Friday, September 6, 2013

The star that never was: THEODORA LYNCH


Soprano Theodora Lynch was heard on the soundtrack for Walter Wanger's' Yvonne de Carlo starrer SONG OF SCHEHERAZADE (1947) and she sang "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans" in NEW ORLEANS (1947). There were a couple of minor acting parts as well including an appearance on the television western series ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOK (1951) but her background appears to have been more adventurous than any film role. An anonymous tidbit on the IMDb tells us that, 

"Lynch was taking voice lessons in Italy at the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Because she had also been reporting on the war for a New York newspaper, she was suspected of being a spy for the American government and was placed in a prison camp. In 1942, she was released and allowed to return to the United States."

Further investigation reveals that Theodora Lynch  actually was the highly sociable Louise Dudley Lynch, third wife of Boston scion William "Big Bill" Gaston, a man-about-town type previously married to stage and screen star Kay Francis and star-crossed socialite/actress Rosamund Pinchot. In 1939 she became the fifth and final wife of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, Sr.  As Teddy Getty Gaston, she describes her life with Getty in the newly published "Alone Together: My Life With J. Paul Getty" (written with Digby Diehl and published September 3, 2013). As of this writing, the nearly 100-year-old is still with us and she, or someone close to her, keeps in contact with the world via Facebook!

                                             

  

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