DESCRIPTION:
Georges Metaxa with orchestra – If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight), Fox Trot (Creamer-Johnson) HMV 1930 (UK)

NOTE: Georges Metaxa – British actor and crooner of the Romanian origin, who was popular in UK and – not so much – in Northern America, during the interwar period. Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1899, Georges Metaxa worked as a civil servant and for some time he was the private secretary to the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture. In 1926 he traveled to London, where he appeared on stages of little musical theatres and cabarets. In 1927 he succeeded in recording his first side, which was the Romanian folk song "Mandrullita". The recording presented to the British audience his finely controlled, operatic high-baritone which opened for him avenue to further recordings for HMV, including the dance-hits of the day. In 1929, Metaxa was one of stars of the hit-production of Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet in London. His “Latin-lover’s” handsome looks and a good voice made him hope for the Hollywood career in the sound movies. He had his debut in 1931 in Secrets of a Secretary with Claudette Colbert and in 1936 he appeared in the film for which he is best remembered, Rodgers and Astaire's Swing Time, playing the bandleader Ricky Romero. Georges Metaxa - actor of genteel demeanor, never went beyond the character roles, usually playing the foreigner onscreen. Either he was a Spanish lieutenant, an Italian fellow, a Nazi agent, or an investigator for Scotland Yard Investigator (such was his last role in 1945). In age of 51 he had a heart attack and he died in Monroe, Louisiana in 1950.