Deanna Durbin
Encyclopedia
Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards
as well as opera
tic arias.
Durbin made her first film appearance in 1936 with Judy Garland
in Every Sunday
, and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios
. Her success as the ideal teenage daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls
(1936) was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy. In 1938 Durbin was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award
.
Later, as she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her, and attempted to portray a more womanly and sophisticated style. The film noir
Christmas Holiday
(1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train
(1945) were, however, not as well received as her musical comedies and romances had been.
Durbin withdrew from Hollywood and retired from acting and singing in 1949. She married film producer-director Charles Henri David in 1950, and the couple moved to a farmhouse in the outskirts of Paris
. Since then she has withdrawn from public life.
in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
, Canada, she was taken to Hollywood when just a year old and began to sing children's songs as soon as she could talk. By the age of ten her parents recognised that she had definite talent and took her to a singing teacher, leading her to sing in local entertainments.
She was given the professional name Deanna at the beginning of her association with Universal Studios
in 1936, when she was still 14 years old. Her parents, James and Ada Durbin, were immigrants from Lancashire
, England
who would become U.S. citizens after moving their family from Winnipeg to Southern California in 1923. Durbin had an older sister named Edith, who recognized Deanna's musical talents at an early age and helped Deanna to take singing lessons at Ralph Thomas Academy. This led to her discovery by MGM in 1935.
In late 1936, Cesar Sturani, who was the General Music Secretary of the Metropolitan Opera, offered Deanna Durbin an audition. Durbin turned down his request because she felt she needed more singing lessons. Andrés de Segurola
, who was the vocal coach working with Universal Studios (and himself a former Metropolitan Opera singer), believed that Deanna Durbin had an excellent opportunity to become an opera star. Andrés de Segurola had been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to watch her progress carefully and keep them advised. Durbin started a collaboration with Eddie Cantor
's radio show in 1936. This collaboration lasted until 1938 when her heavy workload for Universal Studios made it imperative for Durbin to discontinue her weekly appearances on Eddie Cantor's radio show.
(1936), with another young contract player, Judy Garland
. The film was to serve as an extended screen test for the pair as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two female singers on the roster. Ultimately Louis B. Mayer
decreed that both girls would be kept, but by the time that decision was made Durbin's contract option had elapsed.
Durbin was quickly signed to a contract with Universal Studios and made her first feature-length film Three Smart Girls
in 1936. The huge success of her films was reported to have saved the studio from bankruptcy
. In 1938 she received a special Academy Juvenile Award
, along with Mickey Rooney
. Such was Durbin's international fame and popularity that diarist Anne Frank
pasted her picture to her bedroom wall in the Achterhuis
where the Frank family hid during World War II
. The picture can still be seen there today, and was pointed out by Frank's friend Hannah Pick-Goslar in the documentary film Anne Frank Remembered.
Joe Pasternak
who produced many of the early Deanna Durbin movies said about her:
In 1936, Durbin auditioned to provide the vocals for Snow White in Disney's animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
but was ultimately rejected by Walt Disney
, who declared the 15 year old Durbin's voice "too old" for the part.
Durbin is perhaps best known for her singing voice, variously described as being light but full, sweet, unaffected and artless. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano
, she performed everything from popular standards to opera
tic arias. Dame Sister Mary Leo
in New Zealand
was so taken with Durbin's technique that she trained all her students to sing in this way. Sister Mary Leo produced a large number of famous sopranos including Dames Malvina Major
and Kiri Te Kanawa
.
The Russian cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich
in a late 1980s interview cited Deanna as one of his most important musical influences, stating: "She helped me in my discovery of myself. You have no idea of the smelly old movie houses I patronized to see Deanna Durbin. I tried to create the very best in my music, to try and recreate, to approach her purity."
Durbin was the heroine of two 1941 novels, Deanna Durbin and the Adventure of Blue Valley and Deanna Durbin and the Feather of Flame, both written by Kathryn Heisenfelt and published by Whitman Publishing Company. "The heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." The stories were probably written for a young teenage audience and are reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew
. They are part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.
Between December 15, 1936 and July 22, 1947, Deanna Durbin recorded 50 tunes for Decca Records
. While often re-creating her movie songs for commercial release, Durbin also covered independent standards, like "Kiss Me Again", "My Hero", "Annie Laurie
", "Poor Butterfly
", "Love's Old Sweet Song
" and "God Bless America
".
The star-making five-year association of Deanna Durbin, producer Joe Pasternak and director Henry Koster
ended following the film It Started With Eve in 1941. After Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM, Durbin went on suspension between October 16, 1941 and early February 1942 for refusing to appear in They Lived Alone, scheduled to be directed by Koster. Ultimately, the project was canceled when Durbin and Universal settled their differences. In the agreement, Universal conceded to Durbin the approval of her directors, stories and songs.
Durbin married an assistant director, Vaughn Paul, in 1941 and they were divorced in 1943. Her second marriage, to film writer-producer-actor Felix Jackson in 1945, produced a daughter, Jessica Louise Jackson, and ended in divorce in 1949.
In private life, Durbin continued to use her given name; salary figures printed annually by the Hollywood trade publications listed the actress as "Edna Mae Durbin, player." Her studio continued to cast her in musicals, and filmed two sequels to her original success, Three Smart Girls
. The second sequel was a wartime story called Three Smart Girls Join Up, but Durbin issued a press release announcing that she was no longer inclined to participate in these team efforts and was now performing as a solo artist. The Three Smart Girls Join Up title was changed to Hers to Hold. Joseph Cotten
, who played alongside Deanna Durbin in Hers to Hold, praised her integrity and character in his autobiography.
