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Margaretha "Greta" Keller (8 February 1903 - 11 November 1977) was an Austrian and Americancabaret singer and actress, who worked in some Hollywood movies and television dramas.[1]
BornMargaretha Keller in Vienna, Austria, she studied dance from the age of 8, followed by acting. Her début was inPavillon in Vienna. She also appeared on stage withMarlene Dietrich inBroadway, in which she sang and danced.
A recording contract with Ultraphon in 1929 took her from Vienna to Prague and Berlin, where she enjoyed great success withPeter Igelhoff and Peter Kreuder. For over 45 years, her voice was familiar worldwide in radio shows, films, revues, concerts and musicals, and above all in recordings. First called "The Great Lady Of Chanson" in her native Vienna, the nickname followed her to London and the United States.
Greta Keller's first marriage to the singer Joe Sargent in 1928 did not last; he turned out to be an alcoholic. Her second marriage started and ended in Hollywood, where she met and marriedGaspar Griswold Bacon, Jr. son ofGaspar G. Bacon from a prominent family in Boston. The elder Bacon was a member of the board of Harvard University, had been a close associate ofJ. P. Morgan, and later served as Secretary of State underTheodore Roosevelt and ambassador to France underWilliam Howard Taft.
Her husband, known in film and theater asDavid Bacon, was murdered in 1943, two weeks after finishing a major role in theRepublic serialThe Masked Marvel. Speculation involved affairs withHoward Hughes and another actor, but the murder investigations ceased without a result, and the files later disappeared. Due to that shock and a counter-indicated dose of morphine administered by Bacon's brother, a physician, Greta's child with Bacon was stillborn. It took some time for her to recover from these events, but she restarted her career in Switzerland, then on to Vienna, Berlin and New York City.
From 1973 until her death in November 1977, Keller lived, worked, and traveled with her partner Wolfgang Nebmaier.[2]
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Herlieder voice carried the charm of the Parisian women but never lost the heart of the girl from Vienna. Greta's singing in what some call "a style reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich" comes from the fact she was the model for how Marlene Dietrich developed her own voice. Greta Keller made recordings throughout the world and from the 1920s into the 1970s. She spent many years in the United States, notably in hotel club rooms at theWaldorf and (later) theStanhope in New York, where her show always included "My Way", with lyrics composed byPaul Anka, and a number ofNoël Coward's songs. A "singer's singer," Keller often drew other performers to the room, including theNordstrom Sisters,Beverly Sills andHildegarde.Other regulars booked the same tables most nights that she was performing, including photographerEdgar de Evia. Favorites of the Stanhope crowd were the songs ofCole Porter and Noël Coward because of their sexual innuendo and double entendres. These included "Miss Otis Regrets" and "I'm the Other Woman in His Life" by her friendElisse Boyd. She regularly returned to Vienna. The poet and singerRod McKuen was introduced by her to an audience in Vienna. McKuen, in turn, hosted a concert presenting her atLincoln Center in the 1970s and wrote the English lyric "If You Go Away" toJacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas," which she always sang.
Her repertoire included songs from the 1930s through the war years as well as popular songs of the day. A few years before her death, her voice was heard in theAcademy Award-winning movieCabaret (1972), in which she sang the song "Heirat" ("Married").
Keller died on November 11, 1977, aged 74. She was buried on theWiener Zentralfriedhof.
In 1976 she appeared inRosa von Praunheim's filmUnderground and Emigrants.
