June Preston
Encyclopedia
June Preston an American child actress who went on to become an internationally renowned opera
singer. She made her screen debut at age 4 under optimistic eyes of RKO as Mrs. Blewett's Daughter in Anne of Green Gables
. Preston had paid a visit to the studio where a keen-eyed executive saw her and called for a screen test, which resulted in a 5-year contract. Preston acted, sang, and danced, becoming a worldwide celebrated child star who went on to work with Universal Studios
, Warner Bros.
, 20th Century Fox
, MGM, Republic Pictures
, and Paramount Pictures
.
After signing with RKO, she signed with Edward D. Schuwall of the Pottstown, Penn Clothing Firm in New York, who started a worldwide apparel line bearing the name ‘June Preston Frock’ by JP Loomcraft, better known now as Fruit of the Loom
. Her products included dresses, coats, snowsuits, shoes, undergarments, beachwear, purses and hats. In addition there were other products that had her likeness on them such as dolls, paint sets, phonographs, and toys that sold millions worldwide.
Soprano
to Contralto
. In 1952, at the age of 24, she was one of the youngest artists to debut her tour with the 'Stars of the Metropolitan Opera
' in a leading role. The Metropolitan Opera South American Tour featured June as Mimi in La Bohème
opposite Jan Peerce
as Rodolfo. (In this role she originated a bit of stage prop that has been used ever since, dropping her fur muff to the floor as Mimi dies in the last act.) She continued touring singing leading roles opposite Salvotore Vaccolini, Nicola Mascono, Robert Weede
, and again with Jan Peerce, and went on to sing well into the 1990s at which point she retired.
Preston favored recitals above all, and was particularly well known for her concert recitals ranging from Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms to Puccini. She later began her American debut with the St. Louis Symphony, performing a recital of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
; followed by her 1962 European debut at the Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam
, thereafter touring all European countries in recitals. The majority of her performances were overseas until later in her career.
Her roles included: Micaela in Aida
, Carmen in Carmen
, Count Octavian Rofrano in Der Rosenkavalier
, Adele in Die Fledermaus
, Mimi in La Bohème
, Violetta Valery in La Traviata
, Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, Camille in The Merry Widow
, Floria Tosca in Tosca
, Turandot in Turandot
.
and many more...
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...
singer. She made her screen debut at age 4 under optimistic eyes of RKO as Mrs. Blewett's Daughter in Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables (1934 film)
Anne of Green Gables is a 1934 film directed by George Nichols Jr., based upon the novel, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery...
. Preston had paid a visit to the studio where a keen-eyed executive saw her and called for a screen test, which resulted in a 5-year contract. Preston acted, sang, and danced, becoming a worldwide celebrated child star who went on to work with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, MGM, Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
, and 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...
.
After signing with RKO, she signed with Edward D. Schuwall of the Pottstown, Penn Clothing Firm in New York, who started a worldwide apparel line bearing the name ‘June Preston Frock’ by JP Loomcraft, better known now as Fruit of the Loom
Fruit of the Loom
Fruit of the Loom is an American company which manufactures clothing, particularly underwear. The company's world headquarters is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It is currently a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.-Company profile:...
. Her products included dresses, coats, snowsuits, shoes, undergarments, beachwear, purses and hats. In addition there were other products that had her likeness on them such as dolls, paint sets, phonographs, and toys that sold millions worldwide.
Singing career
Preston later became an internationally renowned opera singer. Her range varied from SpintoSpinto
Spinto is a vocal term used to characterize a soprano or tenor voice of a weight between lyric and dramatic that is capable of handling large musical climaxes in opera at moderate intervals...
