The first thing we need to get clear on, in today's post, is who was who in 20th century musical history. The subject of today's post, Marjorie Lawrence, has had her stardom eclipsed by another tragically-injured, much-beloved singer of the 12930s and 1940s, Jane Froman.
Froman's life story became a famous movie musical, still a favorite with those of us in the Turner Classic crowd. Actress Susan Hayward lip-synched to vocals recorded by Jane Froman in "With A Song in My Heart." Here's a clip.
I
can see how easy it would be easy to have a vague memory of having seen
"With A Song in My Heart" and get it mixed up with "Interrupted
Melody," which is the film version of Marjorie Lawrence's autobiography.
Jane Froman was a pop vocalist from the Big Band era, was American, and the tragedy she overcame was serious injury from a plane crash. Marjorie Lawrence was Australian, an opera singer, and her struggle was with polio. Actress Eleanor Parker (the Baroness in "The Sound of Music") played Lawrence in the MGM film "Interrupted Melody," with Glenn Ford as the male lead.
After I borrowed a copy of Interrupted Melody from the library a few months ago, I found out that there's been a recent documentary about Marjorie Lawrence's life and career, called "Marjorie Lawrence: The World at Her Feet."
As you can see from the image at the top of this post, the future Queen Elizabeth met Marjorie Lawrence in the 1940s, and one of the Queen's final acts in the last months of her life was to request a copy of the documentary. Here's the trailer.
Comments
Post a Comment