Alice Joséphine Pons (April 12, 1898 – February 13, 1976), known professionally as Lily Pons, was a French-American operatic lyric coloratura soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer, she specialized in the coloratura soprano repertoire and was particularly associated with the title roles in Lakmé and Lucia di Lammermoor. In addition to appearing as a guest artist with many opera houses internationally, Pons enjoyed a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where she performed nearly 300 times between 1931 and 1960.
She also had a successful and lucrative career as a concert singer, which continued until her retirement from performance in 1973. From 1935 to 1937, she made three musical films for RKO Pictures. She also made numerous appearances on radio and on television, performing on variety programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, and The Dave Garroway Show. In 1955, she topped the bill for the first broadcast of what became an iconic television series, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. She made dozens of records, recording both classical and popular music. She was awarded the Croix de Lorraine and the Légion d'honneur by the government of France.
Pons was also adept at making herself into a marketable cultural icon. Her opinions on fashion and home decorating were frequently reported in women's magazines, and she appeared as the face for Lockheed airplanes, Knox gelatin, and Libby's tomato juice advertisements. A town in Maryland named itself after her, and thereafter the singer contrived to have all her Christmas cards posted from Lilypons, Maryland. Opera News wrote in 2011, "Pons promoted herself with a kind of marketing savvy that no singer ever had shown before, and very few have since; only Luciano Pavarotti was quite so successful at exploiting the mass media."[1]
^Fred Cohn (October 2011). "Tiger Lily". Opera News. 76 (4).
Alice Joséphine Pons (April 12, 1898 – February 13, 1976), known professionally as LilyPons, was a French-American operatic lyric coloratura soprano and...
during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Cole Porter, Gian Carlo Menotti, LilyPons, Sir Thomas Beecham, and other celebrities were counted among her fans...
Garden, Tito Schipa, Beniamino Gigli, Claudia Muzio, Georges Thill, and LilyPons. The Hôtel de Paris, established in 1864 by Charles III of Monaco, is...
domestic cat that he had "painted over in an op art design". Opera singer LilyPons and musician Gram Parsons are also known to have kept ocelots. Paviolo...
1936 American musical comedy film directed by Leigh Jason and starring LilyPons, Jack Oakie, and Gene Raymond. The film made a profit of $101,000. John...
Memorial Opera House on December 31, 1979. His first wife was soprano LilyPons from 1938 to 1958, when they divorced. They owned a home in Palm Springs...
a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh. It stars LilyPons and Jack Oakie. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1938 in the category...
says LilyPons: "was kissed by an ape at Dr. Voronoff's monkey farm near Menton, France". Another Time article, this time from 1936, says "Singer Lily Pons...
1935 Fonda starred in the RKO film I Dream Too Much with the opera star LilyPons. The New York Times announced him as "Henry Fonda, the most likable of...
fright and were able to overcome their problem, including Al Jolson, LilyPons, Brian Wilson, Virginia O'Brien, Michael Gambon, Lorde, Jason Alexander...
country by joining the USO, performing in Europe with notable stars such as LilyPons and Marlene Dietrich. After the war, he returned home to South Dakota...
copies of the 1932 first edition: Mischa, Yascha, Toscha, Sascha For LilyPons, (1934) unpublished piece originally intended as accompaniment to an unwritten...
an attendance record of 26,410 at a performance by French opera star LilyPons[citation needed] Bass baritone George London made his opera début in 1941...
Roberta Peters, Gianna D'Angelo, Victoria de los Ángeles, Beverly Sills, LilyPons, Diana Damrau, Edita Gruberová, Kathleen Battle and Luciana Serra. Famous...
the Vienna State Opera. She portrayed the French-American soprano star LilyPons and performed "The Bell Song" from Delibes' opera Lakmé in a downward-transposed...
noted collaborators were such operatic luminaries as: Eileen Farrell, LilyPons, Paul Robeson and Richard Tucker under the direction of several conductors...
p. 100. Retrieved 26 July 2019. Cocteau, Jean. The Blood of a Poet. LilyPons, trans. New York: Bodley Press, 1949, p. 1. Francis Steegmuller, "An Angel...
marquise of Berkenfeld in Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment with LilyPons, Mallika in Léo Delibes's Lakmé, Feodor in Boris Godunov, Annina in Richard...
Annie Oakley 12 Sal Mineo 37 US Actor Rebel Without a Cause Exodus 13 LilyPons 77 France Singer, Actress I Dream Too Much Hitting a New High 13 John...
Angelina Jolie, actress Andre Kostelanetz, conductor; lived with his wife, LilyPons Lillian Lorraine, actress Gustav Mahler, composer and conductor Lauritz...
Some sopranos, including Ruth Welting, Mariella Devia, Mady Mesplé, and LilyPons have sung the "mad scene" in Donizetti's original F major key, although...
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