Caro Nome from Rigoletto. Marion Talley. 1926 Vitaphone film

Marion Talley was born in Missouri December 20, 1906. She gained fame in her native Missouri as an opera singer while still a teen. When she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1926, she was the youngest prima donna ever to have taken the stage. After her Met career of four seasons and 86 performances, she went on concert tours, spent some time at the Chicago Opera and had her own NBC radio program from 1936-1938. This appearance by Talley in Caro Nome was one of the first six Vitaphone shorts ever released, along with the feature movie Don Juan in August 1926. These films represented a significant milestone in US filmmaking as these were the first talkies ~ sound motion pictures. This Vitaphone was made in 1926 and so is in the public domain. Marion Talley passed away in Beverly Hills, California in 1983.