Deanna Durbin: Ephemeral fame (photo: Deanna Durbin in 1981) [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin: 'Sweet Monster.'"] Unlike Greta Garbo, whose mystique remained basically intact following her retirement in 1941, Deanna Durbin’s popularity faded away much like that of the vast majority of celebrities who were removed — or who chose to remove themselves — from public view. Despite the advent of home video and classic-movie cable channels, Durbin remains virtually unknown to the vast majority of those who weren’t around in her heyday in the ’30s and ’40s. Yet, although relatively few in number, she continues to have her ardent fans. There are a handful of websites devoted to Deanna Durbin and her film and recording careers, chiefly among them the appropriately titled "Deanna Durbin Devotees." Fade Out Charles David, Deanna Durbin’s husband of 48 years, died in March 1999, at the age of 92; Institut Pasteur medical researcher Peter H. David is their only son. Durbin also had a daughter,...
- 5/7/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
‘The Deanna Durbin Unit’ (photo: Robert Cummings, Deanna Durbin, and Charles Laughton in It Started with Eve) [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin Movies Save Universal."] Deanna Durbin and Henry Koster, who has been credited with helping to mold Durbin’s screen persona, collaborated on five movies. Besides Three Smart Girls, there was the inevitable sequel, Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), in addition to One Hundred Men and a Girl, after which Durbin’s salary was reportedly doubled to $3,000 per week, plus a $10,000 bonus per film; the Cinderella-like First Love (1939), in which, following worldwide publicity, Durbin gets kissed on screen for the first time (Robert Stack was the kisser); Spring Parade (1940), with a Viennese setting and Robert Cummings as her leading man; and It Started with Eve (1941), a light, well-received romantic comedy co-starring Cummings and Charles Laughton. (Universal would also release the 1964 remake, I’d Rather Be Rich, starring Sandra Dee in the Robert Cummings role, Robert Goulet in the Deanna Durbin part,...
- 5/5/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Deanna Durbin ‘saves’ Universal (photo: Deanna Durbin in Three Smart Girls) [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin: Remembering One of Hollywood's Top Stars."] During the Great Depression most Hollywood studios were in dire financial straits, until, as the story goes, one (or more) lucky star(s) made them once again solvent. Mae West is credited for "saving" Paramount; Shirley Temple "saved" Fox; the Busby Berkeley, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell combo "saved" Warner Bros.; and the curious mix of King Kong, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers "saved" Rko. So, did Deanna Durbin truly save Universal from bankruptcy? Well, Charles Rogers’ investment company came to the financial rescue of Universal in 1936, but the success of Durbin’s movies surely helped the new management get the studio back on its feet. For instance, according to author David Shipman, Three Smart Girls cost $300,000 — its budget doubled after studio bosses realized they had a hit in their hands — and earned Universal a hefty $2m. (An unspecified...
- 5/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Deanna Durbin dies at 91: One of the top stars of Hollywood’s studio era (photo: Deanna Durbin in I’ll Be Yours) According to Hollywood lore, teen star Deanna Durbin saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy in the mid-’30s, when her movies earned the Great Depression-hit studio some much-needed millions. The story may seem like an exaggeration, but in fact future Universal players such as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Maria Montez, Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and even Jaws‘ Bruce the Shark and the assorted dinosaurs found in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park partly owe their film careers to the pretty, bubbly, full-faced, soprano-voiced Deanna Durbin, the star of immensely successful Universal releases such as Three Smart Girls, One Hundred Men and a Girl, and That Certain Age. Universal should be in mourning this week. Late this past Tuesday, April 30, it was announced that Deanna Durbin had died a...
- 5/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Deanna Durbin, a star whose songs and smile made her one of the biggest box office draws of Hollywood’s Golden Age with fans that included Winston Churchill, has died.
Durbin died on about April 20 in a village outside Paris where she had lived, out of public view, since 1949, family friend Bob Koster of Los Angeles told the Associated Press on Wednesday. Koster’s father, Henry Koster, directed six of Durbin’s films. Bob Koster did not know the cause of death.
