:08:03
Susanna Foster says he was one of the
most harmonious people she ever knew,
:08:07
and not just musically.
:08:09
Eddy loved Phantom and hoped it would
revive his career-sadly, it did not.
:08:13
When the picture wrapped, he gave Lubin
an autographed photo that read
:08:16
"You made me what I am today.
I hope the world is satisfied."
:08:21
Eddy kept on working in films, notably
the voice of Willie the Operatic Whale
:08:25
in Disney's animated feature
Make Mine Music.
:08:28
But he began doing more club,
concert and recording work.
:08:32
A pro to the end, he collapsed onstage
and died of a stroke
:08:35
while touring Australia in 1967.
:08:39
Dialogue coach on the picture
was Joan Hathaway,
:08:42
a great friend of Arthur Lubin's.
She rehearsed the cast and ran their lines.
:08:46
"She got a little out of hand at times"
Lubin told me affectionately.
:08:50
"She'd say 'Don't listen to Lubin.
That's what I'm here for."'
:08:56
Frank Puglia
as Monsieur Villeneuve, the maestro.
:08:59
Puglia's acting career spanned
55 years until his death in 1975.
:09:04
Born in Sicily, he'd studied music
and knew how to conduct.
:09:07
He had played the orchestra conductor
in the MacDonald/Eddy film Maytime,
:09:11
but Italian head waiters,
monks, priests and gangsters -
:09:15
often with names like Luigi,
Vito and Giuseppe-were his forte.
:09:19
But he was a utility ethnic,
also versed at playing Greeks, Mexicans,
:09:23
Syrians, Arabs and Javanese.
:09:26
Perhaps that's the secret to working
steadily for 55 years in Hollywood.
:09:31
Susanna Foster's father
was ruined by the Depression.
:09:34
Born Susanne Larson in Chicago,
she remembers being very poor
:09:38
and her mother making
her clothes out of blankets.
:09:40
Her father played the violin
and her mother read her Shakespeare.
:09:44
Susanne, as she was then called,
was a natural talent, but untrained.
:09:48
Her first idol was Bebe Daniels,
then she discovered Jeanette MacDonald.
:09:52
Susanne remembers,
at age five in Minneapolis,
:09:55
seeing The Love Parade over and over.
Her mother was a classic stage mother,
:09:59
and soon she was appearing on local
theatre stages displaying her voice.