Miscellaneous Lanza-related comments and questions (February-May 2014)

[Derek McGovern]

Well, there was a loading problem with the second page of our previous Miscellaneous Lanza thread, so here's a new miscellaneous thread to take us up to the end of May 2014. As always, please use this particular thread for any general comments or questions about Mario Lanza.  

For any non-Lanza-related general posts, please use the current Off-Topic Chat Thread. 

Cheers,

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

I stumbled upon this amusing 2011 interview with Canadian tenor Ben Heppner today:

Ben Heppner: Our house was filled with music, as we were sort of amateur musicians, all. Never thought about going into music at all but my mother, in particular, had a real musical bent. She sang; she played piano by ear. So we listened a lot to parlor songs and anything with Mario Lanza.

 

My CD My Secret Heart was really based, not so much on the music we listened to but, more on the lifespan of my mother, from her birth to my birth. There’s “Roses of Picardy.” It was probably the earliest pieces, you know, parlor songs. And then the latest is “Be My Love”—1956, close to New Orleans, Mario Lanza—so I had to put it on [the CD].

 

There’s a little funny story that goes with that. In ’91, I was working in Geneva in September, and I got the call from the Metropolitan Opera asking if I would come and sing a Mozart Opera there. It was very exciting, and I was going to be doing that in December. I phoned Mom—she was in Edmonton, I was in Geneva, Switzerland—and she’s relatively deaf. The routine she uses to cover herself, is to take the topic and basically talk from that moment on. So I said to her “Mom, I have some exciting news. I’m going to be making my debut at the Metropolitan Opera.” She hears “opera”, and she says, “Oh, and I just heard the Enrico Caruso story with Mario Lanza.” I said, “HELLO MOM, I’m making MY debut at the Metropolitan Opera.” And she said, “Oh, and that Mario Lanza, you know, he really can sing. A favorite of mine.” So I had to [include "Be My Love"] for Mom.

[From http://jazztimes.com/articles/28715-ben-heppner-from-lanza-to-louis ]

[Armando]

A quote from Michael Bolton’s autobiography,

“My mother was more passionate about music. She had an extensive record collection of show tunes, and like many women of her era, she was a big fan of the dashing Mario Lanza, an operatic tenor who became a movie star.”

Here’s the link to the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-All-My-Music-Life/dp/1455523658/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391820964&sr=1-1&keywords=michael+bolton+the+soul+of+it+all#reader_1455523658

[Derek McGovern]

I've just been revisiting page three of our Mario Lanza Scrapbook. I love this page (which has nothing to do with me, I should add), with its costume designs---complete with handwritten comments by Lanza---all four of which are so vivid and seemingly three-dimensional that one can almost touch the material. What an unexpected find; sterling work, Steff! I'm also impressed by the way Lee Ann has designed and assembled the page, with its photos and video clips to enhance the costume designs.

In short, a highly recommended feature!   

[Derek McGovern]

Although this article is probably old hat to many, it was new to me:

 

http://broadwaystars.com/ellis-nassour/2005/01/late-tenor-mario-lanza-golden.shtml

The comments about Lanza's personality and voice by Ann Blyth are most complimentary (and even Kathryn Grayson chimes in with praise). For example (in a discussion on The Great Caruso):

"It was a great fit," added Miss Blyth. "We got on quite, quite well and it was a thoroughly delightful shoot. I only got to sing one number, "The Loveliest Night of the Year," in the scene where the song was used for the moment where Caruso learns he is to become a father. It was a sweet scene. That song, whose music was used in many movies at MGM as background score, became a hit when they added lyrics. And went on to become a classic. It still holds up today."

Did Lanza have demons, drink heavily, throw tantrums? Did he have a great voice or did directors have to shoot and reshoot, do numerous retakes of his musical numbers and the sound engineers have to edit them to get them right?

"There are so many myths surrounding Mario," she says with frustration. "I can only speak from my experience. His voice was so powerful and he sang with such passion; and he was incredibly handsome and quite masculine, so you just couldn't help being swept off your feet.

"Some of the opera stars who were in the film told me they had their moments with him and his temperamental outbursts," she continues, "but I never saw that side of him. Our scenes on The Great Caruso went smoothly and, when I got The Student Prince, I looked forward to working with him again. 

There are still Lanza detractors who claim that since he sorely lacked the training and discipline to become a serious opera star his vocals had to be manipulated by sound engineers and through numerous retakes.
Miss Blyth and Miss Grayson quickly debunk those accusations.

