Marion Bell

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Marion Bell
St Louis, Missouri, U.S.
DiedDecember 14, 1997(1997-12-14) (aged 78)
Culver City, California
, U.S.
Years active1935–1949
Spouses
Jack Charles Hollimon
​
​
(m. 1943)​
​
​
(m. 1947⁠–⁠1949)​
Thomas Charlesworth
​
(m. 1951)​
Children1

Marion Lee Bell (November 16, 1919 – December 14, 1997) was an American singer and musical theatre performer best known for her role in the Broadway musical Brigadoon.[1]

Personal life

Bell was born in St. Louis. Her father was a freight agent on the Wabash Railroad.[2] She had three sisters, Evelyn, Ruth, and Veronica.[1] The family moved to California, and were established there by the time she was 15.[2]

In 1947, she married the librettist Alan Jay Lerner. She was the second of his eight wives,[1] and the only one not to come from a wealthy, socially well-placed family. The marriage lasted two years. Lerner left her six months after Brigadoon closed its first Broadway run.[2] Her third husband was Tom Charlesworth, an actor and singer she met during a production of The Chocolate Soldier. That marriage lasted only three months, but the two had a son.[3]

Bell was known for her "striking" appearance, and was described as "raven" haired, "big-bosomed and sexy,"[2] and "handsome to the eye."[4]

Early singing career

Bell began her career on local radio by the age of eight, singing with

Montemezzi.[2][5] She also sang at the now-defunct St. Louis Opera Company and the Opera Nacional in Mexico City.[2]

Film career

Her return to California led to

Metro Goldwyn Mayer signing her to a film contract. Accounts of her discovery as a potential film star vary: her obituaries in the New York Times and Variety credited her signing to the director Robert Z. Leonard, who heard her sing at a party.[1][5] Musical theatre historian Gene Lees noted that a talent scout had noticed her in one of her opera roles.[2]

After signing with MGM at age 15, Bell toured with the Marx Brothers in their vaudeville show, and had a small uncredited role in their 1935 movie A Night at the Opera. In the stateroom scene, she pushes through the crowd to call "Aunt Minnie."[5] In 1944, it was announced that she was to star in the screen operetta The Kissing Bandit with John Hodiak;[6] produced by Joe Pasternak, this project came to fruition in 1949 without either Bell or Hodiak in the cast.

She sang a duet from

La Traviata with James Melton in Ziegfeld Follies, which was completed in 1944 and considered her screen debut.[2][6] Her MGM contract delayed her Broadway debut by preventing her from accepting a role in the Lerner-Loewe musical The Day Before Spring in 1945.[1]

Brigadoon and New York recital

When the Broadway musical Brigadoon was in production, Bell was appearing in

RCA Victor[1] such as Smash Hits of Broadway, released on four 10-inch disks and featuring songs from several Broadway musicals.[7]

Bell had been interviewed by the

de Falla; and the first performance of "La Bonne Cuisine" by Leonard Bernstein and "A Day Is Born" by Albert Hay Malotte. The reviewer found her "most at home" with the song "Somehow I Could Never Believe" from Street Scene by Kurt Weill. Bell's accompanist for the recital, which took place at the Town Hall performance venue, was Edwin McArthur.[4]

The year Bell spent performing in Brigadoon, which ran for 581 shows over 18 months, was the extent of her Broadway career,

infectious hepatitis, but continued working contrary to her doctor's orders. Her hepatitis recurred during the run of Brigadoon and contributed to the mental exhaustion that caused her to withdraw from the show.[2]

Other performances

Bell sang in the world premiere of the

45 rpm disks.[10]

In 1947 she was announced as one in a series of female guest singers on Gordon MacRae's summer series, Troubadour 1947, on CBS Radio.[11]

During her mid-career, Bell also sang at the

Sacramento Music Circus.[1] In 1951, she was performing in Three Wishes for Jamie with John Raitt and Cecil Kellaway, a production tried out at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium and then moved to the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.[12] She sang in more than 200 concerts during her career.[5]

Later life

In an interview, Bell said that Lerner's interest in her waned as he left Brigadoon behind for his next project. She retreated from the relationship, and her fame declined.[2] She spent much of the next decade hospitalized for mental illness. In 1960, she returned to California, where her parents still lived.[2] There she supported her son with the help of her parents and by working at various jobs.[3]

In the late 1990s, Bell provided archival film of her Town Hall recital for "Classic Arts Showcase" television, of which she was said to be a regular viewer.[13]

In 1990, Lees visited Bell in

Culver City, where she still lived with her father. She had cancer, which was in remission due to chemotherapy, and earned a living giving voice lessons.[3] Although she had alleged cruelty as grounds for divorce from Lerner,[14] Lees remarked that she was "remarkably free of bitterness," and Bell said she had never stopped loving him.[3]

Bell spent the last 15 years of her life in Culver City, where she was involved with local

light opera and community activities. She died in 1997.[5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mel Gussow, Marion Bell, Star of 'Brigadoon,' Dies at 78 New York Times (December 14, 1997). Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gene Lees, The Musical Worlds of Lerner and Loewe (University of Nebraska Press, 1990), pp. 29, 49–52.
  3. ^ a b c d Lees, The Musical Worlds of Lerner and Loewe, p. 332.
  4. ^ a b c d N.S., "Marion Bell Seen in Recital Debut," New York Times (October 11, 1948).
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Marion Bell Dies at 78," Variety (January 3, 1998).
  6. ^ a b Screen News, "Metro Gives John Hodiak Lead in Operetta," New York Times (December 2, 1944).
  7. ^ Howard Taubman, "Records," New York Times (July 4, 1948).
  8. ^ Sam Zolotow, "Bette Davis Likes New Kanin Script," New York Times (September 3, 1948).
  9. ^ R.P., "Theatre Telecast in Opera Debut: NBC Offers 'Down in the Valley,' Sundgaard's Folk Work as First of 4 Programs," New York Times (January 16, 1950).
  10. ^ Carter Harmon, "Records: Old Organ Music and Re-Issued Vocals," New York Times (May 21, 1950).
  11. ^ The News of Radio, "WNY to Broadcast Concerts for Veterans—MacRae Replaces 'Baby Snooks,'" New York Times (July 24, 1947).
  12. ^ Louis Calta, "Lewises to Close Play for Repairs," New York Times (August 21, 1951).
  13. ^ David Finkle, "Television/Radio: A Video Variety You Won't See on MTV," New York Times (December 1, 2002).
  14. ^ "'Brigadoon' Author Divorced," New York Times (September 16, 1949), Associated Press brief.

External links

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