In 1946, Durbin was the second-highest-paid woman in the United States, just behind Bette Davis,;[6] her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years. ALL MATERIALS, CONTENTS, AND ARTICLES ARE THE COPYRIGHT OF DAVID LOBOSCO (unless otherwise stated). The film, combined with her appearance on Eddie Cantor's radio show in 1936, announced her as a new star. Neighbors? In a rare interview, given in 1983 to the film journalist David Shipman, she said: "I did not hate show business. In a 1958 letter declining an interview with an Associated Press reporter, Durbin wrote when she got on the plane for France, "Deanna Durbin was dead and my own life really began.". Legal Statement. Unlike Judy Garland, she seemed to be very mature in the films that she made, even as a young teenager. Jackson left Universal in November 1946;[17] he also left Durbin in January 1947, although their separation was not announced until the following year. Gall is quite good playing Durbin and she is a superb singer. In 1958 a letter she sent to the . I know Durbin has an enormous fan base but I've just never gotten into her films. I've had Paris. Durbin continued her success with It's a Date (1940), Spring Parade (1940), and Nice Girl? Gall, in her story, suggests that latter version, and points out that Garland thought Durbin was shortsighted in leaving the movies and wished she had remained. How about Judy Garland? (1941). 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, . At 13, Durbin was signed by the studio. She just wanted more say in her own films, but she couldnt. In 1949, she was released from her contract. Ive seen a couple of unflattering photos of her, dressed in a shapeless coat with an unattractive scarf on her head. [4] Durbin soon became Thomas's prize pupil, and he showcased her talent at various local clubs and churches. Deanna Durbin. 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. [2], Universal Pictures producer Joe Pasternak wished to borrow Garland from MGM, but she was unavailable. I suspect that had a lot to do with her decision to just quit.. She wanted to take on different materials and pick her own directors. You would think that maybe in the 60s or 70s, she could have received a lifetime achievement award or something for her work, he said. [19][20], On December 21, 1950, Durbin married French director-producer Charles Henri David, who had previously directed her in Lady on a Train. Deanna was a Hollywood star in every way. Item Information. She left her hand and footprints in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 7, 1938. Her second marriage, to the producer Felix Jackson, also ended in divorce, this time after four years, in 1949. 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 liked the people with whom I worked and after the nervousness of the first day, I felt completely at ease in front of the camera. It was there, in that Q and A session, that she dropped her bombshell. When Pasternak learned that Durbin was no longer with MGM, he instead cast her in the film. Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM. 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." Deanna Durbin was born Edna Mae Durbin on Dec. 12, 1921, at Grace Hospital, a Christian community medical center in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He said, She was very young when she left Hollywood. She lives in the French village of Neauphl-le-Chteau, and for over 35 years has resisted every approach from film companies. All orders are custom made and most ship worldwide within 24 hours. She was prolific, too: her second film, One Hundred Men and a Girl (with an orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski), was followed by Mad About Music (1938), in which she played a girl with a rich imagination; That Certain Age (1938), co-written by Billy Wilder; and Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), a sequel to her debut feature, with the sisters this time caught up in a romantic conflict. Deanna is a favourite on my local nostalgia radio. By the time she was 18 her income was $250,000 a year. 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. Theme images by, WHERE ARE THEY NOW: FORGOTTEN CHILD STARS, HOLLYWOOD LOVE: DINAH SHORE AND BURT REYNOLDS, Tonight's Movie: Francis in the Navy (1955) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review, The Brass Bottle: A Comfort Comedy with a Genie and a Future Jeannie, Danny G's Sunday Serenade with Dino: "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm", The Classic Film Collective: 7 Life Lessons from Cicely Tysons Memoir, CMBA Profile -- Real Weegie Midget Reviews, Fifty Years of Film in 50 Weeks, #45: Repulsion, 1965, JERRY LEWIS TO BE HONORED AT TCM FESTIVAL, PHOTOS OF THE DAY: CLASSIC STARS AND HORSES. I think she wanted it.Only once did she allow to publish her photo in order to prove that she had not grown fat and was passing through the Triumphal Frame without having her stomach tucked.I apologize for the mistakes. Are you sure you want to report this post for ? So why did Durbin become a recluse? Deanna was also Winston Churchills favorite actress. ". Life and career. The best part of the play, for me, was the question and answer session at the end. The girl who one day would be known as "Winnipeg's Sweetheart" was born at Grace Hospital on December 4, 1921, as Edna Mae Durbin. This time she had a menu which she said some one wanted Deanna to autograph. Throughout her career, the star famously played everyones kid sister, the wholesome girl next door, or the can-do all-American girl who could seemingly give hope to anyone down on their luck. In fact, there is still a Deanna Devotees fan club in England. TYRONE POWERS DAUGHTER SAYS 30S HOLLYWOOD IDOL WAS A DEVOTED FATHER BEFORE HIS TRAGIC DEATH: I FELT SAFE, Canadian actress and singer Deanna Durbin (1921-2013) wearing a black sleeveless dress in a publicity shot once used for the cover of the magazine Yank, The Army Weekly, 1944, United States. