Radio mirror (Nov 1935-Apr 1936)

actor there is a Nino Martini you do not know, mei without flinching, without complaining, the demands which his career ha.s made of him. When you have heard this story of what his career has cost him, perhaps envy will give way to sympathy. Let us forget for the moment then the Martini ot today, piling triumph upon triumph in radio, movies, opera, and turn back the clock to the days when he was a happy-golucky school boy in the little northern Italian cm Verona. There was not much money in the Martini household. Nino's father had died when he was very young. Yet Nino and his sisters were getting the best education that Verona could afford. His mother, Nina, for whom he was named, had seen to that — toiling without sparing herself, continuing her husband's job as custodian of the tomb of Romeo and Juliet, working beautiful hand stitching on dresses for a few extra pennies. Nino had but one objective in life — to get the money that would lift this burden from his mother's shoulders. Though there was burning in him more than a boy's usual share oi love for sports and parties, he was ready to sei/.e the first steady job he could find. ALL this time he did sing, of course. But only in church ^^ choirs. Most Italian boys did that. And he sang at parties. That was all right, too, for it was the custom But whenever Nino was asked to sing alone, without the accompaniment his friends usually provided, he would shake his head in embarrassment. "Singing," he would reply, "is silly." Then at one of these parties, the secretary to Maria Gay and Giovanni Zenatello, the renowned voice coaches, heard him. And in that moment his whole future was changed. She told her employers about him. The Zenatellos sent for him, heard him sing. There followed a solemn conference. "My boy," said Signor Giovanni, "you have a very wonderful gift. I have behind me twenty-nine years in the profession. I am willing to gamble it all on you, to make your career my career. You understand, of course, that it will mean sacrifices on my part of time and money. 1 shall ask you to make equal sacrifices, if you decide you want a career. It will be a partnership, you and I together." He outlined frankly to Nino what he would have to give up. But he also pointed out to him the compensating joy and satisfaction of being the possessor ol the great, well-trained mii^mi voia thai could !>• "You must dedicate yourself to your voice Ml else must come after. It is up to you to choose.' That night Nino made up his mind The next morning, along with the lirsi sweet taste <>'■ anticipation, he knew also the bitterness of sacrifice sacrifice that he finally made only because his mothei insisted He heard the /.enatellos explain that Nino must come to live with them so that they could better supervise his training, that he must not plan to do any other work. lie heard his mother say to Madam Zenatello with tears in her eves. "It is only to you that I could let Nino go I know you will be a second mother to him " /% \l) he kit an added sadness at knowing that it would ^^ be years now instead of weeks, before he could be ol help in assuming the family responsibilities There began then a rigorous career oi self-denial and discipline which has grown Steadily more severe as Martini has mounted in the artistic world The caret ree lite of the young man about town was ended. No more singing in the streets. No more smoking. No more jolly parti' Perhaps the hardest thing that Nino had to learn was to take care of himself. I he young madcap, who had been expelled from sch(X)l because of his pranks, who had been accustomed to risking life and limb at his sport, had to learn to care for himself like a baby. He could not take cold. He could not overeat or keep late hours, for overindulgence was sure to show up in his voi The Zenatellos were sympathetic. They knew they wen dealing with a gay yet sensitive temperament, one to whom the monastic life did not come naturally, but who, lelt to his own devices, would have been a sport, a good fellow. Rarely, they said, had they ever met anyone so filled with a /est for living. Their job, then, was to guide this enthusiasm for the experiences of life into new channels without crushing it. They took him to the theater, to the opera, the best entertainment that Verona had to offer They acquainted him with the best in literature. Bit by bit they awakened his interest in these things, showed him their importance And before him he had a living example Hadn't the Zenatellos (Continued on page 76) uarN \*/HAT ARE£R COST GRE*1 -THE ACHE GtORV 1HA"1 0f H*S 1H»S DIMMED HOUR of STAR'S HEAR"1" EVEH TRl THE U^PH By NORT°* RUSSELL v/WAe N'"° maWnq Ho\W*oodfo* film. Ms "eVio *° 0,0 n ;-,tu\ *s*. A»vr/nottn