Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 – March 6, 1967) was an American actor and baritone 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. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald. He was one of the first "crossover" stars, a superstar appealing both to shrieking bobby soxers and opera purists, and in his heyday, he was the highest paid singer in the world.
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 concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, earned three gold records, and was invited to sing at the third inauguration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. He also introduced millions of young Americans to classical music and inspired many of them to pursue a musical career.
Early life Eddy was born in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, the only child of Caroline Isabel (née Kendrick) and William Darius Eddy. Nelson grew up in Providence and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and in New Bedford, Massachusetts, attending many different schools. As a boy, he was a strawberry blond and quickly acquired the nickname "Bricktop". As an adult, his reddish hair prematurely whitened, so his hair photographed as blond.
He came from a musical family. Both of his parents were singers, which resulted in him singing very young. His Atlanta-born mother was a church soloist, and his grandmother, Caroline Netta Ackerman Kendrick, was a distinguished oratorio singer. His father occasionally moonlighted as a stagehand at the Providence Opera House, sang in the church choir, played the drums, and performed in local productions such as H.M.S. Pinafore.
Eddy was close with his mother and his father's grandparents, staying at their farm a lot.
According to divorce court documents and testimony, Eddy's parents had a troubled marriage. Bill Eddy was reportedly an alcoholic who frequently lost jobs, sometimes after only two or three days, contributing to the family's financial instability and frequent moves. The testimony described Isabel Eddy and her son as experiencing physical and verbal abuse. Bill Eddy left the family on June 15, 1915, when their son was nearly fourteen. Isabel Eddy filed for divorce two years later, stating that Nelson had written to his father seeking financial help but received a reply saying that no help would be forthcoming.Mac/Eddy Today, Issue #73, pp. 40–56. Full 1917-18 court transcripts reproduced.
Living in near poverty, Eddy was forced in 1915 to drop out of school and 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. Eddy never returned to school and instead educated himself through correspondence courses.
Career Singing
Eddy developed his talent as a boy soprano in church choirs. Throughout his teens, Eddy studied voice and imitated the recordings of baritones such as Titta Ruffo, Antonio Scotti, Pasquale Amato, Giuseppe Campanari, and Reinald Werrenrath. He gave recitals for women's groups and appeared in society theatricals, usually for little or no pay. He took voice lessons with Sidney Dietch.
Eddy had a job in an iron works factory and then spent ten years as a newspaper reporter. He was fired for paying more attention to music than to journalism. His first professional break came in 1922, when the press singled him out after an appearance in a society theatrical, The Marriage Tax, although his name had been omitted from the program.
On May 18, 1923, Eddy made his operatic debut in Aida at the Philadelphia Operatic Society. The Philadelphia Record review: "Nelson Eddy, as Amonasro, had an electrifying effect on the audience. A young singer, scarcely 20 years of age, with that undefinable gift so seldom seen of arresting the auditor's interest and holding it continuously, Mr. Eddy was a star from the moment he appeared on the stage."
In 1924, Eddy won the top prize in a competition, was appearing with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company and had a repertoire of 28 operatic roles,including Amonasro in Aida, Marcello in La bohème, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, both Tonio and Silvio in Pagliacci, and Wolfram in Tannhäuser.
Eddy performed in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the Savoy Company, the oldest amateur theater company in the world devoted exclusively to the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. With Savoy, Eddy sang the leading role of Strephon in Iolanthe at the Broad Street Theatre in Philadelphia in 1922. The next year, he played the role of Major-General Stanley in Savoy's production of The Pirates of Penzance. He reprised the role of Strephon with Savoy in 1927, when the group moved their performances to the Academy of Music.Bell, Linda Marie. "Iolanthe, A Fairy Tale Musical for the Entire Family!", Patch, April 19, 2018Castanza, Philip. "Nelson Eddy", The Complete Films of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, p. 36, Citadel Press (1990). Thirty-one years later, he was asked for advice by a new Strephon with the company. Eddy wrote: "I envy you. I'd like to play Strephon again, too! The one thing I suggest is to keep him gay, happy, and care-free. You can set the character with your first entrance. Dance in with a sort of cute abandon. Then in "Good morrow, good mother" act joyfully in love. The rest will fall right into line. The first time I did it – at the old Broad Street Theatre – was better than when I did it at the Academy. I let myself get impressed with the importance of the latter house and with my growing experience in opera – and I played it too grand. Don't fall into that trap. Good luck and my very best wishes – to you and all the Company. Sincerely, Nelson Eddy."