At the height of her career, the Canadian-born Durbin, who made her first feature, Three Smart Girls, at...
Durbin died on about April 20 in a village outside Paris where she had lived, out of public view, since 1949, family friend Bob Koster of Los Angeles told the Associated Press on Wednesday. Koster’s father, Henry Koster, directed six of Durbin’s films. Bob Koster did not know the cause of death.
At the height of her career, the Canadian-born Durbin, who made her first feature, Three Smart Girls, at...
- 5/2/2013
- by Associated Press
- EW - Inside Movies
Deanna Durbin, one of the shining lights of Hollywood during the ‘30s and ‘40s, has died. She was 91.Born in Winnipeg Canada — her parents were actually from Manchester — Durbin emerged as the dictionary definition of the girl next door, with a clear, light singing voice that belied her technical prowess (she had the vocal range of a soprano) and a sweet, cheerful, wholesome persona that could make apple pie look un-American.She debuted in Every Sunday with Judy Garland in 1936, then signed a contract for Universal and began a ran of films that was generally considered to have saved the studio from bankruptcy; Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men And A Girl (1937), Mad About Music (1938), Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), First Love (1939) and It’s A Date (1940). Her astonishing talents and joie-de-vivre — she won an Academy Award for “embodying youth” in 1939 — did much to cheer up America in the early stages of the war.
- 5/2/2013
- EmpireOnline
The only people who don’t like Deanna Durbin, it seems to me, are people who’ve never seen her movies. Possessed of a glorious, bell-like soprano voice, she was presented to moviegoers of the 1930s in a series of irresistible comedies that showcased a fresh, sunny screen personality. Delightful films like Three Smart Girls, One Hundred Men and a Girl, and Mad About Music were said to have saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy; I don’t know if that’s actually true, but they were enormously successful, and her fans have remained devoted to her for decades. In 1946 she was the second-highest paid woman in America, but a few years later she walked away from the spotlight, moved to...
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- 5/2/2013
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Child star with a powerful singing voice who played the perfect girl next door in Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s
When a teenage Deanna Durbin appeared on screen in the 1930s, wearing a decorous white dress with her hands clasped together, singing with a bell-like purity, audiences sighed contentedly. And so did film and music executives. In the days when child stars were wholesome, Durbin was everyone's idea of the perfect girl next door, and she was a huge money-spinner. Audiences flocked to see her musical comedies and, after she had trilled numbers such as It's Raining Sunbeams (in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937), Home Sweet Home (in First Love, 1939) and Waltzing in the Clouds (in Spring Parade, 1940), her fans queued to buy the latest record bearing her name.
Durbin, who has died aged 91, was the antithesis of the Hollywood glamour girl – which made her...
When a teenage Deanna Durbin appeared on screen in the 1930s, wearing a decorous white dress with her hands clasped together, singing with a bell-like purity, audiences sighed contentedly. And so did film and music executives. In the days when child stars were wholesome, Durbin was everyone's idea of the perfect girl next door, and she was a huge money-spinner. Audiences flocked to see her musical comedies and, after she had trilled numbers such as It's Raining Sunbeams (in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937), Home Sweet Home (in First Love, 1939) and Waltzing in the Clouds (in Spring Parade, 1940), her fans queued to buy the latest record bearing her name.
Durbin, who has died aged 91, was the antithesis of the Hollywood glamour girl – which made her...
- 5/1/2013
- by Michael Freedland
- The Guardian - Film News
Child star with a powerful singing voice who played the perfect girl next door in Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s
When a teenage Deanna Durbin appeared on screen in the 1930s, wearing a decorous white dress with her hands clasped together, singing with a bell-like purity, audiences sighed contentedly. And so did film and music executives. In the days when child stars were wholesome, Durbin was everyone's idea of the perfect girl next door, and she was a huge money-spinner. Audiences flocked to see her musical comedies and, after she had trilled numbers such as It's Raining Sunbeams (in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937), Home Sweet Home (in First Love, 1939) and Waltzing in the Clouds (in Spring Parade, 1940), her fans queued to buy the latest record bearing her name.
