Giovanni Martino (1884-19??) was an Italian operatic bass singer. He made his professional debut in 1907 and by 1919 was performing in New York at the Metropolitan Opera. By 1927, He had appeared in around 120 productions at the Met.
In 1930, Martino was one of the many from the New York stage recruited by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, appearing with Grace Moore in A Lady’s Morals.
His career in films was short, though he did have a featured role in El presidio (1930), the Spanish-language version of The Big House (1930).
For such a notable performer, it is strange that details of his later years seem unavailable.
Italian actor Paul Porcasi (1879-1946) was a stage performer, both in straight theatre and grand opera. He made a few silent films for East coast companies from 1917 onwards, but began his screen career in earnest when he travelled to Hollywood in 1929 to recreate the role of Nick Verdis in the adaptation of the eponymous Broadway hit, Broadway.
Porcasi went on to accumulate 140 credits for character roles in just sixteen years. He was the apple vendor who catches Fay Wray stealing in King Kong (1933), and in Casablanca (1942) he played a fez-wearing local who provides the exposition explaining the character Ferrari.
Most of Porcasi’s parts were Hollywood-exotic, though rarely as left-field as when he played Benito Mussolini in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942).
Porcasi made appearances in four MGM musicals. A Lady’s Morals and its French-language remake were followed by three pictures starring Jeanette MacDonald, The Cat and the Fiddle, Rose-Marie and Maytime.
George Francis Marion (1860-1945) was a notable stage actor who made forays in films from 1915 to 1935. He also directed and choreographed on the stage, and directed two films in 1916.
Marion created the role of Chris in Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie (1921), and recreated the part in the 1930 film version starring Greta Garbo. In the same year, he appeared as the innkeeper in A Lady’s Morals.
Marion’s son, George F Marion Jr, made what might be considered more significant contributions to the film musical when he co-wrote Love Me Tonight (1932) and The Gay Divorcee (1934).
Gilbert Emery Bensley Pottle (1875-1945) was a successful author and playwright (sometimes under the name Emery Pottle) both before and during his career as a screen character actor. At least one of his plays, The Hero (1921), has been revived in the 21st century.
Following some stage acting, Emery made his first film, for Vitagraph, in 1921, but only appeared in one other silent film. From 1929 onwards, however, he accumulated around 80 credits.
Emery only appeared in one MGM musical, A Lady’s Morals, but he also contributed to the screenplays of a number of pictures, one of which was The Cuban Love Song.
Jobyna Howland (1880-1936) was a stage actor who made occasional film appearances.
Howland made her debut aged 17, and performed widely in regional and touring productions, before working on Broadway, where she played her final role shortly before her death.
She made a few silent films, but sound catered better to her theatrical skills and, in particular, her resonant voice. She was a regular in the comedies of Wheeler and Wolsey.
Howland made only one musical at MGM, playing Josephine in A Lady’s Morals.
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (1885-1949) shares with Edward G Robinson the honour of being the 1930s’ most unlikely-looking star/leading man. Beery was, during his heyday, successfully marketed by MGM as a lovable slob, but seems to have been disliked by virtually everyone he worked with, for his constant upstaging and unpleasant behaviour. Jackie Cooper, who worked with him four times when a child actor, claimed they, after Beery died, they “couldn’t find eight guys to carry his casket”.
Wallace Beery was that rare entertainer who actually did run away from home to join the circus. A few years later he began stage work, singing in comic operas, and then on Broadway and in summer stock.
He made his first film, for Essanay, in 1913, the first of more than 200 appearances. He also directed a number of shorts for Essanay and for Nestor Pictures between 1913 and 1919.
Beery specialized in playing villains during the 1920s, though one of his more prominent roles was as King Richard in Fairbanks’s Robin Hood (1922). And in 1925 he was cast as Professor Challenger in First National’s The Lost World.
MGM signed Beery as a character actor, but he unexpectedly became a leading man after being teamed with Marie Dressler in Min and Bill (1930). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Champ (1931), tying with Fredric March (who had actually received a higher number of votes).
Beery appeared three times in MGM musicals. In A Lady’s Morals, he had a supporting role as P T Barnum. In Going Hollywood, he features in archival footage at a premiere. And in A Date with Judy, his penultimate picture, he was top billed as Elizabeth Taylor’s dad.
Mary Willie Grace Moore (1898-1947), ‘the Tennessee Nightingale’, is thought of as an opera singer who, like Lawrence Tibbett, was enticed to Hollywood and a lower form of musical entertainment. In fact, Grace Moore was no stranger to performing popular songs. She had funded her training by singing in nightclubs, and made appearances in Broadway revues in the early 20s, well before she made her 1928 debut at the Metropolitan Opera.
