Unable to get Judy Garland for a role in Universals low-budget musical comedy Three Smart Girls (MGM had loaned Garland to 20th Century Fox for Pigskin Parade), migr producer Joe Pasternak (born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his place of birth now part of Romania) set his sights on the equally youthful and musically inclined Durbin. By the time the 26-year-old Deanna Durbins film career was over, the movies personification of girl next door wholesomeness had been married twice: Durbins union with Universal Pictures assistant director Vaughn Paul ended in 1943. He made three movies at Joe Pasternaks MGM unit in the mid-40s (Music for Millions, Two Sisters from Boston, The Unfinished Dance); earned an Oscar nomination for the prestigious RKO-released fantasy The Bishops Wife (1947), starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven; and eventually settled at 20th Century Fox, where he would handle star vehicles for the likes of Betty Grable, Clifton Webb, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Jennifer Jones, and Olivia de Havilland. at Grace Hospital on December 4, 1921, as Edna Mae Durbin. If you continue browsing, that means you've accepted our Terms of Use/use of cookies. Classic movies. Directed by relative Hollywood newcomer Charles David, a former production manager in France for the likes of Jean Renoir (La Chienne) and Marcel Carn (Drole de drame), Lady on a Train stars Durbin as a witness to a murder that no one believes has been committed the same premise found in Agatha Christies 1957 novel 4:50 from Paddington (which became the 1962 Margaret Rutherford movie Murder, She Said). Needless to say, I was, along with her other fans, shocked to hear about her passing. Edna Maes time in Canada, however, was brief. The most useful source of information I found online was www.deannadurbindevotees.com. Thank you for the excerpt from Ms. Durbins letter to Anthony Slide. Menu. If I went to New York, I had to stay in my hotel room or go everywhere under guard, whisked away in a big black limousine, terrified that the fans running alongside would get hurt in the traffic. At a train station in Texas, the police lost control of a crowd of fans trying to reach Durbin, which resulted in her mother suffering two broken ribs. Durbin also had admirers in the arts. WebRenamed Deanna Durbin for show business purposes, by age 21 she was the most highly paid female star in the world. She is at her best in simple comedies; so they give her a heavy drama She has a limited range as an actress; so they ask her to express anguish, rapture, fear, world-weariness, and spiritual catharsis, apart from one or two other emotions you may find it difficult to identify. They may have been impressed with my success, but my fans were the parents, many of whom could not cope with their own youngsters. I enjoyed your article very much. Needless to say over the years I have tracked down all 21 of her films, the best in my opinion being: It Started With Eve, Spring Parade, Lady On A Train, His Butlers Sister, Every Sunday, Mad About Music, That Certain Age, Three Smart Girls, Three Smart Girls Grow Up, Something In The Wind and First Love. (LogOut/ I was crying bitterly and decided that Id kill myself, she would later recall.
Copyright Fandango. Which means, to me most of her films are great! During the Great Depression most Hollywood studios were in dire financial straits, until, as the story goes, one (or more) lucky star(s) made them once again solvent. Durbin, safely no longer a minor, falls for another older man, Franchot Tone, then in his mid-30s though she ultimately settles for the more age appropriate Robert Stack. WebDeanna Durbin | Television Academy Interviews Search Home Awards Nominations Nominees/Winners Emmy Awards Search Awards News Nominations Information Emmy In the interview, she steadfastly asserted her right to privacy and maintained it until the end of her life, declining to be profiled on websites. My husband would protect me from spiders, mosquitoes and reporters. When my first marriage failed, everyone said that I could never divorce. "Allow us to help you, to help your busines! True enough, shes married to a convicted murderer, played with great verve and sleazy, sinister charm by Gene Kelly, whom she meets at a concert. were outraged at seeing their wholesome idol featured in such an unsavory cinematic environment. A MGM discovery, the 13-year-old Canadian migr was dumped by the studio in favor of a young Judy Garland in one of Tinseltown's most notorious intra-office screw-ups. WebI was pleased to note that Deanna Durbin was an accomplished light comedy actress in addition to her vocal talents. with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. torn between Cary Grant and Randolph Scott. Charles David, Deanna Durbins husband of 48 years, died in March 1999, at the age of 92; Institut Pasteur medical researcher Peter H. David is their only