BROOKLYN GIRL MAY THRILL WORLD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 20, 4 September 1946, Page 7

BROOKLYN GIRL MAY THRILL WORLD

“VOICE OF AN ANGEL”

BEGAN TO SING AT AGE OF FIVE YEARS

A new singing voice, described by those who have heard it as “the voice of an angel,” will shortly thrill the world audiences from the screen.

It is the coloratura soprano of 14-year-old Mary Jane Smith, whose discovery is very nearly the perfect Cinderella story. She came out of teeming Brooklyn, and is now bound for fame and fortune.

Mary Jane was born Alma Luise Piazza. She is the daughter of humble Italian parents, who early recognised their daughter’s wonderful gift. They slaved and sacrificed that she might be given the chance in life that they themselves had never had.

The studio changed the child’s name. Mary Jane said that, while she was used to the change, she was not sure that she liked it, especially the “Smith” part.

“But I don’t really care what they call me,” she said, “as long as they give me a chance to sing.” She loves to sing. It is her entire life. Though she is only 14, she has been singing for more than 12 years. Her mother, who looks young enough to be her daughter’s sister, revealed that Mary Jane tried to sing entire songs at 18 months. At the age of three she had developed her tiny voice so remarkable that she was singing all the popular hit songs of the day. Discovered Opera at Six Her parents encouraged Mary Jane to sing, but saw that she never overdid it. At six she discovered opera, and would sit in front of the radio entranced whenever opera was being broadcast.

Her school teacher quickly recognised the child’s ability, saw that she joined the school glee club and choral groups. Her greatest triumph came when she was given the lead in a school operetta.

She was finally placed under a voice coach when she was 12.. The lessons were a great strain on the family purse, for they cost five dollars an hour.

After a year, the voice coach decided that Mary Jane was in need or more expert tuition. She begged Maestro Giacomo Spadoni, New York Metropolitan Opera coach and chorus master, to give the child an audition.

Spadoni had listened only a few minutes when he rushed ■ to the telephone, asked Edward Johnson, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, to come at once. He arranged for a well known theatrical agent to hear the girl sing. This agent, a woman, made a recording of the child’s voice, and shipped it out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Hollywood. Seven-Year Contract Mary Jane was signed, sight unseen, to a,seven-year contract, with a starting salary of 150 dollars - a week, the greatest amount of money the family had ever been able to earn.

The studio induced Spadoni to come to Hollywood to continue her training, and pay her mother a weekly salary to act as Mary Jane’s guardian and supervise her diet and recreation. Under the law of California, Mary Jane must attend fulltime school until she graduates from High School. She takes dancing lessons, is learning French, and polishing up her Italian for her future operatic career, but her days are carefully planned so that she is not overworked. Her father a diamondsetter, is remaining in New York until he can find a job in his own line in Hollywood. Metro believes that the voice of Mary Jane, who looks more Irish than Italian with her blue eyes and curly brown hair, will thrill the world just as Deanna Durbin did when she was 14, though it is obvious that Mary Jane has the best voice the screen has ever known. Already she can reach B flat above High C.