She made her only Technicolor
film in 1944, Can't Help Singing
, featuring some of the last melodies written by Jerome Kern
plus lyrics by E. Y. Harburg. A musical comedy in a Western setting, this production was filmed mostly on location in southern Utah
. Her co-star was Robert Paige
, who is better known for his work in television dramas in the 1950s.
Durbin tried to assume a more sophisticated movie persona in such vehicles as the World War II story of refugee children from China, The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
(1943), directed in part by Jean Renoir
, who left the project before its completion; the film noir
Christmas Holiday
(1944), directed by Robert Siodmak
, and the whodunit Lady on a Train
(1945), but her substantial fan base preferred her in light musical confections.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreaking Broadway production of Oklahoma!
in 1943 might have showcased Deanna Durbin as original Laurie, but Universal refused to accept the proposal.
In 1945 and 1947, Deanna Durbin was the top-salaried woman in the United States. Her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years.
In 1946, Universal merged with two other companies to create Universal-International. The new regime discontinued much of Universal's familiar product and scheduled only a few musicals. Durbin stayed on for another four pictures, but her last two releases, Up in Central Park
(1948), a film adaptation of the 1945 Broadway musical, and a project announced as For the Love of Mary and finally released as Something in the Wind
(1947), saw her box-office clout diminish.
On August 22, 1948, two months after the latter film was finished, Universal-International announced a lawsuit which sought to collect from Durbin $87,083 in wages the studio had paid her in advance. Durbin settled the complaint amicably by agreeing to star in three more pictures, including one to be shot on location in Paris. Ultimately, the studio would allow Deanna's contract to expire on August 31, 1949, so the three films were not produced. Durbin, who obtained a $200,000 ($ as of ), severance payment chose at this point to retire from movies. She had already turned down Bing Crosby
's request for her to appear in two of his projects for Paramount Pictures
, Top o' the Morning
and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
.
Over the years, Durbin resisted numerous offers to perform again, including two choice proposals by MGM, asking her to take the female lead in the screen version of Cole Porter
's Kiss Me Kate (1953), and to costar with Mario Lanza
in Sigmund Romberg
's operetta, The Student Prince
(1954). As for stage shows, Durbin had been invited to play Kiss Me Kate 's Lilli Vanessi in London's 1951-52 West End production, and reportedly, Alan Jay Lerner
first had Deanna in mind to portray Eliza Doolittle
in the 1956 Broadway cast of My Fair Lady
. Suggestions that Durbin vocalize at the major Las Vegas casinos went unfulfilled.
She granted only one interview in 1983, to film historian David Shipman, steadfastly asserting her right to privacy. She maintains that privacy today, declining to be profiled on Internet websites.
However, Durbin has made it known that she did not like the Hollywood studio system. She has emphasized that she never identified herself with the public image that the media created around her. She speaks of the Deanna "persona" in the third person and considers the film character Deanna Durbin a by-product of her youth and not her true self.
Durbin's husband of over 48 years, Charles David, died in Paris on March 1, 1999.
at 1722 Vine Street.
Frank Tashlin
's Warner Bros. cartoon The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos
(1937) contains an avian caricature of Deanna Durbin called "Deanna Terrapin".
Durbin's name found its way into the introduction to a song written by satirical writer Tom Lehrer
in 1965. Prior to singing "Whatever Became of Hubert?", Lehrer said that Vice President Hubert Humphrey
had been relegated to "those where-are-they-now columns: Whatever became of Deanna Durbin, and Hubert Humphrey, and so on."
She is mentioned in Richard Brautigan
's novel Trout Fishing in America
, when the narrator claims to have seen one of her movies seven times, but can't recall which one.
Standard (music)
In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...
as well as opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic arias.
Durbin made her first film appearance in 1936 with Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
in Every Sunday
Every Sunday
Every Sunday is a 1936 American short musical film. It tells the story of two young girls and their efforts to save a public concert series, which was being threatened by poor attendance.Directed by Felix E...
, and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. Her success as the ideal teenage daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls is a 1936 musical comedy film. The Craig sisters, played by Barbara Read, Nan Grey and Deanna Durbin in her first feature film role, travel to New York City to prevent their father from remarrying....
(1936) was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy. In 1938 Durbin was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award
Academy Juvenile Award
The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to specifically recognize juvenile performers under the age of eighteen for their "outstanding...
.
Later, as she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her, and attempted to portray a more womanly and sophisticated style. The film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
Christmas Holiday
Christmas Holiday
Christmas Holiday is a 1944 American drama film directed by Robert Siodmak. The black-and-white film noir is loosely based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Producer Felix Jackson chose this project as a dramatic vehicle for Deanna Durbin. The screenplay was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who...
(1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train
Lady on a Train
Lady on a Train is a 1945 comedy film noir, starring Deanna Durbin and based on a story by Leslie Charteris.-Plot:Debutante Nikki Collins, an enthusiastic reader of detective stories, witnesses a murder in a building while passing by on a train entering New York's Grand Central Station. She goes to...
(1945) were, however, not as well received as her musical comedies and romances had been.
Durbin withdrew from Hollywood and retired from acting and singing in 1949. She married film producer-director Charles Henri David in 1950, and the couple moved to a farmhouse in the outskirts of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Since then she has withdrawn from public life.