son. And Im not going to invest in one of those. Although, I have a degree in filmmaking and have watched thousands of Hollywood films, I just discovered her and her films this week (March, 2016) and I was fascinated. She actually grew up in the Los Angeles area, where her father, formerly a Canadian Pacific railway blacksmith, set up shop shortly after her birth. In all fairness, however, credit for saving Universal must go not only to Durbin, but to the Deanna Durbin-Joe Pasternak combo. Still a beautiful brunette, though heavier than in her film days, the 34-year-old Deanna says for the first lime in her life she is enjoying privacy with her family. Find your own inne, @princetonfarmersmarket is still open through the, Todays @towntopics (December 7, 2022) is packed, Congratulations Alex and Kaley! 16 December 1944: V Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group. But would MGM have use for two teen female singers, however different their styles? Her husband was the German-born, French-raised (his place of birth is now French territory) 46-year-old Charles David (a.k.a. A soldier from England told her that she epitomized Sincerity, tenderness, music, and laughter it is just a little piece of Heaven to be able to visit the garrison cinema, see you and feel the sweetness and peace which surrounds you.. Posted April 7, 2023. Lighter material was provided in Cant Help Singing (1944), with Deanna Durbin in color for the first (and only) time, singing songs by Jerome Kern while romancing Universal B-movie leading man Robert Paige. Shes still beautiful, blue-eyed, always smiling.. Considering that Gabby did show clear signs of being in an abusive relationship and the officers could have handled the situation better, I can understand why her family is filing a lawsuit. WebLouise Ginglebusher ( Deanna Durbin) is a young woman from the small town of Cobbleskill who comes to New York City to make it in show business. At first, the studio threatened to sue Durbin to get back $87,000 it had advanced the actress. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Deanna Durbin once saved a major Hollywood studio from bankruptcy with a winning smile, an operatic singing voice and a can-do attitude. Durbin would never be nominated for an Academy Award, but the fluffy Three Smart Girls and One Hundred Men and a Girl were shortlisted for the Best Picture Oscar and in other categories. If so, in her stead, Rhonda Fleming was cast in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, while fellow soprano-voiced Universal player Ann Blyth stepped in in Top o the Morning. Looming in the more WebDeanna Durbin would make 26 films. ), No one makes a star, of course, not the producer, not the director, not the writer, Joe Pasternak would write in his 1956 autobiography, Easy the Hard Way. Also: Spring Parade (1940), with Robert Cummings; Its a Date (1940), with Kay Francis and Walter Pidgeon; Nice Girl? He was fired because he was too slow or, as per Renoir biographer Clia Bertin, he had to withdraw due to ill health or, as per Shipman, he quit because Durbin was unable to escape from the style that made her famous. Yet, Anthony Slide, who was friends with Jean Renoir, wrote me, Certainly, he spoke well of [Durbin] in old age. (As an aside, in 1941 another French exile, Ren Clair, had a screenplay ready for Deanna Durbin, but Joe Pasternak unfortunately assigned him instead to direct Marlene Dietrich in The Flame of New Orleans.). In fact, Durbins is probably the most incisive, bluntly honest assessment of the appeal of any celebrity who, like her, at an early age became associated with a public persona from Betty Bronson and Jackie Coogan in the 20s, Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney in the 30s, Margaret OBrien and Jane Powell in the 40s, and Debbie Reynolds and Sandra Dee in the 50s to Macauley Culkin, Daniel Radcliffe, Zac Efron, Kristen Stewart, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Lautner in the last two decades. As instant a movie star as Hollywood ever minted, Deanna Durbin's weekly salary was increased to $3,000 per week to suit her celebrity standing. Once a star became identified with a big-screen persona, it was nearly impossible to transcend it. The pair did, however, more than just assist on writing That Certain Age. *IMPORTANT*: By using this form you agree with Alt Film Guide's storage and handling of your data (e.g., your IP address). In the film, Durbin portrays a New Orleans nightclub-cum-brothel performer, possibly a sex worker as well; on loan from MGM in exchange for Turhan Bey, an offbeat-cast Gene Kelly plays her husband surely a killer, possibly a gay one, and with an incestuously-inclined mother (Gale Sondergaard) to boot. Besides launching another teen soprano at Universal, Gloria Jean, while at MGM he not only groomed Kathryn Grayson, but also June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, and Esther Williams. I liked your two books on the stars and such statements you made as, the system was firmly rigged against the individual in favor of the machine, . Nevertheless, the studio wanted to stick to their tried-and-true Deanna Durbin Formula. 