Deanna Durbin is at last on DVD........

I dont know how many fans there are here of Deanna Durbin but as we've waited so long for her films to be transferred to DVD I would notify those interested.

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One of the greatest women in the world is Canadian. Deanna (Edna Mae) Durbin helped people forget about their problems during the great depression and with her outstanding voice they were whisked into a world of happiness. This is the story of her life.
Contrary to the stories of Hollywood, which stated that Deanna Durbin was born in a log cabin, Deanna Durbin was born at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba on December 4, 1921 to Ada and James Durbin of Lanchashire, England. She was christened Edna Mae, her older sister was Edith. Not much time was spent in Winnipeg though, as her father's poor health resulted in a family move to California.

At a very early age, Edna Mae Durbin was blessed with a strong and surprisingly mature set of vocal chords, but there were no obvious signs that one day she would be a bigger box office attraction than Shirley Temple. Edna Mae was 'discovered' by Jack Sherrill, a Hollywood talent agent while singing at a school recital. After studying with coach Andres de Segurola, Deanna set her sights on an operatic career, but was sidetracked into films by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) Studios. When Deanna was first brought to MGM, the studio signed Edna Mae, planning a movie based on the life of opera singer Eva Schumann-Heink. They thought Deanna could play her as a child. The film was abandoned, though. Her first film for MGM, a 1936 short was called, "Every Sunday". It was designed to audition both Deanna and her equally youthful co-star Frances Gumm (renamed Judy Garland). The two were extremely similar and MGM executives felt that two singers on the payroll would be too many. So they decided to keep Deanna and let go of Judy, but by a front-office fluke, the opposite happened and Deanna found herself on the outside looking in after only 6 months. It was said that L.B. Mayer told his executives to "drop the fat one", but accidental billing of Every Sunday interacted. Nothing big was available, but her present agent hooked her up with Eddid Cantor's Radio Hour. Deanna Durbin auditioned for Walt Disney in 1937, to see if she could be the voice of Snow White for his film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After hearing her, Disney decided that she sounded too mature and thus picked soprano Adriana Caselotti over her. MGM's loss was Universal Studios' gain. Universal, though financially troubled, decided to take a gamble on Deanna's potential. They wanted Judy for a film called Three Smart Girls, but realizing that she was already on loan to another studio, they made Deanna play second fiddle. She signed her contract on June 13, 1936. The July 1, 1936 issue of the Hollywood Reporter stated that Universal had changed Edna Mae's nam e to "Dianna". She was renamed Deanna Durbin for performing purposes.

Deanna was put to work in a series of expensive, carefully crafted, tailor-made musicals, beginning in 1936 with "Three Smart Girls", under the guiding influence of Universal executive, Joseph Pasternak. This and following films shrewdly exploited Deanna's sweet and bubbly personality with her remarkable operatic voice. At the same time it posed her as a "regular kid". The technique worked, and Deanna single-handedly saved Universal from bankruptcy and oblivion. Strong ticket sales of the singer's first feature, gained her the studio nickname, "the mortgage lifter." Deanna charm was projected more through her "real life" personality. Unlike other child stars, she was happy, confident and very shy.

She was an internationally popular star in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Even though Deanna transended well into adulthood, the public was never willing to let her, like Shirley Temple. Deanna's early films were chosen by Universal director Joseph Pasternak. He got her more money for her films (a raise from $1,500 a week to $3,000 a week, plus a $10,000 bonus per film after One Hundred Men and a Girl was made, and again in 1940, when she got $400,000 per film). However, after she married and was already established as an adult star, he left Universal and went to MGM. The lack of guidance began to show and that is when she was suspended for refusing They Lived Alone (which was also called Boy Meets Baby). By fourteen, she was the highest-paid woman in the United States and female film star in the World. She was earning three times the salary of President Franklin Roosevelt. At 18, her income was $250,000 a year. Deanna's films were made in black and white (except Can't Help Singing) because her salary wa s so much, that when it was put against the budget, they couldn't afford to shoot in color (she was the highest paid female star in 1945 and 1947). In 1938, Deanna received a special Academy Award with some other young child stars, who were not in the running for an Oscar, "for bringing to the screen the spirit of personification of youth". Deanna was supposedly considered by producer Mervyn Le Roy for the role of Dorothy in 1939's The Wizard of Oz. It was said that he decided against her, since she looked even more mature than Judy Garland (their second choice). Their original first pick for Dorothy was Shirley Temple, but her mother and studio decided that it was a script not worthing even touching.

The world was in love with this starlet. There were Deanna Durbin dolls along with many other types of merchandising. An engineering firm named its dream home in her honour. Her first screen kiss, from Robert Stack in First Love, bumped the European crisis off the front pages across the continent in 1939. On the filming of The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (whose working title was Forever Yours), the director Jean Renoir was fired because Deanna was "unable to give up the style that had made her famous". The Hays Office (an organization which censored movies) objected to the March 1939 issue of Screen Guide, which featured an article called "Deanna Durbin is a Woman". In it, it featured a picture of Deanna's face superimposed on the body of a woman wearing a sexy gown.

When box office receipts began to stumble, Universal attempted to alter Deanna's screen image with heavy dramas. But these films failed to make the same amount of money as her musicals. Deanna desired to be a dramatic actress, and to appease her Universal cast her a nightclub singer in Christmas Holiday (with Gene Kelly). The public didn't like her in that part, and that is when she lost interest in making films, though the movie was a success. Her greatest "adult" role, a murder mystery called Lady on a Train (1945), allowed her to dress more glamorously than previous appearances. However time took its toll and it seemed Deanna herself was tired of the job that had discovered her. She retired after making her last movie "For the Love of Mary" in 1948. While waiting for releasing of "For the Love of Mary", Universal announced that due to "increasing public apathy" they were paying her the salary due to her for three more films and then letting her go. Jospeh Pasternak wanted to sign her to MGM then, but she decided to retire.

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I sincerely hope that those of you who like DD enjoy the aforesaid information.

Cheers,

Bondian

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