Jeanette MacDonald

FLASHBACK

Vanity Fair, December 1933

When I'm calling you—oo-oo-oo—oo-oo-oo, you will answer that you nearly forgot about Jeanette MacDonald's spicy past before all that warbling with Nelson Eddy. Steichen caught her lying down in 1933, soon after she made a European concert tour to squelch rumors she had been murdered by the jealous wife of a prince. She purred as a sophisticated soprano sex kitten in numerous frisky Lubitsch and Mamoulian movies until a moral tide in Hollywood declawed her image. She wasn't so sexy in real life: Louis B. Mayer, who made millions from her, regularly tried to pounce, but Jeanette (1907-65) always politely rejected him. Even Maurice Chevalier struck out, labeling her a "prude." Nicknamed the "Iron Butterfly," she was a staunch Republican (Goldwater was at her funeral, Nixon and Reagan were honorary pallbearers). This year her fan club celebrates its fiftieth anniversary at its annual L.A. convention, June 20 through 27. Don't call us, we'll call you—oo-oo-oo—oo-oo-oo.