Broadway In November 1919, MacDonald joined her older sister Blossom in New York. She took singing lessons with
Wassili Leps and landed a job in the chorus of Ned Wayburn's
The Demi-Tasse Revue, a musical entertainment presented between films at the
Capitol Theatre on
Broadway. In 1920, she appeared in two musicals:
Jerome Kern's
The Night Boat as a chorus replacement, and
Irene on the road as the second female lead; future film star
Irene Dunne played the title role during part of the tour, and
Helen Shipman played the title role during the other part of the tour. In 1921, MacDonald played in
Tangerine as one of the "Six Wives." In 1922, she was a featured singer in the Greenwich Village revue
Fantastic Fricassee, for which good press notices brought her a role in
The Magic Ring the next year. MacDonald played the second female lead in this long-running musical which starred
Mitzi Hajos. In 1925, MacDonald again had the second female lead opposite
Queenie Smith in
Tip Toes, a
George Gershwin hit show. The following year, 1926, found MacDonald still in a second female lead in ''Bubblin' Over
, a musical version of Brewster's Millions
. She finally landed a starring role in Yes, Yes, Yvette'' in 1927. Planned as a sequel to producer H.H. Frazee's
No, No, Nanette, the show toured extensively, but failed to please the critics when it arrived on Broadway. MacDonald also played the lead in her next two plays:
Sunny Days in 1928 in her first show for the producers Lee and J.J. Shubert, for which she received rave reviews; and
Angela (1928), which the critics panned. Her last play was
Boom Boom in 1929, with her name above the title; the cast included young Archie Leach, who would later become
Cary Grant. While MacDonald was appearing in
Angela, film star
Richard Dix spotted her and had her screen-tested for his film
Nothing but the Truth. The Shuberts, however, would not let her out of her contract to appear in the film, which starred Dix and
Helen Kane (the "Boop-boop-a-doop girl"). In 1929, famed film director
Ernst Lubitsch was looking through old screen tests of Broadway performers and spotted MacDonald. He cast her as the leading lady in
The Love Parade, his first sound film, which starred
Maurice Chevalier.
Film career Paramount, controversial move to Fox Film Corporation In the first rush of sound films during 1929 and 1930, MacDonald starred in six films—the first four for
Paramount Studios. Her first,
The Love Parade (1929), directed by
Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring
Maurice Chevalier, was a landmark of early sound films, and received a Best Picture nomination. MacDonald's first recordings for RCA Victor were two hits from the score: "Dream Lover" and "March of the Grenadiers."
The Vagabond King (1930) was a lavish two-strip
Technicolor film version of
Rudolf Friml's hit 1925 operetta. Broadway star
Dennis King reprised his role as 15th-century French poet
François Villon, and MacDonald was Princess Katherine. She sang "
Some Day" and "Only a Rose." The
UCLA Film and Television Archive owns the only known color print of this production. Both Paramount and MacDonald were extremely busy in 1930.
Paramount on Parade was an all-star revue, similar to other mammoth sound revues produced by major studios to introduce their formerly silent stars to the public. MacDonald's footage singing a duet of "Come Back to Sorrento" with
Nino Martini was cut from the release print due to copyright reasons with Universal Studios, which had recently acquired the copyright to the song for an upcoming movie,
King of Jazz. ''
Let's Go Native was a desert-island comedy directed by Leo McCarey, co-starring the likes of Jack Oakie and Kay Francis. Monte Carlo became another highly regarded Lubitsch classic, with British musical star Jack Buchanan as a count who disguises himself as a hairdresser in order to woo a scatterbrained countess (MacDonald). MacDonald introduced "Beyond the Blue Horizon," which she recorded three times during her career, including performing it for the Hollywood Victory Committee film Follow the Boys''. In hopes of producing her own films, MacDonald went to
United Artists to make
The Lottery Bride in 1930. Despite music by
Rudolf Friml, the film was not successful. MacDonald next signed a three-picture deal with the
Fox Film Corporation, a controversial move in Hollywood; every other studio was far superior in the eyes of many, from their budgets to the fantastical entertainment of their films.
