Why did I give up my career? She is far better known today in the United Kingdom and Europe that in the U.S. because the actress never cut off her films there. Thanks for your comment. Ive seen a couple of unflattering photos of her, dressed in a shapeless coat with an unattractive scarf on her head. When she was at the top of her career as Hollywood's leading actress and singer, she turned her back on that world for a life of seclusion. The rumor was that MGM wanted Deanna for the role of Dorothy in Oz and that she auditioned for it, but refused it because Judy wanted it. She tried very hard to shake off her girl-next-door image with films such as Christmas Holiday (1944), directed by Robert Siodmak and adapted from W Somerset Maugham's novel: Durbin and her co-star Gene Kelly were both cast against type, she as a nightclub hostess and he as a killer. The actress, who was born Edna Mae Durbin, married her third husband, 44-year-old French director Charles Davis, at age 28, and retired to a French farmhouse. Andrs de Segurola, who was the vocal coach working with Universal Studioshimself a former Metropolitan Opera singerbelieved that Durbin was a potential opera star. Legal Statement. And there was no denying her films improved the financial difficulties her studio faced at the time, he added. "Just say, 'To Bobby,'" she directed. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. The character I was forced into had little or nothing in common with myself - or with other youth of my generation, for that matter. Durbin came to Hollywood as kid, like so many others, but had a great voice and won a $100 a week contract with MGM. Deanna Durbin Devotees He's a fun guy, and he has lots of great qualities. Deanna is a favourite on my local nostalgia radio. [13] The film featured some of the last melodies written by Jerome Kern. In It's a Date (1940), Kay Francis and Durbin played mother-and-daughter actors. Harper hopes his book will celebrate Durbins films in Hollywood, as well as introduce her to movie buffs discovering her work for the first time. Judy Garland was also featured in the film and she and Durbin sang together, but the much more gauche-looking Garland appealed more to the mogul than the prettier Durbin, who he decided was a little too womanly for what he had in mind. Deanna was also Winston Churchills favorite actress. Yoshida, Yukihiko," Jane Barlow and Witaly Osins, ballet teachers who worked in postwar Japan, and their students, Pan-Asian Journal of Sports & Physical Education, Vol.3(Sep), 2012. By the time she was 18 her income was $250,000 a year. On April 30, 2013, a newsletter published by the Deanna Durbin Society reported that Durbin had died "in the past few days", quoting her son, Peter H. David, who thanked her admirers for respecting her privacy. Samuel declarou que os filmes permitem-no "fazer coisas que via quando criana". I was living in Texas when Deanna Durban passed away. So, what happened? ARGOSY PLANNING 2 'FUGITIVE' FILMS New York Times 9 Nov 1946: 24. It's a Date (1940) Approved | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance 6.4 Rate I do hope so. Winston Churchill was also a fan of Durbin, screening her films "on celebratory wartime occasions". 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. Margaret O'Brien was born Maxine O'Brien. Unlike Judy Garland, she seemed to be very mature in the films that she made, even as a young teenager. With Pasternak producing for Universal, Durbin starred in a succession of successful musical films, including One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937),[5] Mad About Music (1938), That Certain Age (1938), Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), and First Love (1939)most of which were directed by Henry Koster. The conflict led to an unhappiness which was compounded by Durbin's divorce, in 1943, after two years of marriage to the film executive Vaughn Paul. If she did have any regrets we will probably never know because very little is written about her life, once she retired. "[14] Although the film received mixed reviews, Durbin later called it her "only really good film". She is also referenced in the Glenn Miller WWII novelty song "Peggy the Pin-up Girl". Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Family? My mother and I were once mobbed in Texas: the police lost control of the crowd and my mother suffered two broken ribs from people trying to reach me. . She fled to Europe and completely turned her back to Hollywood., RELATED: 16 Old Hollywood Bombshells: See Photos Then And Now. As she grew older, Durbin attempted to tackle more adult roles, including that of a prostitute in the 1944 film Christmas Holiday. Critics slammed her attempts to transition into more mature roles, causing Durbin to become frustrated with the roles she was given. or redistributed. In 1941, Durbin starred in It Started with Eve (1941), her last film with Pasternak and director Henry Koster. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. I was happy on the set. There were Deanna Durbin dolls and dresses. "Beneath The Lights Of Home" being the most requested record. Deanna was not only a superb actress, but as a singer had the voice of an angel. 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. Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. If they were allowed to be managed and controlled, for example, by Reputable Fan Clubs, that would have been Great News for Her Fans. The story needs a far better explanation of why Durbin fled Hollywood. The new regime discontinued much of Universal's familiar product and scheduled only a few musicals. I loved to sing. The play had a three week run and will be staged again at some U.S. theater. The problem of keeping normal in Hollywood doesn't seem so uncomplicated to Deanna Durbin, 16-year-old star of Universal Pictures. She was able to convey the same elusive, which has no words in any language.Deanna has grown, the world has changed. She achieved success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), and It Started with Eve (1941). . 