Maria Callas Google Doodle: Late Soprano Honored On Her 90th Birthday

Maria Callas was honored with a Google doodle on what would have been her 90th birthday. The American-born Greek soprano was born on December 2, 1923 and died on September 16, 1977. Callas was born in New York City by an overbearing mother and received musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. Time magazine called her the “undisputed queen of the world’s opera” and ”a woman for whom the term prima donna could have been invented.” Callas grew up self-concious of her body and weight. In a cover story of Time in 1956 she wrote, "My sister was slim and beautiful and friendly, and my mother always preferred her. I was the ugly duckling, fat and clumsy and unpopular. It is a cruel thing to make a child feel ugly and unwanted... I'll never forgive her for taking my childhood away. During all the years I should have been playing and growing up, I was singing or making money. Everything I did for them was mostly good and everything they did to me was mostly bad."

One rumor that followed her was that she swallowed a tapeworm to lose weight, which the Los Angeles Times denies it ever happened. "At one point, the 5-foot-8 singer was believed to have weighed more than 200 pounds. Urban legend has it that the soprano ingested a live tapeworm in an attempt to shed fat. Another rumor has her experimenting with a special kind of pasta. Callas rejected the gossip, claiming that she lost weight naturally." Another juicy gossip that was invented was that she continued an affair with Aristotle Onassis during his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy. Onassis left Callas to marry Jackie in 1968 and rumor has it that they continued seeing each other. A book by Nicholas Gage titled "Greek Fire" that explores the love affair has Onassis knocking on Callas' door to be let in.

Callas spent her last years living in Paris and died at the age of 53 from a heart attack. Shortly before her death she talked about her vocal problems saying, "I never lost my voice, but I lost strength in my diaphragm. ... Because of those organic complaints, I lost my courage and boldness. My vocal cords were and still are in excellent condition, but my 'sound boxes' have not been working well even though I have been to all the doctors. The result was that I overstrained my voice, and that caused it to wobble."