Marjorie Lawrence: The World at Her Feet

Marjorie Lawrence was born in 1907 and grew up in Winchelsea, country Victoria, Australia, dreaming of becoming an opera star. She went to Paris to study singing in 1928 and became the greatest Wagnerian Soprano in France, before being lured to the USA to perform at the Metropolitan, where she famously rode her horse Grane into Siegfried's pyre in a performance of Wagner's Gotterdammerung. She also performed Salome at the Met, delivering an enticing "Dance of the Seven veils" that shocked and delighted New York audiences, winning critical acclaim. At the height of her career, Marjorie was tragically cut down by polio at the age of 33. Remarkably she partially recovered from the illness and continued singing in a wheelchair. In 1955 M-G-M made a movie of her life, "Interrupted Melody" starring Glenn Ford and Eleanor Parker, which won an Academy Award.