This is Jeanette MacDonald, with pencil and paper–

So saith the cute redheaded one, on the radio program you’re about to listen to!

Actually, speaking of her redheaded-ness, in the summer and fall of 1958, she had stopped protecting her beautiful bright coppery red hair when laying out (unless C.S. Bull is at her house with his camera, and sometimes even then, show me one picture of this B worshipping the sun with her hair uncovered– I mean, no, actually, please show me, because they’re rare as hens’ teeth and I’d love to see it, because be it a scarf, swim cap, whatever, that self-proclaimed special hair is covered, preeeetty much always) and let the sun do what it would, resulting in the summer of Strawberry Blonde. Wanna see?

(The answer is yes, obviously.)

Oh, babe. Ten bucks says that the Luau theme was a — very original, obviously — MacSuggestion. We can resist many things, but a luau is not one of those things. But like, can we dig the purple nails and lip to (AND EYE) to go with the dress? And — in the ’58 and ’59 space, she did the trendy silver streaks at her temples which I also happen to love.

We’re like, hella blonde here. I love it, personally. And, on today’s episode of Jeanette is the Cutest, her scarf has music notes on it!

By the time she appeared on Person to Person (Oct 31), she was restored to usual redheadedness — presumably she thought the lighter hair would read gray on camera and touched it up before doing television work.

But today’s story takes place before then, and this is what she looked like, and now you know, and so please don’t claim I’m not out here making Valuable and Important Contributions, ha. 😀

Here’s to Veterans was a fifteen-minute radio show combining “top flight” entertainment with a public service message aimed at ex-servicemen and women, put on by the Veterans’ Administration, in cooperation with the American Federation of Musicians, whose members donate their services (to play). The shows were pre-recorded, in Hollywood, in “batches” (since they were only fifteen minutes apiece, this made the most sense to gather the volunteer musicians and get a lot done in one day).

Jeanette and Nelson were each asked to host an episode. Nelson’s is #679 and Jeanette’s is #686. Knowing how the show was made and using the information that follows, it’s easy to infer that both episodes were recorded the same day, and that Nelson and Jeanette were in the studio together.

Nelson was finished performing September 11 at the Beverly Hills Country Club in Cincinnati, and didn’t begin in Pittsburgh until Monday the 15th, so that is one possibility of when he could have come to town to get this done. Jeanette’s episode aired November 11, a Tuesday, and that works out perfectly for Nelson’s episode #679 to have aired soon after it was recorded. Another possibility is that they did this recording in August, when Nelson was home for a few weeks, though that feels early for a November airdate for Jeanette’s episode. Either way, those are both good possibilities. My thanks to Sharon for helping me figure out this possible/probable timeframe.

They had recorded their Favorites album, but it was not out yet. It would come out in February of the following year. Both Nelson and Jeanette exclusively used songs and orchestrations from upcoming album for their respective episodes of the show. But how did they come to do it together?

Over the years, they both explained at various times that their lack of doing MORE together was that often a show or station or venue could afford one of their salaries, but not both. That being said, they both demonstrated great flexibility and availability to each other to step in on a moment’s notice and produce something excellent. Just a couple notable examples are Jeanette’s pinch hit on the Kraft Music Hall when Dorothy Kirsten was sick (amazing how he’s got her on speed dial, huh?) and when FDR died, Jeanette was supposed to be Nelson’s guest on the Electric Hour but they postponed the regular show to do a radio funeral tribute of sorts for the dead president. She stuck around the next week so they could do the show that was originally planned. It was always comfortable and easy for the two of them to fall into step together, and indeed, radio audiences watched with glee and commented on their ease, obvious chemistry, mutual enjoyment and comfort in working together (and how Nelson was never “like that” — cutting up and carrying on and demonstrative and solicitous and trying to make her laugh and generally misbehaving — with any of his other guests, just her).

All that to say, these two are pretty good at putting their heads together when they need to — and they have an album to promote, and the duets just don’t sound as good as solos, so, I personally am willing to bet since they were there at the same time anyway, and each was getting paid to do their own episode, and the good PR being what it was, they decided amongst themselves to appear on each other’s episode to sing a duet. Also, the David Rose orchestrations from the album are what is used on the show, and they were orchestrated for both voices. It all only makes sense, and I feel certain they thought so, as well.

Too, they’d had a bit of a strained summer, personally, after what would be the final attempt at a matching pair of divorces failed, due to Nelson balking at being completely taken to the cleaners by Ann. Prior to this, the last evidence of either of them doing press for the album that I can find was back in April, which is right around when things blew up. Going back to work together for a day or so (including rehearsal time) is a wonderful way to get things right again, and always worked.

What I am excited to present here, is a newly digitized and optimized recording of Jeanette’s episode of Here’s to Veterans. It was discovered weeks ago when I was making my way through an enormous box of cassette tapes from the holdings of the old Jeanette MacDonald International Fan Club. I put hours and hours of time into reviewing many (but not all!) tapes, and pulled out a decent collection to send away to be digitized, repaired, cleaned up, etc, within the constraints of their various conditions. Angela paid for the work that was done on these tapes, and I know I speak for all of us when I say we appreciate that! This post is the first of several forthcoming with exciting new, new-ish, new-to-us, or simply previously unpublished recordings.

I’ve mentioned that the orchestrations match the album, but ohhhhhhhh it’s so FUN to hear live versions of the same! I might be ridden out on a rail for this, and I -LOVE- the Favorites album, but it, to me is a hair over-produced, so I really relish hearing what they sound like outside of the polished, perfected studio. On Nelson’s episode, she doesn’t speak but he makes a couple of comments alluding to the fact that she’s there, and she sings Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life with him. On her episode, he gets a line (“Jeanette, it’s a pleasure.”) and he joins her for Will You Remember and a piece of the Indian Love Call. She also sings Beyond the Blue Horizon, always a favorite, and The Breeze and I.

It’s shocking to me how YOUNG she sounds in the duets, compared to the album. They’re both in wonderful voice, and this is just such a treat. Swoon. Sigh.

Her public service message proves one thing: she still gets nervous in a “live” setting with a script. She’s much more confident in the songs, but it’s awfully damn endearing to “hear” her lose her place, stumble over a word, throw an “uh” or a “you know” in there — one wonders what in the hell Mr. Eddy was doing while on standby, when homegirl was trying to focus. Probably nothing good, he’s never behaved a day in his life, and she said he had a way of “embarrassing me with his scrutiny.” ❤ ❤

What really is a sin and a shame, though, is this is, unless something else comes to light, the last time they would sing live together.

They don’t -in any way- sound ready to hang it up. It just makes you ache for what might have been, especially when you know that by this time, she had all but stopped giving concerts, and would do one last turn in Bitter Sweet the following year — the last public singing she ever did. Her heart problems were, by now, catching up with her in earnest, though in her 1959 oral history she is quite defensive about still having her voice (it was never, ever a vocal problem), and though she continued vocalizing and learning new songs into 1961 — well, it wasn’t to be. One wishes they’d been able to make more records, and continue to do what they loved together, what they did together better than anyone else ever has, before or since, ESPECIALLY in view of how wonderful they sound here.

I don’t mean to end this with a wistful note, but it bore saying.

The JAM Project’s digitization of Jeanette’s episode of Here’s to Veterans is now on YouTube, on Angela’s channel, with our other treasures! Enjoy!!