Early life
Born Edna Mae Durbin at Grace HospitalGrace Hospital (Winnipeg)
Grace Hospital is a regional hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Until 2008, it was a hospital run by the Salvation Army. The hospital, founded in 1890 was the first Salvation Army hospital in Canada. Originally located within old city of Winnipeg boundaries, the hospital moved west on Portage...
in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada, she was taken to Hollywood when just a year old and began to sing children's songs as soon as she could talk. By the age of ten her parents recognised that she had definite talent and took her to a singing teacher, leading her to sing in local entertainments.
She was given the professional name Deanna at the beginning of her association with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
in 1936, when she was still 14 years old. Her parents, James and Ada Durbin, were immigrants from Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
who would become U.S. citizens after moving their family from Winnipeg to Southern California in 1923. Durbin had an older sister named Edith, who recognized Deanna's musical talents at an early age and helped Deanna to take singing lessons at Ralph Thomas Academy. This led to her discovery by MGM in 1935.
In late 1936, Cesar Sturani, who was the General Music Secretary of the Metropolitan Opera, offered Deanna Durbin an audition. Durbin turned down his request because she felt she needed more singing lessons. Andrés de Segurola
Andrés de Segurola
Andrés Perelló de Segurola was a Spanish operatic bass who performed as Andrés de Segurola.-Biography:...
, who was the vocal coach working with Universal Studios (and himself a former Metropolitan Opera singer), believed that Deanna Durbin had an excellent opportunity to become an opera star. Andrés de Segurola had been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to watch her progress carefully and keep them advised. Durbin started a collaboration with Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
's radio show in 1936. This collaboration lasted until 1938 when her heavy workload for Universal Studios made it imperative for Durbin to discontinue her weekly appearances on Eddie Cantor's radio show.
Career
Durbin signed a contract with MGM in 1935 and made her first film appearance in a short subject, Every SundayEvery Sunday
Every Sunday is a 1936 American short musical film. It tells the story of two young girls and their efforts to save a public concert series, which was being threatened by poor attendance.Directed by Felix E...
(1936), with another young contract player, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
. The film was to serve as an extended screen test for the pair as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two female singers on the roster. Ultimately Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
decreed that both girls would be kept, but by the time that decision was made Durbin's contract option had elapsed.
Durbin was quickly signed to a contract with Universal Studios and made her first feature-length film Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls is a 1936 musical comedy film. The Craig sisters, played by Barbara Read, Nan Grey and Deanna Durbin in her first feature film role, travel to New York City to prevent their father from remarrying....
in 1936. The huge success of her films was reported to have saved the studio from bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
. In 1938 she received a special Academy Juvenile Award
Academy Juvenile Award
The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to specifically recognize juvenile performers under the age of eighteen for their "outstanding...
, along with Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
. Such was Durbin's international fame and popularity that diarist Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
pasted her picture to her bedroom wall in the Achterhuis
Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank House on Prinsengracht canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank, who hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of the building...
where the Frank family hid during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The picture can still be seen there today, and was pointed out by Frank's friend Hannah Pick-Goslar in the documentary film Anne Frank Remembered.
Joe Pasternak
Joe Pasternak
thumb|right|250px|Pasterrnak receiving his star on [[Hollywood Boulevard]] from [[Johnny Grant |Johnny Grant]] with [[Gene Kelly]] on the left on July 29, 1991....
who produced many of the early Deanna Durbin movies said about her:
"Deanna's genius had to be unfolded, but it was hers and hers alone, always has been, always will be, and no one can take credit for discovering her. You can't hide that kind of light under a bushel. You just can't, no matter how hard you try!"
In 1936, Durbin auditioned to provide the vocals for Snow White in Disney's animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
but was ultimately rejected by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
, who declared the 15 year old Durbin's voice "too old" for the part.
Durbin is perhaps best known for her singing voice, variously described as being light but full, sweet, unaffected and artless. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, she performed everything from popular standards to opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic arias. Dame Sister Mary Leo
Sister Mary Leo
Dame Sister Mary Leo, DBE, RSM was a New Zealand nun who is best known for training some of the world's finest sopranos, including Dames Malvina Major, Kiri Te Kanawa and Heather Begg....
in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
was so taken with Durbin's technique that she trained all her students to sing in this way. Sister Mary Leo produced a large number of famous sopranos including Dames Malvina Major
Malvina Major
Dame Malvina Lorraine Major, GNZM, DBE is a New Zealand opera singer. She was born in Hamilton, New Zealand into a large musical family. As a child she performed at various concerts, singing mainly country and western pop and music from the shows. She received her first classical training in 1955,...
and Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
.
The Russian cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
in a late 1980s interview cited Deanna as one of his most important musical influences, stating: "She helped me in my discovery of myself. You have no idea of the smelly old movie houses I patronized to see Deanna Durbin. I tried to create the very best in my music, to try and recreate, to approach her purity."
Durbin was the heroine of two 1941 novels, Deanna Durbin and the Adventure of Blue Valley and Deanna Durbin and the Feather of Flame, both written by Kathryn Heisenfelt and published by Whitman Publishing Company. "The heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." The stories were probably written for a young teenage audience and are reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for all ages. She was created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm. The character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published...
. They are part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.
Between December 15, 1936 and July 22, 1947, Deanna Durbin recorded 50 tunes for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. While often re-creating her movie songs for commercial release, Durbin also covered independent standards, like "Kiss Me Again", "My Hero", "Annie Laurie
Annie Laurie
Annie Laurie is an old Scottish song based on poem by William Douglas of Dumfries and Galloway. The words were modified and the tune was added by Alicia Scott in 1834/5. The song is also known as Maxwelton Braes.-William Douglas:...
