James Melton
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James Melton (b. January 2, 1904, in Moultrie, Georgia – April 21, 1961 in New York City, New York) was an operatic tenor singer whose singing talent was similar to that of Richard Crooks, John Charles Thomas, or Nelson Eddy.
Melton usually catered to what has been described as a "musically middlebrow audience," emitting romantic airs and popular ballads with sugary precision. Born in Moultrie, Georgia but raised in Citra, Florida, his parents grew melons and handled hogs.
In 1920, he graduated from high school in Ocala, then attended a series of colleges in three different states: Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. He received vocal instruction from Gaetano de Luca in Nashville from 1923 to 1927 before moving to New York where he studied with Beniamino Gigli's teacher, Enrico Rosati. Melton also worked in dance band activities, such as playing saxophone in a college jazz ensemble and performing with Francis Craig's Orchestra in Atlanta in 1926. The following year, he began singing on the radio without getting paid in New York City. He joined Roxy's Gang, a cabaret group led by Roxy Rothafel, who worked with the Sieberling Singers, and made records for Victor singing as one of the tenors with the Revelers and for Columbia with the same group under the pseudonym of the Singing Sophomores.
Melton had recorded his first songs under his own name were made for Columbia in the autumn of 1927. Melton continued voice training from pianist Michael Raucheisen in Berlin, and gave his first concert performance at Town Hall on April 22, 1932, in New York and embarked on a U.S. and Canadian concert tour along with songwriter George Gershwin in 1934. Melton continued to perform on the radio, as a "Voice of Firestone" on The Firestone Hour beginning in 1933; on Ward's Family Theater in 1935; The Seal Test Sunday Night Party in 1936; The Palmolive Beauty Box Theater in 1937; The Song Shop in 1938; The Telephone Hour in 1940; and The Star Theater in 1944. He also appeared in movies, including Stars Over Broadway (1935), Sing Me a Love Song (1936), Melody for Two (1937), and the 1944 MGM revue Ziegfeld Follies.
After voice training with Angelo Canarutto, Melton's operatic singing career took off in 1938 when he appeared with the Cincinnati Zoo Opera Company as Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and also with the St. Louis Opera Company as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. He then worked with the Chicago Civic Opera from 1940 to 1942, appearing with Helen Jepson in Butterfly; with Lily Pons in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor; and in Flotow's Martha. In 1942, Melton debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York as Tamino in Mozart's Magic Flute. He continued to perform at the Met through 1947, Melton spent the 1950s making records, singing in nightclubs, appearing on television, and collecting rare automobiles. His last stage production was Sigmund Romberg's The Student Prince.
He established an auto museum in Hypoluxo, Florida, which he called the Autorama. Ken Purdy interviewed him on his collection, and wrote a book about it. The museum was dispersed after his death.
Melton has two "Stars" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One for “Radio” and the other for "Recording."
