Sharon Rich | |
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 Sharon Rich book jacket photo | |
| Born | June 11, 1953 |
| Occupation | Author |
| Website | www |
Sharon Rich (born June 11, 1953) is an American author and film historian, best known for the biography Sweethearts about 1930s singing stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. [1]
She was close friends for many years with Jeanette MacDonald's older sister, actress Blossom Rock (aka Marie Blake). [2] Along with interviewing hundreds of people, Rich had access to many collections of private letters, Eddy's personal scrapbooks, diary entries, FBI files and MacDonald's unpublished autobiography (which Rich later annotated in 2004). As follow up documentation to Sweethearts, Rich has written several books and edited and written over seventy magazine articles.[ citation needed ]
She is also the president of the largest Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy fan club in the United States, the MacDonald/Eddy Friendship Club, which she helped create in the late 70s. [3] [4] Rich was made a Dame of Malta in 1995 for her contribution to history and literature. [5] Also in 1995, she went to Washington, D.C., to petition to have MacDonald and Eddy's likeness placed on postage stamps. [6] She was accompanied by around 20 fans and had collected 20,000 signatures for the campaign. [7]
Rich's first book, Jeaneatte MacDonald: A Pictorial History (1974) was published when she was twenty years old. [8] Rich wanted to write the book because she felt that there were "very few idols" left in the world. [8]
Sweethearts was published in hardcover in 1994 and was a selection of the Entertainment Book Club. [5] The book release party was held at the American Film Institute in Washington, D.C. where Rich was a guest speaker. [9] Rich spent twenty years researching the book. [10] The book was revised and updated in 2014.
Sweethearts is an operetta or musical play in two acts with music by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Robert B. Smith and book by Harry B. Smith and Fred de Gresac.
Jeanette Anna MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy. During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars, and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to film-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers.
Nelson Ackerman Eddy 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.
Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 American romantic horror film directed by Arthur Lubin, loosely based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and its 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney. Produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film stars Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, and was composed by Edward Ward.
Sweethearts may refer to:
Gene Raymond was an American film, television, and stage actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to acting, Raymond was also a singer, composer, screenwriter, director, producer, and decorated military pilot.
Maytime is a 1937 American musical and romantic-drama film produced by MGM. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. The screenplay was rewritten from the book for Sigmund Romberg's 1917 operetta Maytime by Rida Johnson Young, Romberg's librettist; however, only one musical number by Romberg was retained.
Susanna Foster was an American film actress best known for her leading role as Christine in the 1943 film version of Phantom of the Opera.
Sweethearts is a 1938 American Technicolor musical romance film directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. The screenplay, by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, uses the “play within a play” device: a Broadway production of the 1913 Victor Herbert operetta is the setting for another pair of sweethearts, the stars of the show. It was the first color film for Nelson or Jeanette. It was their first film together without uniforms or period costumes.
Maytime is a musical with music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics and book by Rida Johnson Young, and with additional lyrics by Cyrus Wood. The story is based on the 1913 German operetta Wie einst im Mai, composed by Walter Kollo, with words by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolph Schanzer. The story, set in New York, is told in episodes covering a long period, from 1840 to the 20th century. Wealthy young Ottillie is in love with Dick, but they are kept apart by family and circumstance. Years later, their descendants marry. Maytime introduced songs such as "The Road to Paradise", "Will You Remember?" and "Jump Jim Crow".
The Girl of the Golden West is a 1938 American musical Western film adapted from the 1905 play of the same name by David Belasco, better known for providing the plot of the opera La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini. A frontier woman falls in love with an outlaw.
Rose Marie is a 1936 American musical Western film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy and Reginald Owen. It is the second of three Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptations of the 1924 Broadway musical of the same name. A silent version was released in 1928 and a color film in 1954. All three versions are set in the Canadian wilderness. Portions of Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart's original score for the Broadway musical are included in both the 1936 and 1954 films.
Bitter Sweet is a 1940 American Technicolor musical film directed by W. S. Van Dyke, based on the operetta Bitter Sweet by Noël Coward. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Cinematography and the other for Best Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons and John S. Detlie.
"Indian Love Call" is a popular song from Rose-Marie, a 1924 operetta-style Broadway musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. Originally written for Mary Ellis, the song achieved continued popularity under other artists and has been called Friml's best-remembered work.
I Married an Angel is a 1942 American musical film based on the 1938 musical comedy of the same name by Rodgers and Hart. The film was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, who were then a popular onscreen couple. Supporting cast members included Edward Everett Horton, Binnie Barnes, Reginald Owen, Douglass Dumbrille, Mona Maris, and Odette Myrtil.
"Beyond the Blue Horizon" is a 1930 song composed by Leo Robin, Richard A. Whiting, and W. Franke Harling, and was first performed by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1930 film Monte Carlo. It was released that November as a single on a 78 rpm disc along with the song "Always, in All Ways" on Victor Records. Four takes were recorded on August 4 at the Hollywood Recording Studio, conducted by LeRoy Shield, with MacDonald and the vocal group The Rounders; the second take was chosen for release.
American actress/singer Jeanette MacDonald recorded over 50 songs during her film career for RCA Victor and its foreign counterparts. Due to the limited statistics released to the public, it is not certain how many songs and singles she has released or their exact popularity in music charts, although she has officially recorded eight studio albums and released seven compilation albums. Despite soundtracks for musical films not becoming a concept until the 1940s, many of her singles were re-recordings of songs she had performed in the movies ; her first "album" was the single "Dream Lover"/"March of the Grenadiers" (1930) on 78 rpm discs for The Love Parade. She also recorded a cover album of songs featured in Sigmund Romberg's Up in Central Park in 1945 with Robert Merrill, as well as non-English records during her 1931 European tour.
Maybelle Zenobia Berretta Marston was an American contralto singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The following features lists of the film, television and stage performances of actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald. She is best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy, but she starred in 29 feature films between 1929 and 1950, from operas to dramas to romantic comedies.
Jeanette MacDonald (1903–1965) and Nelson Eddy (1901–1967) were a popular screen couple in the 1930s and '40s, specializing in musicals. They starred in eight films together, all for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Eddy was an opera singer before he became a film star, while MacDonald turned to opera later in her career. Their best-known onscreen duet is "Indian Love Call", from Rose Marie.
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