Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins was a true original, an eccentric if you will. For a number of years Northwest Public Radio aired a request program once a month called First Friday. One month we received a request for Mein Herr Marquis, sung by Florence Foster Jenkins. At that time, we had an extensive LP collection so I searched the archives and found an old LP called
The Glory of the Human Voice.
I put the LP on the turntable and stood in stunned silence. I called fellow music host Gillian Coldsnow over to listen. I'm not sure how long it took before we realized that a musical practical joke had been played on us, but when we did we both burst into laughter! Guess what? We actually played the piece on that month's edition of First Friday. Guess what again? We had listener requests for more!

"People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing."

I first heard about Florence Foster Jenkins because of a program that Gillian Coldsnow and I hosted on Northwest Public Radio called "First Friday." It was a request show that aired once a month from 9-4. We received some really interesting requests and stories over the years and FFJ was one of the best!

One day while preparing for the program I received a call from Coyne Burnett asking me to play something from the famous soprano named Florence Foster Jenkins. At the time we had a vast LP collection and I searched through that until I found the LP. I put it on to take a listen and was - how can I say this tactfully? - astonished! I called Gillian over to listen and we both stared at each other with looks approaching horror on our faces.

Gillian and I both have a great sense of humor and it still puzzles me as to why we didn't pick up on the joke immediately, but we didn't. We thought that Coyne was serious about this woman's talent, so we called him back and that's when we finally got the joke! Good one, Coyne! Well, we did play a song from her LP "The Glory of the Human Voice??!!" and it was an instant, or perhaps infamous, hit.

Florence Foster Jenkins was born in 1868 and died November 26, 1944.

FFJ still has her fans! Learn more in the article That (ugh) voice!