1999. Churchill reportedly screened the film on celebratory wartime occasions while enjoying brandy and a cigar. New Universal boss Charles Rogers, whose investment partnership took charge of the studio after ousting deeply indebted Universal founder Carl Laemmle and his son, immediately signed on the rechristened Deanna Durbin. When I first read the news of Deanna Durbins death in the Times, one detail that caught my attention was the claim that shed played a prostitute in love with a killer in Robert Siodmaks Christmas Holiday (1944). Her first picture, "Three Smart Girls" (1936), was an unexpected box office smash and a string of subsequent hits made Durbin Hollywood's highest paid female star and an honorary Academy Award winner. Compounding matters, Henry Koster left Universal in 1942. Perhaps most impressive of all is the way she manages to suggest both the wounded, worldly wise Jackie and the wholesome, loving, concert-going Abigail as she delivers a torch singers sultry, low-key rendition of Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year to the house bands easy-swinging, Dixie flavored accompaniment while looking at once sweet and sexy in a daring if not quite risque black evening gown. WebThe five-year association of Deanna Durbin, producer Joe Pasternak and director Henry Koster ended following the film It Started With Eve (1941). Not leaving any star-making stone unturned, Pasternak duly remade Three Smart Girls as Three Daring Daughters (1948) and Its a Date as Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), both as star vehicles for the Deanna Durbin-ish Jane Powell. , to help themselves German-born, French-raised ( his place of birth is now French territory ) Charles. Place of birth is now French territory ) 46-year-old Charles David ( a.k.a leaves her hand and footprints the. 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WebLinkedIn is the worlds largest business network, helping professionals like Dee-Ann Durbin discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts, and Henry Koster, whose last directorial credit was The Singing Nun (1966), a Debbie Reynolds star vehicle that could easily have gone to Deanna Durbin a couple of decades earlier, died at age 83 in 1988. Having purchased 12 of Deannas Films, there are only 9 left to get. Charles David directed only two films in Hollywood, both in 1945 Lady On A Train and Fairy Tale Murder (with Gloria Jean). Two-time Academy Award winner Frank Borzage (7th Heaven, Bad Girl) handled the romantic comedy His Butlers Sister (1943), about an aspiring singer (Durbin) visiting her half-brother (former Warner Bros. player Pat OBrien) in New York and once again falling in love with Franchot Tone. WOMAN and TIME: Deanna Durbin WOMEN and TIME. Her major motion pictures were Three Smart Girls (1936) , Read todays issue of the, @ironcorebootcamp in Rocky Hill, NJ puts you in th, @ywcaprincetons Tribute to Women Awards celebra, Its been an action packed week in Princeton. Menu [1] At the time Bamber was born, his father was an American management consultant. (Audrey Hepburn played Eliza in Warner Bros. Academy Award-winning 1964 movie version.). I agree, wholeheartedly, that a Biography of Deanna Durbins Life should be written, but will the Fans get to read anything other than what most of them have probably already read? A MGM discovery, the 13-year-old Slim Deanna Durbin today photo via NYUs William K. Everson Collection. 07. abr 2023. deanna durbin interview. Why did she reject her occupation that she was so brilliant at so totally? I was the highest paid star with the poorest material today I consider my salary as damages for having to cope with such complete lack of quality.. Curiously, fellow 30s child star Shirley Temple quit films the following year, while Judy Garlands final MGM movie, Summer Stock, was released in 1950. 71% Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies: Season 1, Link to Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Link to RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes. ), According to an article published ca. Below are some excerpts: I knew that sooner or later I would give an interview and decided that I would do it with you. Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter Does this seem to you the best way of making a Deanna Durbin picture? Movies. Whenever I complained or asked for story or director approval, the studio refused. Mad About Music, for its part, was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Original Story (Marcella Burke and Frederick Kohner). Instead of handing back the money, Durbin consented to star in three extra movies for the studio. Deanna Durbin leaves her hand and footprints at the Chinese Theatre.
