WHAT’S ON? ACROSS THE GLOBE ... America & Canada Hay Fever 24 Jun to 31 Aug Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, USA. More info: www.bard.org. AUGUST 31 Jul to 24 Nov The Shaw Festival Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Canada 2002 www.shawfest.sympatico.ca Directed by Christopher Newton Blithe Spirit 16 Jul to 4 Aug Bay Street Theatre’s Cast includes: Twiggy, Dana Ivey, Patricia Kalember, Angela Thornton, Herb Foster, Daniel Gerroll & Kerrie Blaisdell. THE BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE NOEL COWARD SOCIETY Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, NY 1 to 2 Nov Daysland Little Theatre Company, PO Box 325, Daysland Alberta, T0B 1A0 18 Oct to 2 Nov Binbrook little Theatre inc. PO Box 74, Binbrook Ontario, L0R 1C0 20 Sep to 4 Oct Burlington Little Theatre, 7770, Drury Lane, Burlington, Ontario L7R 2Y2 The Backroom Girl 24 Oct to 9 Nov North Vancouver Community Players, North Vancouver, BC Private Lives to Sep 1st Broadway, with Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman Joan Hirst 1914 - 2002 5 to 21 Sep Domino theatre, Kingston, Ontario. Waiting In The Wings 16 Sep to 5 Oct Ottawa Little Theatre, King Edward Avenue, Ottawa, ON Joan Hirst was one of the last remaining currently running a cinema. Theatre was professional musician. In what her son, 2 to 19 Oct Nanaimo Theatre Group, Nanaimo, BC links with a now-vanished theatrical in the family blood: her grandfather Robin, would called ‘the bohemian set 15 to 19 Oct Saskatoon Gateway Players, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan world. As secretary to both Noël Coward (who instigated the Vaudeville Theatre of Dewsbury during the 1930s - if you Europe and Michael Redgrave, she was a self- in London) and her great-grandfather can believe such a thing’ - Franklin and A Song At Twilight Sep 2002 Theatre du Palais Royal Paris, Starring Line Renaud declared ‘backroom girl’, who prided were both theatrical managers, and Joan lived together as man and wife, herself on her tact and discretion. both took the stage name ‘David James’ without the usual ceremonies to Australasia Joan came to work for Coward legitimate the union. Robin, their Design For Living Nov - Dec State Theatre Co of South Australia, Adelaide in 1949, initially as a part-time only child, was born in 1937. Blithe Spirit 28 to 31 Aug Tropic Line TheatreTownsville, Queensland, Australia secretary, typing up his diary. Sparks, who was 21 years Joan’s We Were Dancing/ She was adjudged amenable senior, had already been married, Shadow Play/Red peppers 2003 (TBC) Queensland Theatre Co. Optus Playhouse, Brisbane enough to join ‘the Family’, it transpired, with another child (a Coward’s circle of friends and daughter, Helen), but was The Rest of the World employees: Graham Payn, his separated from his wife. Private Lives Current Pieter Toerien Productions, Cape Town, Grahamstown, Jo’burg, South Africa companion; Cole Lesley, his During the Second World War 26 Sep to 26 Oct King & Taylor, Durban, South Africa personal assistant; Lorn Loraine, Sparks’ life as ‘an itinerant his secretary; and friends such as musician’ - a ‘very proficient United Kingdom Joyce Carey, the actress, and pianist’, he had won an award at Elaine Stritch At Liberty 1 Oct 2002 to 25 Jan 2003 The Old Vic Theatre, London. Gladys Calthrop, his designer. an Eisteddfod in the 1920s, and Love In A Maze 5 Jun to 27 Jul (Dion Boucicault) at the Watermill Newbury. Coward music provides the score Together these constituted a had one of his compositions Hay Fever 2003 New West End production starring Penelope Wilton directed by Laurence cohesive force, as though set played by the then Dr. Malcolm Boswell. against the world - a scenario Sargent - performed for ENSA. Present Laughter 14 to 17 Oct Gawsworth Hall, Cheshire very much portrayed in His family, meanwhile, were 21 to 28 Sep Whitefield Garrick Society, Whitefield, Manchester starring NCS member Coward’s play, Present Laughter. officially ‘of no fixed abode’, Andrew Close as Gary Essendine As the new girl, Joan Hirst - or living with friends and relatives Brief Encounter See dates Noël Coward / Andrew Taylor - Middle Ground Theatre Co UK Tour Joan Sparks, as she was then - (including Joan’s sister, Pat). 4 to 7 Sep Southport Arts might have been regarded as In Norwich during the 1940s, 17 to 21 Sep Buxton Opera rather in awe of the situation. Joan worked for the Gas Board, 24 to 28 Sep Sheffield Lyceum Certainly, Lorn Loraine and subsequently moved to 1 to 5 Oct Swansea Grand became her role model, albeit a Blackpool, then back to London, The Vortex 22 to 23 Nov Queen Mother Theatre, Hitchin, Hertfordshire rather bohemian one given to during which period she and Design for Living 19 Oct Theatre Royal Bath Productions UK Tour (6-8 weeks) colourful language and forthright Joan Hirst at the Alexander House NCS event in 2001 Franklin Sparks separated, fairly 26 Jun to 10 Aug The Royal Exchange theatre, Manchester Director Marianne Elliott and opinions. Perhaps a result of this, and of (Joan delighted in the fact that a amicably (Sparks went on to remarry, Lez Brotherston, director and designer respectively of the Exchange’s her position in the ‘pecking order’, Hirst Victorian playbill displayed at the sire another child, and end his days productions of NUDE WITH VIOLIN and A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE herself was a much more guarded figure. Cadogan Hotel listed one of her playing on the bandstand in Worthing). are reunited for a brand new production of Coward’s provocative story of As Duncan Knowles, who would work grandfather’s productions; the renowned After the war, Joan was employed as a celebrity status and the nature of fidelity. Booking is now open and the show for ‘Auntie Joan’ in later years, recalls, American playwright, David Belasco, secretary at the ‘imposing redbrick’ runs until 10 August. Special ticket offer - £5 off the top three ticket prices on ‘She was a fantastic critic, but she was a distant cousin). Her parents also Rutland Gate offices of the Actors performances on Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays (subject to availability.) To always wanted to know what you took the surname of James for their Orphanage office, but by 1949, had been book, simply call the Box Office on 0 161 833 9833 and quote thought first, because she didn’t want to stage appearances in vaudeville. invited to work part-time for Lorn ‘GG OFFER’. Box Office 0161 833 9833 offend anyone.’ Yet for all the theatrical As a result of her parents’ calling, Joan’s Loraine, Noël Coward’s secretary, at the The World of Ivor Novello 20 Sep 8.00 pm Serendipity presents at The Radlett Centre, Aldenham Avenue, Radlett, Herts colour of her employment, Joan Hirst’s was a peripatetic early life. She and her playwright’s mews home and office in Films early years were just as remarkable, and younger sister Patricia were initially Gerald Road, Belgravia. At the same Blithe Spirit Remake. Producers British Lion/Hollywood Pictures for Universal in retrospect - for few knew the details educated in Londonderry, but the family time, she also became secretary to Quadrille Producer Vanguard/Monogram/Skyline of her own biography - were more than a subsequently moved to England, settling Michael Redgrave, and moved to (* denotes Premiere, TBC = To be confirmed) preparation for her life with her adoptive in various places in Yorkshire. In Chiswick to be near Redgrave, who Please ensure that your production is operating under copyright. All copyright enquiries for professional productions should be ‘Family’. Dewsbury, at a ‘musical soiree’, a lived there. She would spend the made to: Alan Brodie Representation, 211 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9HF United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7917 2871 Fax: +44 She was born on 18 March 1914 in violinist called Geoffrey Hirst mornings working for him, then travel (0) 20 7917 2872. All correspondence on the Noël Coward Society should be sent to: The Noël Coward Society, 29, Waldemar Londonderry, where her parents, Gerald introduced her to Franklin Baverstock up to London in the afternoon to Avenue, Hellesdon, Norwich, NR6 6TB Email: membership@Noëlcoward.net Tel: +44 (0)1603 486188 Fax: +44 (0)1603 400683 and Doris Belasco, were actor managers Sparks, another accomplished undertake her duties for Noël Coward Page 20 MASTERPIECES - report on the Society Event inside ... Ltd. This arrangement - which had party to something approaching a farce would say; or, ‘Here we are, doing our Continued from page 18 If today’s preference for American would cease as diners watched him echoes of Coward’s own ‘brief in the subsequent arrangements. Having doggy best’. She was a fixture at playwright-composer to specifically musicals is due to the tunes, then why take his seat and it was on the strength encounter’ with Redgrave during the taken the call at two am., she told Coward first nights, ‘always address and attack the Nazi treatment not bother to research Novello’s of his appearance at the Savoy Grill Second World War - ended when Coward’s accountant, Leslie Smith, that immaculately coiffured and dressed’, as of the Jews, and to use the issue as the shows? King’s Rhapsody took a record that D W Griffith cast him, as the lead Redgrave’s career ‘moved on and he no she was making arrangements to her son recalls, unfazed whether the engine that powered a contemporary advance box office in 1949, as though in The White Rose (1923). company musical, was Novello, in The Dancing Oklahoma!, with its supposedly earth- Women have long known that great included pop Years (1939). shattering impact on West End beauties are never taken seriously, and stars or lowly His previous shows (Glamorous Night, fashion, had never happened. Ivor seems to be as much a victim of biographers. 1935, Careless Rapture, 1936, Crest of There is nothing anti-American in this ridiculous but persistent prejudice However, she the Wave, 1937) had saved the Theatre these observations - it’s a wonderful as any actress. gradually found Royal, Drury Lane, from closure, and country with a superb musical, Perhaps the 50th anniversary of his that age and the had made frequent references to theatrical and cinematic history - but death, in 2001, will be seen as an demands of her contemporary events from kidnappings then, so is Britain. Relegating Novello appropriate peg on which to hang the employment in China to the lure of Hollywood and to the dustbin of history is an act not revival of at least one show by the were becoming the decline of stately homes. While it is so much of spite as of lack of cultural most successful popular. composer, onerous. The true that he was heavily influenced by curiosity. actor and playwright of the first half of many Lehar, and as a teenager had spent his Perhaps, in the end, the simplest, most the 20th century. celebrations spare time soaking up operettas (he superficial reason for his neglect is the surrounding saw The Merry Widow 27 times), he real one - despite our age’s obsession Paul Webb’s biography of Ivor Coward’s also wrote in the idiom of his day, with physical beauty, Novello’s Novello was published by Stage centenary in including jazz and production photos strikingly good looks have prevented Directions in the summer of 1999. 