page_title: Grace Moore
section_title: Film
hierarchical_section_title: Grace Moore / Career / Film
caption_attribution_description: Historical marker noting the birthplace of actress Grace Moore in Del Rio. The sign reads: Born in a house which stood just across the creek on Dec. 5, 1901, she was educated at Ward Belmont College, in Nashville, and after further musical study in Washington and New York, she became one of the outstanding operatic sopranos of her day. She was killed in an airplane accident near Copenhagen, Denmark, Jan. 26, 1947. This marker is approximately 4 miles south of the junction of US-70 and TN-107.[1] Image by Brian Stansberry.
context_page_description: Grace Moore was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in One Night of Love.
  In 1947, Moore died in a plane crash at the age of 48. She published an autobiography in 1944 titled You're Only Human Once. In 1953, a film about her life was released titled So This Is Love starring Kathryn Grayson.
context_section_description: Attracted to Hollywood in the early years of talking pictures, Moore had her first screen role as Jenny Lind in the 1930 film A Lady's Morals, produced for MGM by Irving Thalberg and directed by Sidney Franklin. Later that same year she starred with the Metropolitan Opera singer Lawrence Tibbett in New Moon, also produced by MGM, the first screen version of Sigmund Romberg's operetta The New Moon.
  After a hiatus of several years, Moore returned to Hollywood under contract to Columbia Pictures, for whom she made six films. In the 1934 film One Night of Love, her first film for Columbia, she portrayed a small-town girl who aspires to sing opera. For that role she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1935. She starred in 1936 as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Josef von Sternberg's production The King Steps Out.
  By this time, she was so popular that MGM was able to insist on equal billing for Moore in a projected film with Maurice Chevalier, who had always enjoyed solo star billing up until then. Chevalier felt so deeply about this blow to his status that he quit Hollywood and the film was never made.
  A memorable highlight of When You're in Love (1937) was a comic scene in which Moore donned flannel shirt and trousers and joined a 5-man band for a flamboyant rendition of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher", complete with gestures and "hi-de-ho's", but with the lyrics slightly altered to conform with Hollywood sensibilities. Also, she performed the popular Madama Butterfly duet "Vogliatemi bene" with American tenor Frank Forest in the 1937 film I'll Take Romance.
  The last film that Moore made was Louise (1939), an abridged version of Gustave Charpentier's opera of the same name, with spoken dialog in place of some of the original opera's music. The composer participated in the production, authorizing the cuts and changes to the libretto, coaching Moore, and advising director Abel Gance. This production also featured two renowned French singers: dramatic tenor Georges Thill and basse cantante André Pernet.
caption: Historical marker noting Moore's birthplace in Del Rio, Tennessee
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