I never said I was justifying his actions or even respected him, I just said he was cut from the same cloth as Henry Ford or John D, Rockefeller to name a few. I've done papers on some of those titans and some of them were even worse than Ray Kroc. These guys aren't good people which is why many of them set up on these foundations after their deaths in the hope for some forgiveness when none is actually coming for them.
The story line of the 1930 The New Moon is completely fabricated and has nothing to do with the original operetta or the MacDonald/Eddy version (which does hew more closely to the plot of the operetta). Tibbett is a better singer and actor than Eddy.
I watched New Moon tonight. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience in the main; Grace Moore isn't as comely as Jeanette MacDonald (though her soprano is less piercing and more refined), but the standout throughout is Lawrence Tibbett. My god, if musicals hadn't gone out of fashion, he would have been the biggest star of the early talkie era. He had everything: looks (even if they did use silent screen star make-up on him with overly accentuated eyes and rouged lips which always look ridiculous to us now), physique, and the most glorious voice that was melting even while speaking, and the singing is legendary. The plot was pure corn, but the escapism was still fun. And the print TCM showed looked really good!
I've seen all of Tibbett's extant output via MGM, and about a quarter hour of his singing/acting footage (in Technicolor) from The Rogue's Song. He was indeed a tremendous presence with a peerless baritone's voice. The first time I saw The New Moon it was called Parisian Belle (???) so as not to confuse it with the remake (which had to do with Paris and not Russia!).
