MISS GRACE MOORE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 192, 27 May 1938, Page 6

MISS GRACE MOORE

FAVOURITE OF ROYALTY. STARRED IN “I’LL TAKE ' - ROMANCE.” Presented to six Kings and four Presidents, honoured by 12 command performances and decorated by four nations, Grace Moore takes her place as the most honoured singer of Royalty and rulers in the world to-day. The Columbia singing star, who pioneered the way for opera in motion pictures with “One Night of Lore, and in her most ambitious production, “I’ll Take Romance,” is literally the pet of Royalty. Three Ivinas of England—the late George V. and Edward VIII. and George Vl.—during their respective reigns have honoured this American thrush of opera, concert, radio, and screen. “One Night of Love” was the favourite motion picture of George V. The Queen Mother saw this picture four times. Miss Moore was presented to them formally when she sang “Manon” at Covent Garden, and appeared later at a command performance. King Edward VIII. received and entertained her during his brief reign, and she was presented later to King George VI. and his Queen. To make it virtually a “clean sweep” of the English Royal Family, Miss Moore was the guest of honour at a private dinner given by the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

Command Performances. King Gustav of Sweden presented her with the King’s or Court Medal after appearance in Stockholm a subsequent command performance. The King’s Medal, by law, is “assigned to attendance upon the Court,” and is the highest personal distinction in the power of the Swedish monarch to bestow. Only one other singer in the world lias ever received this honour. She is Christina Neilson, the Swedish star. King Christian of Denmark, after Miss Moore’s sensational triumphs at the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen last year, bestowed upon her the order of his Majesty, signified by the Royal Medal of Recompense, and decreed a command performance. Norway’s monarch, King Haakon, presented the American singer with a diamond pin bearing the Royal crown in diamonds, which is the form of highest honour in that country for accomplishments in the arts. America’s own distinguished recognition of the star is the Fellowship Medal of the American Society of Arts and Sciences. It was presented following the releases of her sensational “One Night of Love,” and w T as “for conspicuous achievement in raising the standard of cinema art.” At the St. James, To-morrow. “I’ll Take Romance,” in which Grace Moore makes her long-awaited return to the screen, this time opposite the handsome Melvyn Douglas, will open at the St. James Theatre at the matinee to-morrow, and lie shown at the evening session and again on Monday and Tuesday nights.

As in her previous singing roles in “One Night of Love,” “The King Steps Out” and “When You’re in Love,” Miss Moore is party to a romantic-comic set-up, embellishing her role with renditions of several memorable operatic arias, the hill-billy ditty, “She’ll Be Coinin’ Round the Mountain,” and a love ballad bearing the film’s title written especially for Miss Moore by Ben Oakland and Oscar Hammerstem IT. The original story by Stephen Morehouse Avery, was adapted to the screen by George Oppenheimer and Jane Murfin and was directed by Edward H Griffith, whose best known films aie “Cafe Metropole,” “Animal Kingdom ’ and “Holiday.” In the large supporting oast are Stuart Erwin, Helen Westley, Richard Carle, Margaret Hamilton and Frank Forest, the sensational radio tenor who recently appeared opposite Gladys Swarthout in “Champagne Waltz.”

Miss Moore, a temperamental opera star, refuses to comply with a contract calling for her services at the Buenos Aires Opera House. Douglas, representing the opera company is commissioned to persuade Miss Moore to honour the deal—by fair means or foul. Since everything is fair in love—Douglas falls in love with the singing star, makes her fall in love with him, kidnaps her on the eve of her departure for Europe and winds up in an exciting last-minute shuffle to straighten out all the intrigue and duplicity to which he had resorted.