", "Poor Butterfly
Poor Butterfly
"Poor Butterfly" is a popular song. It was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly and contains a brief musical quote from the act 2 duet Tutti i fior in the verse....
", "Love's Old Sweet Song
Love's Old Sweet Song
Love's Old Sweet Song is an Irish folk song published in 1884 by composer James Lynam Molloy and lyricist G. Clifton Bingham.It has been recorded by many artists, including John McCormack and Clara Butt. It is alluded to in James Joyce's Ulysses as being sung by Molly Bloom....
" and "God Bless America
God Bless America
"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version has notably been recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song ....
".
The star-making five-year association of Deanna Durbin, producer Joe Pasternak and director Henry Koster
Henry Koster
Henry Koster was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster's father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man...
ended following the film It Started With Eve in 1941. After Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM, Durbin went on suspension between October 16, 1941 and early February 1942 for refusing to appear in They Lived Alone, scheduled to be directed by Koster. Ultimately, the project was canceled when Durbin and Universal settled their differences. In the agreement, Universal conceded to Durbin the approval of her directors, stories and songs.
Durbin married an assistant director, Vaughn Paul, in 1941 and they were divorced in 1943. Her second marriage, to film writer-producer-actor Felix Jackson in 1945, produced a daughter, Jessica Louise Jackson, and ended in divorce in 1949.
In private life, Durbin continued to use her given name; salary figures printed annually by the Hollywood trade publications listed the actress as "Edna Mae Durbin, player." Her studio continued to cast her in musicals, and filmed two sequels to her original success, Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls is a 1936 musical comedy film. The Craig sisters, played by Barbara Read, Nan Grey and Deanna Durbin in her first feature film role, travel to New York City to prevent their father from remarrying....
. The second sequel was a wartime story called Three Smart Girls Join Up, but Durbin issued a press release announcing that she was no longer inclined to participate in these team efforts and was now performing as a solo artist. The Three Smart Girls Join Up title was changed to Hers to Hold. Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
, who played alongside Deanna Durbin in Hers to Hold, praised her integrity and character in his autobiography.
She made her only Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
film in 1944, Can't Help Singing
Can't Help Singing
Can't Help Singing is a 1944 musical Western filmed in Technicolor starring Deanna Durbin. The film was produced by Felix Jackson and directed by Frank Ryan. The score was by Jerome Kern with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg.-Plot:...
, featuring some of the last melodies written by Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
plus lyrics by E. Y. Harburg. A musical comedy in a Western setting, this production was filmed mostly on location in southern Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. Her co-star was Robert Paige
Robert Paige
Robert Paige was a TV star and Universal Pictures leading man who made 65 films in his lifetime and was the only actor ever allowed to sing on film with Deanna Durbin...
, who is better known for his work in television dramas in the 1950s.
Durbin tried to assume a more sophisticated movie persona in such vehicles as the World War II story of refugee children from China, The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday is a 1943 film starring Deanna Durbin as a missionary who goes to great lengths, even posing as "Mrs. Holliday", in order to get some Chinese war orphans into the United States. Director Jean Renoir was replaced by Bruce Manning partway through production...
(1943), directed in part by Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
, who left the project before its completion; the film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
Christmas Holiday
Christmas Holiday
Christmas Holiday is a 1944 American drama film directed by Robert Siodmak. The black-and-white film noir is loosely based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Producer Felix Jackson chose this project as a dramatic vehicle for Deanna Durbin. The screenplay was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who...
(1944), directed by Robert Siodmak
Robert Siodmak
Robert Siodmak was a German born American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for the series of Hollywood film noirs he made in the 1940s.-Early life:...
, and the whodunit Lady on a Train
Lady on a Train
Lady on a Train is a 1945 comedy film noir, starring Deanna Durbin and based on a story by Leslie Charteris.-Plot:Debutante Nikki Collins, an enthusiastic reader of detective stories, witnesses a murder in a building while passing by on a train entering New York's Grand Central Station. She goes to...
(1945), but her substantial fan base preferred her in light musical confections.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreaking Broadway production of Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
in 1943 might have showcased Deanna Durbin as original Laurie, but Universal refused to accept the proposal.
In 1945 and 1947, Deanna Durbin was the top-salaried woman in the United States. Her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years.
In 1946, Universal merged with two other companies to create Universal-International. The new regime discontinued much of Universal's familiar product and scheduled only a few musicals. Durbin stayed on for another four pictures, but her last two releases, Up in Central Park
Up in Central Park
Up in Central Park is a Broadway musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and music by Sigmund Romberg...
(1948), a film adaptation of the 1945 Broadway musical, and a project announced as For the Love of Mary and finally released as Something in the Wind
Something in the Wind
Something in the Wind is an American feature film directed by Irving Pichel, released by Universal Studios, and starring Donald O'Connor and Deanna Durbin....
(1947), saw her box-office clout diminish.