Durbin, who has died aged 91, was the antithesis of the Hollywood glamour girl – which made her...
When a teenage Deanna Durbin appeared on screen in the 1930s, wearing a decorous white dress with her hands clasped together, singing with a bell-like purity, audiences sighed contentedly. And so did film and music executives. In the days when child stars were wholesome, Durbin was everyone's idea of the perfect girl next door, and she was a huge money-spinner. Audiences flocked to see her musical comedies and, after she had trilled numbers such as It's Raining Sunbeams (in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937), Home Sweet Home (in First Love, 1939) and Waltzing in the Clouds (in Spring Parade, 1940), her fans queued to buy the latest record bearing her name.
Durbin, who has died aged 91, was the antithesis of the Hollywood glamour girl – which made her...
- 5/1/2013
- by Michael Freedland
- The Guardian - Film News
Child star with a powerful singing voice who played the perfect girl next door in Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s
When a teenage Deanna Durbin appeared on screen in the 1930s, wearing a decorous white dress with her hands clasped together, singing with a bell-like purity, audiences sighed contentedly. And so did film and music executives. In the days when child stars were wholesome, Durbin was everyone's idea of the perfect girl next door, and she was a huge money-spinner. Audiences flocked to see her musical comedies and, after she had trilled numbers such as It's Raining Sunbeams (in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937), Home Sweet Home (in First Love, 1939) and Waltzing in the Clouds (in Spring Parade, 1940), her fans queued to buy the latest record bearing her name.
Durbin, who has died aged 91, was the antithesis of the Hollywood glamour girl – which made her...
When a teenage Deanna Durbin appeared on screen in the 1930s, wearing a decorous white dress with her hands clasped together, singing with a bell-like purity, audiences sighed contentedly. And so did film and music executives. In the days when child stars were wholesome, Durbin was everyone's idea of the perfect girl next door, and she was a huge money-spinner. Audiences flocked to see her musical comedies and, after she had trilled numbers such as It's Raining Sunbeams (in the film One Hundred Men and a Girl, 1937), Home Sweet Home (in First Love, 1939) and Waltzing in the Clouds (in Spring Parade, 1940), her fans queued to buy the latest record bearing her name.
Durbin, who has died aged 91, was the antithesis of the Hollywood glamour girl – which made her...
- 5/1/2013
- by Michael Freedland
- The Guardian - Film News
Deanna Durbin has died, aged 91.
The musical actress was one of the most popular and highest-paid young stars in the 1930s.
Her son Peter H. David told the Deanna Durbin Society newsletter that his mother had died several days ago, but did not give further details and thanked her fans for respecting her privacy.
By the end of the 1930s, Durbin had become one of the biggest box-office stars, appearing in several musical comedies and presented with a special Academy Award with Mickey Rooney, marking their "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth".
She was said to have saved Universal from bankruptcy during the period, while she was also Sir Winston Churchill's favourite star. The Prime Minister would have access to her films before anyone else in the UK, and would allegedly celebrate military victories by watching her 1937 film One Hundred Men and a Girl.
The musical actress was one of the most popular and highest-paid young stars in the 1930s.
Her son Peter H. David told the Deanna Durbin Society newsletter that his mother had died several days ago, but did not give further details and thanked her fans for respecting her privacy.
By the end of the 1930s, Durbin had become one of the biggest box-office stars, appearing in several musical comedies and presented with a special Academy Award with Mickey Rooney, marking their "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth".
She was said to have saved Universal from bankruptcy during the period, while she was also Sir Winston Churchill's favourite star. The Prime Minister would have access to her films before anyone else in the UK, and would allegedly celebrate military victories by watching her 1937 film One Hundred Men and a Girl.
- 5/1/2013
- Digital Spy
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