NELSON EDDY INTERVIEW ON JEANETTE MACDONALD'S DEATH

 The reporters called him.... for a statement...they knew there was a story there. Nelson got to be a pal bearer.

I looked at some other sites regarding Jeanette's death and it seems there is reason to believe that Nelson was kept away... or the final hospitalization was bungled in some way. It strikes me that Jeanette was not a healthy woman or strong in body in general. Anyone woman who has had so many pregnancies and miscarriages would have had some permanent damage, I think.

Her story makes me sad.

WHEN I GROW TOO OLD TO DREAM : NELSON EDDY

From YouTube poster Angela Messino.

The more I read about their love story, the more upset I become.

TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY : NELSON EDDY AT THE TOP OF THE ENTERTAINMENT WORLD MARRIES ANN DENITZ - FRANKLIN

Commentary from Missy:

Nelson Eddy was at the top of the entertainment world in 1938.  He was also waiting for Jeanette MacDonald to go through with filing a divorce from Gene Raymond.  She had every reason to, in love with Nelson or not. 

Excerpt: Page 237 from Sweethearts by Sharon Rich

At year's end, the inevitable motion picture polls were tabulated.  The Brisbane Courier-Mail announced that in a film star popularity contest, covering all of Australia, Jeanette had placed first for women (with Shirley Temple second), and Nelson was second for men (after Robert Taylor).  In the Unite States, Nelson polled first in many fan magazines as top radio star, tio classical singer and top male movie star.  Furthermore, he was acclaimed as the highest =paid singer in the world, and the top wage earner in motion pictures, thanks to his radio and concert activity.  He was not commanding $15000 per concert and $5000 a week for singing a few songs on the Chase and Sanborne show.  Jeanette also won fanzine contests and more important, in a poll of fifty major newspapers across the country culled by the New York Daily News, Jeannette won as most popular actress with 59,608 votes.  (The male winner was Tyrone Power with 89,647 votes.)

( $15000 1938 dollars is about $252,196.49 according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator. $5000 a week is about $84,065.50.)

Commentary from Missy:

Nelson Eddy, as it could be said was the case with Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond, had a domineering mother.  She had resisted Jeanette as a wife for her son at first but came to like her and believe in their romance.  However, she, like the other mothers, had been called into the studio and told to get their offspring in line with the demands of their contracts. 

When would Nelson truly give up on having Jeanette as wife?

When she failed to follow through on a divorce, Nelson called it quits again, raging at Mayer that he did not want to work with Jeanette again.

Excerpt: Page 239

Jeanette reported wearily to the studio on the morning of January 20, 1939.  She had two numbers to finish, then her work on the film was done.  (The film was Broadway Serenade.) She had not seen a morning paper by the time she arrived at the set, nor had anyone volunteered the startling news that was now circulating at the spread like wildfire.  A studio messenger came on to the set to end the speculation  Yes, it was true, Nelson Eddy had eloped with Ann Franklin in Las Vegas yesterday.  The news had come as a surprise to everyone, including Mayer, who was furious.  Jeanette screamed in horror and ran off the set, sobbing. The entire crew was silent in shock. Until now, sympathies among the crew had tended to be with Nelson. Studio workers who perceived what they thought were Jeannette's roller- coaster emotions towards Nelson, felt that he'd had it pretty touch,  But now...

Commentary from Missy:

Jeanette locked herself up in her dressing room. She had taken an overdose of sleeping pills. She was semi-conscience and calling out for Nelson.

Excerpt Page 239:  Suddenly Mayer appeared at the door.  He rushed to see Jeanette and tenderly took her hand.  Crying real tears, Mayer sobbed, "Jeanette baby, I never meant to hurt you!  Like your own father I wanted what was good for you.  Speak to me  Be a good girl and speak to me!" 

When there was no response, he turned to Woody, "It's that baritone's fault.  It's him. He's doing this to my beautiful star:  To Woody's surprise, Mayer picked Jeanette up and carried her to a waiting car...

Jeanette's stomach was pumped..... Gene was ordered to keep a suicide watch...

***

Commentary from Missy:

Upon returning from a tour, Nelson asked Ann for a divorce.  They had married in Vegas by a Justice of the Peace and he had been drinking.  She said no.  

