Memories of Nelson Eddy in Australia
By Fay La Galle, Australian Representative

Back in the 1950s-60s before fast jet travel, Australia to the rest of the world was, to paraphrase Star Wars “a land far, far away”. Unlike today where international artists perform here regularly, back then we were “starved” of overseas performers. And so it was that in early 1962 there was great excitement among the myriad Nelson Eddy fans here when news came through that he would be bringing his successful nightclub act with Gale Sherwood and long-time musical director Ted Paxson to the highly popular club in Sydney called Chequers.

Going back a little further in time to Friday evening 14th July 1961: a 13 year-old star- and movie-struck girl named Fay (that’s me) made a discovery that, to a great degree, changed her life. One of our local TV stations had started showing MGM movies on a Friday night under the banner of Academy Theatre. On that particular Friday evening the movie that was featured was “Maytime”; being a hopeless romantic (what 13 year old isn’t - well, we were back then) I was mesmerised by the glorious singing, the beauty of Jeanette MacDonald and the manly good looks of Nelson Eddy and the oh, so romantic story. I wanted more! Luckily a few weeks later “Naughty Marietta” was shown and that was it, I was hooked! “I Married an Angel” and “Girl of the Golden West” followed and I wanted to know more about these two wonderful people.

Early the following year as a regular part of my high school studies I would go into the Melbourne Public Library and I decided to spend some time finding out about who these two wonderful singers were. Fortunately I came across a book that had a short biography of Jeanette and listed an address (Camden Road - pre-Bel Air Road). I wrote to Jeanette - I shudder when I think about what I wrote - but she looked kindly on me and I received a reply from her secretary Emily West who suggested I contact Clara Rhoades of the JMIFC if I wanted to join her club. This I did and it wasn’t until I attended my first Clan Clave in LA in 1996 that I was Clara’s first new member after taking over as President of the club. When writing to Clara I asked whether she knew of a club for Nelson Eddy and she directed me to Thelma Cohen of the NEMC (who I still correspond with today) and I joined up immediately. The Australian representative at the time was Gwen Hanley who was very kind to me and imagine my delight and excitement when I learnt that Nelson would be performing in Sydney in November 1962 and that there would be a club convention on the afternoon of Saturday 10th November! How could I, a 14 year old, convince my parents that I HAD to go to Sydney (we live in Melbourne) to see this Hollywood star at a nightclub and almost in the middle of high school exams! A hard call you might say, but I did it.

Early on Saturday morning 10th November I boarded a flight to Sydney with fellow club member Dorothy Bowyer as my chaperone. Gwen Hanley had organised accommodation with a lovely lady called Edna Trigg, booked seats for both shows at Chequers on the Saturday night and I was set for the Club Convention at the Chevron Hotel where Our Trio, as they were affectionately called, were staying. Imagine my excitement when, while waiting in the foyer of the hotel to go upstairs, we were greeted by a booming baritone voice - yes, Nelson Eddy! “See you upstairs girls!” And see him we did - I’ve never seen so many well dressed ladies in one place totally entranced by one person. I’m sure Nelson was just as bemused by the reactions but he made time to have his photo taken with Gwen Hanley who had put so much work into organising the afternoon. And he also took the time to speak to this starstruck teenager who was introduced to him as his youngest club member at that time. Gwen wrote at the time….”he warmly shook my hand and introduced Gale - what a charming, unaffected, natural girl she is! - and then Ted, who seemed like a friend with whom we’d been acquainted for many years.” Nelson, Gale and Ted mingled informally: Nelson shook hands, talked and joked with us, his warmth and friendliness coming through; Gale and Ted were also surrounded by members. Everyone wanted their photo taken with their favourite baritone and he was very obliging. One of the girls was so intense and excited and said, “Oh please, Mr. Eddy, could I have a little one, just a little one?” He posed with her at once, but as he put his arms around her for the picture he said teasingly, “A little what?”Another member wore a big white hat which Nelson “wanted to swim in”, while Eve was teased by Nelson that if another flashbulb when off he’d close his eyes - and he did! - much to the amusement of everyone.

That evening I went to Chequers and sat with fellow club members at a table which was almost at the back of the room but for the second show Gwen Hanley, once again, kindly looked after me and I sat with her at her table right at the front (I believe she had the same table booked for every show!). I couldn’t have asked for more - it was wonderful seeing Nelson and Gale performing their slick, professional and entertaining show. And then the added treat of Nelson singing “Shenandoah” - sans microphone! I didn’t need an aeroplane to fly home the next day I was so high!

Australians loved Nelson Eddy and he returned that affection by coming back in 1963 to Sydney and Melbourne. However, his Melbourne season was cut short because of pharyngitis and he returned home after cancelling his show at the Tivoli, one of the very few times in his career he was unable to perform. I was at the Saturday matinee performance the day he was ill and it was obvious then that he was not well, not in full voice and he had to cut the performance short. At that evening’s show he was not able to perform at all - Gale came on stage with a pair of Nelson’s shos and placed them on the floor next to her and proceeded to perform. However, the fans had come to see and hear Nelson Eddy and that’s who they wanted. It was a very big story in the papers over the next few days and nelson was upset that he had to cancel.

