Jeanette MacDonald

Jeanette Anna MacDonald was born on June 18, 1903, in Philadelphia, at the family home on 5123 Arch Street. The youngest of three daughters born to Anna May Wright and Daniel McDonald, she grew up alongside her older sister Edith McDonald, later known as Blossom Rock and Marie Blake, who gained fame as "Grandmama" on the 1960s television series The Addams Family. Of Scottish, English, and Dutch descent, MacDonald later dropped the second N from her given name and added an A to her surname to reflect her Scottish heritage. Her early training began with local dance instructor Caroline Littlefield, whose daughter Catherine Littlefield became a noted American ballerina and choreographer. MacDonald performed in juvenile operas, recitals, and shows staged by Littlefield throughout Philadelphia, including at the Academy of Music. She subsequently studied with Al White and toured in his kiddie shows, leading his "Six Little Song Birds" in Philadelphia at the age of nine.

In November 1919, MacDonald joined her sister Blossom in New York, where she took singing lessons with Wassili Leps and secured a place in the chorus of Ned Wayburn's The Demi-Tasse Revue, a musical entertainment presented between films at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway. Her Broadway career extended from 1919 to 1929, during which she progressed steadily from chorus work to leading roles. In 1920 she appeared in Jerome Kern's The Night Boat as a chorus replacement and toured in Irene as the second female lead, a production in which Irene Dunne played the title role during part of the run. The following year she appeared in Tangerine as one of the "Six Wives," and in 1922 she was a featured singer in the Greenwich Village revue Fantastic Fricassee, where favorable press notices led to her being cast in The Magic Ring in 1923. That production, which starred Mitzi Hajos, gave MacDonald the second female lead in a long-running run. In 1925 she again held the second female lead in Tip Toes, a George Gershwin production in which she appeared opposite Queenie Smith, followed in 1926 by Bubblin' Over, a musical adaptation of Brewster's Millions, where she once more occupied a secondary lead position.

MacDonald finally achieved a starring role with Yes, Yes, Yvette in 1927, a production conceived as a sequel to producer H.H. Frazee's No, No, Nanette. Although the show toured extensively, it drew critical disapproval upon reaching Broadway. She continued in leading roles with Sunny Days in 1928, her first production for the Shubert organization under producers Lee and J.J. Shubert, which earned her strong reviews, and Angela that same year, which critics received poorly. Her final Broadway appearance came in Boom Boom in 1929, in which her name appeared above the title and the cast included a young Archie Leach, who would later become known as Cary Grant.

While MacDonald was performing in Angela, film star Richard Dix arranged a screen test for her for his film Nothing but the Truth, but the Shuberts declined to release her from her contract. The film ultimately starred Dix alongside Helen Kane. Her transition to film came in 1929 when director Ernst Lubitsch, reviewing screen tests of Broadway performers, cast her as the leading lady opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Love Parade, his first sound film. The picture received a Best Picture nomination and became a landmark of early sound cinema. MacDonald's first recordings for RCA Victor included two songs from its score, "Dream Lover" and "March of the Grenadiers."

Over the course of the 1930s and 1940s, MacDonald appeared in 29 feature films, four of which — The Love Parade, One Hour with You, Naughty Marietta, and San Francisco — received Best Picture nominations. She became particularly associated with her screen pairings with Chevalier, which also included Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow, and One Hour with You, and with Nelson Eddy, with whom she made Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime. Beyond film, MacDonald recorded extensively throughout her career, earning three gold records, and later performed in opera, concerts, radio, and television. An American soprano, she is credited with introducing opera to broad film-going audiences and influencing a generation of singers. She died on January 14, 1965.