Isabel Eddy, Nelson's mother, handed over his diary - letter that was to Jeanette, in which he claimed he had been, in so many words, snookered into marrying Ann and regretted it. He claims he could not go through with sex with Ann and would never touch another woman.  In truth it is unlikely that he never had another affair and though he and his wife had separate bedrooms it is also unlikely that they never had sex.  His concert tours and film work kept him away from home a lot.  Ann was determined to keep her marriage though she was jealous of his love for Jeanette.  His marriage changed her.  She would put up boundaries she never had before, but he was just more determined to get her back.  Just several months after his marriage, the two were to film 'Bittersweet."  

Ann Franklin - Eddy (born Ann Denitz - her first husband being director Sidney Franklin) asserted her dominance over her legally wed husband, Nelson Eddy.  Born into a  prosperous Jewish family and seven years older than Nelson, she was raised to be a lady but her first marriage had ended after an episode of partner-swapping. She has a son born of Franklin. She said she didn't care what Mayer wanted and would not allow Nelson to work with Jeanette again. He knew otherwise. However, Ann may have also threatened to blackmail Nelson if a divorce lead to telling all the ugly truths in court.  It would seem that Nelson had gotten himself a domineering wife.

Once World War II broke out in Europe Hollywood scandals did not take the headlines as they once had.  Nelson and Jeanette both knew they could never give up on each other completely, though their relationship would take many forms and disguises.  Perhaps their spouses felt the same.  Gene Raymond earned well, it's just that Jeanette earned five times as much.  He might have felt he had some duty as a husband but continued to keep a homosexual life.  Ann Eddy had her marriage to a top Hollywood star to keep, which kept her prestige and living in wealth, even if she didn't have him to herself.

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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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CLARK GABLE SUGGESTS THAT NELSON EDDY BUY GENE RAYMOND OFF - NELSON TRIES ONCE MORE FOR JEANETTE

Commentary by Missy (notice my notes!) :

When Jeanette MacDonald would not call off her wedding to Gene Raymond, a marriage that Louis B. Mayer expected of her, Nelson Eddy and the famous actor Clark Gable became drinking buddies.  The two sometimes went missing for a couple days.  Nelson's mother Isabel Eddy was called in to control him.

To think that these two stars in 1936 were in their early thirties and the studio had their mothers controlling them like they were teenagers!  (They would also call in Gene Norman's mother!)

Filming scenes in which they had to sing romantic and heartbreaking songs almost Jeanette and Nelson in.  They could not pull it off without crying and were eventually threatened with pay suspensions if they didn't stop the crying and get the scene right. The scene used in the film, 'Maytime,' is the result of many takes and many edits.

This image is from 1937 per Wikipedia

Excerpt: Page 173  On filming 'Maytime.'

The "Will You Remember? (Sweetheart) number was a nightmare to film.  Nelson, resigned at last to losing Jeanette forever, could not sing and look at her without crying.  ....

As the year 1936 drew to a close, Nelson made another attempt to get Jeanette back.  He'd never forgotten Clark Gable's brilliant idea about 'buying Gene off. So one Sunday, he impulsively called his banker, and insisted on meeting him to pick up a suitcase of cash - all the money he could get his hands on immediately. Nelson went to see Raymond and offered him $250,000 not to go through with the wedding. (That's in 1936 dollars, According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator in 2022 it would be $5,170,935.25!) To his amazement, Gene agreed. Some funds exchanged hands, with the condition that the rest would be paid after an official announcement came from the studio that the marriage was off.

(Gene returned the money saying that because of Mayer the wedding could not be called off.)

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THE MACHINATIONS OF MEGLOMANIAC LOUIS B. MAYER

According to Sharon Rich, the author of Sweethearts, Louis B. Mayer objected to Jeanette MacDonald going back to Nelson Eddy who he called "that god damn baritone." Mayer called her in and told her it was over between her and Nelson and go back to Gene Raymond.  Apparently, though Nelson blamed her mother, it was Mayer who was behind the marriage. At the end of her life, Jeannette's mother admitted she had been wrong about Nelson and that she'd mess up Jeanette's life. Nelson had begged her mother to agree that Jeanette could marry him, even telling her he would not restrict her visiting with Jeanette or demand that Jeanette stop supporting her...

