Imagine being able to retire at the ripe old age of 27. No more running for the 8.30am train for another daily grind at the office, wishing every Monday morning was Friday afternoon and working all year for a fortnight in Tenerife.
Well, that's exactly what movie legend Deanna Durbin did. After making 21 films in Hollywood, and becoming the highest paid female star of the period, she decided, at the age of 27, to turn her back on the glamorous but fickle world of the movies for a life of oblivion and couldn't have been happier.
However, before you wonder why someone would chose to leave behind a glamorous life in pictures, vast amounts of money and an adoring public, let me add that she started the daily grind of rigorous training at the tender age of 14.
Even as a young child she had a mature and deeply controlled soprano voice, which won her a legion of fans. She was a young, fresh-faced innocent in contrast to the bombshells and sirens Hollywood had previously offered.
Indeed, Deanna Durbin was a breath of fresh air, but until now she has remained a figure of Hollywood folklore. Disputes over the copyright of all her films means that they have been unavailable to the public since their original cinematic releases between 1936 and 1948. Copyright laws also meant that no television channels have been able to show her movies.
That is, until a few months ago. Just in time for Christmas, three DVD box sets of her films were released for the first time ever. This has allowed the new generation of film fans to discover a cinematic gem, and the older generation, who grew up with Deanna, to relive their youth.
Although her films have never been available to the public, it hasn't stopped her legion of fans from trading stories and holding meetings over the years to celebrate the talents and warmth of the former child star, thanks to the Deanna Durbin Society. Deanna may have retired in 1948 but she is still dedicated to her many fans, keeping in touch with them through the Society's newsletter.
Deanna Durbin was born Edna Mae Durbin on December 4th 1921, surprisingly to British parents and even more surprisingly in Winnipeg, Canada, since Durbin personifies the stereotypical wholesome All-American girl. However, when Edna was still a baby, her family moved to California.
At the age of ten Edna started taking singing lessons, partially funded by her older sister Edith, a schoolteacher. Edna had dreams of becoming an opera singer and her films certainly prove she had the talent. However, she was lead down a slightly different path.
She was "discovered" by talent agent Jack Sherrill, while singing at a recital, in 1935. She signed with MGM, who let her go after only six months, without any work. Legend has it that after making a screen test with Judy Garland (who was similar in age and stature to Deanna), studio chief Louis B Mayer ordered his employees to "get rid of the fat one". Not knowing to which girl he was referring, Deanna was fired. He had been talking about Garland.
Deanna then signed with the financially troubled Universal Studios. With only enough money left to produce B-movies, Universal took one last shot in the dark and made the romantic comedy Three Smart Girls starring Durbin, Barbara Read and Nan Grey as sisters trying to get their parents back together.
The film was a box office hit, nominated for three Oscars and made an overnight success of 14-year-old Deanna. Photoplay magazine said the film was, "Clever, intelligent and wittythis delightful bit of entertainment has a genuineness which is rare." While Halliwell's Film Guide states it: "made a world star of Deanna Durbin". Not bad for her first film.
She followed this success with A Hundred Men and A Girl, playing Adolphe Menjou's daughter, who sets out to convince the world-famous conductor Leopold Stokowski (of Fantasia fame) that her father needs a job in his orchestra. This time the film was nominated for a staggering five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Musical Score. The Radio Times Guide called it "The quintessential feel-good movie" and the TV Times added, "Deanna is delightfulit's the little girl's show all the way." The public certainly agreed with this. With her first two films being box office smashes, she is credited as single-handedly saving Universal from bankruptcy.
When her third film Mad About Music premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 7th February 1938, Deanna, at only 16, was forever immortalised by having her hand and footprints set in cement in the theatre courtyard.
The following year Durbin received her first screen kiss, from Robert Stack, and amazingly this made front-page news. The film was First Love, which saw Deanna starring in an updated version of Cinderella. Durbin plays an orphan who moves in with her rich relatives, including an evil cousin in the shape of the beautiful but ruthless Helen Parrish. Again the film was nominated for four Oscars and Deanna did a marvellous job in her first grown up' role, while still having the ability to preserve her wide-eyed innocence. The film's best moment comes when she sings the Puccini-inspired One Fine Day.
At the age of 19, Durbin married for the first time. The bridegroom was fellow Universal employee Vaughn Paul. That same year she landed her first role as an independent woman, in It Started with Eve. Shortly afterwards her husband enlisted in the army and she embarked on a tour of Eastern army camps.
1943 was a busy year for Durbin, she made three more successful films and also found the time to divorce Paul.
In Christmas Holiday she is almost unrecognisable as a sleazy nightclub singer, playing against type in her first straight dramatic role, as the wife of a murderer.
In 1945 she starred in Lady on a Train, and at 23 she married former European playwright Felix Jackson, 20 years her senior. They divorced in 1949 but the union produced a daughter, Jessica Louise Jackson.
She made her final film in 1948, entitled For the Love of Mary. Then, after 13 years, she not only walked away from Universal Studios, but from Hollywood too.
At 29 she married 48-year-old French film technician Charles David, who had directed her in Lady on a Train. They moved to Neauphle-le-Chateau, on the outskirts of Paris and Deanna said a final farewell to show business, longing instead for a quiet life outside of Hollywood's spotlight. She declined all offers for a comeback and has not given an interview since 1949, instead longing for a private life with her family.
Deanna Durbin David is now in her 80s and, content with her ordinary life, she has never once regretted leaving Hollywood. She had a happy life with Charles for over 48 years, until his death in 1999, and keeps busy replying to the many fan letters she still receives.
After so many years away from Hollywood it is truly amazing how many devoted fans Deanna still has, and thanks to the newly released DVDs, it looks like there's going to be a whole new generation of Durbin devotees.