Charles Rudolf Friml is best known for his operettas and musical comedies. Rose-Marie is his most famous work. It was made into no less than three Hollywood films, starring luminaries such as Joan Crawford, Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald, Bert Lahr, and Howard Keel. Friml’s work forms a bridge between the European operetta tradition of Franz Lehar and the American musicals of Jerome KERN and Oscar HAMMERSTEIN.
Born in Prague, on December 7, 1879, Friml had his first piano composition published when he was only ten years old. He entered the Prague Conservatory at the age of 15, and was placed immediately in the third year. There he studied both piano and composition, for which Antonin Dvorák was one of his teachers. In 1901, the violinist Jan Kubelik needed an immediate replacement for his regular accompanist, who was sick. Friml took the position, and Kubelik was so pleased with his performance that he took him to America when he toured the U.S. Friml returned to the U.S. in 1904 as a concert pianist, performing his own piano concerto with an orchestra at Carnegie Hall, as well as solo pieces. He was noted for his improvisations at the keyboard—he would improvise the concert’s finale on a theme supplied by members of the audience. In 1906, he settled in New York.
A few years later, Arthur Hammerstein recruited Friml as an emergency replacement for the operetta composer Victor Herbert, who was to have written the music for Otto Harbach’s libretto The Firefly. Herbert had quarrelled with the female lead, Emma Trentini, over the provision of an encore for her, and had left the production in a huff.
Though The Firefly (1912) was Friml’s first experiment as a composer for popular audiences, it enjoyed enormous success, and ten more operettas followed at the rate of one per year (three in 1918) until the New York opening of Rose-Marie in 1923. By 1927, Paris and London had seen their own stage versions of this operetta, which was set in the Canadian west. The first MGM film of the operetta was released in 1928 (with remakes in 1936 and 1954). The most famous song from this work is the “Indian Love Call,” which became a popular recital piece. Fritz KREISLER transcribed it for violin and piano.
The Vagabond King, a highly fictionalised treatment of the life of the poet François Villon, with a libretto by W. H. Post and Brian Hooker, was Friml’s next success. Jeanette MacDonald starred in the first film version in 1930, and it was re-made in 1956. Jeanette MacDonald also starred in the 1937 film of The Firefly, to which the song “Donkey Serenade” was added. Allan Jones’ solo recording of that song sold over a million copies—which was a tremendous number for that time.
Almost as popular as Rose-Marie was The Three Musketeers, produced by Ziegfeld in 1928, with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse and Clifford Grey. Six more musical comedies, and the scores for two film musicals followed, but none enjoyed the popularity of Friml’s earlier works. The musical theatre was changing rapidly, and audiences wanted more realistic works with characters whose lives were closer to their own. After 1934, Friml moved to a spectacular home in Hollywood. Here he devoted himself to adapting his music for films, although he continued to perform as both a pianist and a conductor until his death in 1972. Friml’s operettas are occasionally revived today, and his films are still shown for their nostalgic appeal.
Jane Prendergast
SEE ALSO:
FILM MUSIC; FILM MUSICALS; MUSICALS; OPERETTA.
Ewen, David. American Songwriters
(New York: H. W. Wilson, 1987);
Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983).
The Great Rudolf Friml;
A Night with Rudolf Friml;
Rudolf Friml Plays His Own Unforgettable Melodies.