 

"Nothing could be further from the truth," says Miss Blyth. " I was there, on the soundstages and in the recording sessions. Mario had a great voice, a gift."

[leeann]

An historic news clip I'd never seen came across on Google Alerts today.  Directed by Gino Campolongo, it's entitled "Mario Lanza a Napoli." and described as "La venuta di Mario Lanza nel 1959 ad opera di Luigi Campolongo per la Festa di San Vincenzo Ferreri ... 'O Munacone"  The voiceover is in Italian. Lanza is extraordinarily thin. The event festive. Many others in the group are identified. I'm wondering at the context--and, actually, does the date, 1959, seem correct?  Lee Ann

[Derek McGovern]

Fascinating, Lee Ann! This is footage of Lanza in Naples on July 14, 1957, and in the company of such rogues as local "businessman" Luigi ("no nose") Campolongo and Al Teitelbaum, who can be seen at the 0.48 mark (and elsewhere). I presume it was filmed by one of Campolongo's family. Too bad he didn't keep the camera rolling when Lanza performed in the huge Piazza della Sanita' later that day!

The background to the event is covered in our Mario Lanza Scrapbook:

http://www.mariolanzatenor.com/a-lanza-scrapbook-page-two.html#bureau 

Cheers

Derek

[leeann]

I was hoping that was the event; however, as we know from those Bureau of Narcotics reports, then, not only was it in 1957, but it was also the Feast of San Gennaro. The BNA reports made it clear that Lanza's contact with Campolongo was brief--it didn't make sense there'd be a recurrence two years later. What a great YouTube post! So now we have a couple of perspectives of an interesting day from these archival documents and images!

[Vincent Di Placido]

Such fascinating posts!!! I loved Ann Blyth's memories of Mario & Lee Ann that footage of Mario in Naples is fantastic. Fair play to that singer performing for Mario! I wish we had the sound :-(

I uploaded the scene from "Bird", the 1988 Clint Eastwood biopic of Charlie Parker, when Mario Lanza is heard singing & Charlie Parker taks about wanting to work with him. We talked about this scene before but I finally got it to upload today...

http://youtu.be/TrPn3Lsmlm0

[Derek McGovern]

Lee Ann just sent me this link to a delightful program on Lanza and other operatic artists that was broadcast yesterday on WQXR's "Operavore" show:

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/mario-lanza/

It's wonderful to hear Marilyn Horne emphatically rejecting the suggestion that Lanza had a small voice---"No, no, no! This was the real McCoy!"---and describing him as "a real spinto" who "made his mark---no question about it." It's also a delight to hear Joseph Calleja again telling us that, "This is the most beautiful sound that can emanate from a man."

The musical choices were good---curiously enough, two of them were taken from the rare Rhino CD of MGM recordings---and really the only negative was the inevitable rehashing of myths about Lanza ("couldn't learn roles;" "product of the recording studios") in the comments section at the above link. (But I've posted my own response to those naysayers :))

Enjoy the programme---and thank you, Lee Ann, for alerting us to it!

Cheers

Derek

[Vincent Di Placido]

I thought I'd post the links to the slideshow I put together to accompany the 2009 BBC radio program "The Mario Lanza Story", narrated by Kiri Te Kanawa. 

 There are some great contributions on here from Armando, Joseph Calleja & Andrew Bain who of course helped produce this show.

 Unfortunately I had to split it into 4 parts as Youtube have me flagged as a kind of rogue uploader so I can't upload more than 15 minute clips :-( That's what I get for my flagrant disregarrd for copyright :-) 

  I did this 5 years ago & would love to attack it again as I didn't even think about the fact that I could have had actual video footage at some points, anyway it's entertaining just the same. Enjoy...

part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owUSGN7w7Iw

part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfkCQRCAFDc

part 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q37RwkA0Cs

part 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYdEnSTjN7Q

[Vincent Di Placido]

Thank you Lee Ann & Derek, I enjoyed that wee program. Great to hear Marilyn Horne's memories (even though she was wrong about the duet with Grayson) her obvious crush on Mario was funny. Joseph Calleja has hit the nail on the head Mario's voice definitely is the most beautiful sound that has ever emanated from a man, it's as simple as that. I enjoyed the Dorothy Kirsten clips also...

[Derek McGovern]

It was nice to find opera blogger James Camner (formerly an Opera News reviewer and feature writer) posting the following on Opera-L last week:

There is no question that the most influential and successful opera bio-pic
ever is The Great Caruso.

