[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]
Marie-Louise Caselotti was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on August 23, 1910, the daughter of voice teacher Guido Caselotti, with whom she studied after the family moved to Los Angeles. She became an Opera Singer and the older sister of Adrianna Caselotti who was famous for her role as the voice of Disney’s “Snow White" in 1937. Caselotti began her big-time debut in 1927 with the San Carlo Opera Company at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium. She began to take notice after singing the title role for the French Opera “Carmen” more than four hundred times and she also made another local appearance as the gypsy Azucena in “Il Trovatore”. In the 1930's she performed in Italian motion picture roles and In the United States she sang on the radio and even experimental television broadcasts for CBS. She dubbed the voices of several leading Hollywood actresses in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Later on, she married attorney Richard "Eddie" Bagarozy and lived in a Riverside Drive apartment in Manhattan. Bagarozy wanted to start his own opera company but ultimately found the enterprise beyond his abilities.
Eddie was able to arrange for Maria to perform in Italy, where she was a hit. Later, however, after Maria had become rich and famous, Eddie had to sue, in a prolonged headline-making court battle, to get what he felt was his rightfully earned commission as her manager. He had asked the Court for $300,000 and ultimately settled out of court.
In 1950, Louise and Eddie were residing in a home in New York City. That year, Eddie was described as an "automobile director" suggesting he may have left the talent business following the Maria Callas scandal.
Louise spent her later years teaching voice lessons. Eddie passed away in February 1967. Louise survived him by more than 30 years. She died on July 13, 1999, in Malibu, California, a little more than a month shy of her 89th birthday.
Luisa appeared in two Euro-westerns, which were actually U.S.A. made for release in Europe. “Il grande sentiero” (The Big Trail) as Rita Albert and “Monsieur Le Fox” (Men of the North) as Nedra. Both were made and released in 1930.
CASELOTTI, Luisa (Marie-Louise Caselotti)
[8/23/1910, Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S.A. – 7/13/1999, Malibu, California,
U.S.A. (cancer)] – opera singer, film, TV actress, sister of actress Adriana
Caselotti [1916-1997], married to attorney Edgard “Eddie” Richard Bagarozy
[1901-1967] (1938-1967).
Il grande sentiero (The Big Trail) –
1930 (Rita Albert)
Monsieur Le Fox
(Men of the North) – 1930 (Nedra)
The singer/actress did appear in the Italian language version of "The Big Trail" but its title was "Il grande sentiero", "Sei tu l'amore" was not a Western of any sort. It was a musical and is important because it was the first Italian "talkie" though made in U.S.A. "Monsieur Le Fox" was a sort of Western but Nedra was played by Rosita Ballesteros in the Spanish version of "Men Of the North" which had Barbara Leonard as Nedra.
ReplyDeleteLike "The Big Trail" this was also filmed in five languages with differing casts.
Thanks for the correction and added information. I've corrected the post.
ReplyDelete