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A Tribute to Jeanette MacDonald

by

Claire H.

October, 2008

Jeanette Flies Without Wings

“And God took a handful of southerly wind,

blew his breath over it and created the horse.”

-Bedouin Legend

And God said, “I have given thee the power of

flight  without wings.”

-The Koran 

Jeanette MacDonald, the consummate artist and entertainer. The consummate professional.   Singer, dancer, comedienne, dramatic actress—she was all of them.  But did you know that she was also a very accomplished horsewoman?  Did you know that Jeanette and her husband, Gene, owned and rode horses?  You saw her riding through the Canadian Rockies in “Rose-Marie” and riding over the plains in “Girl of the Golden West.”  But maybe those movies don’t show enough of her riding to allow you to critique her skills on horseback.   Or perhaps you aren‘t familiar with horses and riding. 

I have had horses since I got my first one for my eleventh birthday in 1960.  I spent my childhood and youth on horseback and have ridden and shown horses  ever since that birthday long ago.  Jeanette MacDonald became my favorite star last October when I saw “San Francisco” for the first time in over 45 years.  So I invite you to take a look with me at one of her earliest flicks, “Love Me Tonight.”  At the movie’s end, you will see Jeanette’s character, the princess, chasing after her true love Maurice (Maurice Chevalier).  He is aboard a speeding locomotive.  Easy enough for Maurice, right?  But Jeanette?  Well, Jeanette is aboard a speeding, spirited horse—a horse that’s keeping right up with the speed of the train.  The horse’s tail is flying high and though his mane has apparently been clipped, you won’t miss it, because Jeanette’s long red-gold hair is flying like no horse’s mane ever did.  

I have watched this scene over and over in slow motion and frame by frame.  Her skill amazed me—she rode the way she did everything else in her life—with her whole heart and soul.  She is riding with what is known as a double bridle, which means that the horse has two bits in his mouth—a snaffle bit and a curb bit. The bridle also has two sets of reins.  Each bit has a separate function.  Therefore, each set of reins must be manipulated separately by the fingers of each hand.  I have ridden and shown horses with this type of bridle.  Without getting too technical, let me say that it takes training and skill to handle these reins so that they communicate correctly with your horse. 

Of course, in this movie, our Jeanette is chasing a train, not riding in a horse show.  A horse show ring is a much more controlled environment.  Thus, Jeanette’s skill is even more amazing.  She holds and manipulates the double reins correctly.  Her hands, as she holds the reins, are what are known in the horse world as ‘soft’ hands.  This means that she uses her hands gently—that she is asking the horse to do what she wants—not forcing him that she is communicating her wishes to the horse the way a good horseman should.  She does all of this correctly, softly, gently; and, she does it riding side-saddle and at a gallop fast enough to keep up with a speeding train.  Jeanette MacDonald was born to sing and we know that each time we hear her glorious voice rising to the heavens.  As I study her riding skills in “Love Me Tonight,“ I realize that Jeanette was also born to ride.  In these scenes she sits her horse and communicates with him as though she was born in the saddle.  She earns the highest compliment given to a horseman--she becomes one with her horse.  She rides him so well that it is as if she and the horse are one being.  Jeanette understood that this animal, which weighed at least 10 times what she did, did not have to do anything he didn’t want to do, but that he was willing to do it if she gently asked instead of commanding.  My brother, who is an ordained minister and who also spent his childhood and youth on horseback, once gave the invocation at a horse celebration.  In his prayer, he thanked the Creator that “the creature that you have given the power of ‘flight without wings’ has always been willing to take us along for the ride.”  Jeanette understood this and, though the scene is all too brief, I can see it in every frame.   She knew her horse was willing to take her along for the ride—to allow her to ‘fly without wings.’

Often, since rediscovering Jeanette MacDonald, I have wondered what it must have felt like to be so beautiful.  I have wondered what it felt like to sing with the pure, golden voice of an angel, to what emotional heights her soaring voice must have taken her.  I will never know.  But after watching her ‘fly without wings’ in “Love Me Tonight,” I know that Jeanette and I, though decades apart, share something. Thank you, Jeanette for that scene.  Thank you that I can watch it and know exactly how you felt at that moment with your long red-gold hair flying and the wind in your face.   I, too, have ‘flown without wings.’  I have felt the wind in my face as 1,000 pounds of surging, powerful horseflesh flew beneath me, his hooves barely touching the ground.   I know how it feels to ask an amazing, majestic, beautiful creature to take me along for the ride. The commentary on “Love Me Tonight” says, “Jeanette MacDonald did most of her own riding in this sequence, much to the horror of the studio.  She was a skilled horsewoman.”  The horror, of course, was due to the fear that the studio’s valuable star might be injured while doing a scene that less fearless actresses would have passed off to a stuntwoman.  But doesn’t that sound just like our Golden Star?  Thank you, Jeanette, for your fearlessness.  Thank you for sharing that with me.  Thanks for letting me know the tiniest bit of how it felt to be you.  Thanks for being you.  There was only one of you.  There will never be another.

Keep flying, Jeanette.  Now you have the wings….