The man who had everything: Eric Myers looks at the spectacular rise and swift decline of James Melton--tenor, entrepreneur and movie star.

Crossover was with us in the early decades of the twentieth century, but back then the crossing tended to be in the reverse direction. Rosa Ponselle got her start in vaudeville before she hit the Met; Dorothy Kirsten had a well-established radio career by the mid-1930s before making her opera debut in 1940. Tenor James Melton was also a late bloomer in opera, having begun as one of the most successful pop singers of his era. The son of a Georgia lumberman, Melton had already been a star as a pop performer for ten years by 1938, when he made his opera debut.

Melton's lyrical Irish tenor was a pleasant, unforced sound that carried well and was often compared with ...