1999 proved of Careless Rapture in particular show him from being taken seriously. daunting, but as an astonishingly chic and art deco set Coward quipped: “There are two He lectured on Noel & Ivor at the Robin Sparks and costumes that are far removed perfect things in this world: my mind National Portrait Gallery on July 4 remarks, from the Ruritanian cliche with which and Ivor’s profile.” He was so 1999. ‘she was he has been landed. beautiful that, as a young man, determined to conversations in smart restaurants push through. It took an enormous lot out Harlequin & Arabesque A Theatrical Charivari at Renshaw of her, and (with thanks to Robert Gardiner for this item) probably Lorn Loraine and Joan Hirst at the Gerald Road office (thanks to Geoffrey Johnson for this photograph). The handsome 18th century stables of by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Margot Renishaw Hall, their bloodstock long and a couple of dresses which once Fonteyn, Sir Frederick Ashton, Fenella longer needed her’, as her son bring Coward’s body back to England. contributed to her collapse in 2000.’ At departed, have had new life breathed adorned Ava Gardner immediately catch Fielding and Cecil Beaton in between. recalls. Smith, however, pointed out that this the age of 86, Hirst was persuaded to go into them and have been evolving over the eye. The earliest exhibit is a very rare print on In 1962, Robin Sparks was surprised to had tax implications, and after to Denville Hall, the theatrical old the last few years as an esoteric and This has all been masterminded by Alan glass showing David Garrick in action. receive a telephone call from his consulting a QC on the matter, advised people’s home at Northwood, beguiling centre for the Arts - unique Sievewright, described as ‘Impresario The whole stable complex has been mother, telling him she was about to get Hirst that the Master ought to rest where Middlesex, where she had friends and in its setting and in its exhibits. The and theatre animal ‘ par excellence’ - a redesigned and the Pipers have been married - for the first time. ‘I hope you he lay. Coward was accordingly lived out the rest of her life in a fair spectrum is wide, embracing the Sitwell man who has worked in cinema, TV, moved to a newly restored area which don’t mind, dear?’ Her husband, whom buried on Firefly Hill. degree of contentment. Moira family’s unrivalled collection of radio, opera, ballet and theatre and who provides much more space and light to she married at Chelsea Town Hall - was After Coward’s death, Hirst proved her Miller, who runs Denville Hall, paintings and drawings by John Piper has been associated with Rudolf show off these masterpieces to their best Geoffrey Hirst - the man who had mettle by taking over much of the remembers her ‘huge pithiness - she was and examples of modern sculpture, to the Nureyev, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas, advantage. Elsewhere are other rooms introduced her to Franklin Sparks day-to-day running of his estate in very sharp and could be devastatingly great steam engine, restored Placido Domingo and many others. To with family exhibits and displays of twenty-five years previously. Hirst had England. With Cole Lesley’s death in funny. She could insult you in a way to working order, which forms a watch him in action is to see an artist at costumes. As this goes to press, other been an orchestral leader and 1980, and with Graham Payn, his heir that left a smile on your face.’ dramatic centrepiece in the far courtyard. work - a display case is his canvas, plans are in hand for an agricultural bandmaster on the Queen Elizabeth, and companion living in Switzerland, Having dedicated herself to others, hers It is one of 20 commissioned by Tsar theatrical artefacts his paint, as he museum. In fact Renishaw is fast but was invalided out with tuberculosis. it fell to Hirst to field the many enquires was a life of duty. She did ‘nothing if not Nicholas II in 1914 but never painstakingly spends time over placing becoming an embarras de richesse. Together he and Joan moved into a which would reach her in her wholeheartedly - it typified her collected. objects in exactly the right position to basement flat off Kings Road (their Cadogan Square flat. Here was installed existence’, recalls her son, ‘and her Now a major addition to this exhibition give maximum effect. Robert Innes-Smith neighbour was Stephen Ward, who, the Coward archive, in a series of watchword was discretion’. It is perhaps is the Performing Arts Gallery ‘All Mr Sievewright devised a charity during the Christine Keeler affair, cupboards and drawers which, as ironic that discretion obscured her own the World’s a Stage’, displaying performance in the presence of Prince committed suicide in the flat himself Sheridan Morley recalls, ‘looked like remarkable story - one which might well theatrical memorabilia offering a feast of and Princess Michael of Kent and in The exhibition and galleries at next door). Later, the Hirsts moved to a they hadn’t been opened for a hundred have furnished her celebrated employer glamour and nostalgia (pictured below). 1991 a special evening in honour of the Renishaw are open to the public from top floor flat in Cadogan Square, years. Yet if you asked her where with a dramatic plot line to rival any of Here is a cavalcade of theatre, ballet, late Princess of Wales. Among his 10.30 am to 4.30 pm on Fridays, acquired for them by Noël Coward. such-and-such a photograph, taken in his own theatrical creations. opera, musical comedy and costume personal creations for this exhibition he Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Geoffrey Hirst died in April 1975, of 1921, was, she knew immediately - even likely to enchant even someone with has designed an explanatory montage Mondays until the end of September throat cancer. if it was in a bathroom cupboard’. Philip Hoare only the slightest interest in such things. for every Shakespeare play, each framed In the meantime, ‘the Family’ had to Throughout the 80s and 90s she Signed photographs and programmes and mounted. The Renishaw Hall website: face the sudden loss of their Master. On continued to perform this duty, inflected Reprinted from the Daily Telegraph by relating to such great stars as Bette The time-scale of the exhibits ranges http://www.sitwell.co.uk/ 26 March, 1973, Coward died of a heart with a series of catchphrases which the kind permission of Philip Hoare Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Maria Callas, from Oscar Wilde and his Salome, and a gives a full programnme of events for attack at his Jamaican retreat, Firefly. It seemed to underline her delightfully Noel Coward, Elizabeth Taylor and Jean corner devoted to Jenny Lind (‘The the year. was a bitter blow for Hirst and his old-fashioned demeanour. ‘They don’t Cocteau are beautifully mounted and Swedish Nightingale’) to Elvis Presley friends, although in the event, Joan was give it away with a pound of tea’, she artistically displayed. Costumes as worn and Mick Jagger with the likes of Sir Page 2 Page 19 Following the interest shown in the comparison between Ivor Novello and Noel Coward Terence Trimmer has sent a piece by Paul Webb published in the Daily Telegraph during Noel Coward’s Centenary Year MASTERPIECES at Guildford - Michael Imison reports The Society’s planned visit to this production in its opening weeks at Coward versus Novello Birmingham had to be cancelled due to lack of support. A second attempt to organise a group to see the show in Guildford was more successful. 24 members and guests gathered in the charming riverside setting of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre to see a matinee performance on Saturday 29th June. This difference illustrates once again the difficulty the Society has in setting up events for members who do not live in the London. At our current level of membership only London has a sufficiently concentrated number of members to make special events economically viable. Arguably if there were more events outside London more people would join but the Society cannot (R to L) Malcolm McKee, Rula Lenska, Judy Campbell & Christopher Luscombe afford to subsidise events to which This year is the centenary of Noel Yet a recent poll of the top 100 tunes could not find a place for World Weary interviewed. Noël’s interview was Night (1935) to Gay’s the Word nobody comes. Coward’s birth. It is being marked by of the century features no Coward Chris’s personal favourite. illustrated with a photograph of himself (1951), and despite, too, our continued The afternoon in Guildford started with concerts and a host of revivals, numbers, but does include the first, They had thought they would need a cast playing opposite Judy Campbell in enjoyment of the musical as an art drinks in the elegant Vanbrugh Room, including Hay Fever in the West End and one of the most popular, of of ten to have the range of talents Present Laughter. Judy Campbell and form and the.frequent discussion of normally used by members of the and the National Theatre’s production Novello’s - Keep the Home Fires needed to do justice to all the different Moira Lister both agreed to autograph it the balance of power between the West theatre’s supporters’ club but loaned to of the Coward classic Private Lives, Burning. The song made him wealthy items. The corollary of this was that no for the winner. In the event Judy End and Broadway, Novello seems to the Society for this occasion. This was which opens tonight. and internationally, famous while still one person had a great deal to do, which Campbell’s own name was first out of have been air-brushed out of the followed by a light buffet lunch which The celebration of his talent is entirely only 21. The breadth of his appeal made it unattractive to actors. Only the hat and rather touchingly she asked history of British popular culture. gave members a chance to get to know justified, but one of the main reasons during his lifetime, from the London after they had reduced the cast size to if she would be allowed to keep the When interviewing Trevor Nunn in each other. Two of the society’s Vice for the continuing fascination with gay set to battle-hardened servicemen, eight were they able to find the sort of prize. This was agreed. Moira connection with profiles for the Presidents, Judy Campbell and Moira Coward is that he is assumed to be the from young girls who wanted to marry actors they wanted. Even so the stars autographed the book for her and she souvenir brochure of the National Lister had kindly agreed to be with us only example of flamboyant, witty and him to matrons who wanted to mother Weldon had hoped for were not can be seen holding it in the picture Theatre production of Oklahoma!, I for the occasion and Robert Gardiner, tuneful theatricality, combined with him, his range of talents and the available for one reason or another. The which accompanies this article. asked him whether he had considered Ali Howarth and myself were there obvious star quality, that early 20th versatility of his music, makes the lack centenary came and went and finally the Finally members joined a packed house using his public grant to put on a from the committee. century Britain produced. of interest in Novello all the more Birmingham Repertory theatre offered to for the matinee of Masterpieces. After a British musical for once. After lunch Chris Luscombe (a society There was another, however. He was bizarre. mount a short tour. The opportunity to rather downbeat opening, which was not Asked whether I had anyone in mind, I member) and Malcolm McKee who one of Coward’s greatest friends, and He was much more than a songwriter. see the show up and running was too helped by the decision to substitute mentioned Novello, at which point his together