Florence Foster Jenkins was many things. A teacher, a philanthropist, and a kind and generous friend, by many accounts. What she was not, was a gifted vocal artist, despite her unshakable belief to the contrary.
Possessed of a "sliding scale" and lacking any
conception of pitch or rhythm—heck, she was barely capable of sustaining a note—what Jenkins had was the money to pursue her dream. She hired concert halls and passed out tickets to her recitals to her close circle of friends. She recorded records and gave them to her coterie. She sold out her 1944 Carnegie Hall recital.
Despite the evidence of this clip, she was convinced that she was not widely acclaimed because of the "professional jealousy" of her (in her mind, at least) peers. Responding to her critics, she said, "People may say that I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing."
I find that heroic.
