Bernice Claire

Biography

As a singer of light opera, Bernice Claire could be called the trailblazer for Jeanette MacDonald. In the year 1930, Claire and Alexander Gray were "the" operetta duo of talking pictures. Bernice Claire Jahnigen was born March 22, 1909 in Oakland, California, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Jahnigen (later mistranscribed as Jahnigan). Her distinguished Castlemont High Schoolteacher, Alice Eggers, favorably influenced Bernice. It was Eggers who persuaded Bernice to audition for orchestra leader Emil Polak, who led theatre and radio orchestras in San Francisco at that time. Claire's publicist would later fabricate a teacher-student relationship between Claire and opera great Maria Jeritza. She possessed a remarkably clear and pure coloratura voice and had no difficulty singing demanding roles such as Victor Herbert's "Mlle Modiste," in which she starred in a school production. She moved to New York in the 1920s, where she met singer Alexander Gray, a veteran of the Ziegfeld Follies. Together they co-starred in operettas such as "The Desert Song." Around 1929 Mr. Gray asked her to accompany him to a screen test for First National-Vitaphone at the time the studios were hastily converting to sound, and bolstering their music departments. The producers liked the team so much, they were both signed. Gray was signed to co-star with Marilyn Miller in "Sunny," and Claire was assigned the starring role in the first screen version of No, No, Nanette (1930). They both moved to Hollywood. Within little more than one year, Bernice Claire made the first screen versions of such hits as "Mlle Modiste" (released as Kiss Me Again (1931)), Spring Is Here (1930) (in which she sings "With a Song in My Heart"), The Song of the Flame (1930) and an original film musical Top Speed (1930) starring Joe E. Brown. When the studios determined that musicals had lost their drawing power, Claire was given a very different role in the prison drama Numbered Men (1930), directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Her co-star was Conrad Nagel. By 1932 Claire returned to New York radio and appeared with many prestigious orchestras, including Rudy Vallee, Erno Rapee and others. Her apartment was located at number 2 West 67th Street, just off Central Park West. The Vitaphone Company continued to use Claire's talent in film shorts, such as The Red Shadow (1932), based on "The Desert Song," with Alexander Gray. In 1934 she co-starred in The Flame Song (1934) with J. Harold Murray in an abbreviated version of The Song of the Flame (1930) (which she had made as a feature in 1930). She also toured in vaudeville and played roles in comedies and operettas, such as "Her Master's Voice." In 1933 she and Alexander Gray sang a duet in Universal's Moonlight and Pretzels (1933). In 1935 Claire co-starred in a British musical film Two Hearts in Harmony (1935), co-starring George Curzon. In the 1930s, her days and nights were occupied with radio and special appearances, including the 1935 San Diego Exposition. In 1937 she was elected "Miss Perfume for 1937" by delegates to the Perfume and Cosmetics Buyers Conference at the Hotel Roosevelt. With her new dog, named "Jimmy Walker," she moved to a new apartment at 162 East 86th Street in the Upper East Side. On WABC she appeared with Frank Munn in 1935, accompanied by Gustave Haenschen's Orchestra. The following year she was on "Melodiana" for station WJZ. Instead of her being cover girl for the movie magazines, now she appeared on the covers of radio magazines, such as "Tower Radio." Throughout the country, Claire starred in numerous revivals, such as "The Chocolate Soldier," "Naughty Marietta" (Grand Rapids Municipal Opera), "The Fortune Teller," "Robin Hood," "The Firefly," "The Pink Lady," and "Salute to Spring" by Richard Berger (St. Louis Municipal Stadium). In October 1938, when Rodgers and Hart's "I Married an Angel" was produced in Sydney, Australia, Bernice Claire played the role of Countess Peggy, which was originated by Vivienne Segal on Broadway. She returned to Australia the next year to perform "The Waltz Dream." Back in the U.S.A. she played Lorna Moon, opposite Eric Linden, in "Golden Boy." Into the 1940s Bernice continued to play leading ladies in such crowd-pleasing shows as "Irene" and "The Firefly." When her first husband died, she felt unable to continue her performing. She and her second husband, Douglas Morris, owned property in southern California, including convalescent homes. During the 1970s and '80s Bernice was honored by local film societies in the San Francisco Bay Area. When her health deteriorated she quietly left her social and professional circles for retirement.