On August 22, 1948, two months after the latter film was finished, Universal-International announced a lawsuit which sought to collect from Durbin $87,083 in wages the studio had paid her in advance. Durbin settled the complaint amicably by agreeing to star in three more pictures, including one to be shot on location in Paris. Ultimately, the studio would allow Deanna's contract to expire on August 31, 1949, so the three films were not produced. Durbin, who obtained a $200,000 ($ as of ), severance payment chose at this point to retire from movies. She had already turned down Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
's request for her to appear in two of his projects for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, Top o' the Morning
Top o' the Morning (film)
Top o' the Morning is a 1949 film directed by David Miller. It stars Bing Crosby and Ann Blyth.-Cast:*Bing Crosby as Joe Mulqueen*Ann Blyth as Conn McNaughton*Barry Fitzgerald as Seargent Briny McNaughton*Hume Cronyn as Hughie Devine...
and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur's Court...
.
Personal life
In Paris on December 21, 1950, Deanna Durbin, shortly after turning 29 years old, married Charles David, the producer-director of both French and American pictures who had guided her through Lady on a Train (1945). Durbin and David raised two children: Jessica (from her second marriage to Felix Jackson) and Peter (from her union with David).Over the years, Durbin resisted numerous offers to perform again, including two choice proposals by MGM, asking her to take the female lead in the screen version of Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's Kiss Me Kate (1953), and to costar with Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
in Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
's operetta, The Student Prince
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
(1954). As for stage shows, Durbin had been invited to play Kiss Me Kate 's Lilli Vanessi in London's 1951-52 West End production, and reportedly, Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
first had Deanna in mind to portray Eliza Doolittle
Eliza Doolittle
Eliza Sophie Caird , better known by her stage name Eliza Doolittle, is an English singer–songwriter from London, who signed to the Parlophone record label in October 2008. Her debut self-titled album, Eliza Doolittle was released on 12 July 2010, where it debuted at number 3 in the UK...
in the 1956 Broadway cast of My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
. Suggestions that Durbin vocalize at the major Las Vegas casinos went unfulfilled.
She granted only one interview in 1983, to film historian David Shipman, steadfastly asserting her right to privacy. She maintains that privacy today, declining to be profiled on Internet websites.
However, Durbin has made it known that she did not like the Hollywood studio system. She has emphasized that she never identified herself with the public image that the media created around her. She speaks of the Deanna "persona" in the third person and considers the film character Deanna Durbin a by-product of her youth and not her true self.
Durbin's husband of over 48 years, Charles David, died in Paris on March 1, 1999.
Legacy
Deanna Durbin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 1722 Vine Street.
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...
's Warner Bros. cartoon The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos
The Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos
The Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos is a Merrie Melodie cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin, and released in December 1937. Author and critic Alexander Woollcott is parodied as Owl Kott in the cartoon, a parody that Tashlin would revisit the next year as well in Have You Got Any Castles?.-Plot:The cartoon...
(1937) contains an avian caricature of Deanna Durbin called "Deanna Terrapin".
Durbin's name found its way into the introduction to a song written by satirical writer Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
in 1965. Prior to singing "Whatever Became of Hubert?", Lehrer said that Vice President Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
had been relegated to "those where-are-they-now columns: Whatever became of Deanna Durbin, and Hubert Humphrey, and so on."
She is mentioned in Richard Brautigan
Richard Brautigan
Richard Gary Brautigan was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. His work often employs black comedy, parody, and satire. He is best known for his 1967 novel Trout Fishing in America.- Early life :...
's novel Trout Fishing in America
Trout Fishing in America
Trout Fishing in America is a novella written by Richard Brautigan and published in 1967. It is technically Brautigan's first novel; he wrote it in 1961 before A Confederate General From Big Sur which was published first....
, when the narrator claims to have seen one of her movies seven times, but can't recall which one.
Filmography
| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every Sunday Every Sunday Every Sunday is a 1936 American short musical film. It tells the story of two young girls and their efforts to save a public concert series, which was being threatened by poor attendance.Directed by Felix E... |
1936 | Edna | short subject (opposite Judy Garland) |
| Three Smart Girls Three Smart Girls Three Smart Girls is a 1936 musical comedy film. The Craig sisters, played by Barbara Read, Nan Grey and Deanna Durbin in her first feature film role, travel to New York City to prevent their father from remarrying.... |
1936 | Penelope "Penny" Craig | Academy Juvenile Award Academy Juvenile Award The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to specifically recognize juvenile performers under the age of eighteen for their "outstanding... |
| One Hundred Men and a Girl One Hundred Men and a Girl One Hundred Men and a Girl is a 1937 musical comedy film, written by Charles Kenyon, Bruce Manning and James Mulhauser from a story by Hanns Kräly and directed by Henry Koster... |
1937 | Patricia Cardwell | |
| Mad About Music Mad About Music Mad About Music is a 1938 musical film about a girl at an exclusive boarding school who invents an exciting father. When her schoolmates doubt his existence, she has to produce him... |
1938 | Gloria Harkinson | |