Excerpt : Page 170

One would think that Mayer would be delighted that his two 'singing sweethearts" were in love.  But Mayer didn't see things that way. "Anticipation is greater than consummation," was Mayer's philosophy, explained Sandy Reiss. "On the screen the dynamics became more powerful.  By keeping them apart, Mayer kept the passion high."  Mayer also feared that if the two married they would soon after land in the divorce courts and he would have no team left...

In an attempt to force Jeannette's hand, Mayer resorted to posting security police by her dressing room so she couldn't meet intimately with Nelson.  Her mother, meantime, monitored her movements away from the studio. When Jeannette still refused to break up with Nelson, Mayer began threatening more that simply her career, "Mayer told Jeanette they'd put Nelson in a cement overcoat," ... "And they would blind him. He's be a blind baritone, and would never see again."

(The author retells stories of other famous stars who bore the wraith of Mayer who put them out of the business, including silent screen star Lillian Gish.)

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JEANNETE MACDONALD HAD THREE MEN VYING FOR HER and SHE CHOSE ONE - SORT OF

Commentary by Missy:

Nelson Eddy romanced Jeanette MacDonald, especially by sending gorgeous bouquets and gifting exquisite jewelry.  He asked her to marry him and set a date - repeatedly.  He thought the interference of Louis B. Mayer into their lives was ridiculous. Jeanette rebuffed him. She was not a woman without experience and she had reservations about love and marriage lasting. Though she was thought of as the ultimate "good girl" by the public, a perfectionist on set who thought of herself as cautious, Jeanette met Nelson for trysts at a little cabin in Lake Arrowhead.  She was clearly finding him desirable and interesting.

For reasons that can and cannot be explained, she would marry Gene Raymond and stay married to him until she died. 

Jeanette had two smash hit movies one after another and was the top female actress and movie star at the time, and we can understand that her ambition was to continue her career and perhaps achieve more greatness and more wealth. She did not wish to walk away while on top and into marriage.  It's almost as if, despite the reportage that she did not know, that she did know she was entering into a White Marriage (translation here of the French term Mariage Blac) and that she could continue to have sex, unmarried, with Nelson Eddy - or in the future some other man. 

Her life seems to be the classic case of 'you can't have it all.' Her personal life would forever suffer. Jeanette had also had a serious personal relationship that included living together with her manager, Robert Ritchie, who was abusive to her.  She had doubts about marriage and seemed to have more than one man on the string, and perhaps this was her way of avoiding commitment or even avoiding being left to be alone.  Speculations on my part, I realized.

Excerpt: Page 161  from Sweethearts by Sharon Rich

Jeanette and Nelson were in a deadlock.  Nelson desperately wanted to marry her, with no delay, and she was willing, but only if he allowed her to continue in her career full time.  Again, he refused .  His own possessiveness, combined with his acute awareness of the ridiculousness of Mayer's ultimatums and the lengths to which he had affected their relationship, kept him from his love.  Very soon, his own stubborness and the rage he had struggled so long to control would cost him dearly.  The day finally came when Jeanette felt she could no longer tolerate his irrational sexual attacks.

On August 20, 1936, Anna MacDonald announced publically that her daughter Jeanette was engaged to marry Gene Raymond.

***

Jeanette and Nelson began filing film 'Maytime' when she became engaged, the early film that featured a song called 'Will You Remember '(Sweetheart).  Both had operatic songs to sing in the film and they worked eighteen hour days. Nelson watched over her, since this grueling schedule was too much.  She let her manager Robert Ritchie know that he was still her manager.

Excerpt: Page 165 

Kroeger (Steve Kroeger, a friend of Robert Ritchie) was so amazed at Jeanette's unhappiness over her engagement that he suggested to Bob that he might still have a chance to win her back. Ritchie appears to have taken Kroeger's advice to heart.  He continued to remind Jeanette that he still loved her and would be there for her if Gene Raymond didn't work out. Ritchie continued to hope for the best until a week before Jeanette's marriage, but his family maintains that he never got over her.

