Tandy Timeline

Highlights of Tandy’s singing career and later life

• 1919 April 22 Tandy signed a Memorandum of Agreement with William Thorner, teacher and manager for 7 years, extended to 1929.
• 1921 July 20 Tandy in Honolulu, 1922. Kamehameha Schools Archives. Tandy changed management agencies to be with F.C. Coppicus dba Metropolitan Musical Bureau. The original contract with Thorner was honored.
• 1922 Tandy was thirty when he met and married the flamboyant forty-eight year old Maud Irene Goodspeed, thrice divorced with three children not in her care. They would not have any children. On January 11, Tandy signed an agreement with F. C. Coppicus for the 1922-1923 year. From June to August, three recitals were scheduled in Honolulu. In reality, he gave 6 concerts in Honolulu, a speech and short recital at Kamehameha Schools, 2 concerts on Maui and sang at a lu’au and 3 concerts on Kaua’i, 3 concerts at Kalaupapa, and 1 at Hilo. In December, Tandy sang at a private party in at the Washington Court House in Ohio. Tandy signed another Columbia Graphophone Company recording contract. Tandy sang at a Sioux City, Iowa concert.
• 1923 In January, Tandy did a recital at the Torrington Music Club of Torrington, Connecticut Tandy gave a recital in New Rochelle, New York and up to 50 concerts arranged by Coppicus during the year.
• 1926 Tandy performed with other Hawaiians in Charles E. King’s, Prince of Hawaii in Los Angeles.
• 1927 Tandy returned to Honolulu. A $12,000 gift from a group of prominent islanders would be used for voice study in Italy. An audition with Maestro Arturo Toscanini in Milan gained him the best voice teacher, Professor Pintorno, who would train his voice from a lyric tenor into a dramatic tenor needed for grand opera work.
• 1928 Tandy returned to Honolulu to rest after a year of study with Professor Printorno. Tandy sang and was feted. Maud was unpleasant, insulting and uncouth. Frank and Uilani Robertson, good friends, urged him to leave his inconsiderate wife. Tandy could not. He was her tragic captive. On Maud’s insistence, Tandy abruptly left his training with Professor Printorno to pursue Maud’s agenda of an opera career in Paris. She managed his career from then on.
• 1929 Aida, Tosca, Pagliacci and Cavaleria Rusticana are sung in Paris and Czechoslovakia to appreciative audiences.
• 1930 A serendipitous meeting with agent William Frankfurter in Salzburg, Austria gained Tandy a 5 year contract with the Bavarian State Opera.
• 1931 Hitler refused to allow non-Germans to sing. Tandy’s contract was cancelled and he returned to New York City without a job.
• 1932 Tandy auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera Company, but Casazza, the general manager, refused to hire Tandy because he would not tolerate Maud’s insults and threats. Tandy sang Aida with the French Italian Opera Company. In April, he sang two operas in Montreal. In September, he sang in San Francisco. Thinking he had proven himself, he auditioned with the Metropolitan again. Casazza refused to hire him a second time. Tandy could not understand that his wife was the reason for Casazza’s refusal, not his voice, or appeal. He completed a successful season for the San Francisco Opera Company and applied to the Metropolitan Opera Company for the third time. He was at the peak of his abilities. Still Casazza refused to hire him a third time. In San Francisco, Maud, so insulted manager Merolo that the Opera Company would not hire Tandy. Dispirited and unable to chastise Maud, he returned with her to Honolulu at the end of the year.
• 1933 Maud planned a tour of Asia where Tandy was unknown. He met with success in Tokyo and Yokohama. He caught a cold and canceled his concert in Shanghai. Manila, Straits Settlement, Java, and India were cancelled because of Maud’s incompetent management. Tandy and Maud settled in Los Angeles because of the climate, affordable rents, motion picture jobs and singing venues at the Hollywood Bowl. Tandy sang with the San Carlo Opera Company.
• 1934 Tandy sang at the Hollywood Bowl.
• 1935 Tandy sang during the Los Angeles grand opera season. Kamehameha Schools Archives Ka Waihona Palapala Kahiko O Na Kula O Kamehameha.
• 1936 Tandy sang in the movies, Anthony Adverse with Olivia De Haviland and in San Francisco with Jeanette MacDonald. Maud’s connivance, interference and threats so irritated studio heads that they barred Maud from the sets and blacklisted Tandy from the industry. Maud destroyed his movie career. Hollywood Hall of Song, a new radio program, featured Tandy as the star and host. Tandy participated in the Hollywood Bowl summer concerts.
• 1937 -1939 Tandy sang during the Grand Opera season in Los Angeles.
• 1939 Tandy and Maud participated in the 30 week San Carlo Opera Company tour.
• 1940 Maud arranged a January recital and an August concert at the Redlands Bowl. Tandy sang in Mexico City. He dreamed of starting his own opera company to offer a greater variety of operas and to bring Hawaiians to sing with him. With Maud in charge, that is all it would be, a dream.
• 1941-42 Tandy and Maud toured with the San Carlo Opera Company. He received his long sought contract with the Metropolitan Opera Company from his long-time friend now the manager. Maud threatened Mr. Johnson with lawsuits if her terms were not met. Mr. Johnson refused to hire Tandy if Maud continued to be a part of his life. Unable to part with Maud, Tandy gave up his dream and joined the only opera company that would hire him, the San Carlo Opera Company in California.
• 1943-50 Tandy and Maud toured with the San Carlo Opera Company.
• 1950-54 Musical tastes changed and operatic opportunities and other singing venues were minimal. Maud had mismanaged and squandered Tandy’s earnings. They must live on Maud’s pension of $72.00 a week.
• 1954 Maud died of cancer at 82 years of age. Bereft, Tandy was by her bedside.
• 1955 Tandy met and married Jean, a business woman, who provided for and cared for him until his death in 1963.
• DEATH 1963 Jean wrote, …No matter how well he could sing, the tenor is a youthful role, and despite the fact that he did not look his age, and though his voice was still as beautiful and powerful as ever, he was finished as an opera singer. It was terribly sad. In spite of his years, like so many artists, he was still a child. No matter how much I tried to let him stand on his own feet, it was too late. He would remain helpless to the end of his days. (p. 337) Sources Kamehameha Schools Archives. Collection of Tandy MacKenzie, 2009. MacKenzie, Jean. Tandy.