| That Certain Age That Certain Age That Certain Age is a 1938 Universal musical film directed by Edward Ludwig and written by Billy Wilder.-Plot:Alice Fullerton is the 15-year-old daughter of newspaper publisher Bill. She becomes involved with a group of boy scouts, who is led by Ken Warren. Ken wants to put on a show to raise money... |
1938 | Alice Fullerton | |
| Three Smart Girls Grow Up Three Smart Girls Grow Up Three Smart Girls Grow Up is a 1939 musical comedy film starring Deanna Durbin, Nan Grey and Helen Parrish as the title sisters, with Durbin and Grey reprising their roles from Three Smart Girls, and Parrish replacing Barbara Read in the role of the middle sister.-Cast:*Deanna Durbin as Penelope... |
1939 | Penny Craig | |
| For Auld Lang Syne: No. 4 | 1939 | Herself | short subject |
| First Love First Love (1939 film) First Love is a 1939 Oscar nominated Universal musical film directed by Henry Koster. The film is a rewriting of the fairy tale Cinderella. It was released on both VHS and DVD .-Plot:... |
1939 | Constance "Connie" Harding | |
| It's a Date It's a Date It's a Date is a 1940 Universal musical film directed by William A. Seiter. The film was remade in 1950 as Nancy Goes to Rio.-Plot:The movie begins with Georgia Drake performing on the stage singing, "Gypsy Lullaby" while her daughter, Pamela , watches with her boyfriend Freddie Miller... |
1940 | Pamela Drake | a short subject, Gems of Song, was excerpted from this feature in 1949 |
| Spring Parade | 1940 | Ilonka Tolnay | |
| Nice Girl? | 1941 | Jane "Pinky" Dana | |
| 1941 | Herself | short subject for the American Red Cross | |
| It Started with Eve It Started with Eve It Started with Eve is a 1941 musical romantic comedy film. A man's dying father wants to meet his new fiancée, but she is unavailable, so he substitutes a hat-check girl. Then the father unexpectedly recovers.Charles Previn and Hans J... |
1941 | Anne Terry | |
| 1943 | Ruth Kirke Holliday | ||
| Show Business at War Show Business at War Show Business at War is a short film made in 1943 to tout the United States film industry's contribution to the war effort. Several studios collaborated on the production and approximately 70 stars, producers, directors and studio executives appeared in it.... |
1943 | Herself | short subject |
| Hers to Hold | 1943 | Penny Craig | |
| His Butler's Sister His Butler's Sister His Butler's Sister is a 1943 comedy film directed by Frank Borzage. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording His Butler's Sister is a 1943 comedy film directed by Frank Borzage. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording His Butler's Sister is a 1943... |
1943 | Ann Carter | |
| Road to Victory | 1944 | Herself | short subject |
| Christmas Holiday Christmas Holiday Christmas Holiday is a 1944 American drama film directed by Robert Siodmak. The black-and-white film noir is loosely based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Producer Felix Jackson chose this project as a dramatic vehicle for Deanna Durbin. The screenplay was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who... |
1944 | Jackie Lamont/Abigail Martin | |
| Can't Help Singing Can't Help Singing Can't Help Singing is a 1944 musical Western filmed in Technicolor starring Deanna Durbin. The film was produced by Felix Jackson and directed by Frank Ryan. The score was by Jerome Kern with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg.-Plot:... |
1944 | Caroline Frost | her only film in Technicolor Technicolor Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952... |
| Lady on a Train Lady on a Train Lady on a Train is a 1945 comedy film noir, starring Deanna Durbin and based on a story by Leslie Charteris.-Plot:Debutante Nikki Collins, an enthusiastic reader of detective stories, witnesses a murder in a building while passing by on a train entering New York's Grand Central Station. She goes to... |
1945 | Nikki Collins/Margo Martin | |
| Because of Him | 1946 | Kim Walker | |
| I'll Be Yours I'll Be Yours I'll Be Yours is a 1947 musical comedy film starring Deanna Durbin and directed by William A. Seiter. It was adapted by Felix Jackson from the screenplay for the 1935 non-musical film The Good Fairy by Preston Sturges, which was based on the play A jó tündér by Ferenc Molnár as translated and... |
1947 | Louise Ginglebusher | |
| Something in the Wind Something in the Wind Something in the Wind is an American feature film directed by Irving Pichel, released by Universal Studios, and starring Donald O'Connor and Deanna Durbin.... |
1947 | Mary Collins | |
| Up in Central Park | 1948 | Rosie Moore | |
| For the Love of Mary | 1948 | Mary Peppertree | |
Deanna Durbin songs
- A Heart That's Free [From "100 Men and a Girl"]
- Alice Blue Gown
- AlleluiaAlleluiaThe word "Alleluia" or "Hallelujah" , which at its most literal means "Praise Yah", is used in different ways in Christian liturgies....
[From "100 Men and a Girl"] - Always [From "Christmas Holiday"]
- Adeste FidelesAdeste Fideles"Adeste Fideles" is a hymn tune attributed to English hymnist John Francis Wade . The text itself has unclear beginnings, and may have been written in the 13th century by John of Reading, though it has been concluded that Wade was probably the author.The original four verses of the hymn were...
(O Come All Ye Faithful) - AmapolaAmapola (song)"Amapola" is a 1924 song by Cádiz-born composer José María Lacalle García , with Spanish lyrics. After the composer died in 1937, English language lyrics were written by Albert Gamse....
[From "First Love"] - Annie LaurieAnnie LaurieAnnie Laurie is an old Scottish song based on poem by William Douglas of Dumfries and Galloway. The words were modified and the tune was added by Alicia Scott in 1834/5. The song is also known as Maxwelton Braes.-William Douglas:...
- Any Moment Now [From "Can`t Help Singing"]
- Ave MariaAve MariaAve Maria may refer to:*Ave Maria , the "Hail Mary", a traditional Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus-Music:...
[From "Mad About Music"] - Ave MariaAve MariaAve Maria may refer to:*Ave Maria , the "Hail Mary", a traditional Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus-Music:...
[From "It's a Date"] - Be A Good Scout [From "That Certain Age"]
- Because [From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"]
- Begin the BeguineBegin the Beguine"Begin the Beguine" is a song written by Cole Porter . Porter composed the song at the piano in the bar of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.-Music:The beguine music and dance...