***

Commentary by Missy:

'Maytime', which was filmed at great expense in Technicolor, suffered when the director Irving Thalberg unexpected died at only age 37 of pnuemonia. 75% of the film was scrapped and they had to start all over.  New cast were hired, songs were scrapped, and the budget was reduced so that it would have to be filmed in black and white

Nelson and Jeannette managed to be civil to one another on the set, however, Gene Raymond was around and Nelson had a number of women visiting him in his trailer dressing room on breaks. He was the equivalent of a rock star in his time and perhaps Jeanette wondered if he really could live a lifetime faithful to her. Nelson was not beyond trying to make her jealous.

Excerpt: Page 168 

Smiling, Nelson left.  But he didn't want to go home, so he decided to catch up on some letters left in his portable dressing room. To get there , he had to walk through the fairgrounds set.  A single light nearby added an eerie glow to the scene.  The stillness and beauty of the set charmed him, and he sat down under a tree and closed his eyes.  Suddenly, a sound startled him.  He jumped up to see who was there, and smelled her perfume before he ever saw her.  Jeanette called out fearfully," Is anyone there?" Nelson was silent.  He waited until she recognized him, then wordlessly started to walk away.

In later yeas, many commented to Nelson about the Beautiful, "Will You Remember?" love scene filmed under that tree.  Once, after Nelson's tongue had been loosened with a few drinks, he told a close friend, "Yeah, Well you should hear what really happened under that tree!"

According to Nelson's own account, Jeanette stopped him and tried to convince him that they could still be friends.  "It's not friendship I want from you," he retorted. "You've made your choice." He again started to walk away but she threw himself at him.

"This time she seduced me!" Nelson concluded proudly.

***

Commentary by Missy:  Their affair resumed.  Gene Raymond and Jeanette's mother were banished from the set.

Excerpt  Page 169 :  They spent the night under the tree, returning at last to her dressing room before dawn, ...  It was obvious to the crew that their relationship had suddenly and drastically changed...

How this all fit in with Jeanette's marriage plans is a mystery.  Jeanette apparently wasn't thinking about the future, she just impulsively threw caution to the winds....  Nelson termed these final days of 1936 of 1936 the time "when we were in lust with each other." He alluded to the act that previously he had always felt he had to hold back a little in their lovemaking for fear of overwhelming her with his passion, and because she was physically frail.  Now, suddenly, things had changed.  Nelson delighted in her new aggressiveness.  "No woman has ever satisfied me as she does," Nelson told Sandy Reiss (one of Jeanette's friends). "It goes beyond sex."

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JEANNETTE and NELSON and their ANNUAL RETAKE ON WEDDING VOWS THEY COULD NEVER MAKE IN REAL LIFE

Sharon Rich's book Sweethearts begins with this devastating opening scene.

Excerpt: Pages 1-2

As the sun was setting, Jeanette and Nelson went to their favorite spot overlooking Lake Tahoe, where they performed a sentimental wedding ceremony.  Jeanette sand, 'Indian Love Call,' a song they'd made famous then they knelt together and promised to love, honor, and cherish each other forever. Their vows were performed without witnesses and without a clergyman.  They were renewing the pledge of love they'd exchanged eight summers before in 1935, at this very place, while filming their second movie together, Rose Marie.

But now it had to be done in secret because legally and in the public eye, each was happily married to someone else.  A series of incredible events had prevented their wedding from ever taking place and had hurtled them into lifestyles from which they now could not extricate themselves.  By necessity they lived double lives --- a roller-coaster ride with moments of great passion countered by even longer stretches of agonizing separation.  Sometimes the burden was too difficult to bear; they'd battled back from numerous breakdowns and suicide attempts during their years together.  

That is why now in the final days of 1943, they needed to get away from the world and reaffirm their love and their faith in a God they trusted to somehow, someday, make things right for them.

Jeanette took a ring off her finger and handed it to Nelson.  It was a stunner --- an emerald surrounded by diamond that had cost him $40,000 in 1935.  Sometimes she wore it in public on her wedding finger - more often on a chain around her neck. "Your dear life is bound to me forever," Nelson said as he slipped the ring back onto her finger and kissed her.

They returned to their "honeymoon" cabin.  Nelson tenderly calling Jeanette 'my wife." After dinner, they discussed several topics, including the state of their careers, then retired to their separate Rooms.  Recently, they had been keeping things on a "spiritual' level, because intimacy brought with it such a devastating letdown when they were forced to part......

***

Commentary by Missy"

Suicide attempts!  This sounds like a mutual obsession to me.

