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SPEAKER_03: ["The Way You Are"]
SPEAKER_02: Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Wamanica. This month we're talking about mischief makers, oddballs, chameleons, and nonconformists, queens of quick wit. Today our story takes us to New York City, October of 1944. It was the morning after a beloved New York opera singer's first ever sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. The reviews were starting to roll in. The New York Sun read, It was largely a recital without voice, for the tones Madame Jenkins produced were tiny to the point of disappearing. Earl Wilson of the New York Post wrote, She can sing anything but notes. Critics were in consensus. She was the worst singer they'd ever heard. Let's meet Florence Foster Jenkins. ["The Way You Are"] Florence was born on July 19th, 1868 to a wealthy family in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. As a child, her musical talents were treated as anything but a joke. She was considered a prodigy on the piano and even performed at the White House as a young girl. Her admirers affectionately called her Little Miss Foster, but her dreams of becoming a concert pianist were shattered as a teenager. Her father forbade her from pursuing a music career. Heartsick and indignant, Florence eloped with a man nearly twice her age, Dr. Frank Jenkins. The marriage was disastrous and ended after three years, though Florence kept Frank's surname after their separation. Frank also gave Florence syphilis, which stayed with Florence for the rest of her life. In the early 20th century, it was still an incurable condition. Florence was forced to take regular doses of mercury and arsenic to manage the disease. The treatment caused permanent hair loss, leaving Florence in wigs. When Florence's father died in 1909, he left behind a sizable inheritance. Florence and her mother used the money to move to New York City. Florence then wiggled her way into polite society by joining dozens of social clubs. She loved to serve as chairman of music, which allowed her to put on lavish musical productions. In 1917, Florence founded her own Verdi Club, which soon boasted more than 400 members. She was helped by the failed British actor, St. Clair Bayfield, who became Florence's longtime agent and alleged common-law husband. He helped organize her various concerts and social engagements in New York City. At some point, Florence had suffered an arm injury that made it almost impossible to play piano, but her love of music never wavered, so she thrust herself into singing lessons, determined to reveal herself as a true operatic talent. Florence certainly was a revelation. Even before she opened her mouth to sing, she commanded attention with her elaborate, star-spangled garments. ["The Little Mermaid"] She put on vocal recitals at the Ritz-Carlton that featured ornate sets and multiple costume changes. She was especially fond of showering her audience members with flowers as she belted out arias. But the true attraction was Florence's voice. It wasn't just that she was a bad singer. It was that she insisted on performing some of the most difficult operatic pieces ever composed, songs even the most well-trained sopranos would struggle with. When you listen to a recording of Florence's singing, you can't help but crack a smile. She squawks. Her voice quivers. Her high notes are ear-splitting. And her contemporary audience reacted the same way, though they concealed their amusement. Her composer and accompanist Cosme McMoon later explained, whenever she came to a particularly excruciating discord, where they had to laugh, they burst into these salvos of applause and whistles.
SPEAKER_02: And the noise was so great they could laugh at liberty. This coordinated effort to hide the reality of Florence's awful singing helped encourage her to grander heights. In 1941, Florence made a vanity record at a studio in Midtown. When she arrived in the booth, she did a test recording of Queen of the Night from the Magic Flute.
SPEAKER_02: To the operator's astonishment, she declared her performance perfect and refused to do another take. Unsurprisingly, her first record sold out, and Florence felt compelled to make a second. But Florence's most daring feat was the Carnegie Hall performance. Word had spread around the city of the oblivious opera singer, and her night in the Grand Hall sold out in mere hours. On the night of October 25, 1944, roughly 2,000 people packed into the venue. Among the crowd were stars like Cole Porter and actress Tallulah Bankhead. Through Florence's many arias, onlookers were huge grins and struggled to contain their cackles. Dancer and actress Marge Champion later confessed, "'We had sore muscles in our stomachs the next day "'as we laughed so hard and so long.'" When Florence flung her roses toward the front rows during the finale, the audience demanded an encore. But the next morning, devastation hit the newsstands. St. Clair Bayfield told a reporter that Florence was crushed upon reading the biting reviews. He sighed, "'She did not know, you see.'" Florence suffered a heart attack only a few days after the infamous performance. She died about a month later, on November 26, 1944. She was 76 years old. Today, Florence is fondly remembered as both a hilarious footnote in music history and a figure of inspiration. Experts have debated whether she was aware of her lack of talent or actually oblivious. But her confidence in her abilities and determination to follow her lifelong passion for music were impressive either way. In the final days of her life, after digesting the negative reviews, Florence declared, "'Some may say that I couldn't sing, "'but no one can say that I didn't sing.'" All month, we're talking about Mischief Makers. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram, at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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