Christopher Lynch

Born in Rathkeale, Ireland, Lynch started to sing in concerts as an amateur when still very young. In 1942, when singin on the stage of a movie theater in Limerick, he was heard by members of the O'Mara family, wealthy local patrons of the arts, and they would pay for his vocal studies in Dublin with Vincent O'Brien, who had once also been the teacher of John McCormack.

O'Brien soon arranged a series of concerts throughout Ireland for Lynch, and at one of them, in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin in 1944, McCormack was in the audience – and so enthusiastic about the young singer that he took over his tutoring, and for the last year of his life became Lynch's new teacher. After McCormack's death, Lynch went to Italy for further study, again with the help of the O'Maras.

It had still been McCormack to arrange Lynch's first recordings with RCA Victor; and it was Joseph O'Mara to fly to the USA with those records, and to play them to NBC radio conductor Howard Barlow. The result was that Lynch succeeded Richard Crooks as the regular tenor of the hugely popular "Voice of Firestone" radio (from 1949: TV) show. His Firestone debut took place in October 1946 at Carnegie Hall, before an audience of 3000. Lynch remained with the Voice of Firestone until 1954, and became a household name in the US. For instance, he adorned the cornerstone ceremony of the United Nations building in New York City in 1946. Besides singing on the show, he gave concerts throughout the USA and Canada – many concerts, perhaps even too many: when 28 years old, he had already sung 150 concerts!

This is likely to have shortened his career, which was practically over when he left the Voice of Firestone. A few more concerts in Ireland followed, then he retired. He later lived in Worcestershire, England, where he also died.

Reference 1, Reference 2, Reference 3, picture source

I wish to thank Anton Bieber for the recordings and label scans.