Oh! My Sincerity

Can Eddie Fisher have both marriage and a career? That question has beguiled an almost inaudible group of loyal fans for the last few years. Last week Eddie gave the answer himself in a comeback show at Las Vegas' Desert Inn: a clear, baritone maybe.

Crooner Fisher reached the top despite handicaps almost insuperable to a pop singer these days--a cheerful, unassuming personality and a voice that was always pleasant and generally on key. Beginning with his first big record (Thinking of You) in 1950, he turned out 14 straight hits. But rock 'n' roll was already beginning to take over the record business, and soon teen-age fans deserted. Eddie's last big hit record was Oh! My Papa, and it was cut in 1954. Recently he has devoted himself fulltime to woman troubles (a divorce from Debbie Reynolds, a marriage to Liz Taylor), and he had not sung in public for a year and a half when he stepped up to the microphone last week.

As a comeback it was not Sunset Boulevard. But when Eddie sang People Will Say We're in Love and So Far, the Rodgers and Hammerstein schmalz was chicken fat of the highest quality. He threw Yiddish words into the German version of Mack the Knife and kept a straight face while delivering Never on Sunday in Greek (Spyros Skouras had sent a telegram spelling out the lyrics).

Next night Eddie's pals, Mel Ferrer and his wife Audrey Hepburn, threw a party at the hotel. With half of Hollywood in the hall, Fisher sounded nervous. But an overflow audience forgave occasional flatfalls when he sang the second chorus of That Face! to Liz. She sat, hauntingly convalescent and subject to drafts in her well-cleaved evening dress, chatting with her physician, Dr. Rex Kennamer. Listeners were visibly moved; Eddie, who made a million by having the sort of face that middle-aged ladies want to put through college, probably will have no trouble financing a graduate course.

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