Marion Bell; Singer Starred in ‘Brigadoon’

Marion Bell, the singing star who originated the role of Fiona in Broadway’s classic musical “Brigadoon” half a century ago, has died. She was 78.

Bell died Sunday in Culver City, where she had lived for many years, said Miles Kreuger, president of the Los Angeles-based Institute of the American Musical.

She was already an established voice on the concert stage and had appeared in a Hollywood film when she made her Broadway debut in “Brigadoon” in 1947. Her star turn as the heroine earned her five major honors--the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best leading lady in musical theater, the Donaldson Award for best debut performance by an actress in a musical, and the Ward Morehouse, Dorothy Kilgallen and George Jean Nathan awards.

The role also won her a recording contract and a new husband--the writer of the show, Alan Jay Lerner. The contract with RCA Victor Records lasted through four albums in addition to the cast recording for “Brigadoon.”

The marriage, the second for each, lasted two years.

“He was writing continually,” she complained tearfully of Lerner during her divorce hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge (later California Supreme Court Justice) Stanley Mosk in 1949. “He said that I interfered with his work and that he had no time for love. Later he told me he didn’t love me and finally left me. I pleaded with him to come back but he refused.”

Born in St. Louis, Bell began singing as a child and by age 8 was on radio with the Ted Straeter Orchestra.

After moving to Los Angeles with her family, Bell sang Noel Coward’s “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart” at 15. Impressed with her performance, MGM film director Robert Z. Leonard and his wife, Gertrude Olmstead, decided to sponsor her music education and guide her career.

Under contract to MGM, the teenager toured with the Marx Brothers in vaudeville, appearing in the stateroom sequence of “A Night at the Opera.”

She studied at the Lawlor Professional School, the Hammond Hall for Girls, in Rome with voice teacher Mario Marafioti, and in Los Angeles with voice coach Nina Koshetz.

In 1941, Bell sang with the San Francisco Opera in performances at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium.

After Leonard arranged a screen test for her, Bell sang a duet from “La Traviata” in the MGM film revue “Ziegfeld Follies,” released in 1946. During World War II, she sang for soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen and during tours to military camps.

In 1946, Bell performed the roles of Marguerite in “Faust” at the Opera Nacional in Mexico City and Natali in “The Merry Widow” and Hedi in “The Lost Waltz” at the St. Louis Municipal Opera.

Only then, in 1947, did she venture to New York for “Brigadoon.”

After a successful run, she played Jennie in the world premiere of Kurt Weill and Arnold Sundgaard’s folk opera “Down in the Valley” at Indiana University in Bloomington. She repeated the role Jan. 14, 1950, for the debut broadcast of NBC-TV’s Opera Theater, which was recorded by RCA Victor.

Returning to Los Angeles that spring, Bell confessed that despite her vast experience, she was nervous about appearing in “The Chocolate Soldier” for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Assn.

“First, it is my homecoming,” she told The Times in 1950. “Second, there is the tremendous obligation that rests on anyone who appears in a production so artistically designed as the Light Opera Assn.’s. I know hardly any organization that maintains so high a standard in this field, that is so thorough and careful in its advance preparations.”

Bell appeared in scores of concerts nationwide and in the 1950s starred in several musicals at Sacramento’s Music Circus. In her later years, she taught voice in Culver City.

In addition to Lerner, Bell married and divorced Jack Hollimon and Thomas Charlesworth.

She is survived by her son, Tom Charlesworth, and two sisters, Evelyn Lewis and Veronica McKinley.