Deanna Durbin

1.1. Birth and early years

Edna Mae Durbin was born on December 4, 1921, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her parents, James Allen Durbin and Ada Tomlinson Read, were natives of Greater Manchester, England, who had relocated to Canada. She had an elder sister, Edith. While Durbin was still an infant, her family moved from Winnipeg to Los Angeles, California, and they officially became United States citizens in 1928.

1.2. Musical training

By the age of 10, her sister Edith recognized Durbin's distinct talent and enrolled her in voice lessons at the Ralph Thomas Academy. Durbin quickly became Thomas's star pupil, leading him to showcase her burgeoning vocal abilities at various local clubs and churches. This early training provided the strong foundation for her later success as a singer. Later, Andrés de Segurola, a former Metropolitan Opera singer who became her voice teacher at Universal Studios, believed Durbin had the potential to become an opera star and was commissioned to advise the Metropolitan Opera on her progress.

1.3. Early career development

In early 1935, at the age of 14, Durbin was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to play the young opera singer in a biographical film about Ernestine Schumann-Heink. After an audition where she sang "Il Bacio" and stunned the studio's vocal coach with her "mature soprano" voice, Louis B. Mayer signed her to a six-month contract. She made her film debut in the 1936 short film Every Sunday alongside Judy Garland, another promising teenage singer-actress. This film was intended to showcase their talents for studio executives who questioned casting two female singers together. While Mayer ultimately decided to sign both, Durbin's contract option had unfortunately lapsed by then.

According to a circulating Hollywood anecdote, MGM executive Arthur Freed was instructed by Louis B. Mayer to dismiss "the fat one" from the duo. Freed, who was notoriously associated with casting couch practices, mistakenly believed Mayer was referring to Durbin, who was slightly heavier than Garland at the time, and promptly terminated Durbin's contract. However, Mayer had actually intended for Garland to be dismissed. Durbin had also previously auditioned to provide the vocals for Snow White in Walt Disney's 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but was rejected by Walt Disney, who deemed her 15-year-old voice "too old" for the character.

2.1. Rise to stardom at Universal Pictures

After her contract at MGM lapsed, Universal Pictures producer Joe Pasternak, who had originally sought to borrow Judy Garland from MGM, learned of Durbin's availability. He promptly cast her and signed her to Universal, officially giving her the professional name "Deanna." Her first feature-length film, Three Smart Girls (1936), was an immediate success and quickly established Durbin as a rising star. This success was critically important, as her films were widely credited with saving Universal Studios from the brink of bankruptcy.

Under Pasternak's production, Durbin starred in a string of highly successful musical films, many of which were directed by Henry Koster. These included One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), which became a mega-hit and brought her international fame (featuring ballerina Jane Barlow as Durbin's body double for dance sequences), Mad About Music (1938), That Certain Age (1938), Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), and First Love (1939). In 1938, in recognition of her significant impact and early career success, Durbin was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award alongside Mickey Rooney. Joe Pasternak famously remarked about her talent, "Deanna's genius had to be unfolded, but it was hers and hers alone, always has been, always will be, and no one can take credit for discovering her. You can't hide that kind of light under a bushel. You just can't, no matter how hard you try!"

2.2. Musical film success

Throughout her peak years in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Durbin continued to pursue singing projects beyond her films. While her voice was deemed "too old" for Snow White, her vocal talent was versatile enough to perform everything from popular songs to opera arias. She collaborated on radio programs with Eddie Cantor from 1936 until 1938, when her demanding film schedule for Universal necessitated her departure from weekly appearances. Her films like It's a Date (1940), Spring Parade (1940), and Nice Girl? (1941) continued her musical success. During this period, Durbin's widespread appeal led to the production of various merchandise, including character dolls and other goods, solidifying her status as a cultural phenomenon. At the height of her career, her fan club was recognized as the largest in the world.

2.3. Attempts to expand into dramatic roles

By 1941, Durbin sought to expand her acting range beyond the "ideal teenaged daughter" and light musical roles that had defined her early career. It Started with Eve (1941) was her last film with Joe Pasternak and Henry Koster, as Pasternak subsequently moved to MGM. Koster had a vision to reunite Durbin with Charles Laughton in a new version of The Phantom of the Opera, with Laughton's character Erik serving as Christine's father. However, Durbin found the script too violent and rejected the role.

Durbin's desire for artistic control led to conflicts with Universal. She was unhappy with certain roles, and felt the studio was not supporting the career of her first husband, assistant director Vaughn Paul, whom she had married in April 1941. Her refusal to take on specific roles led to a studio suspension from October 16, 1941, to early February 1942. However, Durbin, known for her strong will and influential position as a major stockholder in Universal, eventually settled her differences with the studio in January 1942. The studio conceded to her demands, granting her approval over her directors, stories, and songs.

