Who Is Mario Lanza?

When I was growing up during the holidays, my family and I would always play Christmas music in our house. Not only did my sister, brother and myself play Christmas carols on our instruments, we also had Christmas music playing on the radio, cassette tape and vinyl record players as well. One of our favorite holiday recordings was a record of Mario Lanza singing Hymns and Christmas Carols. From the gorgeous majestic sound of the Horn section introducing the opening song, Joy To The World, to the awe inspiring version of O Holy Night, it had become an annual family tradition.

Who is Mario Lanza? American singer, actor  Mario Lanza was one of the most famous operatic tenors of the 1940's and 1950's. He was born  Alfredo Arnold Cocozza to Italian immigrants and changed his name when he signed to the movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM for short) in 1947. He was discovered by  Louis B. Mayer when he heard Lanza perform at the Hollywood Bowl and was impressed by his singing. After signing with MGM, Lanza played the role of Pinkerton in Puccini's Madam Butterfly in New Orleans in 1948, In 1949, he appeared in his first movie,  That Midnight Kiss with Kathryn Grayson and Ethel Barrymore. In 1950, he appeared in another movie, The  Toast of New Orleans that featured his first million-selling hit Be My Love. Lanza also had the opportunity to play his singing idol Enrico Caruso the following year in the movie The Great Caruso.

His final millionth selling song, Because You're Mine, was actually a title song for his next film and it received an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Even though his singing career was a success, Mario Lanza suffered from addictions to both food and alcohol while filming his movies. These addictions had an adverse affect on his health, relationships with directors, producers and, occasionally, other cast members. He was known as an individual who was ambitious, rebellious and tough. However, we went on to in three more films before dying of a pulmonary embolism at age 38. By the time of his death he was known as the most famous tenor in the world.