The influence of it can't be overstated. It was a huge success. It was the
album of it that made me an opera fan and I know that the movie affected
millions, not to mention the great singers who were inspired to go into
opera because of it.

I think Lanza deserves a ton of credit for the success of it. He was
special, one of the great tenor voices ever and a marvelous film performer.
The film remains remarkably watchable and enjoyable, even though most of it
is nonsense, history wise, it still works. Somehow it captures the romance
and magical essence of the glamor and allure of Italian opera, during a

golden period, as no other film I've seen has. 

Opera-L isn't always the kindest forum to Lanza, so good on Mr. Camner for disregarding the opinions of the man's many detractors there! 

[Vincent Di Placido]

Nice piece, Derek. I have to say that we are living in an era where for the most part Mario is finally getting credit, praise & recognition! I remember when I was growing up you almost had to apologise to some people for being a Lanza fan, it never stopped me of course :-) I always felt he was a truly great artist & definitely my favourite Tenor "sound". My own music teacher who I adored & gave me so much help & encouragement at school was himself a bit of a snob about Lanza, I remember talking to him after Because You're Mine had been on tv the night before & he just thought Lanza was over the top Hollywood on The Lord's Prayer & I answered in my enthusiastic teenage way, "Rubbish, that's Passion!" It wasn't all bad though that same day he introduced me to one of my favourite albums Montserrat Caballe's Puccini Arias from 1969, a classic!
It's great that people now can openly show their love of Lanza & praise his artistry. I know Mario knew fame & celebrity but I would have loved him to have lived to know how much he is respected as an artist & how much we appreciate his genius of interpretation & phrasing for example.

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Vince: I'm amazed that your music teacher thought that the Because You're Mine version of The Lord's Prayer was "over the top Hollywood"! It's a beautifully restrained rendition, with just the right amount of excitement at the end. Your teacher must have been a snob!

Amazingly, my mother had the opposite experience with her high school music teacher. She remembers the entire school being treated to an admiring talk on Lanza at assembly by her music teacher. This was shortly after The Great Caruso had come out, and she recalls that the teacher ended his talk by playing Mario's recording of the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria."

Still, by the time I discovered Mario over 20 years later, the snobs were very much out in force in my country. It really wasn't until the late 80s/early 1990s that attitudes started changing. In fact, I remember an Australian newspaper article around that time---with the headline (I think) "Lanza fans out of the Closet"---making that very point. 

By the way, that Caballe Puccini album certainly is gorgeous! 

Cheers,

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

I came across this typically negative piece on Lanza by Sheilah Graham today. Little wonder that just over a year later Mario (apparently) got his revenge when he called her up pretending to be actor George Sanders, and insulting her!

But among all the nonsense in this article, e.g. the 300 pounds that Lanza had supposedly reached (despite Graham acknowledging that no one had lain eyes on him, much less visited him with a set of scales!), and the claim that only two songs sung by him would be featured on the soundtrack of The Student Prince, I did wonder about one thing. Graham mentions that RCA's attempt to record The Student Prince with Lanza in December 1953 (she gets the month wrong) failed because "Lanza appeared emotionally upset." This is quite different from Callinicos' claim in his book that vocal problems were the reason the session had to be aborted. I wonder which account is correct? Callinicos, after all, is hardly a paragon of accuracy in his book.

The one living person who may still be able to recall what really happened at that session is soprano Gale Sherwood, whom we know from the recording logs did sing one duet ("Summertime in Heidelberg") with Lanza.  It would be nice to track her down...   

[leeann]

And yet another  testament to changes from the rather snobbish, derogatory--and yes, stereotypical--1950s perception of Mario Lanza to present-day acknowledgement of the magnificence, versatility,  and totality of his gifts.

Last month, music critic and composer Greg Sandow  wrote a post in his blog, artsjournal about his personal response to Lanza's music in The Great Caruso.  Sandow blogs about the future of classical music, and in this post, there's more than a little nostalgia for what may well be a somewhat revisionist view of of the role of opera in the past, "I wish I lived in a world where it was loved by others as much as it was when The Great Caruso was made. " 

"..Lanza shows — classical music could be so much freer in the 1950s (and even more so, of course, in the early 20th century, when Caruso ruled) than it is now. These days, even Italian opera is performed with a kind of frame around it, with an aura that says, “This is art.” 