This newfound artistic control allowed her to pursue a wider range of genres. An announced sequel to Three Smart Girls, a wartime-themed film titled Three Smart Girls Join Up where Durbin would appear as a "riveter or a welder," was rejected by Durbin in favor of solo vehicles. The project evolved into Hers to Hold (1943), which centered entirely on her character. Another film, initially conceived without musical numbers and replacing a Three Smart Girls picture, was released as The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943). Durbin also dabbled in romantic comedy with His Butler's Sister (1943) and starred in Can't Help Singing (1944), her only Technicolor film, which was a musical Western featuring some of the last melodies written by Jerome Kern.

Her most notable effort to establish herself as a dramatic actress came with the film noir Christmas Holiday (1944), directed by Robert Siodmak and co-starring Gene Kelly. Siodmak praised Durbin's acting abilities but also noted her resistance to fully embracing the dark portrayal, stating she "wanted to play a new part but flinched from looking like a tramp: she always wanted to look like nice, wholesome Deanna Durbin pretending to be a tramp." Despite mixed reviews, Durbin later regarded Christmas Holiday as her "only really good film." She followed this with the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945), which also received mixed critical responses.

2.4. Decline and retirement

By the mid-1940s, while her adult dramatic roles offered her greater artistic satisfaction, it became apparent that her fans primarily preferred her in lighthearted musical comedies. Most of Durbin's films during this period were produced by Felix Jackson, whom she married in August 1945. They welcomed their daughter, Jessica Louise, in February 1946. At this time, Durbin was the second-highest-paid woman in the United States, just behind Bette Davis.

In 1946, Universal merged with two other companies to form Universal-International. The new regime drastically reduced its production of familiar Universal films, including many musicals. Felix Jackson left Universal in November 1946 and separated from Durbin in January 1947, although their divorce was not publicly announced until the following year.

Durbin's final four pictures, I'll Be Yours (1947), Something in the Wind (1947), Up in Central Park (1948), and For the Love of Mary (1948), all reverted to her previous musical-comedy format. On August 22, 1948, Universal-International filed a lawsuit against Durbin to reclaim advanced wages. Durbin settled the complaint by agreeing to star in three more films, one of which was to be filmed in Paris, but this plan never materialized before her contract expired. She received a severance payment of 200.00 K USD (approximately 2.50 M USD in 2023 dollars).

Unsatisfied with her career options and the direction of the studio system, Durbin chose to retire from filmmaking in 1949. When her former producer Joe Pasternak attempted to persuade her to reconsider, she famously stated, "I can't run around being a Little Miss Fix-It who bursts into song-the highest-paid star with the poorest material." In September 1949, she filed for divorce from Felix Jackson, which was finalized in November. Following her retirement, Durbin turned down numerous offers for a comeback, including a Broadway role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, a role she famously rejected saying, "I had my ticket for Paris in my pocket." She also declined invitations to star in London's West End production of Kiss Me, Kate in 1951, the 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film version of the same musical, and Sigmund Romberg's operetta The Student Prince in 1954. Offers even came from figures like opera singer Mario Lanza, but Durbin maintained her decision to remain out of the public eye.

3.1. Marriages and family

Deanna Durbin was married three times. Her first marriage was to assistant director Vaughn Paul in April 1941, but this union ended in divorce in 1943. She then married German-born screenwriter and film producer Felix Jackson in August 1945. They had a daughter, Jessica Louise, born in February 1946. This marriage, however, also ended in divorce, finalized in November 1949, following their separation in January 1947.

During her second marriage, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper publicly asserted that Durbin was having an affair with actor Joseph Cotten. Cotten, however, vehemently denied these claims in his autobiography, stating they were entirely false and based solely on the fact that he and Durbin had separately spent a night at the studio for work, only meeting the next morning in the studio's cafeteria. Cotten was so incensed by Hopper's fabricated story that he once deliberately kicked her chair as she was about to sit down at a Hollywood event, a gesture that reportedly drew applause from onlookers.

On December 21, 1950, Durbin married her third husband, French director-producer Charles Henri David, who had previously directed her in Lady on a Train. Durbin and David raised their son, Peter David (born in June 1951), along with Durbin's daughter Jessica from her previous marriage.

3.2. Life in France

After her final retirement from Hollywood in 1950, Deanna Durbin and her husband Charles David moved to a farmhouse near Neauphle-le-Château, a small village outside Paris, France. There, she dedicated herself to raising her children and cultivating a private life, deliberately withdrawing from public scrutiny. She steadfastly maintained this privacy for the remainder of her life, granting only one rare interview to film historian David Shipman in 1983. This commitment meant she consistently declined requests for profiles on websites and other media, ensuring her personal life remained her own.

