Steff]

Derek, 
If it was up to the gossip coIumnists Mario Lanza even would have played in at least 20 movies. It is amazing to read about all his alleged film plans (and concert tours) Probably in many cases only wishful thinking of the columnists and just a way to fill the pages in the newspapers ....
Incidentally, I would not even bet that direct quotes in columns were always authentic. I don't want to digress from the topic, but what about the following article from February 1959?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GHNQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dxAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4140,517350&dq=betty+lanza&hl=en

Steff 

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Lee Ann: Thanks for alerting us to that book on Hopper. I'd like to read it, or at least the articles that are available through the wonderful Project Muse.

David Niven had some interesting things to say about Hopper and Parsons in Bring on the Empty Horses. Although Niven himself was hardly a paragon of accuracy, his summing up of both women seems pretty spot on to me. Hopper, he writes, was perfectly happy to publish things that she knew were almost certainly untrue (and he gives examples), but by the mid-50s both her and Parson's power (without responsibility) was on the wane. The younger stars like Brando, Dean and Clift couldn't have cared less what she wrote.

Incidentally, when Lanza singled out Hopper (along with Frank Sinatra and Joe Pasternak) at the 1952 Photoplay Magazine Awards as one of the people who had most helped his career, it's a wonder he didn't incur the wrath of Parsons, Hopper's arch-rival! (Or perhaps he did?) But isn't it outrageous that those essentially without talent should have been able to destroy -- or at least attempt to destroy (in the case of Hopper's campaign against Charlie Chaplin) -- the careers of artistic geniuses?    

Cheers

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: I'm well acquainted with that article, and I would put good money on the quotes being authentic. They're in Mario's voice, as it were -- both in terms of what he says and how he says it. I love the emphasis on opera.

By the way, Terry Robinson and his Hopper-esque cohort Raymond Strait actually used part of that article on page 159 of Lanza: His Tragic Life, sneakily altering it slightly to make it read as though it were a letter from Lanza to his parents. For instance, when reproducing the line "If you don't believe in opera, mister, you don't believe in anything," Robinson & Strait removed the word "mister," which Mario obviously wouldn't have used when addressing his mother and father.     

Cheers

Derek

[leeann]

Steff, your finds have provoked some very interesting discussions here. Thank you for sharing them! Best, Lee Ann

[Derek McGovern]

On our main site, there's an article I put together of conductor Herbert Grossman's reminiscences of working with Lanza, London, Yeend and others for a planned NBC English-language production of La Boheme. In June 1948, the group performed a fifteen-minute chunk from Act IV for RCA Head David Sarnoff. One of the key people with Sarnoff was Grossman's future father-in-law, NBC producer/pianist/music critic Samuel Chotzinoff. Here's Chotzinoff's take on Lanza -- courtesy of detective Steff, who unearthed it: 

From http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UjRIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5QANAAAAIBAJ&pg=891,3236613&dq=mario+lanza+performance&hl=en

Lanza "sang . . . with a poignancy that was. vocally and histrionically, absolutely true." High praise indeed -- especially from someone who knew what he was talking about -- and as Armando remarked to me yesterday, it's yet more proof that Lanza was on the verge of a great operatic career.

[Steff Walzinger]

As an addition…

 

This is what “The Billboard” would report nearly one month later. There was no mention any more about a six-month stint with the La Scala, Milan.

 

Lanza Set for European Tour

Hollywood, March 15. – Mario Lanza will probably leave here some time in September for six months in Europe, bulk of the time to be spent in Italy. Lanza’s personal manager, Sam Weiler, said that the Victor recording star will study for four months in Italy and will do two months with the La Scala Opera Company in operatic roles.

In addition he will work in opera companies playing leading European cities, such as Vienna and Stockholm. European tour is being set by Columbia Artists, New York.

After his return from Europe, Lanza hopes to do a month or two of singing with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. His only previous work with an operatic company was with a summer company in New Orleans in 1948.(The Billboard, March 22, 1952)

 

Interestingly, I came across the following newspaper note from Sheila Graham’s Hollywood column “Hollywood in Person” – Shall we believe this statement reported by a gossip columnist? True or not? We probably will never know …

 

“The Los Angeles Italo-American correspondent wrote the La Scala Opera House in Milan asking if it was true, as locally reported, that Mario Lanza would sing there this autumn. The answer came back on official La Scala letterhead: ‘We’ve never heard of your Mr. Lanza, and haven’t the slightest intention of auditioning him for this season.’” (The Dallas Morning News, June 7, 1952)

 

Steff