That seems arguable, given, really, that so many of the critics in Lanza's time put him down because he didn't meet contemporary standards of "art." Sonja Levien, the scriptwriter of The Great Caruso saw it the other way around--that Lanza bridged that divide between opera afficionadoes and the public at large and  brought a wider public into listening to opera. (See this excerpt from a speech by Sonja Levien, on the website.)

But Sandow's goals include reviving and perpetuating and improving the realm of classical music today, and that's an enormous discussion.

Regardless, Sandow "gets" Lanza as a total package,the movie for the wide impact it had on the public, and Lanza's technical and musical virtuosity.

..., with no caveats, one of the very greatest — most powerful, most passionate, most communicative, most thrilling, most idiomatic, most faithful to the words, most vocally splendid — Italian tenors who ever lived. Soars up to high C like he’s thrilling with joy on a big drop on a roller coaster.

"How great he was," Sandow states.

Then, in addition, Sandow's links to YouTube Lanza selections include several from Vince (so, we know they're fantastic)!

[norma]

What a wonderful description of Mario 's voice.I am sure we would all agree.It seems so typical of those who dismissed him but had never really listened to his voice.
Norma

[Derek McGovern]

Lee Ann: Thank you so much for alerting us to Greg Sandow's wonderful blog post. It's heartening to find such praise coming from a critic of Sandow's distinguished background. And I just love his "no caveats"---no-holds-barred---endorsement of Lanza! Such honesty, and such enthusiasm.

I wonder if he's played Lanza to his students on his current music course at Juilliard? I wouldn't be surprised at all.

When I have more time, I'd like to comment further on Sandow's very moving blog post. I also plan to drop him a line.

Cheers,

Derek

  

[Derek McGovern]

I see that the Andromeda label (which previously released the 1947 Hollywood concert in its entirety) has just brought out a Lanza 2-CD set entitled Mario Lanza: Live Recordings 1940-1950: 

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Andromeda/ANDRCD9121

(It's also available from the UK amazon)

Hmm. Considering that the earliest Lanza live recordings we have are radio performances from 1945, and that there are no live recordings from 1950 in existence, Andromeda is certainly misleading potential buyers with its title! The 1940 recordings are in fact Lanza's earliest private records, while the 1950 performances on this disc are from Hedda Hopper's radio show (and they weren't live either, as an edit at the end of "Be My Love" reveals).  

Andromeda also claims that one of the arias on this set is from Giordano's La Cena delle Beffe. If only! They must be referring to the "unknown aria"---but it's already been established that the elusive piece is not from that opera. Another mistake is their listing of "Ah Moon of My Delight" from In a Persian Garden as "Myself When Young"!

Is anyone planning to buy this set? Andromeda claims that the sound has been remastered; if so, let's hope it makes up for the shoddy attention to track listings and the title :)

Cheers,

Derek

[Vincent Di Placido]

Thanks for the heads up on this release Derek. I've just ordered it. I couldn't resist :-) It's a shame about the mistakes on the listings but maybe there could be some good remastering work here.

The completist in me always grabs these releases...

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Vince: I was pretty confident you'd be tempted :) As for me, I'm always a little cautious about buying these "unknown" releases, since the postage costs are high to my part of the world---usually more than the CD itself. 

Anyway, I look forward to your report on the sound quality!

Cheers,

Derek

[norma]

Derek,I have a VHS of The Christopher Programme but I would like to have a It on a CD.Is it possible to purchase it?
Norma

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Norma: The Christopher Programme isn't available on a CD, although it would be easy enough to download it from YouTube (where the whole show is available, thanks to Vince) and convert it to an MP3, which you could then burn to CD yourself.

But if it's a DVD of the programme that you want, yes there is one available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Mario-Lanza/dp/B000FA57KI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1398731949&sr=8-3&keywords=Mario+Lanza+DVD

(You can also order the above from the UK version of amazon for 13.50 pounds.)

Just be aware, however, that this DVD is for TVs with the (American) NTSC format. The UK, where you are, uses PAL. That means you'll need to play it on a DVD and TV that are NTSC/PAL compatible. (I think most are.)

Cheers,

Derek

P.S. Of course you can always watch the entire Christopher programme on our site:

http://www.mariolanzatenor.com/video-television-appearances.html#christophers2

[norma]

Sorry to ask again but does this DVD include all the conversations between Mario,Betty and the priest?
Norma

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Norma:

Yes, that DVD does include the complete Christopher programme (songs + interview).