That was a long time. Jane Dana (Deanna Durbin) is a cheerful teenager doing her best to survive the trials of youth. How could anybody really think that I was going to spend the rest of my life with a man I found I didnt love, just for the sake of an image?. By the time she was 18 her income was $250,000 a year. While discussing the highly sentimental One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), the movie that introduced Durbin to Mozart, and in which she pesters conductor Leopold Stokowski to come to the rescue of her down-in-the-dumps musician father (Adolphe Menjou) and his orchestra, The New Statesmans P. Galway wrote: Useless to pretend that Im tough enough to resist the blandishments of Miss Deanna Durbin. I was seriously tempted, Durbin would later say about that possibility, when My Fair Lady was still in an embryonic state in the late 40s. Im glad because a few years later I began replacing all of my VHS movies by purchasing them on DVD Formats. Concern for her daughters emotional welfare, in fact, was one of the reasons Durbin opted to leave Hollywood for good. International cinema. Remarkable considering that Deannas films have not been available for regular public broadcasts for over 40 years. As proof that Durbin, all of 21, was no longer a child, in both films her feelings for Tone and Cotten, then in their mid-to-late 30s, were reciprocated. What I did find difficult was that this acquired maturity had to be hidden under the childlike personality my films and publicity projected on me., I hated being in a goldfish bowl. ), All of those Deanna Durbin star vehicles were Joe Pasternak productions, and so were four other Durbin movies from that period: That Certain Age (1938), in which she falls in love with older man Melvyn Douglas, then in his late 30s, much to the dismay of prospective boyfriend Jackie Cooper; the aforementioned musical comedy Mad About Music; Its a Date (1940), with Durbin trying to hook up her actress-mother Kay Francis with Walter Pidgeon; and Nice Girl? And if Deanna Durbin saved Universal, she and her family were saved by the studio as well. Webvanderbilt women's soccer coach email; nombres que combinen con will. The source was a newsletter from the British-based Deanna Durbin Society, quoting Durbins son, Peter H. David. Deanna is indeed a remarkable girl, and yet she is not much different from many of the average wholesome American girls of her age., Excerpt Two: And she is not without faults that are quite usual in a girl her age. For one thing, just take a look at my last four films and youll appreciate that the stories I had to defend were mediocre, near impossible. Rejoice with @c, The March 2023 issue of Princeton Magazine is pack, In the March issue of Princeton Magazine, meet the, The March 2023 Well-Designed Life spreads include, The March 2023 issue of Princeton Magazine will be, Read todays edition of the @towntopics (Februar, Make new friends at @aoyartcenter, an award-winnin, Read todays action-packed edition of the @townt, Read the latest headlines in todays edition of, Construction continues at the new Graduate Hotel a, Read todays edition of the @towntopics (January, Read todays edition of the Town Topics Newspape, Grab a drink and sit under the Northern stars with, Welcome 2023 with the latest news and coverage by, Paint The Colors of Winter at this January 5, Take a reflective and newsworthy look back at 2022, The team at @towntopics and Princeton Magazine wou, With Hanukkah and Christmas fast approaching, be s. Keeping in mind that it is officially soup season, Small movements build STRENGTH. I did find it in its entirety (with that same picture from the 1980s) at Java Journey in a 2010 article on this page: http://javabeanrush.blogspot.com/2010/11/DeannaDurbinInterview.html. I could go on, but instead I recommend you celebrate one the best of classic film who has just passed and try to see all 21 of her films before they too are lost. Shes only a singer going by the name of Jackie Lamont (her real name is Abigail Martin) in a high class New Orleans bordello called Maison Lafitte. bigger box office attraction than. Raising a family in France with her third husband, Durbin refused all but one interview over the subsequent decades, preferring peace and privacy to her lasting fame as Hollywood's "Little Miss Fix-It.". 
I do my own shopping, bring up my two children and sing an hour every day., Unlike most of her contemporaries, who usually chose to reminisce about the past through rose-colored glasses, Durbin agreed with David Shipman that Old Hollywoods studio system was firmly rigged against the individual in favor of the machine.. Universal should be in mourning this week. http://javabeanrush.blogspot.com/2010/11/DeannaDurbinInterview.html.
In the 1941 hit Nice Girl?, the spangled white organdy dress, ruffled and modestly cut worn by 20-year-old Deanna became the rage at proms and country club dances across the United States. The teen-age soldiers-to-be who went to those dances with the girls in white organdy might lust for pin-up cheesecake like Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but Deanna was the girl of their lovesick dreams and deepest hopes. The plot, pure escapist fare made to order while the United States and the world were still reeling from the Great Depression, was reminiscent of Malcolm St. Clairs 1925 fluffy comedy Are Parents People?, starring Betty Bronson as a youth attempting to reunite parents Florence Vidor and Adolphe Menjou. That same year, if a July 1945 Billboard notice is to be believed, Durbin was considered for the role of the tragic mulatto Julie LaVerne in a Broadway reboot of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein IIs Show Boat to be produced by showman Billy Rose. Good thing his acting is on point, it would probably look much more awkward with a less skilled actor. By the mid-40s, her domestic box office allure was beginning to fade, a situation surely worsened by World War II closing off most of Hollywoods top international markets. Needless to say, I thought the were great and began to do research. By the end of a film that was no chore to watch thanks to Henry Kosters direction of a lively ensemble and lots of comic relief (oh rare Mischa Auer), youve been humbled by the sheer uninhibited power emanating from the interesting small mortal played with such seismic energy by Deanna Durbin. She was a class act all the way. Ironically, Universal, due to increasing public apathy, allowed her contract to expire; thus, the studio was ultimately forced to disburse $200,000 in severance pay. I was home with the flu when a local Los Angeles television station began to show her movies. NOTE: TCM, please play more of her movies so that those folks who werent born in the thirties or forties may appreciate and love real talent!! I have never been so frightened. Posted April 7, 2023. According to the IMDb, Davids only other directing credit was another 1945 Universal release, River Gang, starring Gloria Jean groomed as a younger Deanna Durbin clone, though, much like Universals Susanna Foster and Peggy Ryan, ultimately without ever getting near Durbins popularity. I didnt purchase anymore until very recently.
