FILM OF MELBA

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20917, 23 September 1939, Page 15 (Supplement)

FILM OF MELBA

PROPOSAL IN AUSTRALIA MARJORIE LAWRENCE IN LEAD It is said that Marjorie Lawrence, Australia’s youngest figure in world opera, has nearly completed negotiations to star in a Cinesound Him, “ The Life of Melba.” The signing of Miss Lawrence for a Melba lilm would please everyone. When she arrived home in Australia in June she told newspapermen that she had rejected all American Him offers because she was unwilling to follow Hollywood slimming diet. “if 1 slimmed us much as they would like, maybe my voice would ■slim, loo,” she explained. Possibly Cinesound is prepared to waive that requirement. -Melba herself was not cut on Hollywood lines, and Miss Lawrence even now certainly is not fat. in every way she should make an ideal Melba. Cinesound could hardly find a more suitable voice, as -Miss Lawrence’s singing is strongly in Ihc Melba tradition and she has a vitality which should “ register ” well on the screen. it seems singularly appropriate that the first film life of Australia’s greatest singer of all time should he made at last by an Australian company with an Australian in the star role. Marjorie Lawrence was born at Winchelsea, a little village about 70 miles from Melba's own birthplace. At Geelong, half-an-hour's run from Winchelsea, was born the third great Australian operatic singer, John Brownlee.