devised and directed the show the only contemporary to exceed him Novello had the most extraordinary, good to miss. Chris and Malcolm said rather drab contemporary clothes for the eyes glazed over and he became gave an account of how it came to be in terms of public popularity Ivor and consistently successful career of they had learnt a good deal from traditional evening dress, the show soon defensive, muttering something about written and the principles underlying its Novello. Yet posterity seems to any non-classical British actor this rehearsals which inevitably had involved got into its stride. Number followed having heard some of his music, and creation. It had originally been have sent Novello off to the dressing century. It was also one of the most trailed off into silence. a certain amount of restructuring. Even number, whirled on and off stage by a , commissioned by the West End producer room rather than acknowledge his versatile, for not only was he a hugely after the show opened in Birmingham, revolve, while the abstract set and This refusal even to look into the body Duncan Weldon. He had wanted a new rightful position centre-stage. successful matinee idol on the inter- they decided one sequence did not work atmospheric lighting constantly of work that Novello produced (which, show featuring Coward’s work, and Coward’s songs, unlike Novello’s, war stage, he was the author of many and rewrote it. Now they were transformed themselves into fresh to be fair to Nunn, seems to be shared particularly the songs, to present in have been taken up by the modern of the plays in which he starred, and reasonably happy with what they had got combinations. Lyrics merged into by all the movers and shakers of the 1999, the centenary of Coward’s birth. generation last year, performers was an internationally famous silent- and were very pleased with the audience poems into snatches of autobiography arts establishment) is part of a sweetly He knew Malcolm and Chris from The including Robbie Williams, Damon movie star, working for, among others, reaction to date. After the closure in and back again, seamlessly illustrating old-fashioned idea that any American Shakespeare Revue which they created Albarn, the Pet Shop Boys, Elton John D W Griffith and Alfred Hitchcock. Guildford they would probably do a the underlying consistency of Noël musical, even if half a century old, for the RSC. Their approach to the task and, lending a touch of Sixties cool, This year is Hitchcock’s centenary as little more work on the script Coward’s thought. Subjects included the must be good, and any Novello show was to try to do something different Marianne Faithfull - combined to well as Coward’s. Ivor was the star of preparatory to reopening in 2003. Theatre, Travel, Love, Life and Death. must be bad. Weren’t they romantic? from a simple collection of Noël record their versions of Coward’s best the British film that made the Before the Society members had the On each Noël not only had something to Lush? Wouldn’t they seem dated now? Coward’s Greatest Hits. They read songs for EMI’s album 20th Century director’s reputation, The Lodger chance to see the show for themselves, say but had found ways of saying it that No more than a distinctly 1940s style virtually everything Coward ever wrote Blues. (1926), and of the lesser-known but there were two more items on the were in turn wise, witty, moving, and, production of Carousel or the quaint including short stories and unperformed True, there is the Ivor Novello Award cinematically fascinating Downhill (a agenda. Firstly, a limited number of above all tuneful, as the actors’ voices, frontier folk of Oklahoma! plays and came up with a show based for song-writing, but the decision to film version of Novello’s stage play of programmes signed by the cast were accompanied by twin grand pianos, At a time when ethnic persecution is around specific themes in which songs, re-christen it “the Ivors” - it sounds the same name) the following year. distributed among the members and gloriously attested. Dance was not back on the European agenda, and poems, extracts from plays and books hipper - makes it even less likely that Despite this, and the fact that he secondly the Society, as on previous forgotten either and a number of the works about the Third Reich have could be blended together. This allowed the younger recipients will have the switched from cinema to almost such occasions, raffled a book. This songs were choreographed, including a been playing to full houses, it is well familiar works to be heard alongside the first idea of whose skills the awards singlehandedly keeping British time it was Great Acting, the book tap-dance performed to I Like America. to remember that the only high-profile less familiar. Most of the indispensable are meant to commemorate. musical theatre alive for nearly 20 published to accompany the sixties TV songs could be included, although they years, from Glamorous Continued on page 19 series in which great actors were Continued on page 4 Page 18 Page 3 Continued from page 3 afternoon was undeniably Noël’s and Music Director Michael Haslam matter? Hoare reaches the apogee of Ray Stanley wrote to us about a review Continued from page 13 With so much to take in, I finally found those of us who had come expecting a Assistant MD Mark Etherington absurdity when he accuses Novello of clipping in the April edition of HOME tan. Amongst them is the Hotel des the place a little too brisk. The extracts treat were not disappointed. Sound Designer Rick Clarke ‘sexual hypocrisy’. Didn’t Coward write CHAT re the first run of Private Lives. Artistes (13) on West 67th Street where from a few of the plays did provide a Jamie Barber, the director of the Cast heterosexual musical romances, and He writes ... Probably someone else has Noël stayed after his battles with the change of pace but I would have liked Theatre, came and saw us afterwards. I Helen Anker leave first nights with glamorous already contacted you about the Private producers and the tryout for The Vortex perhaps a couple more and for these to was pleased to be able to report our Gillian Bevan actresses on his arm? And, of course, Lives clipping in HOME CHAT. I am in Washington. In its cafe it is still be a little longer. This would also have members’ feeling that on top of a superb Michael Cahill Hoare can’t resist accusing Novello of certain that this would have come from seating its diners in tastefully furnished given more opportunity for the cast to show they had been extremely well Jane Gurnett using the ‘casting-couch’. In fact, the ‘Morning Post’ and the critic Samuel rooms demonstrate their acting abilities. looked after. Clive Hayward Novello was renowned for using the Robinson Littlewood (1875-1963). He watched Talented as they all were in the end I felt MASTERpieces - The Words and Gavin Lee same ageing performers for his choruses was dramatic critic of the ‘Morning by a host that none of them had totally solved the Music of Noël Coward Rula Lenska over and over again. Hoare’s soggy Post’ 1927-37 and was editor of ‘The of painted difficult problem of bringing something Devised and directed by Michael Siberry thinking has no intellectual base. Stage’ 1943-52. ladies of themselves to the task of being a Christopher Luscombe and Malcolm Presented by the Birmingham Repertory I only hope that at my death I am as including mouthpiece for Noël and by this means McKee, Production designer Tim Theatre Company in association with ‘faded’ a celebrity as Novello. Far from Gerald Gutierrez wrote by email ... Marion sharing their own enthusiasm for the Goodchild, Lighting Designer Howard Duncan C Weldon and Paul Elliott for Hoare’s assertion that after his prison I’ve been a Coward FANATIC since I Davies , material with the audience. But the Harrison, Choreographer Jenny Arnold Triumph Entertainment Ltd. sentence ‘Novello’s star fell rapidly was a child. For some reason I always Randolph from grace’, at the time of his passing he dreamed of owning a brown velvet Hearst’s was still the toast of London, starring in tuxedo and making an entrance down a beloved Marcy Kahan’s BLITHE SPY ... and Neysa McMein his last great musical King’s Rhapsody, long, long flight of stairs, smoking a mistress - Our apologies go to Marcy Kahan for not following “... what an absolutely delight- salon of Neysa McMein was an open- and with another substantial hit, Gay’s cigarette held in a silver holder, and a young, advertising this wonderful radio produc- ful piece of entertainment! Malcolm house to the Round Table crowd. the Word (a clever melding of his sipping a dry martini. and tion in the last Home Chat. We include Sinclair is a wonderful Coward. In McMein was an unabashed stargazer operetta style with a broader musical Now that I’m in my 40s you should successful details here of the play and hope that it addition to the obvious impersonation who attached herself romantically to comedy style) drawing the crowds. His know that my dear friend, Andre Bishop silent film can join her previous success Design for techniques (clipped speech and cadence, H.G. Wells, Charlie Chaplin, Feodor death was headline news, and people (who gave me the membership to the actress. The polished dark wooden Murder on a BBC audio-cassette at etc.) his intention, spirit and sense of the Chapin and others both before her stood in the streets of London crying. society as a Christmas gift) and I meet panels and balustrades, painted murals some time in the future. period is so right. Ms. Kahan has very marriage and after. She was, as a His funeral cortege passed thousands of every December 16th at the Rainbow and discreet showbusiness portraits still The play starred Malcolm Sinclair as ingeniously created a piece of mourners. Presumably the British public Room in New York City, order dry cumulatively provide one of the best Noël Coward and Eleanor Bron as his fiction that has a strange ring of had forgiven him for (in Hoare’s words) martinis and toast The Master. eating atmospheres in New York. secretary, Lorn Loraine. This play was a truth about it. In addition to ‘driving his Rolls Royce around town’ I happen to be a working director in the follow-up to Kahan’s well-received Noël Sinclair’s performance, using during the war. This is a disgraceful slur Broadway theater and I’ve been trying to This article will be continued in the Coward detective comedy, Design for Coward’s actual recordings on a man whose patriotism was of the organize productions of Coward plays October edition of Home Chat... Murder, which was broadcast on BBC somehow blurs the distinction finest kind, and whose contributions to for years and years. We were about to do Radio 4 in January 2000. Other real-life between fantasy and reality. It is two great wars included the writing of a full-throttle production of Cavalcade characters included one of Coward’s really clever and sure to please any the anthems Keep the Home Fires when the American economy took a turn COMMITTEE... most cherished friends -the American Coward fan.” Burning and We’ll Gather Lilacs. and it’s now, once again, on hold. For the benefit of new members here are painter Neysa McMein, played by Perhaps the basic fault of Hoare’s article Michael Imison came over from London details of the Society’s Patron, Honorary Elizabeth McGovern and President Neysa McMein - One of the is in its title Ivor vs Noël. a couple of years ago to attend a Officers and Committee who are: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, played by characters in Blithe Spy is artist He