Florence Foster Jenkins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Florence Foster Jenkins
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| Born |
Narcissa Florence Foster
July 19, 1868 |
| Died | November 26, 1944 (aged 76) New York City, U.S.
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| Occupation | Amateur singer, socialite |
| Years active | 1912–1944 |
| Spouse(s) | Frank Thornton Jenkins (1885–1906, separated 1886) |
| Partner(s) | St. Clair Bayfield (1909–1944; her death) |
Florence Foster Jenkins (born Narcissa Florence Foster; July 19, 1868 – November 26, 1944) was an American socialite (someone who is active in fashionable society) and amateur soprano (a high-pitched female singer). She became famous, and sometimes laughed at, for her fancy costumes and her singing, which wasn't very good. Some people even called her "the world's worst opera singer" because she seemed to ignore musical rules completely.
Even though she wasn't a great singer, she became a popular figure in New York City from the 1920s to the 1940s. Many famous people, like Cole Porter and Lily Pons, were her fans. Some even said that the famous singer Enrico Caruso liked and respected her.
One writer, William Meredith, said that watching Florence Jenkins perform was like watching an early Christian facing lions – it was more about the experience than the perfect music.
Contents
Early Life and Music Dreams
Narcissa Florence Foster was born on July 19, 1868, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her father, Charles Dorrance Foster, was a lawyer from a wealthy family.
Florence said she loved performing from a young age, starting at seven. She was a talented pianist and played at fancy parties. She even performed at the White House when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. She studied music at a school called Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies, where she spent a lot of money on music lessons and sheet music.
After finishing high school, Florence wanted to study music in Europe, but her father wouldn't let her or pay for it. When she was almost 15, she married Dr. Francis Thornton Jenkins. However, she ended their relationship the next year and kept his last name for the rest of her life.
After an arm injury stopped her from playing the piano, Florence taught piano lessons to support herself. Around 1900, she moved to New York City with her mother. In 1909, when she was in her early forties, Florence met a British actor named St. Clair Bayfield. They became partners and lived together for the rest of her life.
When her father passed away later that year, Florence received a large amount of money. She decided to restart her music career, this time as a singer, with Bayfield as her manager. She started taking voice lessons and joined many social clubs in New York City.
As the "chairman of music" for these clubs, she started putting on elaborate tableaux vivants. These were like living pictures where people dressed up in costumes to recreate famous paintings or scenes. Florence always played the main character in the final scene, wearing amazing costumes she designed herself. One famous photo shows her dressed as an angel with wings.
Florence's Singing Career
Florence Foster Jenkins started giving private singing performances in 1912 when she was 44. In 1917, she started her own social group called the Verdi Club and became its president. The club quickly grew to over 400 members, including famous singers like Enrico Caruso. When Florence's mother died in 1930, Florence had even more money to help her singing career grow.
According to people who heard her, Florence's piano skills didn't help her singing. She had a lot of trouble with basic singing skills like hitting the right notes (pitch), keeping a steady beat (rhythm), and holding notes. In her recordings, her piano player, Cosmé McMoon, often had to change his playing to match her changing speed and mistakes. She often sang flat, meaning her notes were lower than they should be. Her pronunciation of words, especially in foreign languages, was also not very good.
Florence often chose very difficult opera songs that were too hard for her voice. This only made her problems more obvious. One vocal teacher said, "It's amazing that she's even attempting to sing that music." The opera expert Ira Siff called her "the anti-Callas" (referring to a famous opera singer, Maria Callas). He said Florence was "exquisitely bad, so bad that it added up to quite a good evening of theater." He also mentioned that Cole Porter had to hit his cane on his foot to stop himself from laughing during her performances, but he still went to almost every one.
People often wondered if "Lady Florence," as she liked to be called, knew how bad her singing was, or if she truly believed she was talented. On one hand, she compared herself to famous sopranos and seemed unaware of the audience's laughter. Her loyal friends would try to cover up the laughter with cheers. They would describe her singing in vague ways, like saying it "suggests the untrammeled swoop of some great bird." Articles that praised her were likely written by her friends or even herself.
On the other hand, Florence only allowed certain people to attend her performances. She was clearly aware of people who didn't like her singing. She once said, "People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing." She even fired one of her piano players after seeing him give a "knowing smile" to the audience. She carefully controlled who got tickets to her private shows, which were held in her apartment, small clubs, and at the Verdi Club's annual "Ball of the Silver Skylarks" at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. She made sure to keep out strangers, especially music critics. Some people believe she knew her singing wasn't perfect but loved the audience's reaction and loved to sing.
Many people who knew her believed that Florence truly thought she was a good singer. Her piano player, Cosmé McMoon, said she thought she was having the same effect on audiences as Frank Sinatra, who made teenagers faint with his singing. An opera historian said she was "not a lunatic" and was a "very proper, complex individual."
Her performances included songs from famous operas by Mozart and Verdi, as well as songs she and McMoon wrote. Just like in her tableaux, she wore elaborate costumes she designed, often with wings, glitter, and flowers. For her favorite Spanish song, "Clavelitos," she would dress as Carmen, complete with castanets (small musical instruments) and a basket of flowers. She would click the castanets and throw flowers one by one. When she ran out, she would throw the basket and then the castanets! Her fans loved this and would often ask for an encore, making McMoon go into the audience to get the flowers, basket, and castanets back so she could sing it again.
One time, when the taxi she was in crashed, Florence let out a very high-pitched scream. When she got home, she went to her piano and believed she had finally hit the famous F above high C, a note she had never been able to reach before. She was so happy that she refused to press charges against anyone involved in the accident and even sent the taxi driver expensive cigars. However, McMoon said he never heard her actually sing that high F.
When she was 76, Florence finally agreed to perform at Carnegie Hall, a very famous concert venue, on October 25, 1944. Tickets sold out weeks before the show, and about 2,000 people couldn't get in because the 2,800-seat hall was full. Many celebrities attended, including Cole Porter and Lily Pons. McMoon remembered a moment when Florence sang a funny line from an opera and did a silly dance, which made the audience go wild. One famous actress even had to be carried out because she was laughing so hard.
Because tickets were sold to the general public for the first time, critics and people who wanted to make fun of her could finally attend. The next morning, newspapers were full of harsh and sarcastic reviews. This made Florence very sad, according to Bayfield. One critic wrote that she "can sing everything except notes." Another newspaper called it "one of the weirdest mass jokes New York has ever seen."
Five days after the concert, Florence had a heart attack while shopping at a music store. She passed away a month later, on November 26, 1944, at her home in Manhattan. She was buried next to her father in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Recordings and Films
The only professional sound recordings of Florence Jenkins are nine songs on five records, which she paid for herself. She sold them to her friends. These recordings include opera songs by Mozart and Johann Strauss II, and some songs written by her piano player, Cosmé McMoon. Many of these recordings were later released on LPs (larger records) and CDs.
Florence also paid for films of her performances at the Verdi Club's annual "Ball of the Silver Skylarks." These films were thought to be lost for a long time, but copies from 1934 to 1939 and 1941 were found in 2009. A historian plans to use parts of these films in a future documentary.
Images for kids
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Florence Foster Jenkins
See also
In Spanish: Florence Foster Jenkins para niños
