Kathryn Grayson (February 9, 1922 – February 17, 2010[1]) was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.[2][3][4][5][6]
From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals. After several supporting roles, she was a lead performer in such films as Anchors Aweigh (1945) with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, Show Boat (1951) and Kiss Me Kate (1953) with Howard Keel.
When film musical production declined, she worked in theatre, appearing in Camelot (1962-4). Later in the decade, she performed in several operas, including La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld and La traviata.
She was born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Hedrick family later moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she was discovered singing on the empty stage of the St. Louis Municipal Opera House by a janitor, who introduced her to Frances Marshall of the Chicago Civic Opera, who gave the twelve-year-old girl voice lessons.
[edit] Career
Discovered by an MGM talent scout in 1940,[6] her first film appearance was in Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941) as the character's secretary Kathryn Land.[7][8] Though she began, in films such as Seven Sweethearts (1942) and Anchors Aweigh (1945), as MGM's response to Deanna Durbin box-office appeal, she became a star via the films Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh and Two Sisters from Boston. Howard Keel was her partner in three feature films, the remake of Show Boat (1951), Lovely to Look At (1952), a new version of Roberta and the title role of Kiss Me Kate (1953), for which she is probably best remembered. Later, Grayson appeared with Keel in a highly successful cabaret act during the 1960s. She also appeared in two films with tenor Mario Lanza, That Midnight Kiss (1949) and The Toast of New Orleans (1950).
Grayson appeared on television occasionally from the 1950s, receiving an Emmy nomination in 1956 for her performance in the General Electric Theater episode Shadow on the Heart with John Ericson. In the 1980s, she guest starred in several episodes of Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury.
[edit] Stage career
Grayson's film career ended with the classic MGM musical. She appeared on stage in numerous productions including Show Boat, Rosalinda, Kiss Me, Kate, Naughty Marietta, and The Merry Widow, for which she was nominated for Chicago's Sarah Siddons Award. This led to her being cast as Queen Guenever in 1962 in Camelot, a well regarded replacement for Julie Andrews in the Broadway production, before continuing in the role for over sixteen months in the national tour of the United States, leaving the show for health reasons. Grayson had a lifelong dream of being an opera star, and she appeared in a number of operas in the 1960s, such as La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld and La traviata. Her dramatic and comedy stage roles included Night Watch, Noises Off, Love Letters and Something's Afoot as Dottie Otterling.
Grayson supervised the Voice and Choral Studies Program at the Idaho State University.[9][10]
[edit] Personal life
In Hollywood she married twice, first to the actor John Shelton and then to the actor/singer Johnnie Johnston. Both marriages ended in divorce. Her second marriage produced her only child, her daughter Patricia Kathryn Johnston (b. October 7, 1948).
Grayson died in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles, California on February 17, 2010, at the age of 88.[1]
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Grayson
Show Boat
Show Boat is a 1951 film based on the musical by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (script and lyrics) and the novel by Edna Ferber.
Filmed previously in 1936, the Kern-Hammerstein musical was remade in 1951 by MGM in Technicolor, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, with Joe E. Brown, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, William Warfield, Robert Sterling, Agnes Moorehead and Leif Erickson.
It was adapted by John Lee Mahin after Jack McGowan and George Wells had turned in two discarded screenplays, and was directed by George Sidney. Filmed in the typical MGM lavish style, this version is the most financially successful of the film adaptations of the play, and is one of MGM's most popular musicals, though arguably one of the studio's less inventive ones. The film, however, was more "cinematic" than the 1936 version - the boat was seen winding its way down the river several times, and there were two scenes in which the boat was shown leaving the dock, while the 1936 film version was so faithful in following the stage play that the boat was seen moving only at the very beginning of the film.
The 1951 film was the first film version of Show Boat not to feature Robert Russell Bennett's stage orchestrations in one form or another (the orchestrations in this film were done by Conrad Salinger, Alexander Courage, and the uncredited Robert Franklyn).
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Boat_(1951_film)
Make Believe
"Make Believe" is a show tune from the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
In the show, it is first sung as a duet by the characters Gaylord Ravenal, a handsome riverboat gambler, and the teenage Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer and daughter of the show boat captain, soon after their meeting in Act I. It reveals that they are smitten with each other almost immediately upon meeting and sets the tone for the contrasts between the ideal "make believe" world of the young lovers and the harsh realities of life that they will encounter throughout the story.
In Act II, Ravenal sings it to his little daughter Kim, just before he deserts her and Magnolia because of his compulsive gambling. He tells Kim to sing it whenever she is lonely and to pretend he has never been away.
The song was introduced by Norma Terris and Howard Marsh. It was not performed in the 1929 part-talkie film of Show Boat. For film, it was sung by Irene Dunne and Allan Jones in the 1936 version of the musical, by Tony Martin and Kathryn Grayson in the 1946 Kern biopic Till the Clouds Roll By, and by Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson in the 1951 version of Show Boat.
In the 1951 film, instead of singing it to Kim just before he leaves, he sings it to her when he meets her for the first time after being away for several years - the exact reverse of the situation in the original show and the 1936 film version. He has finally returned and now asks her to pretend that he has never been away.
The song has since become a standard and been recorded by numerous musical artists, including Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, Patrice Munsel and Barbra Streisand.
More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Believe_(Jerome_Kern_song)
Only make believe that you love me.
Others find peace of mind in pretending -
Couldn't you?
Couldn't I?
Couldn't we?
Make believe our lips are blending
In a phantom kiss, or two, or three.
Might as well make believe I love you,
For to tell the truth, I do.
'Twas too much to say
The words that betray my heart.
(MAGNOLIA)
We only pretend,
You do not offend
In playing a lover's part.
The game of just supposing
Is the sweetest game I know.
Our dreams are more romantic
Than the world we see
(RAVENAL)
And if the things we dream about
Don't happen to be so,
That's just an unimportant technicality.
(MAGNOLIA)
Though the cold and brutal fact is
You and I have never met,
We need not mind convention's P's and Q's.
If we put our thoughts in practice
We can banish all regret
Imagining most anything we choose.
We could make believe that you love me.
Couldn't you?
Couldn't I?
Couldn't we?
Make believe our lips are blending
In a phantom kiss, or two, or three.
Might as well make believe I love you,
For to tell the truth,
Click These Links and Sing Along:
Joséphine Baker singing "Make Believe" from "Show Boat", 1966
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTZar_nbxu8&feature=related
Lorna Kelly/Phil Nash - Showboat - Make Believe Reps Theater 1988
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FakeIVv0Ncg&feature=related
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
__._,_.___
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