does not appreciate that both men workshop/demonstration/reading of a Bob Sherman. The complete cast was and magazine illustrator, Neysa had very different qualities that we must project I’ve always wanted to do of the Patron Graham Payn Malcolm Sinclair, Eleanor Bron, McMein. Her real first name was celebrate. There is no denying that full Tonight At 8.30 plays, but with a Elizabeth McGovern, Adam Sims, Bob Marjorie - she had it changed on Novello did not have the wit of Coward, repertory company of actors instead of Honorary President Sir John Mills Sherman, Ian Masters, Kerry Shale, the advice of a numerologist, and but Novello’s success as a composer of the usual vehicle casting for two stars. Peter Marinker, and Gerard McDermott. her career seemed to advance musical plays far outstripped Coward’s The workshop was a total success but, Honorary Vice Presidents: The Director was Gordon House. rapidly from that point. She wrote achievements. He might also have once again, the MONEY became an Judy Campbell, Joan Hirst, The Story- When fervent patriot Noël a column on numerology herself mentioned that Coward worked rather issue. (Using an orchestra in a Broadway Moira Lister & Sheridan Morley Coward and his secretary Lorn Lorraine for a short time in the 1920s - harder at being a celebrity than Novello theater for only SOME of the plays costs went to New York in 1940, he was until she discovered that people did. In foolishly trying to besmirch one, a fortune.). Last year one of my dreams Consultants Philip Hoare & Joel Kaplan working for British Intelligence at the Hoare does no credit to the other. was realized when I directed Elaine time. He was part of a campaign to get Coward and Novello deserve better than Stritch in a concert performance/revival Michael Imison (Chair & NC Ltd.) America to abandon its isolationist this. of Sail Away at Carnegie Hall. John Knowles (Secretary & NC Ltd.) position and join the fight against contemporary put it, “a tart ... a All this is a long-winded way of saying Graham Martin (Blinkhorns) Hon.Tres. fascism. This play starts with Coward professional beau catcher, that one,” Philip Hoare responds I’m thrilled to be a member of the Robert Gardiner (Director NC Ltd. & a making the crossing and being ap- and, again like Woollcott, her principal ‘It is always nice to get some feedback, Society and look forward to years and trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation) proached by a young writer who’s requirement of those she courted or positive or negative. All I can say is I years of pleasure. Claire Osborne (Warner Chappell) having problems with the third act of his who courted her was born or acquired respect these views, and plead mea culpa Geoffrey Skinner (Samuel French) play. ‘If you show it to me tonight,’ says status. For those she liked she was not to the factual mistakes. The piece was Please send your letters and emails to: Barry Day (Coward historian and US Noël, ‘we could iron out the kinks by the above some revisionism. The man she meant to be rather more light-hearted The Noël Coward Society at the Consultant) morning.’ Noël’s not the only one married Baragwanath, was a mining than the manner in which it was address on page 18. Gareth Pike (Past Secretary) talking in code, and soon he and his engineer who had worked in South received. I obviously didn’t bargain for Stephen Marshall (Member) secretary are embroiled in a dangerous America where his father had been a the loud and vocal Novello fan club out Emails should be sent to Jane Finch (Member) game of espionage and Methodist minister. When Neysa there. Perhaps, like Noël, I was a letters@Noëlcoward.net Ali Howarth (Alan Brodie Rep.) counter-espionage. This really was a described him to her friends, that little jealous of Ivor’s good looks. Ned Chaillet (BBC Drama) witty and well-crafted piece. Ken information was magically Peter Tummons (Methuen Drama) Starrett, an NCS member, sent the were heeding her advice! In 1921, the Continued on page 5 Page 4 Page 17 correspondence including responses to Ivor vs Noel Continued from page 4 governments and spent six months in “Betty Crocker,” a fictional housewife LETTERS ... transformed. “He’s a Latin American,” France as a lecturer and entertainer. whose brand name was intended to be a she would say, “His father is a minister From 1923 through 1937 McMein seal of solid middle-class domestic Our piece in June’s edition of HOME name was ‘already a byword for faded celebrity” is completely false. Novello to Washington from one of values. Alongside a highly successful CHAT entitled Ivor vs Noël created a celebrity’ was starring in King’s Rhapsody from those countries.” In a novel career as an illustrator and designer, flurry of correspondence from members. King’s Rhapsody ran for another six 1949 right up until his death (at 58 about the Algonquin group McMein managed a brilliant social life. We print here the letters we have months, while Gay’s the word was a years of age not 56) in March 1951 and called Entirely Surrounding, A gay and unselfconsciously beautiful received from NCS members plus a huge success. An all-star tribute to Ivor the show proved to be the most Charles Brackett describes his woman, she became a regular member of response from the author Philip Hoare. was held at the Coliseum, hosted commercially successful of all Novello Neysa character as one who “ the Algonquin Round Table set, with her by Noël and Gladys Cooper, whom he musicals. His show for Cicely would always be where the closest friends including Alexander From Ken Sephton has Sheridan Morley referring to as his Courtneidge Gay’s The Word had also sunshine was warm.” Neysa Woollcott, Alice Duer Miller and Jascha What a disappointment that HOME MOTHER! He must have dreamt up that just opened. His funeral was almost like was much more of her decade Heifetz. Franklin P. Adams, Robert CHAT chose to reprint that article by one, as Mr. Morley is perfectly aware a state occasion. Thousands lined the than Woollcott was. Pastel Benchley, Edna Ferber, Irving Berlin Philip Hoare. Though it showed The she was his grandmother! streets leading to Golders Green portraits caught a distinctive and Bernard Baruch were also among Master in a good light it was both Maybe there is some slight excuse for Crematorium and the funeral service was look on canvas - the look of the her companions, and her West 57th unkind and inaccurate regarding Mr. Hoare as he was not around not only relayed to the crowds of placidly sophisticated ingenue, Street studio was a popular gathering Novello. Did Hoare do any research, when Ivor was the great star, but as a people who could not get in to the a woman whose freedom to be place. In 1923 she made an because he was lacking in knowledge of published author he should at least packed church of St. Martin-In-The- sophisticated Neysa had unconventionally unrestrictive marriage Ivor’s life and career. have done his homework! Fields but was also broadcast in its heralded in the suffrage with John C. Baragwanath, a mining He stated that Ivor’s flat at 1 Aldwych entirety on radio. Not exactly the send movement. And no matter who engineer and author. McMein’s more was directly above the Aldwych Theatre. From Geoffrey Bowden off of a fallen star! the model, her portrait finally private artistic ambitions lay in the field If he had ever been in the area he would I would like to make the following resembled no one more than of portraiture, at first in pastels and later know it was above the STRAND comments on the Philip Hoare article From Adrian Wright herself. She was born in Quincy, in oil. With the decline in popularity of Theatre. Ivor vs Noël: It beggars belief that so apparently Illinois, on January 24, 1888, her style of commercial art in the later Then he names three of Ivor’s ‘Viennese 1) Ivor’s flat was not immediately above respected a biographer as Philip Hoare Margery Edna McMein attended 1930s, she turned increasingly to flavoured productions: Glamorous the Aldwych Theatre but above the should have written such an inaccurate, the school of the Art Institute of portraiture. Among her subjects were Night (1935), Careless Rapture (1936) Strand Theatre. There is, in fact, a blue misleading and unpleasant piece about Chicago and in 1913 went to Presidents Harding and Hoover, Edna and The Dancing Years (1939) with plaque there stating that fact. Ivor Novello. Those who know nothing New York City. After a brief stint St. Vincent Millay, Anne Morrow songs such as We’ll gather lilacs. This 2) I can’t believe that Sheridan Morley of Novello’s life and career will as an actress she turned to commercial provided all of McCall’s covers. She Lindbergh, Dorothy Parker, Janet did not come from any of these called Gladys Cooper his mother when have been given the impression that he art. McMein studied at the Art Students’ also supplied work to McClure’s, Flanner, Katharine Cornell, Helen shows, but from Perchance to Dream in fact she was his grandmother! was a theatrical nonentity. Those who League for a few months and in 1914 Liberty, Woman’s Home Companion, Hayes, Dorothy Thompson, Anatole (1945) set in England and not remotely 3) Mr. Hoare’s assertion that Coward know rather more of Novello than Mr. sold her first drawing to the Boston Star. Collier’s, Photoplay, and other France, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Evans Viennese flavoured!” “had a good war” whilst Novello did not Hoare (who seems to know nothing of The next year she sold a cover to the magazines, and she created advertising Hughes, and Count Zeppelin (McMein As for praising Coward’s work in the is hardly borne out by the facts. It’s quite him) will be infuriated. Saturday Evening Post. Her warm pastel graphics for such accounts as Palmolive had been one of the first women to fly in War (often overseas and far from the true that Novello was imprisoned for a So, Novello was nothing more than ‘a drawings of chic, healthy American girls (soap) and Lucky Strike (cigarettes). Zeppelin’s dirigible). McMein died in bombing, the black-out, the rationing month for petrol rationing offences but cross between Vera Lynn and Will proved highly popular and brought her General Mills’s Marjorie C. Husted New York, New York, on May 12, 1949. etc.,) while dismissing that of to say that Ivor spent the rest of the war Young’ ? Perhaps Hoare has been misled many commissions. During World War I commissioned her to create the image of Novello, when Ivor worked continually “driving his Rolls Royce around town” by the film of Gosford Park, in which she drew posters for the U.S. and French With thanks to Marcy Kahan, Barry throughout the War, every day is completely untrue. In 1939 Ivor Novello is portrayed as a singer. To my Day and various Internet sources. entertaining the public, the forces in opened in The Dancing Years and when knowledge neither Miss Lynn or the COLLECTOR’S LOT SOLVED London and on arduous tours. While war was declared and West End theatres appealing Mr. Young have had enormous Many thanks to all those NCS members who wrote in to let us know the name of the person on the front of appearing in one show he was working closed he immediately took a new play success as a film actor, written several the programme for Tonight At 8.30. It was of course the actress Diana Napier (1906 to 1982). She was born on the next and Hoare dared to say he (Second Helping) on a tour of the musical plays and comedies, played Molly Ellis in Bath, Somerset, England. She had a distinguished acting career but is also remembered for spent the War ‘driving