After 1937 Val Rosing was known as Gilbert Russell
When
English crooner Val Rosing was brought to the US by
Louis B. Mayer in 1937, Mayer changed Rosing's name to Gilbert Russell. At
MGM, Russell worked as a contract player in films such
as "Young Doctor Kildare" and "Bridal Suite." His singing
was featured in a monthly variety radio show produced at MGM called Good
News, appearing along side Fanny Brice, Robert Armstrong, Connie
Boswell, and a man who was to become a life-long friend, bandleader Meridith
Wilson.
Russell left MGM in the early 1940s. Instead of resuming his career as a pop singer. He spent a couple years on the Vaudeville and nightclub circuit, but soon he turned his attention to opera, teaching himself technique, retraining his tenor for the rigors of classical singing and learning the requisite repertoire.
We don't know exactly why Russell turned away from jazz and pop. Undoubtedly, he was influenced and indrectly encouraged to pursue opera by his father, Vladmir Rosing. The elder Rosing was a renowned Russian opera singer and director who formed the American Opera Company with financial support from George Eastman. While young Val was singing with Dance Bands, his father was a concert artist who graced stages from London to Los Angeles and recorded for many labels including Decca and Parlophone. Vladmir did not appreciate young Val's pop and jazz singing and would have preferred he became a lawyer.
Perhaps Russell felt that singing in "jazz" bands and Dance orchestras was fine work for a young man in his 20s, but that opera was a more serious substantial profession. On the practical side, the work was perhaps less grueling in terms of schedule, travel, and enduring the whims of bandleaders, who in the 1930s and 1940s, called the shots. And instead of one night stands past midnight or week long runs in English luxury hotels, opera performers might stay with a show for months or years.
It wasn't for a lack of appreciation for the music. Russell loved Jazz music all his life, and considered himself a Jazz expert.
Whatever his motivation, Russell studied opera and studied well. He listened to and read avidly about Caruso and other great singers. By 1943, he was appearing in The Barber of Seville and Der Fliedermaus with the Philadelphia Opera Company. In 1944, Russell performed on the radio with the Chicago Theater of the Air. In 1946, he joined the company of The Los Angeles Light Opera in an opera called Roberta. It was there he gained the notice of the producer Edwin Lester, who cast him in a leading role in The Song of Norway, a story based on the life of Edvard Grieg. Remained with the show's touring company for several years.
In 1946, Russell also became a naturalized U.S. Citizen, and Gilbert Russell became his legal name.
Other notable productions during the 1940s include The Student Prince, and Roberta for the Papermill Playhouse in Milburn NJ, one of the country's oldest regional theaters.
He continued to make occasional film and radio appearances. In 1949, he appeared in Everybody Does it, and the following year, he had a part in The Great Caruso, starring Mario Lanza.
In 1955, Russell is listed as a cast member of the New York Opera Company performing in many different operas. Also during the 1950s and early 1960s, Russell sang with the San Francisco Opera.
As Val Rosing, he married once. As Gilbert Russell, he married twice, first to Marilyn "Penny" Pendry, a dancer who meet in the Song of Norway, and also appeared in films such as White Christmas, An American in Paris, and The Jimmy Durante Show. They had one daughter, Claudia Russell. Like her father and grandfather, Claudia Russell is professional singer, and has recorded for BMG, Folkways/Smithsonian and her own independent label Radio Rhythm Records, named for one of Val Rosing's bands, the Radio Rhythm Rascals.
In January 1963, he married his third wife, the love of his life and widow, June Russell, an actress and singer now living in Danville, California. They raised June's two daughters Carol and Susan together, living in Brentwood, a suburb of Los Angeles.
Gilbert Russell spent the last 10 years of his life primarily dedicated to teaching. His students included many TV and film stars including George Chakiris, who was starring in Westside Story, Natalie Wood, June Lockhart, Shirley Jones, Celsete Holmes, Lesley Ann Warren, Beau Bridges, Peter Falk, Diane Cannon and a host of aspiring singers, actors and actresses. Rosing was beloved by his students, and he loved them back. According to Peter Falk, Sinatra recommended Russell for singing lessons, based on Natlie Wood's .
Russell spent some time songwriting, and had a minor success placing a theme for a TV show, The Westerner, in the early 60s.
On June 14, 1969, Russell died at the age of 59 from a poorly-diagnosed case of colon cancer. The great singer, teacher and family man is buried in Los Angeles.
Here's daughter, Claudia Russell, also a singer, performs it with her group, the Folk Unlimited Orchestra, as a tribute to her father. Have a listen - do you hear a family resemblance?