Thomas was born in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, in 1891. He was the son of Milson Thomas, a Methodist preacher, and Anna Dorothea Schnaebel. Milson Thomas took the family around the countryside, where he preached at camp meetings, and young John would join his parents in singing at these gatherings.
Education
After early schooling received in the towns they visited, he finally attended Conway Hall in Carlysle, Pa. , where he excelled in football and track. In 1908 he ran a mile in five minutes and cleared the high-jump bar at 5 feet, 101/2 inches. His father had hoped young Thomas would choose the ministry, but instead John enrolled at the Mount Street College of Homeopathy in Baltimore (1907 - 1909). Then, reportedly after he flipped a coin to decide on a medical or a musical career, he enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore (1910 - 1913); his voice teachers were Blanche Blackman and Adelin Fermin.
Career
His first appearance on stage took place at a Peabody performance of Trial by Jury, in which he played the judge. In 1912 he was engaged to sing Passion in Everywoman, with music by George W. Chandwick, in London, Ontario. Subsequent musical comedy appearances included The Passing Show of 1913 for the Schuberts and Franz Lehar's Alone at Lastin 1915.
His first leading role in New York was in The Peasant Girl in 1915. Then came Sigmund Romberg and Emerich Kalman's Her Soldier Boy in 1916 and Romberg's 1917 Maytime, opposite Peggy Wood. Thomas's rugged physique, wavy blond hair, and smile of a born comedian, plus the beautiful quality of his voice, made him a matinee idol.
Thomas was not satisfied with stardom in light opera. He kept up his vocal training and made his concert debut at Aeolian Hall on December 2, 1918. In 1922 he studied with the legendary Jean de Reszke in Europe. In that year he sang at Royal Albert Hall with Luisa Tetrazzini. In 1923 he starred in a movie called Under the Red Robe with William Powell and Anna Rubens.
Thomas's opera debut was as Amonasro in Aida with the Washington Opera on March 3, 1925. On August 1, 1925, he made his debut as Herod in Massenet's Hérodiade at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and was subsequently engaged in a three-year contract. In 1930 his first appearance at a major opera house was in San Francisco in Salome, with Maria Jeritza. Thomas's career with the Chicago Opera began in November 1930, when he made his debut as Tonio in I Pagliacci. His success was enormous, causing the biggest demonstration at the house since the debut of Amelita Galli-Curci. His debut at the Metropolitan Opera came in February 1934. He sang Germont père in La Traviata with Tito Schipa and Rosa Ponselle. Other roles included Scarpia in Tosca and Amonasro in Aida.
From 1927 on, he sang on the radio in shows such as "The Maxwell House Show Boat, " "The Ford Sunday Evening Hour, " "The Westinghouse Hour, " and "The Bell Telephone Hour. " He also made many recordings, the bulk of them on the RCA Victor Red Seal label.
His concert programs were a mixture of serious and light-hearted fare; one often sees music of Schumann, Verdi, and Fauré listed with Guion's Home on the Range. His diction in any language was superb, and he stopped at nothing (including grimaces, grunts, and even whistles) to put the material across. In review after review, mention is made of sold-out houses. A champion of American concert composers, he chose large portions of his programs from the English-language repertoire.
His colleague from 1933 to 1945 was the pianist Carroll Hollister. Early in their collaboration Thomas asked Hollister if he could do a whole concert from memory. Hollister did their concerts without music from then on. It became a trademark of a John Charles Thomas-Carroll Hollister recital. Thomas spent long periods of the year on his 101-foot yacht, The Masquerader, where he did much of his rehearsing with Hollister. On one such occasion, in the 1930's, he received the manuscript directly from Albert Hay Malotte for his new setting of "The Lord's Prayer. " Thomas ran through it and said "Wow! This'll be a hit! It's got great lyrics!"
He would often go directly from his yacht, sometimes barefoot, to the radio studio to do his program. His relaxed approach reflected a lack of patience with rules of etiquette, and his temper could be short when faced with red tape or bureaucracy. Newspaper reports of a feud Thomas had with the Federal Radio Commission in 1936 regarding their censure of his saying "Good night, Mother" at the close of his radio programs show him at his feisty best. "Thomas said yesterday that the Federal Radio Commission had told him the 'Good night, Mother' at the conclusion of his broadcasts constituted a personal communication, banned on theair. Mr. Thomas said he told the commission it was either 'Good night, Mother' or 'Goodbye, Broadcasting. ' Thomas won the argument. " This stubbornness was expressed with much humor in a painting of him in his debut as Tonio in I Pagliacci at the Brussels Opera which hung in Thomas's living room. In a 1940 New York Post interview, Thomas explained the story behind this painting. Thomas is shown on stage in costume, with his left foot inside the prompter's box. The prompter apparently thought the newly arrived American needed help with his French lines and was "yelling his head off. I was afraid he would drown me out, so I stepped on his hand ["very, very lightly, " he insisted later] to keep him from turning the pages of the score. "
Thomas made his farewell concert tour in 1952-1953. He sang in about fifty cities. From 1954 until his death, he lived in Apple Valley, Calif. He continued broadcasting and recording hundreds of ballads and religious selections with piano and with orchestra. He even managed a radio station in Los Angeles.
Thomas died in Apple Valley.
Achievements
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
In 1940 Virgil Thomson expressed succinctly the secret of Thomas's musical greatness: "He reminds one at the same time of Chauncey Olcott and of John McCormack. The first, because of his combination of personal charm with dramatic power. The second, because of his high perfection in the kind of easily floated melody-with-ornaments that used to be called, when singers still had enough control to master it, bel canto. .. Gifted so rarely and schooled so soundly, everything he touches becomes, in a different way, and for a different public, beauty. "
Connections
Thomas married Ruby Rothnour on October 11, 1913; ten years later they were divorced. On March 5, 1924, he married Dorothy May Kaehler.