01:04. I could never believe that my contemporaries were my fans., They may have been impressed with my success, but my fans were the parents, many of whom could not cope with their own youngsters, she continued. But like with many child stars, Durbin eventually yearned for more. ), Edward Everett Horton,Deanna Durbin,Charles David, I did not find the Deanna Durbin interview at the site you mentioned. She fled to Europe and completely turned her back to Hollywood.. I couldnt discover why she didnt try. "And her contract eventually ran out. Audiences flocked to see her musical comedies and, after she had trilled numbers such as It's Raining Sunbeams (in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937), Home Sweet Home (in First Love, 1939) and Waltzing in the Clouds (in Spring Parade, 1940), her fans queued to buy the latest record bearing her name. Durbin appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias. Stephanie Nolasco covers entertainment at Foxnews.com. Her seclusion is incomplete. Hi, David!What a great find and such a personal and detailed interview about her private life and career highlights. When Pasternak learned that Durbin was no longer with MGM, he instead cast her in the film. Upon her retirement and divorce from Jackson in 1949, Durbin married producer-director Charles Henri David and moved to a farmhouse near Paris. This girl could sing! Durbin was discovered by a casting director searching in Los Angeles singing schools for someone to play opera star Ernestine Schumann-Heink as a child. She just wanted more say in her own films, but she couldnt. 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. The union lasted for two years. Her husband has told journalists that "Mario Lanza pleaded with her for years to make a film with him. When Durbin had her first screen kiss with Robert Stack in First Love, a riff on the Cinderella plot it filled columns in the American newspapers for weeks. The best part of the play, for me, was the question and answer session at the end. Deanna married director Charles Davis when she was 28 and retired to live in a French farmhouse. But the public did not accept her new image. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! There, she met Garland and the two became close friends. Durbin's singing is featured in Alistair MacLean's 1955 novel HMS Ulysses, being broadcast over the wartime ship's internal communication system. The film was initially conceived without musical numbers, but Durbin finally relented to Universal's demand to include some. "Great post, very interesting too! Gall is quite good playing Durbin and she is a superb singer. According to Harpers research, Durbin primarily kept at home where she happily raised her children and lived a private life. Thank you for reprinting this article on such a lovely actress and singer. Durbin was also able to retool her second sequel to Three Smart Girls from Three Smart Girls Join Up to Hers to Hold (1943), revolving solely around her character. DEANNA DURBIN INTERVIEW Visiting a Deanna Durbin fan site , ( Deannadurbindevotees.com), I was fascinated to read an interview author David Shipman did with Deanna in 1983 at her home in France. Felix Jackson produced 7 of Deannas films from 1943 to 1947. They all somehow had a happy ending. What makes Deanna Durbin's story different is that she was never comfortable with adulation. She wanted more involvement in her career. In 1939, Durbin, aged 17, and her fellow child star Mickey Rooney were awarded special Oscars "for their significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth and, as juvenile players, setting a high standard of ability and achievement". 17 Oct 1941: 27. An engineering firm named its so-called dream home in her honor. (LogOut/ Her major motion pictures were Three Smart Girls (1936), Mad About Music (1938) and That Certain Age (1938). Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. Thank you for reprinting this article on such a lovely actress and singer. People remembered her, but they just didnt talk about her anymore.. [citation needed] When she was an infant, her family moved from Winnipeg to Southern California, and the family became United States citizens in 1923. She didnt really care to do interviews that all the promotional things that came with doing films. Are you sure you want to report this post for ? So sorry about that,I checked again myself and couldnt find the interview. Eventually, the inevitable happened: Durbin and her bosses had different ideas about what represented the right kind of vehicle. The Universal producer Joe Pasternak constantly tried to change her mind, but Durbin told him: "I can't run around being a Little Miss Fix-It who bursts into song the highest-paid star with the poorest material. It appears she had a quiet but happy life after making movies. Mayer did not think he needed two child stars, so he fired Durbin (the play suggests that might have been accidental and he may have wanted to boot Garland), Durbin, at her new studio, Universal, became famous right away and her first few pictures were so successful that they saved the studio (Deanna starred in21 movies in her storied career). Deanna was a Hollywood star in every way. If you ever notice that one of Deanna Durbins movies is on television, a rarity, catch it. It would be much better as a two-character play and it should be a bit longer (its just a little over an hour). (from, "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" (from, "Sari Waltz (Love's Own Sweet Song)" (from, "Say a Pray'r for the Boys Over There" (from, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" (from, "You Wanna Keep Your Baby Looking Nice, Don't You" (from, This page was last edited on 23 November 2022, at 07:43. Impressive money could be made, too. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. . I did not succeed. The Shipman interview does suggest that the serene self-confidence of Durbin's characters was consistent with her personality off-screen. ( in the 1981 photo above, is Deanna holding a copy of the BBC s Radio Times? This added to her movie images even more charm and beauty.In the Soviet Union, and today in Russia, we really love her film His Butler's Sister, where Deanna sings old Russian romances in Russian.She miraculously managed to convey the atmosphere of the Russian romance. Los Angeles Times 27 Sep 1949: A1. Her life was totally different from the one she led in Hollywood, which makes her all the more fascinating.. TELEVISION ACADEMY and ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES are registered trademarks of ATAS. A reviewer for the New York Times praised her 'phenomenal vocal cords'. http://javabeanrush.blogspot.com/2010/11/DeannaDurbinInterview.html. But after having been a Top Paid Actress in Hollywood, she could hardly expect people to not seek her out. Deanna Durbin was born Edna Mae Durbin to British parents on Dec. 4, 1921, in Winnipeg, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Item Information. Others say she hated the studio system of dictatorial control of a performers life and thought her life was over at 29, as it was for many actresses, and hated never being cast in very serious roles (the directors always had her singing something somewhere in the script). 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