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...
to Contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
. In 1952, at the age of 24, she was one of the youngest artists to debut her tour with the 'Stars of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
' in a leading role. The Metropolitan Opera South American Tour featured June as Mimi in La Bohème
La bohème
La 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...
opposite Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....
as Rodolfo. (In this role she originated a bit of stage prop that has been used ever since, dropping her fur muff to the floor as Mimi dies in the last act.) She continued touring singing leading roles opposite Salvotore Vaccolini, Nicola Mascono, Robert Weede
Robert Weede
-Biography:Born Robert Wiedefeld in Baltimore, Maryland, Weede studied voice at the Eastman School of Music and in Milan. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1937, as Tonio in Pagliacci...
, and again with Jan Peerce, and went on to sing well into the 1990s at which point she retired.
Preston favored recitals above all, and was particularly well known for her concert recitals ranging from Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms to Puccini. She later began her American debut with the St. Louis Symphony, performing a recital of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
; followed by her 1962 European debut at the Concertgebouw
Concertgebouw
The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, thereafter touring all European countries in recitals. The majority of her performances were overseas until later in her career.
Her roles included: Micaela in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Carmen in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen 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...
, Count Octavian Rofrano in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, Adele in Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, Mimi in La Bohème
La bohème
La 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...
, Violetta Valery in La Traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, Camille in The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
, Floria Tosca in Tosca
Tosca
Tosca 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...
, Turandot in Turandot
Turandot
Turandot 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...
.
Filmography
- Thin IceThin Ice (1937 film)Thin Ice is a United States comedy/romance film directed by Sidney Lanfield starring Tyrone Power and figure skater Sonja Henie.-Plot:...
(1937) - History Is Made at NightHistory Is Made at Night (1937 film)History Is Made at Night is a 1937 romantic drama with elements of comedy and spectacle.It deals with a love triangle among a possessive shipping magnate, his beautiful wife, and a French headwaiter, with a spectacular ocean liner as a backdrop....
(1937) - Maytime (1937)
- Valley of the Giants (1938)
- Second FiddleSecond FiddleSecond Fiddle is a term that refers to something that plays a secondary role in support of something that plays a more major or leading role.Second Fiddle may also refer to:* Second Fiddle * Second Fiddle...
(1939) - You Can't Cheat an Honest ManYou Can't Cheat an Honest ManYou Can't Cheat an Honest Man is a comedy film starring and scripted by W. C. Fields.-Production background:Fields plays "Larsen E. Whipsnade", the owner of a shady carnival that is constantly on the run from the law. The whimsical title comes from a line spoken by Fields about ten minutes into...
(1939) - Christmas in JulyChristmas in July (film)Christmas in July is a 1940 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges based on his 1931 play A Cup of Coffee. It was Sturges' second film as writer-director, after The Great McGinty, and stars Dick Powell and Ellen Drew....
(1940) - Second ChorusSecond ChorusSecond Chorus is a Hollywood musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire, Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw, and Charles Butterworth, with music by Artie Shaw, Bernie Hanighen, Hal Borne and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The film was directed by H. C...
(1940) - Never Give a Sucker an Even BreakNever Give a Sucker an Even BreakNever Give a Sucker an Even Break is a 1941 Universal Pictures comedy film starring W.C. Fields. Fields also wrote the original story, under the pseudonym "Otis Criblecoblis". Fields plays himself, searching for a chance to promote a surreal screenplay he has written, whose several framed sequences...
(1941) - The Devil and Daniel WebsterThe Devil and Daniel Webster (1941 film)The Devil and Daniel Webster is a 1941 fantasy film, adapted by Stephen Vincent Benét and Dan Totheroh from Benét's short story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster". The film's title was changed to All That Money Can Buy to avoid confusion with another film released by RKO that year, The Devil and Miss...
(1941) - The Strawberry BlondeThe Strawberry Blonde-Cast:* James Cagney as T. L. 'Biff' Grimes* Olivia de Havilland as Amy Lind* Rita Hayworth as Virginia Brush* Alan Hale as William 'Old Man' Grimes* Jack Carson as Hugo Barnstead* George Tobias as Nicholas Pappalas* Una O'Connor as Mrs...
(1941) - Our GangOur GangOur Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
Comedies (various throughout 1934–1938)
and many more...