Eddy studied briefly with the noted teacher David 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 further study in Europe, 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 changed teachers frequently, constantly learning 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 (tenor, baritone, and bass) as well as all the voices for his role as a multiple-voiced singing whale in the animated Walt Disney segment, "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met", the concluding sequence in the 1946 package film Make Mine Music.
With the Philadelphia Civic Opera, Eddy sang in the first American performance of Feuersnot by Richard Strauss (December 1, 1927) and in the first American performance of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (November 1, 1928) with Helen Jepson. In Ariadne, Eddy sang the roles of the Wigmaker and Harlequin in the original German. He performed under Leopold Stokowski as the Drum Major in the second American performance of Alban Berg's Wozzeck on November 24, 1931.
Eddy ventured only once into vaudeville. In May 1929, he starred in "Carmen Fantasy", singing the "Toreodor Song;" Helen Jepson sang Micaela's aria, and the Catherine Littlefield ballet group danced. This was the pre-show for the screening of A Man's Man, starring William Haines, Josephine Dunn, with John Gilbert and Greta Garbo playing themselves.
At Carnegie Hall in New York City, Christmas 1931, he sang in the world premiere of Maria egiziaca (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 egiziaca.
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". He also sang Amonasro in Aida on November 11, 1934, 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 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.
Hollywood
Eddy was "discovered" by Hollywood when he substituted at the last minute for the noted diva Lotte Lehmann at a sold-out concert in Los Angeles on February 28, 1933. He scored a professional triumph with 18 curtain calls, and several film offers immediately followed. After much agonizing, he decided that being seen on screen might boost audiences for what he considered his "real work", his concerts. (Also, like his machinist father, he was fascinated with gadgets and the mechanics of the new talking pictures.) Eddy's concert fee rose from $500 to $10,000 per performance.
Eddy signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where he made the first 15 of his 19 feature films. His contract guaranteed him three months off each year to continue his concert tours. MGM was not sure how to use him, and he spent more than a year on salary with little to do. His voice can be heard singing "Daisy Bell" on the soundtrack of the 1933 Pete Smith short Handlebars. He sang one song each in Broadway to Hollywood and Dancing Lady (both 1933). Louis B. Mayer was unimpressed, and Eddy was prepared to leave MGM when his six-month option expired, preferring concerts and opera.
By November 1933, Eddy and MacDonald had their first date at a party at the home of Doris Kenyon. On November 9, they both sang on a national radio broadcast celebrating Marie Dressler's birthday. MacDonald attended Eddy's Los Angeles recital on November 21 and his San Francisco recital on November 22. Before Eddy's option lapsed, MacDonald persuaded Mayer to extend it so Eddy could co-star with her in Naughty Marietta. She insisted he have equal billing and on his singing one of her proposed songs, "Neath the Southern Moon." Mayer agreed, and Naughty Marietta was filmed during Eddy's two contract extensions. The trades announced his casting in January 1934.
MacDonald had a prior commitment to The Merry Widow, her final pairing with Maurice Chevalier. The production was expensive and lengthy, with English and French versions filmed simultaneously. Eddy used the interval to return to concerts and opera. MGM used him only once during this period, in the B-picture Student Tour. Again, he sang one song but played himself as a famous concert artist. He also had a very short scene giving advice to a young woman.