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. And so did film and music executives. That cant be all of it, though. Judy had, well, Judy had it all. Upon her retirement and divorce from Jackson in 1949, Durbin married producer-director Charles Henri David and moved to a farmhouse near Paris. Do you remember Deanna Durbin? I knew a little bit about Durbin, the Canadian born singer who rocketed to fame by the age of 15, but not much. When Durbin fled Hollywood, she not only never appeared as an entertainer again but pulled the plug on most of her American movies and you can hardly see them any more (ironically, a Durbin movie and Garland film were playing at the same time on television last week). This group is for fans of Deanna Durbin, the Canadian-born soprano and film star who at 14-years-old, single-handedly saved Universal Studios from bankruptcy with her 1936 film, "Three Smart Girls.". But she will never go back to that life." She could have returned if she had wanted to. Thanks for your comment. Why did I give up my career? Movie mogul L.B. Deanna Durbin once said her screen persona "never had any similarity to me, not even coincidentally." Perhaps. She received a $200,000 ($2,300,000 in 2021) [22] severance payment,[23], Unsatisfied by her career options, Durbin chose to retire and move to Paris. [16] However, while her adult dramatic roles may have been more satisfying for Durbin, it was clear her fans preferred her in light musical confections. She certainly was a mysterious woman. It appears she had a quiet but happy life after making movies. She was also referenced in Richard Brautigan's novel Trout Fishing in America (1967), when the narrator claims to have seen one of her movies seven times, but cannot recall which one. Her seclusion is incomplete. In the late 1930s and through much of the 40s, Durbin was a top box-office attraction. . In the film, Jane Barlow, ballerina and a student of Nijinska, was a body double for Durbin. (Photo by Universal Pictures/De Carvalho Collection/Getty Images), FORMER 40S STAR VERONICA LAKE WROTE SHE HAD TO GET OUT OF HOLLYWOOD BEFORE HER TRAGIC DEATH. Her first screen kiss was described in a headline story across the continent. 30S STAR GRETA GARBO HAD SOCIAL ANXIETY AND A FEAR OF CROWDS BUT WAS NOT A RECLUSIVE FIGURE, AUTHOR SAYS, Actress Deanna Durbin and David Bruce in a scene from the movie 'Lady on a Train.' Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. "Beneath The Lights Of Home" being the most requested record. [4] She made her first film appearance in the short Every Sunday (1936) with Judy Garland, another teenage singer-actress whose career would rival Durbin's. "Great post, very interesting too! [citation needed], In 1983, film historian David Shipman was granted a rare interview by Durbin. Why did she build such a successful career in a short time and then give it all up? She likely made lots of money during her career and didnt have to work again. She was young, beautiful, possessed all the glory of the world, but she preferred quietness, protection from reporters and insects. De Segurola was commissioned to advise the Metropolitan Opera on her progress. (LogOut/ She used that name in 1941, when she appeared in a WWII civil defense film and made a minor appearance in her first feature film, after which she became a contract player with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which changed her first name and cast her in the title role of the film Journey for Margaret. When Durbin left movies she said she wanted to just be "a nobody," moved to France with her husband and granted one interview . Gall, who also wrote the drama, has done a fine job. You have no idea of the smelly old movie houses I patronized to see Deanna Durbin. Dann Cahn on actress Deanna Durbin "saving" Universal Studios in the 1930s. Gall is an authority on both women and researched their lives thoroughly. Actress/singer Melanie Gall has merged the two stories into one, Ingenue: Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland, and the Golden Age of Hollywood. Interestingly, the lyrics pair her name with her first co-star Judy Garland: "Even a voice that's so disturbin' / Like Judy Garland or Miss Durbin / Can't compare to my pin-up queen". Lets hope we get a well researched biography. Her films were tailored to fit both her personality, which made the word "vivacious" seem like an understatement, and her singing voice, which was feminine, sweet, mature beyond her years and extraordinarily powerful. Durbin came to Hollywood as kid, like so many others, but had a great voice and won a $100 a week contract with MGM. it's already old news now, as dated as its subject the obituary notices announcing the death at 91 of deanna durbin, the "plucky child movie star" who saved universal studios from financial ruin; "the best-loved and most fondly remembered singing star of hollywood's golden age" who cut short her career at 28; "the perfect girl next door" who [13] The film featured some of the last melodies written by Jerome Kern. Impressive money could be made, too. Durbin was a child actress who made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. DIVORCE GRANTED TO DEANNA DURBIN: Singing Actress Says Director Husband, Felix Jackson, Left Her and Hollywood I patronized to see Deanna Durbin & quot ; never had any similarity to me, was a body for... 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