MARION TALLEY

Marion Talley is probably a name you don't know, but she had a most unusual life! She was a great singer, and when she was 16, she gave a concert to raise money for her to study music in Italy, and she did, and in 1926, she was the prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and she was just 19, the youngest in history! She appeared there for four years, and then suddenly retired, and it is not clear whether it was purely voluntary. In 1936, after her marriage broke up, she made one movie, Follow Your Heart, for Republic Pictures, loosely based on her own life story, and she signed a contract to star in a movie for MGM, but that never came to be, so this was the only feature movie she ever made. She lived out of the public limelight, taking care of her daughter, and passed away in 1983 at the age of 76.