Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins (born July 19, 1868, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died November 26, 1944, New York, New York, U.S.) was an American amateur soprano, music lover, philanthropist, and socialite who gained fame for her notoriously off-pitch voice. She became a word-of-mouth sensation in the 1940s through her self-funded performances in New York City.

Jenkins was born into a wealthy and cultured family. Her father, Charles Dorrance Foster, was a successful banker and lawyer, and her mother was a painter. Her parents supported her early interest in music with piano lessons but refused to pay for singing lessons when she showed no natural ability in that capacity. Undeterred, she set off to pursue a career as a soprano on her own. In 1883 she married Francis Thornton Jenkins, a physician from whom she contracted syphilis. She separated from Jenkins in 1902. She met the actor St. Clair Bayfield in about 1908, and he became Jenkins’s manager and companion for the rest of her life. Upon her father’s death in 1909, Jenkins inherited a great deal of money that she put toward voice lessons. Those lessons revealed clearly that she could not carry a tune or hit the high notes expected of a soprano, that she had no sense of rhythm, and that she was essentially tone deaf. Again, undeterred, and now with the necessary funds, she began to arrange her own performances for small club luncheons and teas and establish a career for herself. She also founded the Verdi Club in 1917, a society to support musicians.

The death of her mother in 1930 left Jenkins with a sizable inheritance and the freedom to expand her singing activities. She also used her money to become active within the cultural clubs and organizations in the city. By all accounts, Jenkins felt extremely confident in her singing abilities, loved to sing, and went to whatever lengths necessary to perform. She often performed in full costume of her own design, most of the time with her piano accompanist Cosmé McMoon. In the 1940s, then in her 70s, she financed five recordings of her singing arias, which were released by the Melotone record label. Her first recording (1941) featured the arias of the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and it sold very well—primarily, however, as a novelty item. The pinnacle of her career—a sold-out show (organized by Jenkins) at Carnegie Hall on October 25, 1944, came just one month before she died. Before a crowd of 3,000 devoted fans, critics, and those interested in witnessing the spectacle that Jenkins had become, she performed arias and songs accompanied by McMoon. The crowd erupted, and an onslaught of mocking newspaper reviews followed. She had a heart attack a few days later and died the next month.

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When considering Jenkins’s unusual persona and career, many questions arise regarding the roles Bayfield and McMoon played in encouraging what seemed to be a profound state of self-delusion. The fact that Jenkins lived with syphilis may have had an impact on her behaviour. It seems clear that without money (and the ability to laugh off criticism and disapproval), Jenkins likely would not have had a singing career. But according to personal accounts by those who knew her, she was entirely devoted to and greatly knowledgeable about music and found the utmost joy and satisfaction in performing.

She left her mark as evidenced by the re-release of her records: A Florence! Foster!! Jenkins!!! Recital!!!! (1954), Florence Foster Jenkins: The Glory (????) of the Human Voice (1962), Florence Foster Jenkins and Friends: Murder on the High Cs (2003), and The Muse Surmounted: Florence Foster Jenkins and Eleven of Her Rivals (2004). In 2015 a movie in French titled Marguerite was based on the story of Jenkins’s life, and a biopic (based on the biography by Nicholas Martin and Jasper Rees) starring Meryl Streep in the title role was released in 2016.