his Rolls Royce provinces. He followed this with a tour Henry V in London, and capped her marriage to the popular Dutch tenor Richard Tauber with his around town’. He goes on to say that of the provinces of The Dancing Years their careers with a string of brilliant noted monocle and unique high-pitched renditions! For more after Ivor’s prison sentence ‘his star fell before returning with it to London where operettas. Internet information on Richard Tauber see www.dutchdivas.net/ rapidly from grace’ and he spent it ran for a further two years. Another Even more offensive than Hoare’s lack tenors/tauber2.html more time in retreat, notably in Jamaica. Novello show Arc De Triomphe opened of knowledge, and his attack on a figure REALLY? In fact he went straight in 1943 and then in the summer of 1944 who cannot defend himself, is the Diana Napier’s filmography (with thanks to the Internet Movie back into The Dancing Years (and was Ivor toured the invasion front in the play prurient tone of his piece. Winston Database) reads thus: Richard Tauber rapturously received) while working Love From A Stranger. The following Churchill bedding Ivor Novello? This is Bait (1950) Eleanor Parton on Arc de Triomphe and Perchance to year Ivor opened in Perchance To tittle-tattle of the loosest kind, totally Land Without Music (1936) Princess-Regent Maria Renata aka Forbidden Music Dream (his most successful musical) Dream, which proved a great success without foundation. As for the sybaritic (1938) (USA) in which he starred for several years running for 1022 performances. Mr. lifestyle that Novello enjoyed, Pagliacci (1936) Trina, showgirl aka Clown Must Laugh, A (1938) (USA) before writing and playing in King’s Hoare mentions Noël’s popular song of accompanied by ‘chorus boys posing in Trouble Ahead (1936) Winnie aka Falling in Love (1936) Rhapsody from 1949 to 1951 when World War 2 London Pride but well-filled woollen bathing suits’ - well Heart's Desire (1935) Diana Sheraton illness necessitated a short rest in somehow fails to mention Ivor’s really! According to Novello’s private Mimi (1935) Mme. Sidonie Jamaica, all the while working on Gay’s possibly more successful hit We’ll secretary, most of his nights (after a Royal Cavalcade (1935) .Actress aka Regal Cavalcade (1935) (USA) the word. Still very ill he returned to Gather Lilacs. All this activity is hardly performance) were spent quietly at his Warren Case, The (1934) Pauline Warren King’s Rhapsody and starred in it for the the work of a man driving a Rolls all flat playing canasta, while Olive Gilbert Private Life of Don Juan, The (1934) A Lady of Sentiment aka Don Juan (1934) following weeks right up to his untimely day! - his unofficial housekeeper - struggled Catherine the Great (1934) Countess Vorontzova aka The Rise of Catherine the Great, death. 4) Finally, to say “When Novello died of in the kitchen with a cheese omelette. In (1934) The Butterfly Affair (1933) For Love of You (1933) The Wife Her First Affaire After this huge body of work Hoare a heart attack in 1951 aged 56, his name fact, it seems much more likely that Diana Napier & Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. (1933) Mrs. Merton, Strange Evidence (1933) Jean aka Wife in Pawn (1933) dared to suggest that when he died his was already a byword for faded Novello was bisexual, but what does it Wedding Rehearsal (1933) Mrs. Dryden Page 16 Page 5 a London public house presided over LONDON CALLING! ... all the latest from the world of Coward by landlord Fred Shattock, a splendid PRODUCTION NEWS type of solid Englishman who meets • PRIVATE LIVES on Broadway is closing one week early (Sept. 1st) The play’s supporting actors both won the calamity with an enviable calm. A THEATRE WORLD awards for best newcomers! fascinating number of widely • PRIVATE LIVES is also currently on in Cape Town and will then be touring to Grahamstown and Johannesburg contrasted people visit “The Shy (Producer Peter Torien). Gazelle” and the chief interest of the • PRIVATE LIVES is on in Durban from 26/9/02 to 26/10/02 (Producers King and Taylor). play is to observe their varying reactions during the five years of the • TONIGHT AT EIGHT THIRTY Thelma Holt has this in her future plans (Jeremy Sams to direct) Occupation. In spite of the limitations • WE WERE DANCING, SHADOW PLAY and RED PEPPERS are on at the Queensland Biennial Festival August 2003, of its setting the author has contrived Queensland Theatre Co. production with full symphony orchestra. plenty of action and excitement. He • DESIGN FOR LIVING is currently at Manchester Royal Exchange to August 3rd. Director Marianne Elliott (NUDE traces the growing resistance of WITH VIOLIN). Londoners with a sure touch, leaving • Coward music provides the score for LOVE IN A MAZE (Dion Boucicault) at the Watermill, Newbury. the impression that this is just how the • HAY FEVER New production starring Penelope Wilton directed by Laurence Boswell due in West End 2003. Metropolis would have reacted in the given circumstances, and an illogical • A SONG AT TWILIGHT is at the Theatre du Palais Royal Paris in September 2002 starring Line Renaud. feeling of pride that it would have RECORDINGS been so. • BLITHE SPIRIT out now with Corin Redgrave, Joanna Lumley, Kika Markham and Thelma Ruby – produced by It would seem invidious to select any Sheridan Morley. NAXOS are planning to bring out A SONG AT TWILIGHTstarring the Redgraves later in this series. from the long cast for special mention, • OVER MY SHOULDER New Jessie Matthews CD contains Parisian Pierrot, Some Day I’ll Find you.. for the company display a splendid • The new Clare Sweeney CD contains Some Day I’ll Find You due out in July 2002. team spirit and, aided by the direction • An Ian Bostridge CD of Coward songs will be released late September. of Alan Webb and the author, and in When Chorley Bannister PUBLICATIONS the most authentic surroundings informs the Nazis about provided by G. E. Calthrop’s decor, • Methuen are to produce new editions of their PLAY volumes with new type and revised introductions. Volumes One and activities at “The Shy Gazelle” achieve a sense of reality rarely seen Two due later this year. Doris Shattock is taken away by on the stage.” SS guards for questioning. A NOËL & GERTIE ... Jermyn Street Theatre - 20 London performances only! few days later she is brought This production featured a cast list back to her parents horribly These performances are to mark the 20th musical comedy has also been seen in September, he and Michael Law bring that contained a generation of future anniversary of Noël & Gertie immedi- Monte Carlo, Cape Town, Honolulu, their Law And Disorder back to the Pizza maimed after torture, and leading and character actors dying. To the end no informa- ately prior to going to the South of Vienna, Sydney and Toronto, as well as on the Park after a sold-out national tour. including: Bernard Lee as Fred France. Dates are: August 20 to Septem- more than a dozen British cities. For this Noel & Gertie Reviews: “A light and tion had been extracted from Shattock, Kenneth More as George her. ber 7, Press Night: August 21st. Tuesday new staging, the stars are Annabel sophisticated entertainment which is Bourne, Alan Badel as Stevie, Dora to Saturday at 8.00 pm Saturday and Leventon and John Watts. Stuart Pedlar sparkling, brilliant and beguiling” John Bryan as Phyllis Mere, Dandy Nichols Sunday at 4.00 pm. Sheridan Morley’s is the Musical Director, the choreogra- Peter, Sunday Times as Lily Blake. celebration of the lives of Noël Coward pher is Irving Davies, and the produc- “An elegant and civilised evening” and Gertrude Lawrence, using their words tion is devised and directed by Sheridan Michael Billington, The Guardian. and music within his own narrative, was Morley, who is currently filming as “A moving and enjoyable study of two first produced at the Hong Kong Festival Judge Robert Home in the second series great stars” Evening Standard. of 1982. Since then, it has been seen in of BBC 1’s Judge John Deed. He is “Should keep the box-office busy for more than thirty productions worldwide. soon to direct Sian Phillips and Maureen many months” Daily Mail. Janet Barrow as Mrs. Massiter raises Patricia Hodge and Simon Cadell starred Lipman in The Chalk Garden for the “A complex portrait of a relationship, her glass and declares “Down with in the long initial West End run, Twiggy West End, and his memoirs Asking For beautifully linked with songs and plays Hitler.” headed the New York production where it Trouble will be published in the last to tell a real-life love story” Clive also ran for more than six months. This week in November. In the last week of Barnes, New York post. ARISE MICHAEL ... AS SIR NOËL A piece in the Daily Express by Mark chest” to appear in cabaret. But they dying a pauper.” Jagasla. Actor Michael Gambon is set feared for his health and sanity. Simon Coward later appeared in The Italian to play stage and screen icon Noël Curtis is directing the £3 million BBC Job with Michael Caine and was Coward in a new film which will delve film which will be produced by knighted in 1970 three years before his into a secret chapter of his life. Sir Stephen Haft, who produced Dead death in Jamaica where he had a Noël, who created the classic love story Poets Society for Robin Williams. holiday retreat. Brief Encounter, had a string of pre- The drama, due to start filming in the Award-winning actor Gambon became war hits such as Hay Fever and Private autumn, will be one of the BBC’s a household name after starring in Lives. landmark productions for next year. Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective. But by the Sixties he had largely fallen David Thompson, head of BBC Films, He recently appeared in the film out of favour and was reduced to said: “The story concentrates on a Gosford Park working as a cabaret entertainer in the time when Coward was down on his One of his closest friends said: “No West End. When the Inland Revenue luck He didn’t want anyone to know contract has yet been signed but he Maureen Pryor as Doris Shattock with Alan Badel, threatened to make him bankrupt he just how much of a fix he was in at will be perfect for the part.” Beatrice Varley and Bernard Lee took off to Las Vegas, telling friends he the time. The tax people had sent him With thanks to Stephen Marshall for had been offered “a small treasure this huge bill and he was terrified of spotting this! Page 6 Page 15 COWARD AND WAR ... two pieces from NCS member Terence Trimmer OFFERS ... events, books and CD offers for members became before the second world war. The book We regularly receive some of our most and a driver. Churchill was worried ‘I would cause Roger Quilter: His Life and Music famous for comes with a free CD of digitally interesting pieces from Terence Trimmer Mountbatten intervened straight away, unnecessary alarm and despondency to a songs which remastered rare recordings of Quilter an active NCS member who has a knowing that the Admiralty would take great number of people,’ so he Valerie Langfield included himself, either playing or conducting. growing collection of articles on Noël exception to such self-publicity. So demanded a delay of its release. NCS member Valerie Langfield has a ‘Now Sleeps Songs featured include ‘Go, Lovely Coward. Amongst his latest missives are Captain Kinross became a middle-class Some 80 feet of the most graphic new book on Roger Quilter who the Crimson Rose’, ‘Come Away, Death’, and the two pieces that highlight very different officer instead. shots were ordered to be cut ‘to avoid provided incidental music for Where Petal’, song cycle ‘To Julia’. VALERIE dramatic approaches to World War II. As far as casting was concerned, Coward undue distress’. The Rainbow Ends Roger Quilter has ‘Love’s LANGFIELD is a contributor to the The first is a piece written by Quentin knew that with his face, diction and stage Churchill was reportedly even more long deserved just such a study as this. Philosophy’ revised New Grove. Falk of the Daily Mail and highlights In persona, he wasn’t exactly a natural but, incandescent with rage when it came to His music has always had its and ‘Go, SPECIAL PRICE £30.00 Which We Serve which is included in the as he confided: ‘I’m a snob, I know it. I Powell and Pressburger’s The Life And champions, but was eclipsed for years Lovely Roger Quilter: His Life and Music, by book British War Films by S.P. Macken- couldn’t bear to have anyone else play Death Of Colonel Blimp, their epic story as much by changing musical fashions Rose’. The Valerie Langfield was published in June zie (Hambleton and London £19.95). It Dickie!’ of a stuffy military type reflecting on his as by his own self-effacing personality BBC by Boydell & Brewer at £40.00. reads: The irony was that by the time the film life from the Boer War to World War II. and difficulties deriving from his included A Members of the Noël Coward Society The gloriously stiff-upper-lip tone is set eventually came out, more than a year The film-makers were adamant that the homosexuality. Now, however, along Children’s can buy it at the special price of £30.00 perfectly in a priceless exchange of later, following production delays and main message of their film was ‘the need with that of his contemporary Percy Overture in (plus postage & packing UK £2 and non- dialogue near the beginning to acknowledge a Grainger, his work is enjoying an their first broadcast concert, and the UK £4) by post, telephone, fax or email. of In Which We Serve - new spirit in warfare explosion of interest and is taking its success of his atmospheric music for the When ordering at the special offer price, perhaps the most famous in which traditional rightful place in the history of music in children’s fairy play Where the Rainbow please quote reference number “02120”. British war film - as sporting instincts England in the second quarter of the Ends ensured his immense popularity: a Offer expires 30 October 2002. devoted couple Celia had no place’. twentieth century. Valerie Langfield twelve-year-old Noël Coward had a Send order with payment to: Johnson and Noël Coward But that didn’t seem draws together the threads of Quilter’s minor role in that first season. A founder Boydell & Brewer Ltd., PO Box 9, settle down to an evening to placate the War musical and private life in a study of member of the Musician’s Benevolent Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF, UK cocktail in the summer of Office, which two parts: first, a biographical account Fund, he gave generous and discreet Tel: 01394 411320; Fax: 01394 411477; 1939. thought that just the of his life, then a study of his musical financial help to young musicians, and email: [email protected] ‘Do you think there’ll be a word ‘Blimp’ sent output. Championed by the great as a genuine humanitarian helped Jewish or order securely online: war, darling?’ She asks her out all the wrong English tenor Gervase Elwes, Quilter friends to flee Germany and Austria www.boydell.co.uk/souk.htm Royal Navy husband. ‘Yes,’ messages. As for he confides, darkly, ‘I think Churchill, he simply BOOKS & CDs IN STOCK ... ALL CDs £5 each there is going to be - and it wanted the film Geoffrey Skinner of Samuel French Perfect Nostalgia Nightfall - Sophisticated Jazz Classics will be pretty beastly!’ suppressed. manages our sales of CDs and books and More Sophistication Sophistication 30’s There was a kind of Despite Press will be pleased to supply any of the My Heart Stood Still Sophistication inevitability about a complaints that the following from our remaining stock at Mr. Music Master All items are sold on a ‘first come first collaboration between film depicted British the following reduced prices: The Girl I Knew served’ basis. Please forward all orders Coward - according to this officers as ‘stupid, Books: Words and Music of Irving Berlin with either a cheque made out against a useful survey, ‘a frequent complacent, The Unknown Noël Songs From Movies British bank to The Noël Coward Society guest in RN wardrooms in the course of spiralling costs which meant the budget self-satisfied and ridiculous’, and was, as signed by Graham Payn ...... £20.00 What Is This Thing Called Love or provide a credit card number with his world travels’ - and Lord ‘mushroomed’ from £60,000 to such, ‘disastrously bad propaganda in The Theatrical Companion...... £19.25 Moonlight Serenade expiry date and your name as it appears Mountbatten, whose recent wartime £200,000, Pearl Harbour had come and times of war’, it became the second most Look back In Pleasure ...... £12.99 Perfect Blues on the card. adventures would provide the somewhat gone, so the US was already in the war. popular British film of 1943 - and CDs all priced at £5 each: Great British Dance Bands Send your order to: sanitised basis for In Which We Serve. I’ve already mentioned propaganda, and without any noticeable dent in the Noël Coward On Air Dance bands play - Hits Of The 30s Geoffrey Skinner, Samuel French Ltd., They’d been pals since the Twenties, and indeed the central thesis of this book is nation’s morale. When I Grow Too Old To Dream Fascinating Rhythm - Greatest Hits Of 52 Fitzroy Street, London, W1T 5JR, just as Mountbatten was an admirer of that from even before the outset of Elegance The 20s United Kingdom or email to: all things showbiz, so Coward had hostilities, the three services were-vying This second article was featured in a Elegance 2 Jazz Age - Hot Sounds of the 20s & 30s [email protected] carefully followed the destroyer with each other for the potential acres of stage magazine in 1947. It is of the captain’s glittering career. cinema space and captive audiences. It first production at the Aldwych that A THEATRICAL FEAST ... event at the Theatre Museum, Covent Garden Elizabeth Sharland features her latest After hearing Mountbatten recount the was a battle for ‘spin’, long before the had transferred from the Theatre mixture in her latest anthology. She is a chapter of his own, as does our own book at the Theatre Museum, Covent recent loss of his ship, HMS Kelly, off term was invented. Royal, Brighton via the Lyric. In total a in Ned Sherrin’s territory of theatrical Vice President Judy Campbell. One Garden on Sunday Sept. 1st at 2 pm. Crete, Coward was determined it would But as well as plenty more along the 167 performances. Here we include the anecdote (and there are many which delightful surprise is a chapter devoted Adm. £3. There will be a programme of be a perfect big-screen subject, and also lines of The Lion Has Wings (RAF), introduction to the piece and some of are new to me, and I already have to Rupert Brooke, one of my favourite verse, prose and anecdotes about the help the propaganda cause in the US, Convoy (Royal Navy) or The Way Ahead the photographs taken by Angus many books of them), with commentary poets and the epitome of that certain legendary stars of the West End and their since America hadn’t yet entered the war. (The Army) with their unashamed McBean. and stories about many of the great type of Englishness that runs through favourite theatre restaurants and food Naturally, Mountbatten, hardly a chap jingoism there were, this book reveals London Restaurants that are part of many of these pages. Two other touches with Judy Campbell, Barry Morse and ever to be described as ego-challenged, fascinatingly, just the occasional “MOST people at one time or another our theatreland. All are associated with pleased me; A set of celebrity recipes, Susan Travers and a book launch at was thrilled, and set about oiling glimpses of a wartime cinema of distinct must have given idle speculation to the some of our heroes and heroines from including one from Noël Coward, and a Samuel French on Sept. 3, 5.30 - 7pm. necessary wheels with his not unease. might-have-been if the Germans had that more romantic, less frenetic, couple of pages at the back for a diary of Gareth Pike sends this recommendation. inconsiderable influence. Originally conceived as a training film successfully invaded England in 1940. gentler age in the last century. A quick our personal visits to the restaurants. If, like me, you love theatrical Coward, who’d also write and co-direct called Careless talk costs lives, Next Of Noël Coward in a skilfully constructed glance at the table of contents will hook NCS members are able to purchase this anecdotes, love food and restaurants, (with David Lean) the film, drafted his Kin, expanded to a feature by Ealing play has given the answer, and a very in many of us: Whole chapters devoted book at a reduced price of £10 (Instead and determinedly hold on to the first script, which had the captain Studios, proved to be a cautionary tale plausible answer it is, guaranteed to to P. G. Woodhouse; John Gielgud; of £12.95). Please order by email direct remnants of a romantic view of London, married to Lady Celia and living in a about fifth columnists. impress with its clever delineation of Robert Morley; James Agate; Vivien from [email protected] or then this book is for you. Elizabeth large country house with a Rolls-Royce Shown the film at Chequers Winston the English character. The entire Leigh; Alec Guinness; Judi Dench and contact the Society by post and we will Sharland has created a wonderful action takes place in the Saloon Bar of many many others. Of course Noël gets forward orders to Elizabeth Sharland. Page 14 Page 7 time that Lynn was preparing for the first visited in NYC, the Klaw theatre in the 1999 production of Waiting In The A DELIGHTFUL DAY AT TEN CHIMNEYS - Jeff Bierig & Barry Day New York run of Dulcy a part written for November 1926 with Francine Larrimore Wings ended its run here after moving from her by George Kaufman and Marc yet again in the leading role with A.E the Walter Kerr (10) (where the very Although it won’t open to the public Coward. They were splendid and the video-tapes of Lunt and Fontanne Connelly. It was at this time that Noël hit Matthews and Nigel Bruce. successful revival of “Present Laughter” officially until May 26, 2003, their 81st play was a delight. including a 1970 Dick Cavett Show a bad patch only So many New York with Frank Langella wedding anniversary, the storied home Eileen Mackevich, head of the Chicago interview with the Lunts and Coward. It rescued by the theatres disappeared was staged). The of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Ten Humanities Festival, says they are was delightful to see it and see the three publication of before the Landmark Richard Rodgers Chimneys, hosted a very special event planning to reprise the performance at of them still enjoying life and each ‘I’ll Leave It To scheme saved them. We Theatre (11) (West on Saturday, April 13. this November’s Chicago You’ as a short tend to forget how 46th Street) previ- The Ten Chimneys Humanities Festival in story in Metro- recent the concepts of ously known as the Foundation and the Chicago. politan Maga- conservation and 46th Street Theatre Chicago Humanities Following the zine. This was preservation of our houses the current Festival presented a fund performance, the actors followed by heritage are, on both Private Lives