31 Facts About Mario Lanza

1.

Mario Lanza was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s.

2.

Mario Lanza made three more films before dying of an apparent pulmonary embolism at the age of 38.

3.

Author Eleonora Kimmel concludes that Mario Lanza "blazed like a meteor whose light lasts a brief moment in time".

4.

Mario Lanza made his opera debut as Fenton in Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood on August 7,1942 after a period of study with conductors Boris Goldovsky and Leonard Bernstein.

5.

Mario Lanza's budding operatic career was interrupted in World War II when he was assigned to Special Services in the US Army Air Corps.

6.

Mario Lanza appeared in the wartime shows On the Beam and Winged Victory.

7.

Mario Lanza appeared in the film version of the latter.

8.

Mario Lanza resumed his singing career with a concert in Atlantic City, New Jersey with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in September 1945 under Peter Herman Adler, subsequently his mentor.

9.

Mario Lanza studied with Enrico Rosati for 15 months, and then embarked on an 86-concert tour of the United States, Canada and Mexico between July 1947 and May 1948 with bass George London and soprano Frances Yeend.

10.

Mario Lanza knows the accent that makes a lyric line reach its audience, and he knows why opera is music drama.

11.

At the time of his death, Mario Lanza was preparing to return to the operatic stage.

12.

The contract required him to commit to the studio for six months, and at first Mario Lanza believed he would be able to combine his film career with his operatic and concert one.

13.

In 1951, Mario Lanza portrayed Enrico Caruso in The Great Caruso, which was MGM's biggest success of the year.

14.

Mario Lanza's performance earned him compliments from the subject's son, Enrico Caruso Jr.

15.

Mario Lanza was born with one of the dozen or so great tenor voices of the century, with a natural voice placement, an unmistakable and very pleasing timbre, and a nearly infallible musical instinct.

16.

In 1952, Mario Lanza was dismissed by MGM after he had recorded the songs for The Student Prince.

17.

MGM refused to replace Bernhardt, and the film was made with English actor Edmund Purdom, who was dubbed to Mario Lanza's recorded singing voice.

18.

Depressed by his dismissal, and with his self-confidence severely undermined, Mario Lanza became a virtual recluse for more than a year, frequently seeking refuge in alcoholic binges.

19.

Mario Lanza returned to an active film career in 1955 in Serenade, released by Warner Bros.

20.

Mario Lanza moved to Rome, Italy in May 1957, where he worked on the film Seven Hills of Rome, and returned to performing live in November of that year, singing for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium.

21.

From January to April 1958, Mario Lanza gave a concert tour of the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany.

22.

Mario Lanza gave a total of 22 concerts on this tour, receiving mostly positive reviews for his singing.

23.

Mario Lanza received offers to sing in any opera of his choosing from the San Carlo in Naples.

24.

Mario Lanza was survived by his wife and four children.

25.

Betty Hicks Mario Lanza returned to Hollywood completely devastated; she died five months later of a drug overdose.

26.

Mario Lanza was the first RCA Victor Red Seal artist to win a gold disc and the first artist to sell two and a half million albums.

27.

Mario Lanza was a big inspiration to fellow RCA Victor recording star Elvis Presley.

28.

In October 2007, Charles Messina directed the musical Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Story, written by Richard Vetere and produced by Sonny Grosso and Phil Ramone, about Lanza's life.

29.

Mario Lanza Boulevard is a roadway in the Eastwick section of Lanza's native Philadelphia, close to Philadelphia International Airport and ending on the grounds of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.

30.

Mario Lanza has been awarded two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: a Star for Recording at 1751 Vine Street, and a Star at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard for Motion Pictures.

31.

At the height of his career, Mario Lanza was voted by exhibitors as being among the most popular stars in the country:.