To your last point, Robert Merrill once got in trouble with Bing apparently for appearing in a film called (it's true) "Aaron Slick from Pumkin Crick". I've never seen it, but the title once heard, it's never unheard.
I think Tibbett had gotten into vocal problems (and perhaps drinking ones as well) by the late 40s early 50s, though he did replace Pinza in "Fanny" a few years before he died. Tibbett was a wonderful singing actor, and some his early films still survive. He had great presence and a brilliant voice, maybe the acting a bit out of style by modern standards, but he sure wasn't boring. Warren famously died on the Met stage around 1959 in "La Forza del Destino" and Bastianini also died quite young. Weede should have had a bigger career in opera, but because of his recordings of "The Most Happy Fella" and "Milk and Honey" he is perhaps better known nowadays than some of these other names to non-opera fans. Robert Merrill, to a whole generation of baseball fans, sang or his recording was played doing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at many NY Yankees games for many years. |