The following year he did an Australia-wide tour starting in Sydney then going on to Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. His last visit was in 1967 to Sydney and Adelaide and sadly less than three weeks after returning home he passed away in Miami - doing what he loved best and the way he wanted to go - “with his boots on”. That was a sad day, 6th March 1967, and here in Melbourne he was remembered with a series of his movies being shown on TV on the Midday Movie. A Sydney newspaper reported in a special story on 12th March 1967, “Sydney people shed a special tear this week for Nelson Eddy. Those interviewed confessed they had a rare affection for the veteran singer and actor. Tributes came from show people, a hotel porter and an upstairs maid, and the Hungarian proprietor of a King’s Cross delicatessen (see below). They came from saddened members of his fan club who never missed one of his shows, and a grandmother who had never met him but who first heard him sing over crystal radio in 1923.

“Only a few weeks before he had made his fourth nightclub appearance in Sydney at Chequers. In Sydney he played to packed audiences at every performance, and the audiences were nothing like Chequers had seen before. Miss Joy Butler, the publicity officer for Chequers, said, “Grandmothers in their 80s who had never been to a nightclub before came to see him. Mothers brought their daughters and sometimes we had a three-generation audience. A girl just 20 came to see me. She had been a fan of Nelson Eddy since she was 16, and said, quite simply, “Nelson was my whole life and now it’s in pieces.” Miss Butler said people came from as far as Perth and New Zealand to watch his show.

“Bill Lazzarini, a former airline pilot, is the stage manager at Chequers and he and Eddy became firm friends during the years the singer visited Sydney. He remembered a night when Eddy was leaving the nightclub in a taxi and saw an elderly woman standing in a group outside waiting to see him. He said, “Nelson stopped the cab and walked over and shook her by the hand. She nearly fainted. She was like a girl on her first date.”

“Bill Way is a porter at the Chevron Hilton at King’s Cross where the singer stayed during a couple of visits to Sydney. Mr Way said, “He didn’t stay here last time, but he made a point of coming down one morning and saying ‘hello’. He was that type of man.”

“Joan Cooper, an upstairs maid at the hotel, remembers the singer and the stream of fans who called to get his autograph. “Most of them young women, but not flappers,” she said. “I don’t think he ever refused an autograph.”

“Rose Jung, a receptionist at Chequers, said, “I met him many times and he was a wonderfully sincere person. I was only a child, but I loved his movies. I met a lot of the stars who performed here but Mr. Eddy was the best.”

A fine testament to a fine man.

Nelson felt comfortable and relaxed in Australia and, according to his wife Ann, contemplated retiring here as he loved the scenery and being the painter that he was he would have revelled in the colours of the Australian Outback. However, it was never to be.

Because Nelson visited Sydney on four occasions and spent several weeks there, the Sydney club members were treated to many personal meetings. On one occasion a member was visiting King’s Cross with several friends. “We came to a small delicatessen shop which was owned by a nice man, Ivan. As I walked into the shop, a man was coming out but he had his head turned talking to Ivan as he was walking and we collided. He put his arms out to steady me and to my surprise it was Nelson. I had been to Chequers the night before to see his two shows; I was sitting with Gwen Hanley and we were very close to the stage. Nelson was having a little fun when he saw us there again. So when we bumped into one another he looked at me and I couldn’t say a word. Nelson said to me, ‘I know you.’ Anyway, we had a little chat, he was very interested in the harbour cruise we had been on and he said one day he would love to come back and sing in our Opera House when it was built. But that was not meant to be. That is a day I will never forget. A little cuddle from Nelson”. Apparently he would come into the delicatessen with his string shopping bag and buy cold meats and cheese to take back to the hotel for his snacks.

On another occasion club member Mavis and her husband were walking around King’s Cross and saw Nelson and Gale out window shopping and eating hot chips (fries) out of the paper - as we Aussies do. Nelson offered Mavis’s young daughter a chip and said, “Would you like a fry?” Sue pulled back not knowing what he meant but Gale offered one of hers say, “Would you like a chip?” Sue took one - and the look on Nelson’s face said it all. He took one out for himself but only half the chip came out, he looked at it and said, “Look, Gale, a half Nelson.”

And another story, perhaps a final one for now, was on the last trip in 1967. A group of members had gathered at Sydney Airport to farewell Nelson and Gale (Ted didn’t make the last trip due to surgery). Some of the girls were sitting with Gale having milk shakes (it was a particularly hot Summer’s day) when Nelson came over to talk to the group for a while then left to attend to some matters. When the group went to pay for their drinks the bill had already been taken care of - thanks to Nelson Eddy!

My interest in Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy has taken me down many paths and I’ve made many wonderful friends over the years since I first discovered them in 1961. Although I never met Jeanette MacDonald I have letters, a birthday card and a Christmas card written during her final illness and which arrived the day she died. This was a measure of the person that, despite her illness, she still found time to send a card and write a short message to a young fan, something I’ve never forgotten. And to be lucky enough to meet Nelson Eddy so soon after I discovered him, and to meet him on a number of occasions, was a dream come true.

I hope that coming generations will also discover the beauty of the best Baritone there ever was and, with the wonders of modern technology and the Internet, I think there is a very good chance that NELSON EDDY will be enjoyed for generations to come.