[From "Hers to Hold"] - Beneath the Lights of Home [From "Nice Girl"]
- Brahms' LullabyBrahms' LullabyCradle Song is the common name for a number of children's lullabies with similar lyrics, the original of which was Johannes Brahms's Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht , Op. 49, No. 4, published in 1868 and widely known as Brahms's Lullaby...
[From "I'll Be Yours"] - BrindisiBrindisiBrindisi is a city in the Apulia region of Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea.Historically, the city has played an important role in commerce and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city...
(Libiamo ne' lieti calici) [From "100 Men and a Girl"] - Californ-I-Ay
- Can't Help Singing [From "Can`t Help Singing"]
- Can't Help Singing (Deanna Durbin & Robert Paige) [From "Can`t Help Singing"]
- Carmena Waltz
- Chapel Bells [From "Mad About Music"]
- Cielito LindoCielito Lindo"Cielito lindo" is a popular Ranchera song from Mexico, written in 1882 by Quirino Mendoza y Cortés . It is roughly translated as "Lovely Sweet One". Although the word "cielo" means sky or heaven, it is also a term of endearment comparable to sweetheart or honey. "Cielito" can thus be translated as...
(Beautiful Heaven) - CiribiribinCiribiribin"Ciribiribin" is a merry Italian ballad in three quarter time, composed by Alberto Pestalozza in 1898 with lyrics by Carlo Tiochet. . It quickly became popular and has come to be recorded by many artists. The distinguishing feature of the song is repeated use of the five note phrase that forms the...
- Clavelitos (J. Valverde) [From "It Started with Eve"]
- Danny BoyDanny Boy-Background:The words to "Danny Boy" were written by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly in 1910. Although the lyrics were originally written for a different tune, Weatherly modified them to fit the "Londonderry Air" in 1913, after his sister-in-law in the U.S. sent him a copy. Ernestine...
[From "Because of Him"] - Embrace Me
- Every Sunday (with Judy Garland)
- Filles de Cadiz (The Maids of Cadiz) [From "That Certain Age"]
- Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh? [From "Lady on a Train"]
- God Bless AmericaGod Bless America"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version has notably been recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song ....
- Goin' Home [From "It Started With Eve"]
- Goodbye [From "Because of Him"]
- GranadaGranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
[From "I'll Be Yours"] - Home! Sweet Home!Home! Sweet Home!"Home! Sweet Home!" is a song that has remained well-known for over 150 years. Adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne's 1823 opera Clari, Maid of Milan, the song's melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne...
[From "First Love"] - Il Bacio (The Kiss) [From "Three Smart Girls"]
- I'll Follow My Sweet Heart
- I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen [From "For The Love Of Mary"]
- I'll See You In My Dreams
- I Love to Whistle [From "Mad About Music"]
- (I'm) Happy Go Lucky and Free [From "Something in the Wind"]
- (I'm) Happy Go Lucky and Free [From "Something in the Wind"] (Deanna Durbin & Donald O'Connor)
- In the Spirit of the Moment [From "His Butler's Sister"]
- Italian Street Song
- It's a Big, Wide, Wonderful WorldIt's A Big, Wide, Wonderful World"It's A Big, Wide, Wonderful World" is a popular song written by John Rox and published in 1939.The song first appeared in the 1940 Broadway musical play All In Fun.The version by Buddy Clark reached a peak on the Billboard charts at #25 in 1949....
[From "For The Love Of Mary"] - It's Dreamtime [From "I'll Be Yours"]
- It's Foolish But It's Fun [From "Spring Parade"]
- It's Only Love [From "Something In The Wind"]
- It's Raining Sunbeams [From "100 Men and a Girl"]
- Invitation To The Dance [From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"]
- Je Veux Vivre (from Roméo et JulietteRoméo et JulietteRoméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
) [From "That Certain Age"] - Kiss Me Again
- La Estrellita (Little Star)
- Largo Al Factotum (from The Barber of SevilleThe Barber of SevilleThe Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
) [From "For The Love Of Mary"] - Loch LomondLoch LomondLoch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch, lying on the Highland Boundary Fault. It is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area. The lake contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles, although the lake itself is smaller than many Irish...
[From "It's a Date"] - Love At Last [From "Nice Girl"]
- Love Is All [From "It's a Date"]
- Lover [From "Because of Him"]
- Love's Old Sweet SongLove's Old Sweet SongLove's Old Sweet Song is an Irish folk song published in 1884 by composer James Lynam Molloy and lyricist G. Clifton Bingham.It has been recorded by many artists, including John McCormack and Clara Butt. It is alluded to in James Joyce's Ulysses as being sung by Molly Bloom....
- Make Believe (Jerome Kern song)Make Believe (Jerome Kern song)"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...
- Mighty Like a RoseMighty Lak' a RoseMighty Lak' a Rose is a 1901 song with lyrics by Frank Lebby Stanton and music by Ethelbert Nevin.The lyrics are written in an approximation of an African American accent; such "dialect songs" were common in the era. The title thus means "Mighty like a rose"; this assessment is addressed by a...
(From The Amazing Mrs. Halliday) - Molly MaloneMolly Malone"Molly Malone" is a popular song, set in Dublin, Ireland, which has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin City....
