Singing Voices


Did Ann Blythe and Fernando Lamas do their own singing or were their voices dubbed? If dubbed, do you know who did the singing for each?

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Ann Blyth and Fernando Lamas did their own singing in "Rose Marie". Lamas also sang in the 1952 MGM remake of "The Merry Widow", with Lana Turner, who was dubbed by studio ghost singer Trudi Erwin. Ann Blyth was studying to become an opera singer but her initial role at age 16 as Joan Crawford's mean daughter in 1945's "Mildred Pierce" set her on a path as a dramatic actress. The first film in which she sang was MGM's 1951 "The Great Caruso" in which she introduced the hit song, "The Loveliest Night of the Year". She was later cast in two MGM musicals, 1954's "Rose Marie" and in the 1955 film version of "Kismet". She went on to do numerous stage musicals in the 1960 & 70's and is still singing and appeared in concert with Met baritone Richard Fredericks this year in Southern California. Blyth was dubbed by Gogi Grant in the 1957 "Helen Morgan Story", a biography of the 1920's torch singer, because the producers felt that Blyth's operatic soprano did not match the vocal style of Morgan. In actuality, Blyth's own voice was closer to the real Helen Morgan's than Grants.

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Great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to share it.

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I came here to see who actually sang for Ann Blyth. I am so surprised it is her voice.
however, just tuning in at the moment she runs out of the cabin as the Indian princess and breaks into that operatic song was so funny.

I kept listening and yes it is a pretty voice, but OMG so inappropriate for the movie.
Now I can hear a man singing too.

oh well I guess RM is a musical and back then that kind of singing all of a sudden in a movie was considered normal.

Now, in 2015, you'd get laughed out of the theater!! unless you were doing Shakespeare.

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Yes, and didn't they laugh "Into the Woods" out of theaters, just last year? What WERE they thinking, handing out nominations and awards to a laughingstock of a film? 😉

The sung dramatic tradition is a very old one. If some folks today laugh at it, THEY'RE the ones out of step with the rest of the human experience throughout history.

As for "Rose Marie", the role originally was performed on Broadway in the 1920s by a Metropolitan Opera singer, so Ann Blyth's voice was not the least bit inappropriate for the part.

That being said, the "Rose Marie" of the stage bore little resemblance to either of the two sound films based on it. I mean, a Busby Berkeley-choreographed dance where the Indian maidens high-kick in short shorts? Um, maybe not, fellas.

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