Neighbor to the Rescue

In Kansas City a few blocks from the house where Marion Talley grew up lives an Italian family named Brancato. The mother was a midwife until seven children of her own took all her time. Daughter Santina was in Marion's room at school but they never played together. Marion spent most of her time with Sister Florence who taught her to sing her first song, "Schooldays." The Talleys were not aware that the Brancatos had a singing daughter in Rosemarie, the baby of the brood who as a tot learned "O Sole Mio" when her sister Josephine had been given it to play on the piano.

In Chicago last week the paths of the Talleys and the Brancatos crossed at the mammoth Civic Opera House. Soprano Marion was scheduled for a second performance in Rigoletto with which she had launched her operatic comeback (TIME, Jan. 8). But when Impresario Paul Longone offered her half her original fee, she refused to appear. From Soprano Maria Jeritza, Signer Longone learned about 21-year-old Rosemarie Brancato. For three years Rosemarie Brancato had had a scholarship at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester

Sniffing a good human interest story from afar, Longone wired Rosemarie Brancato in New York. She jumped on a train, sped to Chicago, posed for photographers while the Brancatos in Kansas City bundled themselves up for an all-night automobile drive to Chicago. As a pinchhitter for Marion Talley Rosemarie Brancato turned out to be a timid Gilda who betrayed her lack of experience by beating time with the conductor. But her voice was clear and fluty. The trills and top notes of the Caro Nome came out so truly, so easily that for six minutes she stopped the show, got an ovation twice as noisy as Neighbor Talley's three weeks ago.

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