Cheers,

Derek

[Vincent Di Placido]

The new "Live" 2 cd set arrived a couple of days ago & all the tracks sound good. On the first disc nothing is earth shatteringly different or better but I have only had time to skip through it once, I'm busy straightening up the house for a couple of guests visiting this weekend :-)

The "Agnus Dei" & "Nessun Dorma" sound VERY good. The Toronto selections have a drag from running at the wrong speed, there has been no correction which is a shame. Unfortunately "Thine Alone" with Kathryn Grayson is also running very slightly too slow, Kathryn Grayson benefits from this actually :-)

Overall so far the only selections that have made me glad I got this are the 1948 Hollywood Bowl solos.

 

 

 

[Derek McGovern]

Thanks for the report, Vince. I think I'll give this CD set a miss, as we already have good---very good in the case of "Agnus Dei"---reproductions of both 1948 Hollywood Bowl solos on our main site. 

By the way, I trust the "Nessun dorma" hasn't been lifted from that doctored version (with the fake extended high B) that Jeff Rense released some years back!

Cheers,

Derek

P.S. My warmest greetings to your illustrious house guests :) 

[Steff]

Hello to everyone!

 

Just a quick visit here, as I was very busy in “own matters” for quite a while and will be so for more weeks to come, but I thought the following might be of some interest.

 

I call my following observation “THE VOICE BEHIND THE VOICE”

 

The other day I was listening to Mario's aria "Ch'ella me creda" and I listened with in-ear-headphones, which I usually avoid when it comes to old recordings that have that crackling sound.  The four private recordings which Mario did in 1940, are, as we know, not in brilliant sound quality and at times even have kind of echo-sound. However, I noticed that, apart from that, the aria "Ch'ella me creda" has to offer something special which one would not necessarily notice at the first, second or even third listen.

 

Have a listen to the aria on you-tube where it starts at minute 2:34.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idPhMeVG8ZU

 

At  about minute 3:16 ("ed’io, ed'io non tornero") I noticed another, deeper, male voice in the background, which appears to sing a few notes along with Mario (at minute 3:20 the voice even holds the note longer than Mario, so you can hear it very clearly!).

 

Now my question, who belongs this voice to? Are we actually hearing a rehearsal here (unlike the other three recordings of the same (?) recording session)? Is the man with the bass-baritone voice (I tend to believe that he is the same who accompanies Mario at the piano?) coaching Mario (maybe teaching his phrasing)?

 

Did Mario have a voice teacher at that time?  I was reminded of the baritone Antonio Scarduzzo who was consulted by Mario's parents, but I understand this was much earlier, in about 1937. Rosati was Mario’s teacher only after Mario’s army time, and Spadoni was not associated with Mario’s career before 1948. I think the soprano Irene Williams was around in the early 1940s (to coach Mario in learning some opera pieces), but was there also a male teacher?

Any idea?

Steff

[Barnabas Nemeth]

I had not heard this record. What a talented voice at the age of 19! But this was not a Lanza style yet. As if he would have tried to simulate the sound and style of Caruso. Fortunately, later he changed.  Cheers, Barnabas

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff,

Sorry to disappoint you, but the separate voice you're hearing is actually Mario's! I'm 100% sure of this. At some point, when the acetates were transferred to tape, a kind of "tape delay" (like a delayed echo) inadvertently occurred. The same thing can be heard on some of Mario's 1952 home recordings, which were taped on what would have been an early model open reel-to-reel machine (and, I think, on some of his 1944 recordings for Maria Margelli). It's possible that these 1940 acetates were transferred to tape at that time---and that that's when the delay problem occurred.

By the way, the only male teacher I'm aware of who may have been coaching Mario in 1940 was tenor Rodolfo Pili (1891-1957) of the Apollo Grand Opera Company in Philadelphia. According to Eddie Durso, Mario hated Pili's teaching, feeling that the latter's methods were ruining his voice. He then vowed to take revenge by stealing Pili's prized violin...:)

Cheers,

Derek 

[Derek McGovern]

It was a nice surprise to hear Lanza singing "La donna è mobile" today on, of all things, a Korean TV cooking programme. And it's testament to that unique timbre that even though I was in another room---and the volume on the TV was down low---Mario's voice was still instantly recognizable. Could we say the same about any of today's leading tenors? I doubt it.

