Manuscripts Collection
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THE CENTER FOR POPULAR MUSIC, MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY,
MURFREESBORO, TN
DIANA GAYLEN, the “Phantom Nightingale” COLLECTION
14-029
Creator:
Diana Gaylen
Type of Material:
Physical Description:
638 digital
files (2.37 Gigabytes)
Dates:
1918-1967
(Bulk dates: 1931-1937)
Abstract (Descriptive Summary):
The
Diana Gaylen, the “Phantom Nightingale” Collection
consists of 638 digital scans of newspaper articles, contracts, photographs,
programs, playbills, and other ephemera collected by Diana Gaylen
during her singing career as a “ghost singer” for early talking picture stars and
operatic soprano.
Access:
The
collection is open for research.
Restrictions:
Property
rights reside with Middle Tennessee State University. Literary rights are
retained by the creators of the records and their heirs as stipulated by United
States copyright law. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please
contact the Center for Popular Music.
Provenance and Acquisition
Information:
The
digital files making up this collection were donated to the Center for Popular
Music by Jordan Diane Cox in November 2014. Ms. Cox is the great-granddaughter
of Diana Gaylen. The original materials from which
these digital files were created are in the possession of Mr. Gerald Cox.
Arrangement:
Original
order of the materials has been maintained in so far as possible. Digital files
are listed in the order in which they were received.
Subjects/Index Terms:
Gaylen, Diana, 1907-1992
Mitchell,
Raymond Earle, 1895-
Motion
picture actors and actresses
Opera
singers
Agency History/biographical
sketch:
Elsie
Lee Wilson was born on January 28, 1907 in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana.
She had decided on an operatic career at five years old and in the late 1920s,
she moved to Italy to study voice and learn French, Italian, Spanish, and
German. At some point during her early singing career she changed her name to
Diana Gaylen. Various other billings included Diana
Galen and Liana Galen. She performed
opera in Milan for three years, then she returned to America, where she found
that the “talkies had suddenly taken the country by storm.” In 1931 she applied
for a voice test at picture studios in Hollywood and she was selected to do
“hidden singing” for lead actresses that did not have the ability to sing. Miss
Gaylen was the “Phantom Voice of the Stars” including
Olivia de Havilland and Greta Garbo.
Miss Gaylen also supplied the singing voices for Walt Disney’s’
animated female characters in Silly
Symphonies. “They photograph me singing, and the artists then study the
pictures and draw in mouths on the cartoon characters like mine,” she said.
Because of her operatic experience, she was also able to “dub” in French,
German and Italian for foreign versions of the animations.
In 1936,
Diana Gaylen opened as the lead, Mitzi, in “Blossom
Time” with her own name on the billing. She eventually sang more than 30
operatic roles in America and Europe including the title roles of Madame Butterfly, La Boheme,
Hansel and Gretel, and Frederika. She married Ray Mitchell, who was a musician,
composer, and music critic in his own right, and together they had two
children, a son and a daughter. Diana Gaylen Mitchell
died on December 23, 1992 in Bothell, King County, Washington.
Scope and content:
This
collection consists of digital scans of newspaper articles, contracts,
photographs, programs, playbills, and other ephemera collected by Diana Gaylen during her singing career. She was known as the
“phantom nightingale” of the silver screen as she sang for leading actresses in
the early years of talking pictures. Newspaper articles explain the various
ways the “ghost voice” was accomplished using recording techniques of the early
1930s. Sometimes Miss Gaylen prepared actresses in
“voice expressions” then her voice was recorded on the vitaphone
and played back while the actress mimicked singing. Other times, Miss Gaylen’s voice was dubbed to the taped movie version. Miss Gaylen was the singing voice for Olivia de Havilland in
Anthony Adverse, Great Garbo in Romance, and other
popular stars of the time, Sally Eilers, Laura La Plante, Norma Talmadge, Sally
O’Neill, and Claire Windsor. This type of behind the scenes singing was also
called “shadow singing,” “ghost singing,” “ghosting,” “hidden singing,” and
“dubbing.” Diana Gaylen noted that she was paid well
for her work, but was never credited on screen. Newspaper articles, programs,
photographs, and playbills also outline Miss Gaylen’s
operatic singing career in her own billing after 1936.
A small
portion of the materials pertain to Diana’s husband, Raymond Earle Mitchell
(1895-1967). He was a musician and composer who wrote musical scores for 20th
Century and Columbia pictures. Some of his songs were “I Must Go Down to the
Sea,” “Phyllis,” “Sing No Sad Songs for Me” and “The Tabernacle of God is With
Me.” Mr. Mitchell was also a theatre director, operated a theatrical ticket
business, and a noted music critic for Los Angeles and Hollywood papers.
Location:
The
digital files are located on the Center for Popular Music server under
“CPM_DC>Digital Archives Collections>DianaGaylen14-029.”
Related Materials:
The
Center for Popular Music holds other materials related to 1930s motion picture
music, musicals, women singers, and early recording techniques such as original
sheet music, sound recordings, programs, posters, and playbills.
Preferred Citation:
From the Diana Gaylen, the “Phantom
Nightingale” Collection 14-029, Center for Popular Music, Middle Tennessee
State University
Finding
aid created by Lucinda Cockrell, Archivist, November 2014.
Copyright,
the Center for Popular Music, Middle Tennessee State University.