Oh, for a Man! (1930) was more successful; MacDonald portrayed a temperamental opera singer who sings Wagner's "Liebestod" and falls for an Irish burglar played by
Reginald Denny. In 1931, ''Don't Bet on Women'' was a non-musical drawing-room comedy in which a playboy (
Edmund Lowe) bets his happily married friend (
Roland Young) that he can seduce his friend's wife (MacDonald). ''
Annabelle's Affairs'' (1931) was a farce, with MacDonald as a sophisticated New York playgirl who does not recognize her own miner husband, played by
Victor McLaglen, when he turns up five years later. Although highly praised by reviewers at the time, only one reel of this film survives. MacDonald took a break from Hollywood in 1931 to embark on a European concert tour, performing at the Empire Theater in Paris (
Mistinguett and
Morris Gest were said to have been in the crowd) and at London's
Dominion Theatre, and was invited to dinner parties with British Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald and French newspaper critics. She returned to Paramount the following year for two films with Chevalier.
One Hour with You in 1932 was directed by both
George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch, and simultaneously filmed in French with the same stars, but a French supporting cast. Currently, no surviving print of
Une Heure près de toi (
One Hour With You) is known.
Rouben Mamoulian directed
Love Me Tonight (1932), considered by many film critics and writers to be the perfect film musical. Starring Chevalier as a humble tailor in love with a princess played by MacDonald, much of the story is told in sung dialogue.
Richard Rodgers and
Lorenz Hart wrote the original score, which included the standards "
Mimi," "
Lover," and "
Isn't It Romantic?"
MGM, Nelson Eddy partnership In 1933, MacDonald left again for Europe, and while there signed with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first MGM film was
The Cat and the Fiddle (1934), based on the Jerome Kern Broadway hit. Her co-star was
Ramón Novarro. The plot about unmarried lovers shacking up just barely slipped through the new
Production Code guidelines that took effect July 1, 1934. Despite a Technicolor finale—the first use of the new three-color Technicolor process other than Disney cartoons—the film was not a huge success. It lost $142,000. In
The Merry Widow (1934), director Ernst Lubitsch reunited Maurice Chevalier and MacDonald in a lavish version of the classic 1905
Franz Lehár operetta. The film was highly regarded by critics and operetta lovers in major U.S. cities and Europe, but failed to generate much income outside urban areas, losing $113,000. It had a huge budget of $1.6 million, partially because it was filmed simultaneously in French as
La Veuve Joyeuse, with a French supporting cast and some minor plot changes.
Naughty Marietta (1935), directed by
W. S. Van Dyke, was MacDonald's first film in which she teamed with newcomer baritone
Nelson Eddy.
Victor Herbert's 1910 score, with songs like "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life," "I'm Falling in Love with Someone," "'Neath the Southern Moon," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," and "Italian Street Song," enjoyed renewed popularity. The film won an Oscar for sound recording, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It was voted one of the Ten Best Pictures of 1935 by the New York film critics, was awarded the
Photoplay Gold Medal Award as Best Picture of 1935 (beating out
Mutiny on the Bounty, which won the Oscar), and in 2004 was selected to the
National Film Registry. MacDonald earned gold records for "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" and "Italian Street Song." The following year, MacDonald starred in two of the highest-grossing films of that year. In
Rose-Marie, MacDonald played a haughty opera diva who learns her young brother (pre-fame
James Stewart) has killed a Mountie and is hiding in the northern woods; Eddy is the Mountie sent to capture him. Nelson Eddy and she sang Rudolf Friml's "
Indian Love Call" to each other in the Canadian wilderness (actually filmed at Lake Tahoe). Eddy's definitive portrayal of the steadfast Mountie became a popular icon. When the Canadian Mounties temporarily retired their distinctive hat in 1970, photos of Eddy in his
Rose Marie uniform appeared in thousands of U.S. newspapers.
San Francisco (1936) was also directed by W.S. Van Dyke. In this tale of the
1906 San Francisco earthquake, MacDonald played a hopeful opera singer opposite
Clark Gable as the extra-virile proprietor of a
Barbary Coast gambling joint, and
Spencer Tracy as his boyhood chum who has become a priest and gives the moral messages. behind the scenes of
The Firefly (1937) In the summer of 1936, filming began on
Maytime, co-starring Nelson Eddy,
Frank Morgan, and Paul Lukas, produced by
Irving Thalberg. After Thalberg's untimely death in September, production was shut down and the half-finished film scrapped. A new script was filmed with a different storyline and supporting actors (including
John Barrymore, whose relationship with MacDonald was strained due to his alcoholism). The 'second'
Maytime (1937), was the top-grossing film worldwide of the year, and is regarded as one of the best film musicals of the 1930s. "Will You Remember" by
Sigmund Romberg brought MacDonald another gold record.