The film they worked on in Tahoe had a song called Indian Love Call in it that the couple made famous.

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SWEETHEARTS : NELSON EDDY and JEANETTE MACDONALD

 Posted by Channel Jeffer Soares

this is what Jeff has to say:  Sweethearts is a 1938 Technicolor musical romance...  The screenplay by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, uses the 'play within a play" device... This was the first color film for Nelson of Jeanette.

THE JEANETTE MACDONALD - NELSON EDDY 30 YEAR AFFAIR : THE SOPRANO AND THE BARITONE NEVER LET GO OF EACH OTHER WHILE MARRIED TO OTHERS

JEANETTE MACDONALD and NELSON EDDY

(1903-1965) and (1901-1967)

TRAGIC SWEETHEARTS 

The heartbreaking story of Golden Hollywood Era legends Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy is included here at Mistress Manifesto, not because Jeannette was Kept by Nelson or Nelson was Kept by Jeanette; who knows what, if any, financial arrangements in this convoluted plot were. It's because these two people, who had so much going on between them personally, also portrayed romantic couples on screen, married others and stayed married to them - as if everyone had to be married to someone - but were each other's real sweethearts for 30 (thirty!) years. 

While claiming platonic friendship and a good working relationship only, they both lived compromised lives in which everyone involved came to accept the limitations. No doubt about it, they committed adultery. How much choice did they have? Little is known about how Nelson and his wife got on but they never had children. However, the man Jeanette married, Gene Raymond, was not heterosexual and there is no reason to think they had sex - other than her many pregnancies - which are attributed to Nelson. Sadly, though pregnant eight times, each pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage.

Author Sharon Rich, who headed a Jeanette MacDonald fan club, made it her life's work to learn everything she could about the singing comedic actress who she had such admiration for. Her book was meticulously researched and the intent was to bring us the whole truth. The title of the book could have been, in my opinion, "Jeanette MacDonald : Victim of Louis B. Mayer."

Their chemistry on screen was undeniable, the songs they sang together romantic and memorable, but the enduring love story of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy is actually a tragic tale, and the megalomaniac monster in the middle was the infamous Louis B. Mayer,  the producer of films and the co-founder, in 1924, of film studio MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). By his actions it is clear that he owned people and not just their labor. When a person signed a contract with his studio, they gave up control of their lives, personal and public. 

I wonder why there had not been more rebellion back in the day. I'm going to make a judgement call and say that back in the day people were raised to obey authority figures and that most everyone needs a job. But these two had amazing careers to consider.

Jeanette MacDonald appeared on Broadway and had signed with another studio and then switched again. In 1933 she signed her contract with MGM.

MacDonald and Eddy were at the height of their individual and coupled fame during the Great Depression, and made eight films together, between 1935 and 1942. Their films that made millions for MGM. Their fans would go to see their films repeatedly, taken with their beauty, their duets, their chemistry. Each of them had solo singing careers as well. Their concerts as well as their films were mega-hits. Jeanette was a soprano with an almost three octave range. Baritone Nelson Eddy was the highest paid singer in the world for a good decade.

So called 'morals clauses' in film studio contracts were about keeping the public from perceiving the reality of private lives. Discretion was strongly advised when it came to unconventional sexuality and relationships. The American public was church-going and did not approve of divorce so stars had to appear to be heterosexual and faithfully married. For those who signed the studio contract and who were disobedient, there was punishment, anything from from being forced to agree to abortions to being totally ruined. Not for nothing that phrase, "You'll never work in this town again." Mayer and people who worked for him or feared him stayed in line. Jeanette and Nelson settled into their relationship with many in the business in the know and protecting them - providing sympathy and understanding - except for Mayer. 

Yet, Jeanette and Nelson were compelled to be with each other, and perhaps being told no, the on and off again nature of their embroilment, created a mutual obsession.

We've probably all known - or been - people who got embroiled in a relationship that they seem to live for or that kept them living. That seems to be the case here.

The two operatic singer-actors met in 1933, and may have had some involvement before they met again to work together in 1935  It was love at first sight, at least for him. She was considered cold or prudish by many though she was not. He wooed her, with  jewelry, with flowers delivered on a daily basis, and intense flirtations.  

