Talley, Marion

Description

Autograph ID: 2365
Condition: Very good, slight lower left corner bend
Description: “(1906-1983) American soprano. When Talley was 6 months old her family moved to Kansas City and at 8 she was singing in her church choir. She was asked to play the leading role in the Kansas City Grand Opera’s production of “Mignon” when she was 15. Kansas City leaders put together a 1922 fund-raising concert and raised $10,000 to pay for Talley’s studies in NYC. She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1926 at age 19, as Gilda in “Rigoletto”, and received critical acclaim. She sang over 50 performances with the Met (inc. the US premiere of Stravinsky’s “Le Rossignol”), and made recordings for Vitaphone. She retired after 4 seasons, went to Hollywood and made her only movie, “Follow Your Heart” (1936). She was contracted to make a film for MGM, but it never came to fruition. After 2 failed marriages, the discovery that she had a child that she had kept hidden and a very bitter and public custody battle over her daughter, she withdrew from almost all performing and spent the rest of her life concentrating on her family, retired at age of 30.

ISP, matte finish bust portrait signed in white ink with sentiment and August 10 1935 date, 10 x 8 Clarence Sinclair Bull credit on verso (likley publicity photo for upcoming film “Follow Your Heart”).”
Type: Photograph