Original 'New Moon' to have Twilight Screening on Jeanette MacDonald Nelson Eddy Valentines Week Bahamas Cruise, February 7-14, 2010, from Baltimore
Before Bella and Edward, there was Jeanette and Nelson, whose forbidden off-screen love affair while filming New Moon (1940) became Hollywood gossip. Maceddy.com hosts a 7-day Bahamas cruise celebrating Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, sailing from Baltimore. Highlights include the 'other' New Moon, lectures, a movie sing-along and talent show. If you sing their music, are a fan or love the classic MGM musicals, join us!
New York, NY (PRWEB) November 11, 2009 -- In 1940 there was only one "New Moon" - a hit movie starring "America's Singing Sweethearts," Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. They were at the top of their game, having teamed in blockbusters like "Naughty Marietta" (1935), "Rose Marie" (1936), "Maytime (1937), and MGM's first Technicolor movie, "Sweethearts" (1938). But the following year found them separated professionally and MacDonald refused to re-sign her MGM contract for months, not wanting to ever have to work with Eddy again. Why did she change her mind and how did both stars finally land on the "New Moon" set, in late 1939?
New Moon (1940) starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
That question will be discussed on the cruise during the Q&A session with guest lecturer Sharon Rich, author of the best selling book Sweethearts: The Timeless Love Affair On-Screen and Off Between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy . Other speakers are planned along with filmed interviews of some of Rich's sources, who separate fact from fiction regarding the stars' personal lives. Washington, D.C. impresario Darryl Winston ("The Darryl Winston Show") hosts a talent night for all singers, with pianist Frank Conlon (Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Robin Hood Dell, etc.) accompanying. It's a week filled with nostalgia, fabulous music, films, classic movie history and the inside skinny about one of Hollywood's greatest cover-ups!
The Jeanette MacDonald Nelson Eddy Valentines Week 2010 cruise is a private event; to be included in the activities you must purchase your cruise through the special website at www.maceddy.com/cruise. All-inclusive fares start at $579.89 per person (double occupancy), and includes meals, film screenings and lectures, special Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy gift package, ship entertainment and activities, government taxes, cruise fees and gratuities. Not included: shore excursions, airfare, transfers and vacation protection plan.
If you are a fan… an opera buff…or a singer who performs the MacDonald-Eddy and operatic repertoire and want to be showcased on our talent show… bring your sheet music and we'll provide the accompanist. Additionally, we will film anyone that wants to tell their story or anecdote on camera for an upcoming Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy documentary.
"The film 'New Moon' was pivotal because it was the team's first after Nelson Eddy's marriage in January 1939," says Sharon Rich. "If you follow the timeline, you note that in the week following Eddy's elopement, MGM released candid photos of Jeanette MacDonald at home in her bed, too ill to work because she was recovering from 'a cold.' She did return to the studio briefly to finish her current, solo film and then left Hollywood on an extended concert tour. It was at this time that she refused to re-sign her studio contract."
What finally changed Jeanette MacDonald's mind was a diary entry written by Nelson Eddy that can be read - unedited and uncensored - on pages 254-257 of the biography Sweethearts.
Rich, a film historian who has lectured from London to Toronto to Los Angeles to AFI East Coast, adds: "Jeanette MacDonald previously outraged their fans by marrying Gene Raymond, a Nelson Eddy look-alike, in 1937. The public sensed correctly that there was more than just acting going on up on the silver screen, so did not understand either marriage. Rumors about affairs, sexual preferences, and stolen moments together subsequently followed them all the rest of their lives."
For the record, the current Twilight Saga's "New Moon" starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson is the third film bearing that title. In 1930, MGM co-starred opera greats Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett in an early musical version of Sigmund Romberg's operetta "New Moon." (The MacDonald-Eddy version ten years later was a remake of sorts.) But Moore and Tibbett lacked romantic chemistry and that elusive movie star quality. Nelson Eddy, on the other hand, marched singing onto the screen in his first starring role… women gasped and swooned…and just like that he was an overnight international sensation. Much like Robert Pattinson, Eddy was tall, brooding, and shyly handsome with an unruly shock of blond hair. The real surprise was that this reluctant sex symbol came from…opera. During his heyday, Nelson Eddy's concerts were mobbed by screaming bobby-soxers, with police and bodyguards necessary to keep over-enthusiastic fans from jumping the stage. He was the first and only opera singer ever to cross over to Hollywood super-stardom.
For more information or to book your cruise, fill in the online registration form or call 646-321-8504. To learn more about Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, watch this YouTube video or visit maceddy.com. Read Chapter One of "Sweethearts" here.
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