Grace Moore (born Mary Willie Grace Moore), was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. He place of birth was the rather unpromisingly named 'Slabtown' in 'Cocke County', Tennessee, and fortunately her sobriquet was taken from the state affiliation when she was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale" ..... imagine if it had been the '
flab from the slab', or maybe something derived from her birth county
(
suggestions on a post card 
)
After high school she studied briefly at Ward-Belmont College in Nashville before moving first to Washington, D.C. and then New York City to continue her musical training and her first paying job as a singer was at the Black Cat Cafe in Greenwich Village. She got her first Broadway breakthrough in 1920 in the musical Hitchy-Koo, by Jerome Kern ... she soon was appearing in Irving Berlin Revues. She continued her training and finishing in France, Moore made her operatic debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on February 7, 1928, singing the role of Mimě in Giacomo Puccini's 'La bohčme'. During her sixteen seasons with the Metropolitan Opera, she sang in the title roles in Tosca, Manon, and Louise. Louise was her favorite opera and is widely considered to have been her greatest role.
Movies suddenly opened up when talkies started ... Moore's first screen role was as Jenny Lind in the 1930 film 'A Lady's Morals', later that same year she starred in 'New Moon', a screen version of the operetta 'The New Moon' .... she left MGM and after a few years returned to make six more films for Columbia Pictures. In the 1934 film 'One Night of Love', her first film for Columbia, she portrayed a small-town girl who aspires to sing opera. For that role she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1935 ... and her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience. Her last film was Louise in 1939, and brought to a close a film career spanning
just nine movies.
She was
widely criticized in the US press in December 1938, when she curtsied
to the Duchess of Windsor, in Cannes. Upon her return to the United States after six months and ten days in Europe ("
to save money in income tax" ....
tax dodging), Moore defended her curtsy, saying: "
She would have been a royal duchess long ago if she had not been an American. After all, she gave happiness and the courage of his convictions to one man, which is more than most women can do. She deserves a curtsy for that alone".
According to Joe Laurie, Jr., vaudeville performer and historian, Grace Moore
would not perform on vaudeville bills that had
black performers ... In the early 1930's she saw that white performer Mary Garden had shared top billing with the coloured Mills Brothers, and
insisted that a clause be added to her contract, stating that "
no coloured act" would appear on the same bill with her. Rather than agree, Loew management
cancelled her appearances.
Moore married Valentín Parera, a Spanish movie actor, in Cannes, on July 15, 1931. They had no children. During the 1930s they maintained homes in Hollywood, Cannes, and Connecticut. She died in an airplane crash in 1947, at the height of her singing career .... among the other plane crash victims was Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, who was at the time second in line to the Swedish throne.
Quote:
"
Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career".
Trivia:
- She performed in a Royal Command Performance at Covent Garden in London on June 6, 1935.
- During World War II she was active in the USO, entertaining American troops abroad.
- In the 1937 movie 'When You're in Love', Moore donned flannel shirt and trousers and joined a 5-man band for a flamboyant rendition of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher", complete with gestures and "hi-de-ho's".
- It is claimed that Elvis Presley's "Graceland" mansion was named in honor of her.
- She was decorated as a chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France in 1939.
- She originally wanted to be a missionary.
- Moore published an autobiography, You're Only Human Once, in 1944.
- Moore's life story was made into a movie, So This Is Love, in 1953, starring North Carolina-born singer Kathryn Grayson.
- A collection of her papers is housed at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Pictures:
All pictures are attributed as her on fan sites etc, but if anyone knows better let me know.
