Saturday, December 08, 2007

Have I Told You Lately How Much I Love Mario Lanza?

Philadelphia-born and devastatingly handsome tenor Mario Lanza had a whirlwind ten-year career in Hollywood movies, radio, and the stage before his tragic death in Italy at age 38 of a pulmonary embolism--perhaps from complications from the "slimming cure" he was taking at a clinic. The "slimming cure" consisted of a patient being induced to sleep for days and days at a time, therefore not eating. Poor Mario--skyrocketing to fame as fast as he did is never an easy transition for anyone, and he abused food and booze to cope. He sang better when he was heavy, but Hollywood expected him to be thin, and that was a disastrous combination. Mario's amazing voice lives on in recordings which are immensely popular still. Bravo, Mario, may you be resting in peace.


2 comments:

anne altman said...

thanks for contributing this link to the incredible lanza mural, teri!

http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~davidtoc/murals/lanza.html

Just Dave said...

My father had an old recording of Mario Lanza singing "Ave Maria". It was beautiful. He died far too young as did his role model, Enrico Caruso.