The Firefly (1937) was MacDonald's first solo-starring film at MGM with her name alone above the title. Rudolf Friml's
1912 stage score was borrowed, and a new song, "
The Donkey Serenade," added, adapted from Friml's "Chanson" piano piece. With real-life Americans rushing to fight in the ongoing revolution in Spain, this historical vehicle was constructed around a previous revolution in Napoleonic times. MacDonald's co-star was
tenor Allan Jones, who she demanded get the same treatment as she would, such as an equal number of close-ups. The MacDonald/Eddy team had split after MacDonald's engagement and marriage to
Gene Raymond, but neither of their solo films grossed as much as the team films, and an unimpressed Mayer used this to point out why Jones could not replace Eddy in the next project.
The Girl of the Golden West (1938) was the result, but the two stars had little screen time together, and the main song, "Obey Your Heart," was never sung as a duet. The film featured an original score by Sigmund Romberg, and reused the popular
David Belasco stage plot (also employed by opera composer
Giacomo Puccini for
La fanciulla del West). '' (1938) Mayer had promised MacDonald the studio's first Technicolor feature, and he delivered with
Sweethearts (1938), co-starring Eddy. In contrast to the previous film, the co-stars were relaxed onscreen and singing frequently together. The film integrated
Victor Herbert's 1913 stage score into a modern backstage story scripted by
Dorothy Parker and
Alan Campbell. MacDonald and Eddy played a husband-and-wife Broadway musical-comedy team who are offered a Hollywood contract.
Sweethearts won the
Photoplay Gold Medal Award as Best Picture of the Year. Mayer dropped plans for the team to co-star in
Let Freedom Ring, a vehicle first announced for them in 1935. Only Eddy starred, whereas MacDonald and
Lew Ayres co-starred in
Broadway Serenade (1939) as a contemporary musical couple who clash when her career flourishes while his founders. MacDonald's performance was subdued, and choreographer
Busby Berkeley, just hired away from
Warner Bros., was called upon to add an over-the-top finale in an effort to improve the film.
Broadway Serenade did not entice audiences in a lot of major cities, with
Variety claiming that New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles' cinema attendances were "sad," "slow,"and "sour." Following
Broadway Serenade, and not coincidentally right after Nelson Eddy's surprise elopement with Ann Franklin, MacDonald left Hollywood on a concert tour and refused to renew her MGM contract. Months later she summoned her manager Bob Ritchie from London to help her renegotiate. After initially insisting that she wanted to film ''
Smilin' Through with James Stewart and Robert Taylor, MacDonald finally relented and agreed to film New Moon'' (1940) with Eddy, which proved to be one of MacDonald's more popular films. Composer Sigmund Romberg's 1927 Broadway hit provided the plot and the songs: "Lover, Come Back to Me," "One Kiss," and "Wanting You," plus Eddy's version of "Stout Hearted Men." This was followed by
Bitter Sweet (1940), a Technicolor film version of
Noël Coward's 1929 stage
operetta, which Coward loathed, writing in his diary about how "vulgar" he found it. ''
Smilin' Through'' (1941) was MacDonald's next Technicolor project, the third adaptation filmed in Hollywood, with
Brian Aherne and
Gene Raymond. Its theme of reunion with deceased loved ones was enormously popular after the devastation of World War I, and MGM reasoned that it should resonate with audiences during World War II, but it failed to make a profit. MacDonald played a dual role—Moonyean, a Victorian girl accidentally murdered by a jealous lover, and Kathleen, her niece, who falls in love with the son of the murderer.
I Married an Angel (1942), was adapted from the
Rodgers & Hart stage musical about an angel who loses her wings on her wedding night. The script by
Anita Loos suffered serious censorship cuts during filming that made the result less successful. MacDonald sang "Spring Is Here" and the title song. It was the final film made by the team of MacDonald and Eddy. After a falling-out with Mayer, Eddy bought out his MGM contract (with one film left to make) and went to Universal, where he signed a million-dollar, two-picture deal. MacDonald remained for one last film,
Cairo (1942), a cheaply budgeted spy comedy co-starring
Robert Young as a reporter and
Ethel Waters as a maid, whom MacDonald personally requested. Within one year, beginning in 1942, L.B. Mayer released his four highest-paid actresses from their MGM contracts;
Norma Shearer,
Joan Crawford,
Greta Garbo, and Jeanette MacDonald. Of those four stars, MacDonald was the only one whom Mayer would rehire.
