Background

Nelson Eddy was born on June 29, 1901 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He was the son of William Darius Eddy, a machinist, and Isabel Kendrick, a church soloist.

Education

At the age of five, he began attending the Dartmouth Street Primary School in New Bedford, Massachussets, and he continued his early schooling in Providence and Pawtucket. Between the ages of nine and fourteen, he sang as a soprano in a Providence church choir and also as a soloist in several churches there.

During his leisure hours he attended evening school, took correspondence courses, read, and listened to the recordings of eminent baritones.

Career

In 1915, Eddy's parents separated, and he accompanied his mother to Philadelphia, where out of financial necessity he left school and took a job as a telephone operator in the Mott Iron Works.

He subsequently worked for three Philadelphia newspapers and then for N. W. Ayer and Sons as an advertising copywriter.

Eddy's initial stage appearance was in the musical The Marriage Tax in January 1922. That same year, he won a Gilbert and Sullivan competition and appeared as Strephon in a Savoy Opera Company production of Iolanthe. In 1924 he won a competition that enabled him to make his debut in grand opera as Amonasro in Aida with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company. With the help of the company's conductor, Alexander Smallens, he learned twenty-eight operatic roles Edouard Lipp, another member of the company, who became Eddy's longtime singing coach and friend, persuaded him to give up his nonmusical employments and become a student of William Vilonat.

Borrowing money from a banker friend, Eddy joined Vilonat in Dresden in 1927 and studied with him there for a number of months. The Dresden Opera Company offered Eddy a position, but he declined in favor of pursuing his singing career in America. Once back in the United States, he appeared again with the Civic Opera and also with its successor, the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company, in such works as Richard Strauss's Feuersnot and Ariadne auf Naxos and Wagner's Parsifal, the last under Stokowski. But opera was not the only vehicle used by Eddy to display his singing talent.

On his return from Europe, he decided to take up concert singing, signed a contract with Columbia Concerts, and made his debut in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

He increased his repertoire of songs to 500, went on tour, and by 1933 had visited almost every major city in the country. During the 1930's and 1940's he also appeared on numerous radio programs, notably "The Voice of Firestone, " "The Electric Hour, " and "The Bell Telephone Hour. " In 1933, Eddy signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). During the next two years, he played only minor roles and was ready to give up movies when Louis B. Mayer advised him to be patient and to secure a drama coach. After taking acting lessons, Eddy was teamed with the soprano Jeanette MacDonald in Naughty Marietta (1935).

The movie was very successful, and the Eddy-MacDonald duo were hailed as "America's singing sweethearts. " They made eight films, including Rose Marie (1936), Sweethearts (1938), and I Married an Angel (1942), their last. Eddy also appeared in three other MGM musicals: Rosalie (1937), with Eleanor Powell; Balalaika (1939), with Ilona Massey; and The Chocolate Soldier (1941), with Chris Stevens.

In 1942, Eddy left MGM and during the next five years made films such as The Phantom of the Opera (1943), for Universal Studios; Knickerbocker Holiday (1944), for United Artists; and Northwest Outpost (1947), for Republic Studios. Reportedly he earned $5 million from his films. In March 1935, Eddy made his first commercial recording for RCA Victor. During the next thirty years, he recorded 25 albums and 284 songs for RCA Victor, Columbia Records, and Everest Records.

During World War II, Eddy toured with a United Service Organizations (USO) unit and presented shows in Brazil, Egypt, and Iran. Eddy made his television debut on "The Alan Young Show" in October 1951. During subsequent years, he appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show, " "What's My Line, " "The Big Record, " and many other programs. In 1952, he developed a nightclub act, and the following year he opened in Las Vegas with the Canadian singer and comedienne Gale Sherwood. During the next fourteen years, Eddy and Sherwood performed their act forty weeks a year, traveling around the United States and touring Canada, Mexico, and Australia.

He died in Miami Beach, Florida.

Achievements

• 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 Theater, 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.

Works

More photos

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  • Sweethearts: The Timeless Love Affair- On-screen and Off- Between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy

    (A romantic chronicle of the careers of Jeanette MacDonald...)

  • Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy Collection Volume 1

    (Already stars in their own rights when Hollywood paired u...)

  • As Years Go By - From Providence: The Man And His Artistry ORIGINAL RECORDINGS REMASTERED 2CD SET

    (Nelson Eddy was highly skilled in many styles of music: B...)

  • Nelson Eddy: The Opera Years

    (The most complete and accurate coverage of Nelson Eddy's ...)

  • Six Classic Albums - Eddy Nelson

    ((4CD) 6 original albums from the American baritone singer...)

  • The Desert Song

    (Nelson Eddy, Gale Sherwood, John Conte, Otto Kruger. A wo...)

  • book

  • book

  • book

  • The Phantom of The Opera DVD

  • book

Views

Quotations: "Let's have the music that will open the door to millions of people. .. the kind of music that will not make people think only of the song or even of the singer. .. not music that is confined to the merely personal. "

"In society, one doesn't tell the truth, one tells the exact opposite. "

"I want to keep going till I drop. "

Personality

Eddy was just over six feet tall, weighed 180 pounds, and had blue eyes and white-blond hair.

Eddy was known as a private person who disliked disorderly fans and sensationalism. However, he possessed a sense of humor and was friendly and courteous. He strove for perfection in his work, but he was not vain or temperamental. Although he loved singing, he knew that he did not possess a voice sufficiently loud or high enough to become a first-rate operatic baritone.

Quotes from others about the person

• The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner on October 4, 1964 noted: "Nelson Eddy continues to roll along, physically and vocally indestructible. Proof is his newest recording on the Everest label, "Of Girls I Sing". At the age of 63 and after 42 years of professional singing, Eddy demonstrates not much change has occurred in his romantic and robust baritone, which made him America's most popular singer in the early '30s".

Connections

On January 19, 1939, he married Ann Denitz Franklin, the former wife of the producer Sidney Franklin. Eddy and his wife had no children.

Father:

William Darius Eddy

machinist

Mother:

Isabel Kendrick

church soloist

Spouse:

Ann Denitz Franklin