There was only one!

I've been under the weather for a few days following what is now called 'Oral Surgery'. We used to call it 'having a tooth pulled', and that is still what it is basically. Since mine was a more than usually difficult tooth to pull, I've been taking it easy for several days.

This afternoon, to help pass the time (when I should have been teaching at Smith!), I watched some old Turner Classic Movies. And the winner was Deep in my Heart, a very sentimental telling of the career of Sigmund Romberg. It literally had a cast of thousands, Ann Miller, Tony Martin, Cyd Charise, Jane Powell, and on and on. But the real star for me was that incredible woman: Helen Traubel.

It's not that I had forgotten how wonderfully she always sang, but hearing her sing these Romberg songs brought me back many years when I first heard her sing on the Community Concerts Series in Battle Creek, Michigan at the W.K. Kellogg Auditorium. The lid of the piano was all the way up when this strawberry blond, sizable woman strode on stage and stole my heart forever.

The glory and majesty of her voice has seldom been heard since. Singers just don't sing like that anymore. She was a mid-western native and she sang with a mid-western directness that was awe inspiring. And that glorious sound. High, low, loud, soft, always steady. To me that is the way sopranos should sing. Unfortunately, few of them do that anymore. She never quite got her due at the Met because Kirsten Flagstad was still singing most of the Wagner. But her every appearance was remarkable. She was offered a Met contract in 1923, but didn't sign until 1936. She made up her own mind when to do things.

Today, glamour and designer dresses have often replaced good honest singing. It is a great loss.

I have a CD of her singing Wagner that ends with 'Take me out to the ballgame!' She was a fan. She had a fight with Rudolph Bing (I think it was) when she appeared on Jimmy Durante's TV show and he fired her. Big mistake. She did a couple of Broadway shows and several movies.
She also sang in night clubs. A woman of great variety.

But there was always that voice! Rich, warm, true, and expressive. Every singer of the present generation should listen to some of her recordings. They would get an education. They might even begin to sing better!