MARIO LANZA. And This Is My Beloved. Dedication to Betty Lanza.

This song was in the 1953 musical Kismet and is credited to Robert Wright & George Forrest. Like all the music in that show the melody was in fact based on music composed by Alexander Borodin, in this case, Borodin’s Quarter in D. Betty Lanza, nèe Elisabeth Jeannette Lyhan-Hicks was born on October 28, 1922 and was a sister of Mario’s Army buddy Bert Hicks. They fell in love with each other at the first sight and soon after Mario’s discharge from the Army in January 1945 were married. Together they would have four children. After untimely death of Mario in October 1959 Betty’s life left any sense. And she died in March 1960, having survived her beloved husband by only five months and leaving their four children full orphants.