re: Old Timey -- a thread for pre-rock country, folk, and blues

quote:

---

Lawrence Tibbett and John McCormack got into a friendly argument about their respective B-flats. "I can sing a better B-flat than you can" Tibbett proclaimed and produced a sample. McCormack grinned and replied "Maybe so...but I get more money for my B-flats than you do." This ended the argument.

---

quote:

---

Famous for his extraordinary breath control, he could sing 64 notes on one breath in Mozart's Il mio tesoro from Don Giovanni, and his Handelian singing was just as impressive in this regard.

---

quote:

---

McCormack made hundreds of recordings... also broadcast regularly by radio and performed in a few sound films, among them the first British colour film, Wings of the Morning (1937), and Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), where he had a small uncredited part.

---

quote:

---

...had apartments in London and New York. He hoped that one of his racehorses, such as Golden Lullaby, would win the Epsom Derby, but he was unlucky.

McCormack also bought Runyon Canyon in Hollywood in 1930 from Carman Runyon.

---

quote:

---

...made many friends in Hollywood, among them Will Rogers, John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, Charles E. Toberman and the Dohenys.

---