As we have the priviledge of the retired, my husband and I are free to indulge ourselves in amazingly silly ways. Last night, after we watched "Showboat" with Ava Gardner, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson, I wondered why they had not used Ava Gardner's voice in her two songs. I'd read it somewhere and it puzzled me. It turns out it IS her voice on the album, and my husband hunted up the two videos of her actual voice singing. She was better! Why they used the voice of Annette Warren is a huge mystery. Gardner, real name Lucy Johnson, had a lovely voice with lots of expression and feeling. She was from North Carolina, so she had the requisite southern accent as well. Very strange indeed.
It's bothered me that in the old days in film they dubbed singing. I believe that stopped after "West Side Story" and especially "My Fair Lady". People were outraged that they cast Audrey Hepburn instead of Julie Andrews, and they gave the Oscar to Andrews for "Mary Poppins" to prove their point.
On viewing "Showboat" before now, I've always assumed Gardner's acting and great beauty caused them to cast her despite not being able to sing. Not true. She was the complete package, and audiences of the time never were able to appreciate her talent. She's definitely the best thing in the film, and her story is the one with power. She makes everyone else's acting look hammy and false. And it was brave to take on a controversial role in those days. Lena Horne had been considered, but rejected, due to the racism of the era. Soon enough the tide would change and ethnic and accurate racial actors would finally win the roles they knew so well. And actors, singers or not, would voice their own songs.
Now that's what I call right speech.
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