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Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 - March 6, 1967) was an American singer who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. Although he was a classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald.
During his 40-year career, he earned three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one each for film, recording, and radio), left his footprints in the wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater, earned three Gold Records, and was invited to sing at the third inauguration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He also introduced millions of young Americans to classical music and inspired many of them to pursue a musical career.
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the only child of William Darius Eddy and Isabel Kendrick Eddy. His father was a machinist and toolmaker whose work required him to move from town to town. Nelson grew up in Providence and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and in New Bedford, Massachusetts. As a boy, he was a redhead and quickly acquired the nickname "Bricktop." As an adult, his red hair was streaked with silver, so that his hair photographed as blond.
Nelson came from a musical family. His Atlanta-born mother was a church soloist, and his grandmother, Caroline Ackerman Kendrick, was a distinguished oratorio singer. His ancestry on his mother’s side of the family was Russian Jewish, while he was pure New England English on his father’s side. His father, William Darius Eddy, occasionally moonlighted as a stagehand at the Providence Opera House, sang in the church choir, played the drums, and performed in local productions like H.M.S. Pinafore.
Eddy's parents divorced when he was fourteen. Eddy moved with his mother to Philadelphia, where her brother, Clark Kendrick, lived. His uncle helped Eddy secure a clerical job at the Mott Iron Works, a plumbing supply company. He later worked as a reporter with the Philadelphia Press, the Evening Public Ledger and the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. He also worked briefly as a copywriter at N.W. Ayer Advertising, but was dismissed for constantly singing on the job.
Throughout his teens, Eddy studied voice and imitated the recordings of baritones like Titta Ruffo, Scotti, Amato, Campanari, and Werrenrath. He gave recitals for women's groups and appeared in society theatricals, usually for little or no pay.
His first professional break came in 1922 when he was singled out by the press after an appearance in a society theatrical, The Marriage Tax, although his name had been omitted from the program.
In 1924, Eddy won the top prize in a competition that included a chance to appear with the Philadelphia Opera Society. Alexander Smallens, musical director of the Philadelphia Civic Opera and later assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, became interested in Eddy's career and coached him. (In a 1936 career profile of Eddy put out by Arthur Judson Concert Management, Smallens is credited with Nelson's "operatic success.")
By the late 1920s, Eddy was appearing with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company and had a repertoire of 28 operas, including Amonasro in Aida, Marcello in La Bohême, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, both Tonio and Silvio in I Pagliacci, and Wolfram in Tannhäuser. (William von Wymetal was the group's producer at this time, in association with Fritz Reiner who later directed the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.) Eddy also performed in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas with The Savoy Company at the Broad Street Theatre in Philadelphia.
Eddy studied briefly with the noted teacher David Scull Bispham, a former Metropolitan Opera singer, but when Bispham died suddenly, Eddy became a student of William Vilonat. In 1927, Eddy borrowed some money and followed his teacher to Dresden for European study, which was then considered essential for serious American singers. He was offered a job with a small German opera company. Instead, he decided to return to America, where he concentrated on his concert career, making only occasional opera appearances during the next seven years. In 1928, his first concert accompanist was a young pianist named Theodore (Ted) Paxson, who became a close friend and remained his accompanist until Eddy’s death 39 years later.
In the early 1930s, Eddy’s principal teacher was Edouard Lippé who followed him to Hollywood and appeared in a small role in Eddy’s 1935 film Naughty Marietta. In his later years, Eddy frequently changed teachers, constantly trying new vocal techniques. He also had a home recording studio where he studied his own performances. It was his fascination with technology that inspired him to record three-part harmonies (soprano, tenor, baritone) for his role as a multiple-voiced singing whale in the animated Walt Disney feature, "The Whale that Sang at the Met," the concluding sequence in the 1946 feature film Make Mine Music.
With the Philadelphia Civic Opera, Eddy sang in the only American performance of Feuersnot by Richard Strauss (12/1/27) and in the first American performance of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (11/1/28) with Helen Jepson. In Ariadne, Eddy sang the roles of the Wigmaker and Harlekin in the original German. He performed under Leopold Stokowski as the Drum Major in the second American performance of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck on 11/24/31.
At Carnegie Hall in New York, Christmas 1931, he sang in the world premiere of Maria Igiziaca (Mary in Egypt), unexpectedly conducted by the composer Ottorino Respighi himself when famed conductor Arturo Toscanini fell ill at the last minute. Years later, when Toscanini visited the MGM lot in California, Eddy greeted him by singing a few bars of Maria Igiziaca.
Eddy continued in occasional opera roles until his film work made it difficult to schedule appearances the requisite year or two in advance. Among his final opera performances were three with the San Francisco Opera in 1934, when he was still “unknown.” Marjory M. Fisher of the San Francisco News wrote of his 12/8/34 performance of Wolfram in Tannhäuser, “Nelson Eddy made a tremendously fine impression....he left no doubt in the minds of discerning auditors that he belongs in that fine group of baritones which includes Lawrence Tibbett, Richard Bonelli, and John Charles Thomas and which represents America’s outstanding contribution to the contemporary opera stage.” He also sang Amonasro in Aida on 11/11/34 to similar acclaim. Elisabeth Rethberg, Giovanni Martinelli, and Ezio Pinza were in the cast. However, opera quietly faded from Eddy’s schedule as films and highly lucrative concerts claimed more and more of his time.
When he resumed his concert career following on from his screen success, he made a point of delivering a traditional concert repertoire, performing his hit screen songs only as encores. He felt strongly that audiences needed to be exposed to all kinds of music.
Eddy made more than 290 recordings between 1935 and 1964, singing songs from his films, plus opera, folk songs, popular songs, Gilbert and Sullivan, and traditional arias from his concert repertoire. Since both he and screen partner Jeanette MacDonald were under contract to RCA Victor between 1935 and 1938, this allowed several popular duets from their films. In 1938, he signed with Columbia Records, which ended MacDonald-Eddy duets until a special LP album the two made together in 1957. He also recorded duets with his other screen partner Risë Stevens (The Chocolate Soldier) and for albums with Nadine Conner, Virginia Haskins, Doretta Morrow, Gale Sherwood, Eleanor Steber, and Jo Stafford.
Eddy’s recordings drew rave reviews during the 1930s and 1940s, but it is a special tribute to his vocal technique that he continued to rate them into the 1960s. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner on 10/4/64 noted: “Nelson Eddy continues to roll along, physically and vocally indestructible. Proof is his newest recording on the Everest label, ‘Of Girls I Sing.’ At the age of 63 and after 42 years of professional singing, Eddy demonstrates there has not been much change in his romantic and robust baritone—the baritone that made him America’s most popular singer in the early ’30s.”
In March 1967, Eddy was performing at the Sans Souci Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, when he was stricken on stage with a cerebral hemorrhage. His singing partner, Gale Sherwood, and his accompanist, Ted Paxson, were at his side. He died a few hours later in the early hours of March 6th. He is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, next to his wife, Ann, who survived him by 20 years.
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