Evening star., 1942-11-01
|Ex-6ridiron Star,
Who Collects Cars,
To Make 'het' Debut
Jimmy Melton Once
BIuffed Roxy
To Get Stoee Job


BIuffed Roxy
To Get Stage Job
BY TRUDI MCCULLOUGH,
Wide World.
NEW YORK, Oct. 3l.-In 1927 .
Shoots, handsome ex-football star
from Vanderbilt appeared In New
York to crack the big-time songster
business.
Black Irishman Jimmy Melton had
worked his way through college with
dance bands, he had conducted 4
hotel orchestra in Nashville, Tenn;
at the ripe old age of % he was
ready for bigger and better things.
It never occurred to him to start
at the bottom.
In an idle afternoon he went to
the stage show at the periods reign
ing cinema palace-the old Roxy.
They had" Jimmy recalls, every
thing but = tenor. figured they
could use 4 tenor" He adds with a
grin. ''They did"
They 6id"-after Jimmy Melton
had moved up at Roxy's three
times q day for two weeks and de-
manded an addition.
His Bluff Works.
At the end of the two weeks
Jimmy's money was running out and
he determined he no longer could
be kept from Roxy.
Roxy's once was on a meZZanine
overlooking the lobby and its con-
stantly milling crowd, and, when he
got the usual brush-of1 routine,
Jimmy waved a warning hand at
the crowd below and said, IF you
don't let me sing inside there, I'll
sing right here"
They still said no, go" says
Jimmy, Il started to let CO."
Roxy came running out Of his
office to demand what was going on,
and Jimmy got his addition that
day.
A week later he was intoning
"Charmaine" from the Roxy stage.
A month later he was well-known
over the air. Long before the year
was out, he was top singer for the
famous Revelers Quartet.
In the next 10 years, folding money
and fame were abundant. Jimmy
Melton was somebody.
But he wasn't the somebody he
wanted to be.
Ever since his college days when
he had reigiously studied voice,
French. italian, German and Span
ish. he had wanted one thing-to be
not a songster but a singer.
Dreamed Of Opera Career.
His ultimate dream was the Met
ropolitan Opera.
He had had to give up that dream
at % because his mother and sisters
were dependent on him. But by 1887
he was able to go back to it. He
would make little more financially
| in a year than he once made in a
week on radio, stage and screen.
But Jimmy had waited 10 years to
be able to take that cut.
He turned his living room into
an opera stage" He learned the
librettos Of La Traviata" and
Madame Butterfly" With his
friends he practiced every day.
When he felt he was ready. he got
an addition with the Cincinnati
Opera and was signed Immediately
In each year that followed James
Melton learned two new operas. He
once set record when. for addition
purposes, he learned Mozart's Magic
Flute" in five days.
From Cincinnati he went to the
Chicago Opera Co. In the past two
years he has given 80 operatic per-
formances. made 100 concerts. sung
on 125 radio broadcasts. made In
Vulnerable recordings and sung for
Army camps.
Met Debut in December.
Now. he has signed with the Met
ropolitan. and. after a fall engage
ment with the Chicago Opera, will
make his Metropolitan debut in
December.
When that night comes. the dia-
mond horseshoe audience will see
tall well-built man who looks more
like an athlete than an opera star
Costume will hide the appearance
and personality that Is seen in his
everyday life.
Then Jimmy Melton is a vigorous,
enthusiastic personality. He has a
flow of conversation that is as rapid
as it is continuing. 1t is punctuated
at quick intervals with a deep,
hearty, travelling salesmans laugh.
The dominant expression OF his
Irish face is friendliness, and there
are few signs of the Spanish blood
which he says is mixed with the
shamrock in him and sometimes
gets on top
Born in Georgia.
There Is no trace in his speaking
voice Of Georgia, where he was born;
of Florida where he grew up; or Of
Tennessee where he was educated.
But he likes to play Pygmalion in
detecting the accents of others.
Other things at which he likes
to play are speedboat racing, box
ing. hunting, being chef for mid
night meals at his 200-year-old
home in Westport, Conn.
His costume on the farm is suit
ed to the environment, but when he
puts on a double breasted blue suit
to 60 in town he wears in his
lapel q diamond and gold pin that is
miniature replica Of an ancient
auto.
It once belonged to Diamond
Jim" Brady. It is not An historical
interest in Diamond Jim but an