Nelson asked Jeanette to marry him before either of them were married to someone else but she referenced her career. He asked many times. She told friends that she did not want an Open marriage and did not trust what he might do when on long concert tours. She also said that she did not believe she could guarantee anyone that her love would last the years. Yet it apparently did.

It took a year for the relationship to go all the way sexually. Maybe longer. She had a past and was no virgin. Their first encounter may have been date rape. He apologized and did much better next time, gaining her forgiveness. There would come a point where she would say she had tired of his 'sex attacks.'  While there may have been times when they tried to reconfigure their relationship - to platonic friendship - to just lust - it endured for life and through eight miscarriages.  

She got pregnant that first time. He wanted to get married in Reno right away but she called Mayer. She had to ask his permission to marry, have a child, or divorce.  He was livid and demanded she abort and break up with Nelson.*  

The battle between Mayer and Eddy would go on for years. 

About half way through the book called, Sweethearts, which is the primary reference for this month's posts, when I was on the part about Jeanette's second pregnancy, I had to take a break. 

 

Was this what I was looking for in a subject for this blog? I had never heard of MacDonald or Nelson or knew nothing about them on screen or off. I did not know that she was once the most famous and successful star in Hollywood. I wanted to understand why someone so famous, who I imagine would have many men interested in her, stayed with men who were not right for her. If a woman with such beauty and talent and who has earned some very good money stays with a man who is wrong, what about all of those women who do not have those advantages?  Perhaps Jeanette wanted to be a role model to the public even if it meant living a lie. So I watched videos on YouTube. I listened to these talents singing, heard their impressive voices, did more research. 

As personalities, she and Nelson may have liked drama, high highs and low lows and she may have been provocative. I suspect she was addicted to being on an emotional roller-coaster, as was Eddy. But there is more to it. That more may just have been true love.

Still, no doubt in my mind, Jeanette MacDonald, for all her red-headed beauty, her verve, her talent as a singer and comedic actress, was an abused woman. Physically, emotionally, psychologically, and not by just one person. Though she projected happiness in public, that was sometimes good acting - even excellent acting.  She was considered a perfectionist on the set, demanding of herself and a total pro, yet she did not take care to control her fertility. Contraception was available.

Just to start their relationship with complications, Jeanette admitted to Nelson early on that she was having sex with Mayer. Her mother even thought that she was Mayer's mistress. It's claimed that Meyer actually loved her, though he expected sex from any woman who wanted to become a film star. We can say that he abused her personally by giving her little to no choice and she was not the first or last to experience such interference.  

What's more, the man that she married instead of Nelson was homosexual. There is a suggestion here that Jeanette was abused by Nelson Eddy before and after her marriage to this husband. Her husband was also abusive to her. Perhaps not every day or for years on end, but when the relationships were down.

In 1942, both stars were finally free of MGM contracts.  Times were changing. New talent emerged.  However, the two performed together on radio and eventually Jeanette returned to MGM and did two more films - but without Nelson. The couple spent more time than ever, with Nelson especially not caring who knew the truth. In 1946 he thought the honorable thing to do was to officially break with Jeanette. He threw himself into religion. Of course, they went back together again. This would be their pattern until Jeanette was too ill.

Jeanette MacDonald's health was precarious for years as a heart condition withered her away.  Nelson's sense that she was fragile from the beginning was right. Nelson was heartbroken when she died and everyone gave him sympathy but he was only a pall bearer. Her husband, for whom she had provided cover for his homosexuality for years, took charge and may have even kept Nelson from her in the end, claiming the husband's place in her last days.

Nelson didn't live a whole lot longer.

This month I'll explore the relationship between these two tragic sweethearts in more depth and perhaps we will all come to understand the nature of their thirty year romance. I've chosen some telling excerpts and will make commentary along the way.

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Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot features a number of Hollywood personalities in these posts. You can search for the word Hollywood to bring them up. 

But as I read about opera singer Jeanette MacDonald, I thought about opera singer Maria Callas. MARIA CALLAS OPERA DIVA and MISTRESS OF ARI ONASSIS was featured here in August 2010

Another person who figures into the MGM - Louis B. Mayer story is MGM "Fixer" Mannix.  You can read about him in: GEORGE REEVES : Superman and Kept Man: So What? His Lady's Husband Had a Mistress Too!  in My 2013