4.1. The "Deanna Durbin" persona

In her rare 1983 interview, Durbin candidly expressed her strong dislike for the Hollywood studio system. She emphasized that she never identified with the idealized public image that the media and Universal Studios created around her. She consistently spoke of the "Deanna" persona in the third person, viewing the film character "Deanna Durbin" as a byproduct of her youth and the industry's fabrication, rather than her true identity. In her private life, Durbin continued to use her given birth name, Edna, and remarkably, annual salary figures published by Hollywood trade publications listed the actress as "Edna Mae Durbin, player," further highlighting her personal detachment from the screen persona.

4.2. Views on Hollywood and privacy

Durbin's critical perspective on Hollywood was rooted in her experience with the studio system's control over her career and image. Her early suspension by Universal for refusing roles and her later choice to retire underscore her independent spirit and desire for artistic and personal autonomy. After leaving the film industry, she fiercely asserted and maintained her right to privacy. She deliberately chose a life of quiet anonymity in France, far removed from the scrutiny and demands of celebrity, a commitment she upheld until her death. This firm stance on privacy reflected her rejection of the artificiality and invasiveness of the public sphere that had defined much of her youth.

5.1. Cultural impact and recognition

Deanna Durbin's influence extended broadly across popular culture and was acknowledged by many notable figures. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine Street, and she left her handprints and footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 7, 1938. In her birthplace of Winnipeg, Manitoba, she was affectionately known as "Winnipeg's Golden Girl," a nod to the city's famous Golden Boy statue atop the Manitoba Legislative Building.

Her likeness and work were referenced in various forms of media:

• In animation, Frank Tashlin's 1937 Warner Bros. cartoon The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos featured a turtle caricature of her named "Deanna Terrapin." An unnamed caricature of Durbin also appeared in the 1940 Warner Bros. cartoon "Malibu Beach Party."
• In literature, Durbin figures prominently in Ray Bradbury's 1963 short story "The Anthem Sprinters." Her singing is featured in Alistair MacLean's 1955 novel HMS Ulysses, being broadcast over the wartime ship's internal communication system. She was also referenced in Richard Brautigan's 1967 novel Trout Fishing in America, where the narrator claims to have seen one of her movies seven times without recalling which one. Additionally, the character Hatsumi mentions Durbin in Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood (Chapter 8), stating that her grandfather boasted of having met Durbin in New York.
• In music, Durbin's name was included in the introduction to a 1965 song by satirical writer Tom Lehrer, "Whatever Became of Hubert?", where Lehrer humorously paired her with Hubert Humphrey in "where-are-they-now columns." She is also referenced in the Glenn Miller WWII novelty song "Peggy the Pin-up Girl," which states, "Even a voice that's so disturbin' / Like Judy Garland or Miss Durbin / Can't compare to my pin-up queen." In Philippe Mora's 1983 film The Return of Captain Invincible, Christopher Lee sings "Name Your Poison," with the line, "Think of young Deanna Durbin / And how she sang on rum and bourbon."

Durbin had many notable admirers. Anne Frank was a devoted fan; two photos of Durbin were pasted on the wall in the Frank family's hideout (the Anne Frank House), one from First Love (1939), and remain there today. Winston Churchill was also a fan, reportedly screening her films "on celebratory wartime occasions." Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich cited Durbin in the mid-1980s as one of his most significant musical influences, stating, "She helped me in my discovery of myself. You have no idea of the smelly old movie houses I patronized to see Deanna Durbin. I tried to create the very best in my music, to try to recreate, to approach her purity." Indian-Bengali film director Satyajit Ray, in his 1992 Oscar acceptance speech for Lifetime Achievement, mentioned Deanna Durbin as the only one of the three cinema personalities he recalled writing to when young who had acknowledged his fan letter with a reply. (The other two were Ginger Rogers and Billy Wilder.) Furthermore, Durbin inspired several opera singers, including Joan Sutherland, who commented on the effortless quality of Durbin's singing, saying, "I wish I knew how she did it."

5.2. Honors and critical evaluation

Deanna Durbin's career was critically well-received, particularly during her peak as a musical star. She received the Academy Juvenile Award in 1938, sharing it with Mickey Rooney. While her attempts to transition into more dramatic roles often met with mixed reviews from the public, she considered Christmas Holiday (1944) to be her "only really good film," indicating her own artistic satisfaction with the more challenging material. Film producer Joe Pasternak, who oversaw many of her early successes at Universal, spoke highly of her innate talent, affirming that her "genius" was entirely her own and could not be claimed by any discoverer. Her consistent popularity and significant contributions were vital in sustaining Universal Pictures during a challenging economic period.

6.1. Short films

6.2. Feature films