The Woman Who Thanked the Taxi Driver

Florence Foster Jenkins performed at the White House as a child pianist. She founded New York's Verdi Club, a musical society whose honorary members included Enrico Caruso. She raised money for the war effort, supported young musicians, and was, by every measure, a serious and devoted patron of the arts.

She was also, by every measure, a spectacularly terrible singer.

Jenkins began giving vocal recitals in 1912 and never stopped. She performed arias in elaborate costumes — singing "Clavelitos" dressed as Carmen, flinging roses into the audience one by one, then flinging the basket, then flinging the castanets. When fans demanded an encore, her accompanist Cosmé McMoon would wade into the seats to retrieve the props so she could do it all again. She recorded herself at her own expense and sold the records to friends for $2.50 a copy. Critics noted she could sing everything except notes.

In 1943, at the age of seventy-five, she was in a taxi that crashed. She discovered afterward that she could now sing a higher F than ever before. She did not sue the taxi company. She sent the driver a box of Havana cigars.

Then she booked Carnegie Hall.

On October 25, 1944, the house sold out. Two thousand people were turned away at the door. Cole Porter was in the audience. So was Lily Pons.

She was exceedingly happy in her work.