Imagine working for someone. You put your time and effort into what you are doing, expecting to receive payment and recognition for what you’ve done. Really, it’s pretty reasonable that you would expect these things in return for your work. What if you weren’t given recognition, though? In fact, what if people thought somebody completely different did all the work? What if you weren’t even paid?
I ask you to think of this situation because this is what Marni Nixon was expected to go through. Nixon, who just passed away on July 24, has been in several very famous movies without ever being seen in them. Nixon provided her singing voice for these movies. She sang soprano and trained in singing and opera, and her talent definitely cannot be denied. However, you will not find her name in the credits of her most famous movies. She was a playback singer: she would record songs for movies that actresses who did appear on screen would later lip sync.
Nixon provided her voice for some well-known classics including "The King and I," "West Side Story," and "My Fair Lady." She recorded her singing for Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood (as well as one song for Rita Moreno), and Audrey Hepburn respectively. In fact, several songs she recorded appear on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years . . . 100 Songs” list. The list credits her as the performer and also mentions who she dubbed in these movies. Songs that she sang that appear on the list are “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Somewhere,” “Shall We Dance?,” and “Tonight.”
Not only was she uncredited in the three aforementioned movies for her performances, but she almost did not receive royalties for her singing in "West Side Story". Leonard Bernstein, who composed the music for "West Side Story," gave Nixon 1/4 of 1 percent of his royalties. That is a measly 0.25 percent. Natalie Wood, the actress that Nixon dubbed for "West Side Story" did not even know that Nixon’s singing was to be used for the movie. Wood expected her own singing to be used. Nixon would go on to record Wood again. She sang Wood’s high notes in the film version of "Gypsy."
Marni Nixon was faced with the scenario I presented. She was not given credit for her work in her most famous movies, and she almost wasn’t given royalties from a famous musical classic. The attempts to keep Nixon’s singing a secret earned her the title The Invisible Voice. Time magazine gave her the title of “The Ghostess with the Mostest.”
There are a few other films that Nixon worked on that you might recognize. She sang “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” for Disney’s "Cinderella." Again, she went uncredited. She went uncredited for singing as the Singing Flowers in Disney’s "Alice In Wonderland." She would much later provide the singing voice for Grandmother Fa in Disney’s "Mulan," a role she did indeed receive credit for.
There is no question that Nixon was very talented. I personally sing some of her songs on a regular basis, although I’m nowhere near as good as she was. Even though she has passed, she will certainly live on through her songs.