Final roles After opening the
Metropolitan Opera's membership campaign, MacDonald appeared as herself in
Follow the Boys (1944), an all-star extravaganza about Hollywood stars entertaining the troops. The more than 40 guest stars included
Marlene Dietrich,
W.C. Fields,
Sophie Tucker, and
Orson Welles. MacDonald is shown during a concert singing "
Beyond the Blue Horizon," and in a studio-filmed sequence singing "
I'll See You in My Dreams" to a blinded soldier. She returned to MGM after five years off the screen for two films.
Three Daring Daughters (1948) co-starred
José Iturbi as her love interest. MacDonald plays a divorcée whose lively daughters (
Jane Powell, Ann E. Todd, and
Elinor Donahue) keep trying to get her back with her ex, but she has secretly remarried. The song "The Dickey Bird" made the
hit parade.
The Sun Comes Up (1949) teamed MacDonald with
Lassie in an adaptation of a short story by
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. MacDonald played a widow who has lost her son, but warms to orphan
Claude Jarman Jr. It would prove to be her final film. She frequently attempted a comeback movie, even financing and paying a screenwriter. One of the possible film reunions with Nelson Eddy was to be made in England, but Eddy pulled out when he learned MacDonald was investing her own funds. Eddy preferred to publicly blame the proposed project as mediocre, when in fact MacDonald was uninsurable due to her heart condition. A reunion with Maurice Chevalier was also considered. Other thwarted projects with Eddy were
The Rosary,
The Desert Song, and a remake of
The Vagabond King, plus two movie treatments written by Eddy for them,
Timothy Waits for Love and ''All Stars Don't Spangle
. Offers continued to come in, and in 1962, producer Ross Hunter proposed MacDonald in his 1963 comedy The Thrill of It All, but she declined. 20th Century Fox also toyed with the idea of MacDonald (Irene Dunne was briefly considered) for the part of Mother Abbess in the film version of The Sound of Music''. It never moved beyond the discussion stages partly because of MacDonald's failing health. An annual poll of film exhibitors listed MacDonald as one of the top-10 box-office draws of 1936, and many of her films were among the top-20 moneymakers of the years they were released. In addition, MacDonald was one of the top-10 box-office attractions in Great Britain from 1937 to 1942. During her 39-year career, MacDonald earned two stars on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame (for films and recordings) and planted her feet in the wet concrete in front of
Grauman's Chinese Theater.
Musical theatre In the mid-1950s, MacDonald toured in summer-stock productions of
Bitter Sweet and
The King and I. She opened in
Bitter Sweet at the Iroquois Amphitheater, Louisville, Kentucky, on July 19, 1954. Her production of
The King and I opened August 20, 1956, at the
Starlight Theatre. While performing there, she collapsed. Officially, it was announced as heat prostration, but in fact it was a heart seizure. She began limiting her appearances, and a reprisal of
Bitter Sweet in 1959 was her last professional stage appearance. MacDonald and her husband Gene Raymond toured in Ferenc Molnár's
The Guardsman. The production opened at the Erlanger Theater in
Buffalo, New York, on January 25, 1951, and played in 23 Northeastern and Midwestern cities until June 2, 1951. Despite less-than-enthusiastic comments from critics, the show played to full houses for virtually every performance. The leading role of "The Actress" was changed to "The Singer" to allow MacDonald to add some songs. While this pleased her fans, the show closed before reaching Broadway. In the 1950s, talks with respect to a Broadway return occurred. In the 1960s, MacDonald was approached about starring on Broadway in a musical version of
Sunset Boulevard. Harold Prince recounts in his autobiography visiting MacDonald at her home in Bel Air to discuss the proposed project. Composer
Hugh Martin also wrote a song for the musical, entitled "Wasn't It Romantic?" MacDonald also made a few nightclub appearances. She sang and danced at
The Sands and
The Sahara in Las Vegas in 1953,
The Coconut Grove in Los Angeles in 1954, and again at The Sahara in 1957, but she never felt entirely comfortable in their smoky atmospheres. ==Music career==