Trivia of Gene Raymond
Trivia of Gene Raymond (13 August 1908 - 3 May 1998)
*Performed on Broadway as Raymond Guion from 1921 to 1930. He returned briefly for another production in the 1957 flop, A Shadow of My Enemy.He credited as Gene Raymond when start his film debut in Personal Maid (1931) along Pat O'Brien.
*Raymond was a decorated bomber pilot of World War II. At the outbreak of war, Mr. Raymond joined the Army Air Forces as a pilot in the B-17 bomber group that inaugurated precision bombing. As a colonel in the Air Force Reserve in 1967 he again flew jets into South Vietnam on high-priority missions and won the Legion of Merit.
*Raymond was notorious in Hollywood for being outspoken against the studio system, saying that it was not "living up to expectations". The only actors that he had faith in were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, two people that he claimed "knew what they were doing". He was one of the first actors of the time to go freelance, although he admitted that it was mostly to spite the studios.
*He met actress Jeanette MacDonald at a Hollywood party. MacDonald agreed to a date, as long as it was at her family's dinner table.Despite the strong relationship, Raymond's mother did not like MacDonald, attempting to snub her a few times such as arranging her son with actress Janet Gaynor as a plus one at a charity ball. Gene Raymond and Jeanette MacDonald married in 1937 without Raymond's mother blessing.
*He wrote a number of songs, including the popular "Will You?" which he sang in Smartest Girl in Town (1936).His wife, Jeanette MacDonald, sang several of his more classical pieces in her concerts and recorded one entitled "Let Me Always Sing".
*His most notable films, mostly as a second lead actor, include Red Dust (1932) with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery, Hit The Deck (1955) with Jane Powell and Tony Martin.
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