and raising event on a answered questions from other short sides of the Atlantic! also saw the 1975 beautiful spring day in the audience and tea was stories and Those theatres of this production with Genesee Depot, served to end the day. In a created a change period that remain in the Maggie Smith and Wisconsin. surprising twist of history, of luck that Theatre District still John Standing. The Extensive tours of Ten Ingham had no cufflinks allowed Noël to hold many memories of Ethel Barrymore Chimneys began at 10 am. with him and Joseph return to the past Coward produc- (West 47th Street) Well prepared volunteer Garton, president of the Brevoort. In tions and revivals. The saw Design For docents provided Ten Chimneys Foundation October he Globe, now the Lunt- Living open in background and tours of was able to “secure” a pair came home at Fontanne Theatre (4) featured the January 1933. The Lunts also played here the famous site, which has of NC cufflinks that a the end of this first American visit one infamous production of Private Lives in Point Valaine in January 1935. Noël been left nearly as the certain famous guest had that was pivotal in developing the with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Coward In Two Keys (only two of the three Lunts left it, albeit in need left at the house more than dramatic style seen in The Vortex and Burton in May 1983. It is currently home plays opened here in February 1974 a year of repair. Renovation has 50 years ago. Barrie Ingham, Rosemary Harris & Simon Jones Hay Fever. It to Beauty and The after Noël’s death). begun and will continue so that when it It was a delightful day for theater buffs was clearly one Beast. The Plymouth The American reopens as a world-class museum next other’s company. and particularly followers of the Lunts of the most Theatre (5) saw Clifton Airline Theatre (12) year, visitors will have the opportunity The day was topped off with a staged and Noël Coward. formative Webb’s performance in on West 42nd Street to see the way the Lunts and their guests reading of Barry Day’s new play, Noël & For more information, check periods of his Present Laughter in was formerly the lived. www.chfestival.org and professional and October 1946 followed Selwyn Theatre Noël Coward was a www.tenchimneys.org. personal life. by Tallulah Bankhead which housed Andre frequent visitor to this His future visits in Private Lives in Charlot’s Revue of small Wisconsin town and Our thanks to Jeff Bierig to New York October 1948. It is 1926 as well as This relished his time there. for the text and Barry Day never again currently home to The Year Of Grace The bedroom he requested for the photographs taken invoked the Graduate. The Music which opened in is named after him, as are by Bonnie Roth in the same feelings of Box Theatre (6) built November 1928. the ones for Helen Hayes Drawing room at Ten failure he had by Irving Berlin for his The 2001 revival of and Laurence Olivier. Chimneys during the endured so often Music Box Revues was Design For Living Noël chose his room for recent event. on the benches home to Set To Music with Alan Cuming the beautiful view of the in Battery Park in January 1939. Later also played here. area and the “big chenille The photographs are the looking out in December 1985 We know that when balls” that were the property of the Ten across the harbour to the imagined green Rosemary Harris appeared in a wonder- Noël returned to New York with Basil characteristic of the Chimneys Foundation. fields of his English home. Later NYC ful production of Hay Fever. Dean et al to set bedspread and upholstery regained the The Broadhurst Theatre The Vortex running in the room. Coward hard-earned (7) on West 44th Street he initially stayed in raised a few eyebrows for interest on saw Sail Away opening an apartment in East his penchant to swim and Noël’s American in October 1961 and the 54th Street. Noël be at the poolside au Eileen Mackevich, Barry Day, Simon Jones, Barrie Ingham & Rosemary Harris visit when Easy end of run for the 1969 describes its natural. This didn’t please some of the Alfred & Lynn, dubbed “A Conversation Virtue was revival of Private Lives unsuitability by hired help in this relatively conservative Piece about a 50 year friendship,” held produced in after its move from the describing it as hamlet and he was “forced” to don in the intimate setting of the Lunts’ 1925 and The Billy Rose theatre. having been de- trousers in order to get his breakfast. drawing room. The three great friends Vortex appeared February 20, 1992 saw signed for the Ten Chimneys is named for the ten discuss the times of their lives from the in September it host Private Lives blonde plaything of chimneys in the three main buildings green room in the sky, particularly their 1925 at the with Simon Jones and a tired businessman. that comprise the estate, the main house, time spent doing Design for Living. Henry Miller Joan Collins. The In the event he was the studio and the cottage. The plan for Another great aspect was when Lynn Theatre, where Broadway Theatre (8) at hardly ever in it as Ten Chimneys is more than to merely Fontanne takes a turn, opposite Coward, 34 years later in Broadway and 53rd rehearsals started restore an historic treasure, it is to make playing Judith Bliss in a portion of Hay March 1959 Street saw The Girl Who straight away. it a living testament to the theatrical Fever, a role she never actually had Look After Lulu Came To Supper in Amongst all of this lives of Lunt and Fontanne with classes, played. was presented. A December 1963. The Eugene theatrical success workshops, exhibitions and much more. The stellar cast included Barrie Ingham year later Coward toured the US in The O’Neil Theatre (9) (West 48th Street) Noël Coward wined and dined at some of After the tours, a light lunch was served as Alfred Lunt, Rosemary Harris as Lynn Vortex and This Was A Man was pre- was formerly the Coronet Theatre when the best hotels and restaurants in Manhat- and we were treated to a number of Fontanne and Simon Jones as Noël The Lunts at Ten Chimneys sented at that first theatre that Noël Quadrille opened in November 1954 and Continued on page 17 Page 8 Page 13 NOËL COWARD IN NEW YORK ... by Ken Starrett and John Knowles Noël Coward & Ronald Neame: At the Movies Part one of an illustrated guide to where Noel Coward lived, ate, performed and directed in New by Barbara Roisman Cooper York and the theatres where play revivals from the Coward canon were presented. As playwright, lyricist, performer and Coward announced grandly that he had he said, “I write the biography of each Some of our members live and work in successful revivals of his work. In a site of this property is not known but the raconteur, Noël Coward could be a solo written a screenplay and had already character, where they were born, where the vibrant and rapidly recovering city of recent visit our editor and Ken Starrett old buildings surrounding the square (2) act. But when it came to the most selected a title for the film: “We are they went to school, their friends, their New York where walked the where the collaborative of all the arts – motion going to call it In Which We Serve.” habits. Then, no matter how great or UK visitors are streets of the Victorians pictures – he had little trouble Puzzled, one of those present asked, small the role in the finished product, I surprised to find Broadway described adapting…particularly if he was in “What does that mean?” know exactly how to write them. I know that strangers theatre district in Henry charge. Coward replied, “The ship…and the how they’ll speak, and how they’ll react talk to each and recorded James’ Director and cinematographer Ronald fleet in which we serve.” It’s a very to a situation or to another character.” other on the theatres, novels Neame, whose autobiography, Straight famous quotation from a naval prayer,” Once, Lean and Neame attempted a line buses, politeness houses, would have from the Horse’s Mouth will be to which he added a slightly disdainful or two of dialogue on their own. is everywhere apartments and lived can published later this year, was one of comment regarding his audience’s lack Coward asked, “And which one of my and despite the restaurants of still be Coward’s coterie of filmmakers. It was of knowledge. little darlings wrote this brilliant Coward unemployment significance in seen, in late 1941 that Neame, already a noted When he was asked whether an ordinary dialogue?” but generally accepted what and legal the Coward although cinematographer, first met Coward. audience would understand the title, they had written. wrangling that chronology. In many have According to Neame, Coward had some Coward replied, “I don’t care whether Coward told his collaborators to refer to are the unfortu- this and the been torn negative experiences with the translation they understand it or not; that’s what it’s him as “Father;” it was what all his nate but inevitable aftermath of such an next edition of Home Chat we set down down or of his plays into films; he was slightly going to be.” And that’s what it became. friends called him. He was only 42 at the event, an air of hope supports the a short history of Noël Coward in New turned into snobbish in his attitude toward the In his familiar clipped tones, he time, but was already a world-renowned rebuilding of lives and property follow- York. The arrival with Jeffery Holms- offices for cinema, theatre being his favorite continued, “I will now read it to you.” figure. ing last year’s tragedy. September 11 dale is well described in Present Indica- New York medium. That all changed one night And, for the next three hours, he did. He often dispensed words of wisdom to was the saddest of tive. The first night at the Algon- University. During those early weeks when Coward dined with his friend Lord What he had written was the story of a his cohorts. He said to Neame once, ends to a period quin and then to the Brevoort in Noël describes seeing Marilyn Miller in Louis Mountbatten and heard the story destroyer, from the laying of its keel to “Indecision is disastrous. Be decisive; when Mayor lower 5th Avenue (1) razed to the Sally at the New Amsterdam Theatre of the sinking of Mountbatten’s its demise at the bottom of the sea. It make up your mind, then stay with it. If Giuliani and the ground in 1954 for the 19 story now the beautifully restored home of destroyer, the HMS Kelly, during the was also the life stories of all those you’re right six times out of ten, you’ll city elders had Brevoort Apart- Disney’s Battle of Crete. He immediately saw aboard, from the captain to the most be a success.” worked hard to ments. The Lion himself in the role of the inspirational junior able-bodied seaman, their wives, The best fatherly advice he offered was, revitalise New Noël describes his King. At captain of the ship, Edward V. Kinross. their friends, their lovers, their children. “Never try to create something you think York and make it a first evening in this time But if Coward was going to produce, It was an extraordinary piece of work, will please others. Create it to please safer and better New York walking Lynn write, star and probably co-direct a film but very, very long. One of the visitors yourself. Then if you don’t please the place for its along Broadway Fontanne – and he could do little less – he needed said, with some trepidation, “Noël, it’s others, get out of the business.” people. Zero bumping into the and to surround himself with an experienced brilliant, but it will run for six hours and Shortly after the