Adrienne Matzenauer | |
---|---|
Born | Adrienne Ferrari-Fontana January 20, 1914 Boston, Massachusetts |
Died | June 10, 2010 (age 96) Santa Monica, California |
Other names | Adrienne Fontana, Adrienne Myerberg, Adrienne Henoch |
Occupation(s) | Singer, television host |
Parent(s) | Margaret Matzenauer Edoardo Ferrari-Fontana |
Adrienne Matzenauer Ferrari-Fontana (January 20, 1914 – June 10, 2010) was an American singer and television host.
Adrienne Matzenauer Ferrari-Fontana was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Margaret Matzenauer and Edoardo Ferrari-Fontana.[1] She was known as "the first grand opera baby",[2] because her mother was prima donna contralto with the Metropolitan Opera, and her father, an Italian physician, was leading dramatic tenor with the Boston Opera Company.[3] Enrico Caruso was her godfather.[4] Her parents divorced in 1917.[5] She was raised in her mother's household,[6] and toured with her mother in 1923.[7]
As a young woman, Matzenauer appeared in two Broadway productions, Life Begins at 8:40 (1934)[8][9] and Symphony (1935). In 1936, she was cast in the George Cukor film Camille, but she collapsed on the set and was replaced by Jean Acker.[10] She sang on radio broadcasts,[11] and was a nightclub singer at the Place Piquale in New York, the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center, and at the Balinese Room in Boston, in the 1930s and 1940s.[12][13][14] She was back on Broadway in 1948, in If the Shoe Fits. In 1948 she hosted a variety television program, Champagne and Orchids, on the DuMont Network.[15][16]
In her later life, as Adrienne Henoch, she lived in Southern California,[17] and cared for her mother in her last years.[18] In the early 1970s, she sang on a cruise ship.[19]
Matzenauer married theatrical producer and director Michael Myerberg; they had two sons, Edward Antonio (known as Tony) and Paul,[20][21] and divorced in 1958. Her second husband was Robert J. Henoch; they married in 1961 and divorced in 1976. She died in 2010, at the age of 96, in her Santa Monica, California home.[15][22]