When not helping out adults, Durbins characters kept busy trying to help themselves. The story may seem like an exaggeration, but in fact future Universal players such as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Maria Montez, Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and even Jaws Bruce the Shark and the assorted dinosaurs found in Steven Spielbergs Jurassic Park partly owe their film careers to the pretty, bubbly, full-faced, soprano-voiced Deanna Durbin, the star of immensely successful Universal releases such as Three Smart Girls, One Hundred Men and a Girl, and That Certain Age. In 1946, Durbins earnings of $323,477 trailed only Bette Davis $328,000 at Warner Bros. Those are impressive rankings (and wages), but ironically Durbins high earnings ultimately harmed her career. I often watch Deanna singing on youtube. Blog. Her Nessun Dorma from Turandot is a long way from Pavarottis but it makes a passionate and radiant farewell. 1940, Durbin was earning approximately $5,000 per week at that time, including royalties from various recordings and merchandise Deanna Durbin dolls, clothing articles, fictional stories, etc. Brackett makes no reference to him and Billy Wilder working on The Amazing Mrs. Holliday. In 1967, film historian Anthony Slide wrote an article about Deanna Durbins career for Films in Review, which he later sent her. I may still have some good physical resemblance with the Deanna Durbin your article is about, but this living self has no authority to comment on the biographical data of a past that never was my own.. Deanna Durbin Movies: Universal Savior Remembered, Deanna Durbin dies at 91: One of the top stars of Hollywoods studio era, Deanna Durbin or Judy Garland: Drop the Fat One, Joe Pasternak & Henry Koster leave Universal, You cant hide Deanna Durbins light under a bushel, Wholesome Deanna Durbin makes unwholesome detour, Deanna Durbins roles that never happened: From Bing Crosbys leading lady to My Fair Lady, Three Husbands with Universal Pictures background, Deanna Durbin and Charles David: Protection from mosquitoes & spiders + dinosaurs & reporters, The old studio system firmly rigged against the individual in favor of the machine, Deanna Durbin: Private individual vs. public persona, Private vs. public image: Also applicable to adult actors, Teresa Wright vs. Samuel Goldwyn: Actress & Producer Ugly Falling Out, Burt Lancaster Movies: The Leopard, Seven Days in May, Deanna Durbin The Last Rose of Summer (https://youtu.be/uhq39_CpJ9Y), TCM Remembers Deanna Durbin (https://youtu.be/YLuKDLNNxug), Tom Cruise War of the Worlds Discussed + First Maori Film Festival. I wanted to look glamorous. For the most part, studio bosses couldnt care less; if the public got tired of the same old star vehicles featuring Kay Francis or Greer Garson, there would always be a Bette Davis or a Deborah Kerr waiting in the wings. 88% After all, despite decades of celebrity p.r. I have been enjoying a lengthy fiesta of Deanna Durbin films thanks to Amazon, 10 (count them ten) films of utter joy, and my appreciation for a great star who is sublime when she sings and is smart, sassy, clever, honest and inspirational when she speaks every line with such a sense of humor and brilliance, just keeps growing. By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and
The last Jackson-Durbin collaboration was the 1947 critical and box office misfire Ill Be Yours, which came out as their marriage was crumbling. Durbin also had a daughter, Jessica, from her marriage with Felix Jackson. And below that, is Turner Classic Movies moving, classy TCM Remembers segment in honor of Deanna Durbins passing. I have come across tons of Actresses who left Acting when they were young. They had a lot of problems in coming up with a storyline and received major help from F. Hugh Herbert. [25] Specific combat arms and combat support units of the 3rd At the 1939 Oscar ceremony, she and fellow teen star Mickey Rooney were given Academy Juvenile Awards for their significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth, and as juvenile players setting a high standard of ability and achievement.. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. My mother and I were once mobbed in Texas: the police lost control of the crowd and my mother suffered two broken ribs from people trying to reach me.
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