page_title: Kathryn Grayson
section_title: 1950s
hierarchical_section_title: Kathryn Grayson / Film career / 1950s
caption_attribution_description: Cropped screenshot of Kathryn Grayson from the trailer for the film Show Boat.
context_page_description: Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick was an American actress and coloratura soprano.
  From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals. After several supporting roles, she was a lead performer in such films as Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and Show Boat and Kiss Me Kate, both with Howard Keel.
  When film musical production declined, she worked in theatre, appearing in Camelot. Later in the decade she performed in several operas, including La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld and La traviata.
context_section_description: In 1950, Grayson was once again partnered with Lanza, and portrayed an opera singer in The Toast of New Orleans, and performed the Academy-Award-nominated song "Be My Love". While shooting the Madama Butterfly scene in the film, Lanza kept attempting to french kiss Grayson, which Grayson claimed was made even worse by the fact that Lanza would constantly eat garlic before shooting. Grayson went to costume designer Helen Rose, who sewed pieces of brass into Grayson's gloves. Any time Lanza attempted to french kiss her after that, she hit him with the brass-filled glove.
  For the premiere of the film in New Orleans, she was a guest at an auction selling the film's costumes.
  Grayson replaced June Allyson in the role of Ina Massine in 1951's Grounds for Marriage. She portrayed an opera singer with laryngitis, alongside Van Johnson who played her doctor and love interest. This was also her first non-singing role at MGM. Grayson's musical performances do appear in the film, but in the form of recordings.
  Grayson was next cast as Magnolia Hawks in the 1951 remake of the 1927 Hammerstein and Kern musical, Show Boat, alongside Howard Keel and Judy Garland who dropped out of production, and the role went to Ava Gardner.  Show Boat was the third-highest-grossing film of 1951, earning over $5.533 million.
  Grayson teamed again with Keel in the 1952 Technicolor musical Lovely to Look At, a remake of the 1935 Astaire and Rogers film Roberta.
  She was released to the Warner Brothers studio in January 1953, with the stipulation that she return to MGM for one more film. She returned to co-star for a third time with Howard Keel in her most acclaimed role, as Lilli Vanessi/Katharina in Kiss Me Kate, released in November 1953. The film was lavishly produced (the only musical other than Those Redheads from Seattle (1953) to be filmed in 3-D), with songs by Cole Porter, choreography by Hermes Pan, and musical direction by André Previn.
caption: Grayson as Magnolia Hawkes.
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