Vivienne Segal
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
Segal was, for a time, a strong contender for the title role in Ernst Lubitsch's musical remake of "The Merry Widow" (1934). It was a part that might have revitalized her film career, but upon Lubitsch's insistence Jeanette MacDonald eventually played the role opposite Maurice Chevalier.
Biography
Trained operatic singer who enjoyed success on Broadway in such famed shows as "No, No, Nanette" (1925) and "The Desert Song" (1926) and, several years later, joined the hordes who were summoned to Hollywood with the coming of sound. Musicals were all the craze for a time, and in 1930 Segal played the female lead in four of them, beginning with "Song of the West". The best known of the quartet is undoubtedly the racist yet hilariously bad camp cult classic "Golden Dawn", with Segal in the title role of a young African who discovers that she is white! When audiences reacted against the glut of musicals, Segal's film career short-circuited. She did, however, play a vamp three years later in support of the one stage operetta star who did catch on, Jeanette MacDonald, in the charming "The Cat and the Fiddle" (1933). The Broadway stage, especially the works of Rodgers and Hart, offered Segal better chances in the successful "I Married an Angel" (1938) and "Pal Joey" (1940).
Life Events
Family
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Notes
Segal was, for a time, a strong contender for the title role in Ernst Lubitsch's musical remake of "The Merry Widow" (1934). It was a part that might have revitalized her film career, but upon Lubitsch's insistence Jeanette MacDonald eventually played the role opposite Maurice Chevalier.