- More and More [From "Can`t Help Singing"]
- More And More/Can't Help Singing [From "Can`t Help Singing"]
- Musetta's Waltz (from La bohèmeLa bohèmeLa bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
) [From "It's a Date"] - My Heart Is Singing [From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"]
- My Hero
- My Own [From "That Certain Age"]
- Nessun DormaNessun dormaNessun dorma is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, and is one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto , who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot...
(from TurandotTurandotTurandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
) [From "His Butler's Sister"] - Never in a Million Years/Make Believe
- Night and Day [From "Lady on a Train"]
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- Old Folks at Home [From "Nice Girl"]
- On Moonlight BayOn Moonlight Bay (song)"On Moonlight Bay" is a popular song.The music was written by Percy Wenrich, the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1912. It was often sung in a Barbershop Quartet style, such as by Billy Murray and the American Quartet:...
[From "For The Love Of Mary"] - One Fine Day (from Madama ButterflyMadama ButterflyMadama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
) [From "First Love"] - One Night Of Love
- Pace, Pace, Mio Dio (La forza del destinoLa forza del destinoLa forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
) [From "Up In Central Park"] - Pale Hands I Loved (Kashmiri SongKashmiri Song"Kashmiri Song" is a song by Amy Woodforde-Finden based on a poem by Laurence Hope, pseudonym of Adela Florence Nicolson.The poem first appeared in Hope's first collection of poems, The Garden of Kama , also known as India's Love Lyrics....
) [From "Hers to Hold"] - Perhaps [From "Nice Girl"]
- Poor ButterflyPoor Butterfly"Poor Butterfly" is a popular song. It was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly and contains a brief musical quote from the act 2 duet Tutti i fior in the verse....
- Russian Medley [From "His Butler's Sister"]
- Sari Waltz (Love's Own Sweet Song) [From "I'll Be Yours"]
- Say a Pray'r for the Boys Over There [From "Hers to Hold"]
- Seal It With a Kiss
- SeguidillaSeguidillaThe seguidilla is a quick, triple-time old Castillian folksong and dance form. The song is generally in the major key and often begins on an off-beat...
(from CarmenCarmenCarmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
) [From "Hers To Hold"] - Serenade to the Stars [From "Mad About Music"]
- Silent NightSilent Night"Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber...
[From "Lady On A Train"] - Someone to Care for Me [From "Three Smart Girls"]
- Something in the Wind [From "Something in the Wind"]
- Spring in My Heart [From "First Love"]
- Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year [From "Christmas Holiday"]
- SwaneeOld Folks at Home"Old Folks at Home" is a minstrel song written by Stephen Foster in 1851. It was intended to be performed by the New York blackface troupe Christy's Minstrels. E. P. Christy, the troupe's leader, appears on early printings of the sheet music as the song's creator...
- Old Folks At Home [From "Nice Girl"] - SummertimeSummertime (song)"Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....
(from Porgy And BessPorgy and BessPorgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
) - Sweetheart
- Thank You America [From "Nice Girl"]
- The Blue DanubeThe Blue DanubeThe Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
[From "Spring Parade"] - The Last Rose of SummerThe Last Rose of SummerThe Last Rose of Summer is a poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore, who was a friend of Byron and Shelley. Moore wrote it in 1805 while at Jenkinstown Park in County Kilkenny, Ireland...
[From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"] - The Old Refrain [From "The Amazing Mrs. Holiday"]
- The Prince
- The Turntable Song [From "Something in the Wind"]
- There'll Always Be An England [From "Nice Girl"]
- Two Guitars ["Две гитары" - Russian Gypsy Folk song (Lyrics - Apollon Grigoriev, music - Ivan Vasiliev), from "His Butler's Sister" (1943)]
- Two Hearts
- Un bel di vedremo (from Madama ButterflyMadama ButterflyMadama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
) [From "First Love"] - Viennese Waltz [From "For The Love Of Mary"]
- Vissi d'arteVissi d'arte"Vissi d'arte" is a soprano aria from act II of the opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by Tosca as she thinks of her fate and how the life of her beloved, Mario Cavaradossi, is at the mercy of Baron Scarpia.-Libretto:-External links:*...
(from ToscaToscaTosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
) [From "The Amazing Mrs. Holiday"] - Waltzing in the Clouds [From "Spring Parade"]
- When April Sings [From "Spring Parade"]
- When I Sing [From "It Started with Eve"]
- When The Roses Bloom Again
- When You're Away [From "His Butler's Sister"]
- You Wanna Keep Your Baby Looking Nice, Don't You [From "Something in the Wind"]
- You're As Pretty As A Picture [From "That Certain Age"]
External links
- The Deanna Durbin Showcase
- The Deanna Durbin Database
- The Deanna Durbin Page
- YouTube - Deanna Durbin "The Turntable Song" Something in the Wind - The opening scene of Something in the Wind - "The Turntable Song"
- YouTube - Deanna Durbin "Mighty like a Rose" w. Frank Lebby StantonFrank Lebby StantonFrank Lebby Stanton—born February 22, 1857 in Charleston, South Carolina, died January 7, 1927 in Atlanta, Georgia, and frequently credited as Frank L. Stanton, Frank Stanton or F. L...
m. Ethelbert Nevin (see also "Mighty Lak' a RoseMighty Lak' a RoseMighty Lak' a Rose is a 1901 song with lyrics by Frank Lebby Stanton and music by Ethelbert Nevin.The lyrics are written in an approximation of an African American accent; such "dialect songs" were common in the era. The title thus means "Mighty like a rose"; this assessment is addressed by a...
") - Photographs of Deanna Durbin
- Deanna Durbin Devotees