The pavilion, built in 1921 by the Fairfax Fire Department, has served the community well for the past 85 years. It was built at an appropriate time, just after the fire at Maple Hall destroyed the town's major assembly hall.
The Fairfax Pavilion is a large historic building that hosts indoor soccer, basketball, dance classes and large community events.
Nelson Eddy sang here in 1934. (Fairfax,Sagar,William and Brian, p.81)
It appears that he performed at Dominican College right around the same time.
The Marin Music Chest – which turns 75 this year – invited many of the world’s greatest musical artists to present outdoor concerts at Forest Meadows on the campus of Dominican College well before it became a university.
The organization began in 1933, but had its first outdoor concert in September 1934. Subscribers could attend for 25 cents; nonsubscribers had to pay $3.
The debut artist was romantic baritone Nelson Eddy, who became internationally famous the next year when he played opposite Jeanette MacDonald in the musical film, “Naughty Marietta.” An Independent Journal story said the crowd was more than 4,000. Eddy made a second appearance in 1935 and was mobbed by autograph-seekers.
The concerts, a minimum of four a year, were held in the Forest Meadows area of the Dominican campus, to the right of the current home of the Marin Shakespeare Company. Concertgoers sat under the trees on 1,000 benches furnished by the chest.
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| Nelson Eddy |
Among his final opera performances were three with the San Francisco Opera in 1934, when he was still "unknown." Marjory M. Fisher of the San Francisco News wrote of his December 8, 1934 performance of Wolfram in Tannhäuser, "Nelson Eddy made a tremendously fine impression ... he left no doubt in the minds of discerning auditors that he belongs in that fine group of baritones which includes Lawrence Tibbett, Richard Bonelli, and John Charles Thomas and which represents America's outstanding contribution to the contemporary opera stage."
Eddy signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where he would make the first 14 of his 19 feature films.
Eddy made more than 290 recordings between 1935 and 1964, singing songs from his films, plus opera, folk songs, popular songs, Gilbert and Sullivan, and traditional arias from his concert repertoire.
On December 31, 1966, a few months before his death, Eddy and his nightclub partner, Gale Sherwood, sang 15 songs on Guy Lombardo's traditional New Year's Eve program, telecast from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. He and Jeanette McDonald were an item. Jeanette MacDonald’s older sister Blossom Rock played “grandmama” on the original TV series The Addams Family.
In March 1967, Eddy was singing "Dardanella" at the Sans Souci Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, when he was stricken on stage with a cerebral hemorrhage. His singing partner, Gale Sherwood, and his accompanist, Ted Paxson, were at his side. He died a few hours later in the early hours of March 6, 1967, at the age of 65. Eddy's meticulously annotated scores (some with his caricatures sketched in the margins) are now housed at Occidental College Music Library in Los Angeles. His personal papers and scrapbooks are at the University of Southern California Cinema/Television Library, also in Los Angeles. During his 40-year career, he earned three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one each for film, recording, and radio), left his footprints in the wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater, earned three Gold records, and was invited to sing at the third inauguration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Jerry performed here on
8/22/81 Jerry Garcia band
1.)^Fairfax,Sagar,William and Brian, p.81
2.)^Rich, Sharon, Nelson Eddy: The Opera Years, Bell Harbour Press, 2001.
3.)^Kiner, Larry, Nelson Eddy: A Bio-Discography, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey, 1992. A near-complete list of every recording and radio show of Eddy's, including song titles, photos and other important facts.
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