Before Bogie and Bacall, before Tracy and Hepburn, the silver screen's most celebrated couple was Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
The acting partners were Hollywood's sweethearts, rising to fame in MGM films in the 1930s.
They were the reigning singing/acting duo of their day — but like modern-day Hollywood couples, they weren't without controversy.
Long before the rumored romances of present-day Hollywood — think Brad and Angelina — the question of whether Jeanette and Nelson were lovers off-screen swirled around Tinseltown.
This Hollywood mystery is the foundation for a new show, "Yes, Yes, Jeanette," to be performed this weekend in Topsfield by the New England Light Opera.
Mark Morgan, artistic director of the troupe, created the show, which features movie scenes, dialogue, and of course, American operetta music.
"I knew a little bit about their movies, but had never actually seen one all the way through," Morgan said. But as he researched the couple, their long careers, and the "are they or aren't they dating" controversy, he became intrigued.
"It astounded me, I had no idea," he said.
After deciding to tell the couple's story, he pondered how to go about it.
"How do we tell the story, and what story do we want to tell, given that there are such radically different accounts of their personal lives?" he explained.
In the end, he decided to let the two stars speak for themselves.
"This show is based essentially on their public record ... and drawn from (MacDonald's) unpublished autobiography," he said.
And what about that unanswered question of whether "Mac and Eddy" were having a love affair?
"The happy part about it is people can read into the show what they will," Morgan said.
The show is based on MacDonald's 1957 interview with television newsman Edward R. Murrow on "Person to Person." It features an older MacDonald, played by Jean Danton, reflecting on her life and scenes from the Murrow piece. Sarah Ann Mitchell plays a younger MacDonald, and Eddy is played by Morgan himself.
Morgan said the show started out as "a way to celebrate and perform American operetta music. Initially, it was going to be a musical revue, including movie songs like "Indian Love Call" and "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life."
But even more than 60 years after the duo become a singing sensation on the big screen, the controversy around their relationship is still strong. Fan Web sites dedicated to the couple fall on both sides of the issue, some claiming that eyewitness accounts and candid photos prove the relationship, others claiming that neither star would have been unfaithful to their spouses.
Morgan believes the buzz that still surrounds the couple is due to the fact that they were big Hollywood stars at a critical point in the entertainment industry.
"At their peak, back in the late 1930s, they were the biggest team in Hollywood, bar none," Morgan explained. "And there was such a dramatic change over that period, it was right at the beginning of talking movies, and then going into color motion pictures."
The couple's popularity continued into later years, even as their movie careers waned. Eddy, for example, did "mammoth concert tours," said Morgan, selling out 3,500 seats a night.
"He was the highest paid singer in the world until Frank Sinatra came along in the late '40s," Morgan said.
And that popularity carries over into today, in the images that still part of popular culture. For example, the iconic picture of a Canadian Mountie came from the MacDonald/Eddy movie "Rose Marie."
"There are certain pieces of that time that became so embedded in our cultural awareness, even people who don't know anything about them, they can recall the image of Nelson in the Mountie costume."
Morgan said this is the first time NELO has done a show like this, where a biography is told mostly through song.
Danton, of Malden, immediately came to mind when he was casting the show. For the younger Jeanette, about 35 different sopranos tried out, and Mitchell, a graduate student at New England College, "had the right combination of voice and technical ability and spirit."
"Jeanette has this incredible energy and vitality that you can't help but get sucked in by," said Morgan, adding Mitchell has those same qualities.
While anyone younger than 50 may not consider MacDonald and Eddy household names, Morgan believes their talent still holds up today.
"They did eight movies together, and in my opinion, about four of them hold up now," in terms of staying power, he said. "There is something incredibly engaging about them on the screen. They definitely had a real chemistry. These are still very watchable, engaging movies."
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Staff writer Michelle Morrissey can be reached at 978-946-2496, or by e-mailing mmorrissey@salemnews.com
IF YOU GO
r What: "Yes, Yes, Jeanette!" a musical theater show presented by New England Light Opera
r When: Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.
r Where: Emerson Center, Congregational Church of Topsfield, 9 East Common St., Topsfield.
r How much: Tickets $28 adults, $25 seniors 65 and older, and $5 children and students. Call 978-887-2045 or visit newenglandlightopera.org.
