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The Dress Circle: Hollywood's Dubbers Part 3

From top: Marilyn Horne lends her voice to Reiko Sato and Dorothy Dandridge, Betty Wand sings for Leslie Caron, and B.J. Baker performed songs for Nancy Kwan. Reuben Fuentes sang for Carlos Rivas and Leona Gordon sang for Rita Moreno, and Franco Nero's singing voice was supplied by Gene Merlino.
From top: Marilyn Horne lends her voice to Reiko Sato and Dorothy Dandridge, Betty Wand sings for Leslie Caron, and B.J. Baker performed songs for Nancy Kwan. Reuben Fuentes sang for Carlos Rivas and Leona Gordon sang for Rita Moreno, and Franco Nero's singing voice was supplied by Gene Merlino.

The Dress Circle is airing one hour later this week at 8:00 p.m. because of the length of the Sunday Opera!

We’re ending our look at some of Hollywood’s “dubbers” on this week’s Dress Circle (8/28 8:00 p.m.) in order to salute some of the “unsung” people of the film industry.

We’re hoping that we’ve got a few surprises for you in this program. For instance, Metropolitan Opera star Marilyn Horne is lending her voice to two very different roles this week. You’ll hear her as the singing voice for Dorothy Dandridge in “Carmen Jones” and for Reiko Sato in “Flower Drum Song” where she got to sing a truly lovely song, “Love, Look Away.” Also from “Flower Drum Song,” B.J. Baker offers her background support for the on-screen performance of Nancy Kwan.

We heard from “The King and I” last week after featuring Marni Nixon singing for Deborah Kerr. This week, you’ll hear the singing voices of Leona Gordon and Reuben Fuentes singing for Rita Moreno as Tuptim and Carlos Rivas as Lun Tha.

We’ll hear from Betty Wand again, this time in “Gigi,” singing for Leslie Caron, and Carol Richards will be back singing for Cyd Charisse, but the musical is Lerner and Loewe’s “Brigadoon” and “Waitin’ for My Dearie,” the only song given to Charisse.

Lerner and Loewe are also represented in the soundtrack for “Camelot” where Gene Merlino’s voice gave Franco Nero the vocal performance he needed to make Lancelot a true matinee idol.

Are there others this week? Yes, but you’ll just have to tune in at 8:00 p.m. after the opera to see who they are! Join us in the celebration of some performers who, if the studios had their way, audience would never know about.

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Ted Otten is co-host of The Dress Circle
Michael is program host and host of the WWFM Sunday Opera, Sundays at 3 pm, and co-host of The Dress Circle, Sundays at 7 pm.
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