FOOLED INTO MARRYING A GAY MAN : JEANETTE MACDONALD'S TEARJERKER WEDDING and HER HIDEAWAYS WITH NELSON

Commentary by Missy:

From a Western contemporary perspective, at a time when alternative lifestyles and a range of sexualities and genders are payed out, it's impossible for me to believe that Jeanette MacDonald, who in her early thirties had already had at least two other lovers of some duration, including her business manager, before Nelson Eddy, would not have slept with Gene Raymond, her actor husband to be, before she married him. She reportedly tried to convince herself that she loved him. Her honeymoon with him revealed the truth.

It's not impossible for me to think that the manipulative Louis B. Mayer would have wanted to provide a 'cover' for Gene's homosexuality because it's not possible for me to think that Mayer did not know that Gene Raymond was gay, but did he actually think that Jeanette would not continue to see Nelson - or avoid having sex with other men - when she figured it out?  Gene is often called bi-sexual.  Well, maybe...

According to Sharon Rich, the author of Sweethearts, not only had Jeanette been unhappy with the very idea of marrying Gene, but she may have had an affair with another opera singer co-star on "The Firefly" while Nelson was away on tour. She also regretted that she had married Gene almost at once.  

Nelson had returned from a concert tour and sought her out. The night before her wedding, Nelson showed up and again begged her to reconsider, saying she did not have to do it, that he could handle Mayer and they could go on in their careers without him and MGM.  Finally he gave in to the inevitable but his emotions were raw.

The wedding had the feeling of a movie premier. As Jeanette arrived to the Wilshire Methodist Church, 10,000 plus fans showed up to watch the proceedings from outside the church. Two-hundred police were out there trying to crowd control. MGM pubic relations people were there to inform the reporters so the details could be reported in every newspaper. Motorcycle cops escorted the couple away.

Nelson had been ordered to sing for the wedding...

During the vows he was heard sobbing...

Excerpt: Page 186

Jeanette had a good week left to shoot on The Firefly, then she an Gene joined another newlywed couple, Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers, on a honeymoon cruise to Hawaii.  They sailed on the Lurline and the press was informed that they would vacation for two months.  Before the Lurline docked, however, the Hollywood press was abuzz with a scandal so hot they couldn't print it. Everyone from Mae Mann to Walter Winchell knew the scoop and was itching to spill it, but at a cost to their jobs, their eager lips were sealed.

The Lurline in the 1930's docked in Honolulu - Picture from Wikimedia

Jeanette and Gene had taken two cabins on the Lurline, while Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers shared a double room.  Mary, already an alcoholic, spent much o the voyage in her cups, and it was widely known that she still held a flame for her ex-husband Douglas Fairbanks.  Jeanette, on the other hand, who'd apparently married for love, rarely left her room and was said to be "crying her eyes out.:"And for good reason too: there was a honeymoon going on -- but the ones sleeping together were Gene Raymond and Buddy Rogers. 

Excerpt: Page 189

Jeanette learned of Gene's bisexuality, as it turned out, on their honeymoon.  She was shocked.  A woman who had prided herself on being so careful - doing the right thing, finding the perfect husband for herself - now found that she had been deceived in the most ludicrous way,... The irony of her situation was that, in the eyes of the world, she was considered the epitome of innocent love...  They decided to stay married, ... and the truth is that there were many marriages in Hollywood, so-called 'working relationships," where both parties concentrated on their careers, living separate private lives....

(But her mother had known and had chosen not to tell Jeanette.)

(Nelson made an effort to date others.)

***

In 1938 at a time when Nelson was up nights thinking about Jeanette and his loss of her, Gene was arrested having been caught with another man.  Jeanette made a run for Nelson's where he and his mother were up, apparently so upset she was passing out. Jeanette paid $1000 in bribe (over $20,000 in 2022 money) to not record the arrest.  She did that without consulting the MGM lawyers or fixers. And about six months in, after that arrest, Jeanette filed for divorce, though that would go against the morals clause in her studio contract.  Jeanette decided to follow Nelson on part of his concert tour and sometimes got up on stage to sing a duet with him.

Excerpt: Page 215

Meanwhile the two stars had some time to themselves, Nelson was so pleased at Jeanette's apparent willingness to put him first before her career -- at least temporarily-- that he rapidly made plans for their future together.  He surprised her by handing her the key to a small, newly built house in Burbank at 812 Mariposa.  Set way back from the street it was on a dirt road overlooking the Los Angeles River, next door to the stables where their horses were kept....

...Nelson also took over a hunting lodge in the Angeles Forest... It was a perfect setting --- a forty-five minute drive from Burbank but like entering another world" mountains, pine trees, huge rocks water and sometimes even a bit of snow in the winter.  Their privacy was assured by a gated entry and a ranger station was just across the dirt road.

..Yet  a third hideaway was located closest to home, in Beverly Hills, off Benedict ,,,,  The house couldn't be seen from the street and was protected by both guard and gate.  Nelson had leased "Mists" in 1937, using it as a second home for himself and Isabel (his mother).

***

Once pregnant earlier in their courtship, during the filming of "Sweethearts," Jeanette found herself pregnant for a second time in January of 1938. Nelson and she conspired to find a way to get this baby born without Mayer knowing.  However, she miscarried at about five months, and both she and Nelson were devastated.

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