Readers’ Comments

I thought Mr JC wouldn’t know “Drink Drink Drink” by Sigmund Romberg from The Student Prince, so that was my request. Instead of singing right away, he said, “Yes, but before I start, you know that Lanza didn’t act in the film. It was a guy pretending to sing, lip-syncing to Lanza’s voice. Lanza was too fat to play the student prince and they got an English actor to play the role. You know that?”

“Of course,” was my answer. “Edmund Purdom was the actor. All the songs were pre-recorded by Lanza and Purdom moved his lips to synchronise with the sound track. They always do that in musicals. Come on, man. You stalling for time. Let me hear you.” Without hesitation, he started, “Drink, drink drink to eyes that are bright as stars when they are shining on me. Drink, drink, drink to lips that are red and sweet as the fruit on the tree.”

As he sang, images flooded my mind of the student prince with drinking mug in hand, standing on the table belting out his love song to the serving maid in the crowded tavern. While CJ’s singing was not really in Lanza’s class, he gave a good rendition of the once popular light operatic song. I congratulated him and thanked him for complimenting me on the article “Enrico and Mario.”

Contrary to popular belief, Lanza was not too fat to fit into the costumes for The Student Prince. The truth according to his biographers Cesari and mannering, was his disagreement with director Curtis Bernhardt over Lanza’s singing of one of the songs in the film that led to Lanza walking off the set.

In 1959, Lanza at age 38, died in Rome from a pulmonary embolism after undergoing a controversial weight loss programme colloquially known as “the twilight sleep syndrome.” When the court in the States, denied his mentally ill wife, Betty, custody of their four children, she committed suicide. Mario Lanza has been credited with inspiring such opera singers as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and the rock star Elvis Aaron Presley.

The article Sing a Song brought favourable comments from many readers but one lady in particular chatted with me on the phone and later sent me her views by email. The following is an extract from her beautiful well written letter. “Mr Kissoon, I read your article and I was transported back to 1955-1956. You had me going to First Stage and Second Stage in school, back to present time, then back to the five year old in ‘ABC catch a crab’ and so on and on. Oh! What a joy! I was laughing and talking to myself and answering back, just brimming with happiness.

“I saw myself again [like I was a seer-woman today?] waiting outside the classroom, under the pitch-pine tree, for my big sister and hearing them sing all those hauntingly, sad, beautiful English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish songs. “Loch Lomond.” “Sweet Afton” “Danny Boy”, “Red River Valley”, “Oh, Genevieve” “Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names”, “Juanita”, “I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen,” “The Ash Grove” and so many others.

“The classic, my favourite, “The Ash Grove”. Of all those songs — and I do love each dearly — “The Ash Grove” was the one that touched my heart most deeply and still resonates in my mind and soul after 55 years.” I thanked Mrs HJ and advised her to start writing a novel.

When torrential rain caused severe flooding in South, a secretary emailed her boss in North, stating that she would not be able to get to work for a week. Immediately, the boss lady replied, “Your two-weeks vacation begins as from today.”