Moore’s ambition in going to Hollywood, she said later, was to “help carve a niche for good music in the then-developing field of sound pictures”. So ‘The Tennessee Nightingale’ went to play Jenny Lind, ‘the Swedish Nightingale’, in A Lady’s Morals. The only thing worse than the film’s title, Moore claimed, was her acting. If her acting was not everything that might be desired, it was so in two languages, as she also starred in the French-language version.
Moore and Tibbett were subsequently paired in New Moon, and then she called it a day on screen acting and went back to the stage. With the downturn in the popularity of film musicals, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Moore returned to Hollywood in 1934, and made six pictures for Columbia, including the very successful One Night of Love (1934). She made her ninth and final film in France, Louise (1939), directed by Abel Gance.
Grace Moore’s life and career ended tragically in 1947 when she died in a plane crash. She was later portrayed by Kathryn Grayson in Warner’s lacklustre biopic, So This is Love (1953).
World-famous soprano Jenny Lind and her party arrive at a Swedish inn. Jenny wants a room with a piano, but the only one suitable has already been taken by Paul Brandt, a young composer. Jenny’s companion, Pauline, demands that Paul surrender the room to the world’s greatest singer, but he pretends he has never heard of Jenny Lind. Jenny finds her friend’s behaviour embarrassing. Paul and Jenny meet and, after being arrogant and flirtatious, Paul agrees to let her have the room. Jenny is intrigued by him.
Jenny Lind (Grace Moore)
At dinner, Paul presents Jenny with a song and asks her to sing it. She refuses, but then he makes it a condition of having his room. When Jenny sings [It Is Destiny], Paul constantly corrects her style. After the song, Paul kisses Jenny, who slaps him. He says he kissed her because he has always wanted someone to sing his song like that. He adds that he fell in love with her the moment he saw her and that they have not met by accident. Paul leaves, but he assures Jenny that they shall meet again.
In Malmo, Jenny performs in Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment [Rataplan]. During the performance, Jenny discovers that Paul is now a member of the chorus. She invites him to supper [Student’s Song]. Paul gets rid of Josephine, but Jenny says she cannot dine with him alone [Oh, Why?]. Paul reveals that, far from not knowing who she is, he has long carried her picture with him. He tells her again that he adores her, and Jenny admits she has been thinking about him since the inn. She says they must both be mad. She talks about marriage, but he says he could never be the husband of a great prima donna. Paul warns Jenny that one day the world will turn its affections elsewhere, but that he will always love her. She asks him to go.
Paul Brandt (Reginald Denny) and Jenny, falling in love
Much later, in Italy at the end of a long tour, Jenny is about to perform Norma. She hears Rosatti, a famous Italian prima donna, get a rapturous welcome as she takes her seat in the audience. The performance begins [Casta Diva], with Paul also in the audience. An encore is demanded, but Jenny says she is exhausted and her throat hurts; she does not want to go back on. She is persuaded to sing again [Casta Diva], but her voice goes. The curtain is brought down and Jenny collapses. The crowd calls for Rosatti. Paul defends Jenny and a fight breaks out. Paul is struck hard on the head and passes out. Backstage, Jenny hears Rosatti complete the performance.
Later, Paul brings his uncle, the maestro Garcia, to help Jenny recover her voice. Paul is walking unsteadily. After Paul has left, the maestro accidentally reveals that his nephew’s sight has been impaired since the fight in the theatre. Paul will not get the help he needs because all he can think about is helping Jenny.
Back in Sweden [Swedish Pastorale], Jenny is with Paul, whose eyes have been bandaged for two months, following treatment. When the doctor removes the bandages, Paul pretends that he can see for the sake of Jenny, but confesses the truth to the doctor, who says the blindness will be permanent. Before Paul can tell Jenny the truth, she reveals that her voice has returned [It Is Destiny]. Paul slips away, leaving a note telling Jenny that he loves her but must go.
Jenny and Paul, following the operation intended to restore his sight
Jenny makes her debut in the United States, where she is promoted by P T Barnum. Paul is also in America. He is blind, performing his music in a bar. Olaf, a fellow Swede and friend of Paul’s, breaks into Jenny’s dressing room. He has brought one of his blind friend’s songs, hoping that Jenny will buy it and sing it. Josephine takes the song and throws him out. Jenny sees Paul’s name on the manuscript and realizes that he is blind. Jenny tells Josephine to find Olaf.
While Jenny sings [Lovely Hour], Paul is in a huge crowd outside the theatre who are listening through the open windows. Later, Olaf tricks Paul into meeting Jenny. She gently admonishes Paul for not telling her about his blindness, and they embrace.