[Vincent Di Placido]

Last week I was watching a documentary on the history of the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" & specifically it's connection to the Liverpool & Celtic football clubs & they did a montage of recordings since it's 1945 Carousel debut & Mario's "Lanza on Broadway" album cover appeared on screen & thankully they played his Coke recording. It was a nice surprise!

[Derek McGovern]

Earlier today Norma posted the following query, which I'm moving to this thread (just to keep things tidy):

Dear Derek Some years back I downloaded a list of your choices for Mario CDs.On the list I think you chose the1952 recording of Wonder Why but I notice on the Home page list you have chosen the1951 recording.Can you tell me which you think is the best and why?
   Norma

Hi Norma: That earlier list contained a typo! There is no 1952 version of "Wonder Why." If you're confused in future about the number of versions of an aria, song, duet, etc, that Mario recorded, don't forget that our discography lists all known renditions (and where multiple versions exist, I've highlighted my personal favourite): 

http://www.mariolanzatenor.com/discography.html

Cheers,

Derek

[norma]

Now I am completely confused.I have a list if the Coke shows from The British M. L. Society which has Mario singing Wonder Why on2/9/1951 and on 29/2/1952.On Youtube the recording is dated. 1952. I think there used to be a 1951 recording on Youtube as well.
Norma

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Norma: Those dates on the BMLS list are the broadcast dates, not the recording date, which was 21 August 1951. As I wrote in my previous post, there is only one version of "Wonder Why." It was first broadcast in September 1951, and then the same recording was repeated in February 1952. Quite a few of the Coke recordings were played more than once on the shows. That's why, for example, there are two different spoken introductions by Mario for his recording of "The Moon Was Yellow"---one for each time the same recording was broadcast.

Cheers,

Derek

[norma]

Thanks for clearing up my query.I did not realise that the same recording would be broadcast twice.Thanks again.
Norma

[Derek McGovern]

I see on the Rense forum this evening that Terry Robinson has died. He was 98. 

Strangely enough, only this morning I was reading an inscription that Robinson had written on the back of my Mario! album cover in 1981. My stereo copy of that LP was actually a gift from him (along with a bootleg LP put out by Sam Weiler of the first Coke Show), and I was reminded that my own dealings with him had been perfectly pleasant. Mind you, I did pre-order a lot of copies of his book on behalf of members of the NZ Mario Lanza Society---a decision I'd later regret!

Speaking of that book---Lanza: His Tragic Life---when I attended the British Mario Lanza Society get-together in Birmingham in 1982, feelings were still running very high among the people I spoke to there at what they saw as betrayal on Terry's part. Even today, it's hard not to disagree with that view. The Robinson-Strait book is not the work of a friend. It's a dishonest work, worthless as biography (given how much of it has been disproved), gratuitous in its sleazy recounting of dubious sexual escapades, and shameless in its promotion of the Mafia myth---a myth that stubbornly refuses to go away. 

Why did Terry Robinson lie so much about Lanza? Some of it was relatively harmless, such as his ever-changing accounts of a Presley-Lanza meeting that (as he once acknowledged to me) had never happened, or his bizarre insistence that Mario was 5' 10½" in his socks---or his hilariously contradictory statements about Joan Fontaine---but the Mafia insinuations were pure sensationalism invented to sell his book. Mario Lanza deserved better. 

For me, the saddest thing about all the exaggeration and invention is that it ultimately cast doubt on anything that Terry had to say about Mario. There were times when I wanted to believe some of his anecdotes---e.g. his tale of a Lanza/Bjoerling meeting, and his recounting of Mario's behavior on the day of his first recording of "I'll Walk with God"---but skepticism ultimately won out because of his track record.  

I don't believe that simply because a person lives to a great age, he/she should be venerated. (There's been too much of that in certain Lanza circles---just think of the tributes to Al Teitelbaum!) But I get no enjoyment from pointing out that, regardless of the glowing opinions of those (like Derek Mannering) who knew Terry late in his life---or how devoted a husband and stepfather he may have been---he did his supposed best friend a huge disservice with that book.   

[leeann]

You know, Derek, I was thinking...when a public figure dies, obituaries even-handedly review their successes and their less brilliant moments.

It is one thing to honor and remember personal qualities, friendships, the good that people have given during their lives.  It's important.

It is quite another to canonize a lifetime.  Robinson's book tarnished Lanza's memory, and the exaggerations, myths, and outright falsities of it are repeated and repeated as if they were true.

I think it took some courage to say that the emperor Robinson had no clothes in this particular circumstance, but it needed to be said.