And Radio Did It! John Brownlee, Opera Star

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 584, 9 February 1929, Page 18

And Radio Did It! John Brownlee, Opera Star

From Australia, Meets His Fate

YES you can tell the world that it was a Romance of Radio, and we don’t care who knows it.” This statement was made to

me by John Brownlie, the world-famous Australian baritone and idol of the Paris Opera, at the beginning of the third ceremony connected with liis marriage to Donna Clara di Feletto, in the American Cathedral, while his radiant bride looked on and nodded approval, writes the Paris correspondent of tlie Sydney "Sun.”

It seems that the two never met, and had been in no way interested in each other until one night, when Donna Clara sought shelter from a sudden storm, and while sheltering listened in to a concert being relayed. There was something in the cadence of one of the singers that haunted her for the rest of the night, and for many nights after, so that she had to make a point of getting to know the artist, and hearing something more of him

Mr. Brownlee confesses that from the first meeting with the girl who is now his wife, he was as much interested as she was, and before long they found themselves very much in love. They have received much chaffing from their friends about it and even more about their supposed determination to avoid a hitch in the “hitching” process by staging three separate ceremonies. This was really done to conform to French law, and at the same time honour the religious susceptibilities of the contracting parties. First of all, the law was honoured by a civil ceremony before the "Maire” of the district in which the bridegroom lives, and afterwards there was a ceremony in the Roman Catholic Church of St. Pierre de Chaillot, in honour of the bride’s faith, the final ceremony being in the American Cathedral Church in Paris to do honour to the bridegroom’s Protestant faith.

Captain Gordon Brownlee came all the way from Burma to act as best man for his brother, and a sister, Mis 3 Jessie Brownlee, attended on the bride, who was given away by Mr. Edmund Heissch. The guests included the Earl of Normanton, Sir John and Lady Norton Griffiths, Lady Doughty, and Sir Herbert and Lady Weigall. There is a touch of romance about the rise of Mr. Brownlee to popularity with the operatic public. It was only last February that he was given his chance in the Paris Opera House iu “Thais,” but he was such a success that the management, State controlled, insisted on booking him again for the maximum period allowed, 12 months, with the certainty that he can resign as often as he cares to do so. There has been keen competition for his services, from Berlin and Vienna, but Mr. Brownlee says that he prefers to remain faithful to the Paris public, who gave him his greatest chance. No theatrical idol of his sex has been so much the, rage for many years. Brownlee's picture postcards are sold by the hundred thousand and midinett.es and flappers can be seen queueing up around the Opera for a glimpse of the idol whenever he is listed to enter or leave.

In a brief interview, given after the third ceremony, the brido and bridegroom confirmed the story that theirs was a wireless romance. “I suppose I ought to feel that wireless and broadcasting are the world’s greatest blessing,” the bride said. “I am not going to that length, but 1 will say that I feel 1 owe the greatest happiness of my life to them, ancj that is something. I cannot tell you just what it was that stirred an echo in my soul when the voice came over the ether that night,but I realised that I was up against the biggest experience in my life, and some strange instinct urged me on until the meeting in the flesh took place, and from that meeting followed the sequel you have witnessed to-day. I am naturally the happiest of women, for I feel that I have met the man of my dreams, and we both expect to be very happy for the future.” The bridegroom was reluctant to talk at first, but afterwards be said that he had no objection to the world knowing that it was most probably a case of love at first sight between him and his wife. “At any rate,” he said. “X realised from our first meeting that there was something out of the common in the amount we had in common, and I could not help feeling that this woman I had met for the first time was going to play a big part in my future. It all shows that we are creatures of forces we do not understand at the time, and that there is some powerful agency at work shaping our destinies when least we suspect it. I have only one regret, and it is shared by my bride. It is that we could not take the next boat to Australia, so that we might spend our honeymoon there, but that is out of the question, owing to my contracts here. Some day we shall get there, but in the meantime I have to wish my countrymen everything they can wish themselves in the New Year that will have dawned before they get my message. From the heart of -Paris, and from the bottom of my heart, I call across the sea, Coo-ee!’ and then —-‘Coo-eel’ ”