The Voice that Saved a Studio

Deanna Durbin passed away the other day with nary a mention in the area press.

Once upon a time, everything she did was front pages news and her first on-screen kiss in 1939 was prominently featured in Life Magazine and made headlines around the world.

At the Capitol Theatre in Concord between 1936 and 1945, the arrival of a new Durbin film was a guarantee that lines would stretch from the box-office, down South Main Street and up Thompson Street. Frank Eldredge, the one-time manager of the Capitol once told me that it was not uncommon for 5,000 or 6,000 residents to turn out during the three days he would play a Deanna Durbin film. That represented nearly a quarter of the city's population at the time.

Deanna Durbin posssessed a crystal clear voice that was pure magic. Her range was remarkable and her on-screen personality lit up some 20 films during the twelve years in which she was Universal Studio's biggest star. In fact she is credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy,  although you'd never know it if you took the studio tour in California.

Many of the leading sopranos of the past forty years have openly credited Deanna Durbin and her string of popular musical films with directly influencing their own careers, such was her influence.  In addition, millions of dollars in merchandise featuring Deanna was sold at the height of the Great Depression.

On screen Deanna could act with a natural and unaffected ability that brightened her starring roles in films with such titles as "Three Smart Girls," "100 Men and a Girl," "Mad About Music," "First Love," "It's a Date," "It Started with Eve" and "Can't Help Singing." She deftly mixed popular music, like "Amapola" with more classical fare and in doing so gave millions their first taste of classical music.

Deanna walked away from her career in 1950 at the age of 28, moving to France, remaining married to the same man for almost 50 years and raising her children. She never regretted that decision.

When Deanna retired in 1950 I wasn't even born yet. However, the Rabbit Ears that were perched so precariously on the top of our house, combined with our home being on a high hill in Concord, allowed us to get better television reception than some.

On a good day we could choose between Uncle Gus on Channel 9, Boston's Channel 4 where Big Brother Bob Emery advised us "..that if we all could wear green glasses now, it wouldn't be so hard, to see how green the grass is in our own backyard..." and Maine's Channel 8.

Channel 8 boasted that they were "From the top of Mount Washington" and indeed their transmitter was on top of our highest peak, affording a sharp and clear reception.

Deanna Durbin films were an intricate part of Channel 8's film library and they showed them regularly on "The Early Show," "The Late Show" and "The Morning Movie". In those days of the early 1960s, I found myself as enchanted by her exuberent presence as audiences had in the 1930s and 1940s.

If you've never heard of Deanna Durbin, go on You Tube and check out one of the hundreds of clips and films that are available. I guarantee that you too will fall under her spell.