completion of the tolerance of crime crowds and Alfred team of filmmakers. It was Anthony cost a fortune. It goes everywhere and screenplay, Coward and Neame went to and improved eventually going Lunt were Havelock-Allan who brought David does everything.” Plymouth to visit some of Coward’s policing have been into the Klaw courting Lean and Ronald Neame to Coward’s A pause. Then he replied, a little testily, naval friends. They called on several a significant part of Theatre (251 West and living attention. Havelock-Allan arranged for “I thought that was the whole point ships in port for repairs and were this change but it 45th Street) to see Rachel Croth- at Dr. Rounds Boarding House on 130 Coward to screen two of the films which about films. You can do anything and go grandly entertained by the top brass. It was Giuliani who ers Nice People starring Francine West 70th Street (3). Doctor Rounds was Lean had edited and Neame had anywhere!” was a kind of pub-crawl, with cruisers knocked heads together to rebuild key Larrimore with Tallulah Bankhead and a remarkable woman who presided over photographed, One of Our Aircraft is It was Lean who solved the problem of and destroyers as the pubs. They areas of this historic city saving the best Katherine Cornell in smaller roles. This an untidy but welcoming establishment Missing and Major Barbara. After turning Coward’s lengthy, if brilliant, downed pink gins at each stop. of the city’s heritage for future genera- theatre later renamed the Avon was later that opened its doors to actors ‘however viewing them, Coward turned to piece into a manageable script. He On one destroyer, they were escorted to tions. The spirit of preservation inherent to see a revival of Coward’s Hay Fever vagrant.’ She is described as having Havelock-Allan and said, “I want to proposed to take the best of what an empty wardroom and offered “the in the Landmark regulations of the city but it too was eventually felled to make shrewd eyes and occasionally given to meet David Lean and Ronald Neame.” Coward had written and tell it through usual.” Within moments, several young has ensured that much of its theatrical way for a parking structure that still regaling her clients with gruesome They met at Coward’s Gerald Road flat, flashbacks of the overturned ship’s officers came in, stood at the bar, and heritage stands. In medi- just off Eaton Square. The weather was a survivors who found themselves on the ordered drinks. One of them said, remains his first cal bit chilly and Coward had a large coal same rubber raft. “Where on earth does that stink of scent intact and in few stories fire burning in an equally large fireplace. Every week Neame and Lean would visit come from?” some notable weeks from Immaculately attired in one of his Coward for his reactions to their Without hesitation, Noël replied, “It’s cases brought Noël saw her famous dressing gowns, Coward greeted progress and read what they had written. from me. It’s so much nicer than sweat, back to life every- earlier his guests and immediately offered them On several occasions they would say to isn’t it?” revealing rare thing years. a drink. They settled into Art Deco-style him, On the lengthy train journey back to splendours of touristique The armchairs, and Neame recalls noticing “We need a scene that will get us from London the next day, Neame got to early theatri- and build- two grand pianos on a raised stage in the here to there.” know Coward. For the first time, they cal building rapidly ing main room. “All right,” he’d say. “Get out your little talked about themselves, not just film and design. ran out still There were two other people present, pencils.” As he paced up and down, and theatre. He confided to Neame that For the visitor there is much to see that is of money. When Jeffrey left to return stands and was the scene of what Noël Gladys Calthrop and Lorn Lorraine. dictating as rapidly as he could speak, he was terrified that one day he would connected with Noël Coward and his home Noël was given a room in the describes as ‘prophetic orgies’ where Coward relied on Mrs. Calthrop for Coward spewed forth the dialogue the wake up and find his God-given talent world. The city that first inspired his studio of Gabrielle Enthoven and Cecile grandiose plans for mutual future acting ideas about sets and other things filmmakers needed. had disappeared. He revealed his pacey dramatic style in 1921 and contin- Sartoris in Washington Square. It was triumphs were discussed only interrupted regarding design; Mrs. Lorraine had Coward later revealed how he was able concern about not yet having truly ued to backcloth his developing career as here that Noel recorded that he fried in by brisk walks to the corner and back to been his secretary from about 1921. to write such character-specific dialogue Continued on page 10 writer and actor, is still the scene of the nude because of the heat. The exact bring them all back to earth. It was at this so rapidly: “Before I put down a word,” Page 12 Page 9 Continued from page 9 packets of explosive powder, which had Everyone was astounded. Coward kept After dinner at the Neame’s modest established himself among the “greats,” to be kept dry until fired. The solution: them at it until the early hours of the home, Coward at the golf club as “STOOL QUEUE” TROUBLE and that time was running out. ten gross of condoms were ordered from morning. He was never asked to fire promised. Because not everyone who Word was now circulating in the press the astonished studio stores clerks. watch again. Several weeks later, King wanted to see the show was eligible to AT NOËL COWARD SHOW that matinee idol Noël Coward was To achieve the desired effect, a small George VI, Her Majesty Queen attend the performance there, he went to about to star in a war film about the amount of powder was placed in each Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth, the the town hall, where he did his show all sinking of the Kelly, in which he would condom, knotted, fixed into position on present Queen, then 15 years old; and over again for the villagers. Gallery Folk Wait Hours - And Then Get a Shock play the Captain, based on his friend, the ties of the trellis, and electrically Princess Margaret, visited the set. This Happy Breed (1944) was the next SEVERAL hundreds of theatregoers assured that no stools would be Lord Louis Mountbatten. linked to a control panel by the camera. On June 27, 1942, filming came to an cinematic collaboration between Coward had an experience at His Majesty’s allotted until 9 am today. A gossip columnist on The Daily The camera rolled, the signal was given, end. Weeks of editing followed. Coward and Neame, based on Coward’s play of Theatre today which brings to a head “ When 1 arrived this morning. I was Express asked the question, “How can the electrical contact shot across the composed the musical score. Sound the same name. It is the story of a small the whole question of reserving seats confronted with the ‘Gallery Full’ the effete, superficial, poseur Mr. trellis, and, presto, instant gunfire. It effects were added. The finished London house and the Gibbons family by means of stools. Eager to see notice I do not think it is fair to Coward, the quintessential sophisticate, really looked as if the survivors were material gradually came together; who lived in it from the end of World tonight’s first performance of Mr. Noël theatregoers” possibly be convincing as the captain of being machined-gunned. Luckily, it everyone connected with In Which We War I until the beginning of World War Coward’s new show, “Operette,’ Later in the morning the manager of the destroyer in wartime? How can he worked on the first take, because a few Serve was sure it was going to be II. playgoers inquired at the theatre the theatre assured the group around play the role of Lord Louis Mountbatten, seconds after David Lean, who was something very special. One of the key roles was played by yesterday whether stools would be him that the whole thing was news to Chief of Combined Operations?” given the opportunity to direct under The premiere took place on September Robert Newton, as famed for his permitted outside the gallery entrance. him. Coward found a way to get even. Coward’s critical eye called, “Cut,” 27, 1942, at the Gaumont Haymarket as drinking as his acting. Coward decided Gallery seats cannot of course, be “I have nothing to do with the allotting In the film, there is a close-up of an hundreds of bits and pieces of condoms a benefit for the Royal Naval to have a chat with Newton before booked in the ordinary way. They of stools for the unreserved seats,” he authentic Daily Express headline, with slowly floated to the surface. Benevolent Fund. Journalists turned out filming started. The outcome was that learned that the man with the stools said. “ This is the first I have heard of the paper’s name prominently in the One of the wartime duties at the studio in force. The reviews the next day – Newton promised not to drink during the would not be allotting stools until 9 any trouble of this sort.” The shot, proclaiming: “No War This Year.” in which everyone was required to even from The Daily Express – praised ten weeks of shooting. A restrictive am today. Associated Catering Co., who handle Then there is a cut to a shot of a participate was “fire watching.” Every every aspect of the film. clause was written into Newton’s Notice at 8.30 am. the stools for theatre queues, battleship exploding, and finally The night, about 20 employees from Denham When the film was finished, David Lean contract that stipulated that whenever he So theatregoers including His Daily Express floating in the dirty water Studios would spend the night at the and Ronald Neame and their wives, came onto the set drunk, he would appeared this morning Majesty’s, were of the River Thames with debris clinging studio to deal with any bombs or celebrated with a long weekend at the forfeit £500 of his salary. He was some of them as early as surprised by the to its edges, and the headline again incendiaries that the Germans might Old Ship Hotel in Brighton. They were earning only £9,000 pounds for the 1 am. Women were in complaints. clearly in evidence. drop. Management had fitted up a surprised and flattered when Coward whole picture, so he clearly had to be the majority. Everything Mr. J. Fisher, During make-up tests, it was obvious property shed as a kind of dormitory asked if he could join them. During that careful. seemed to be all right. supervisor of that Coward wanted to maintain the with beds, chairs, tables, and the like. weekend, the trio decided to make Newton kept to his promise for eight There were no stools theatre queues for image he had so carefully cultivated. He Everyone became somewhat indifferent another film from a Coward play: This weeks. Then, he must have thought, out. So they waited in a the company, said was vain about his appearance, and to the assignment, as there was no sign Happy Breed. “Well, there are only ten days to go. queue. to The Evening Neame was responsible for making him of enemy activity. The evening hours In Which We Serve was nominated for Even if I’m sloshed every morning, But at 8.30 am News: “These look good. Coward worried about how were spent playing cards. Oscars for Best Picture and Best which is unlikely, I’ll a board was placed stools should have his receding hairline would photograph, One group was exempt from this Original Screenplay, and Coward still have some salary left.” outside the theatre. been down last so Neame to put him at ease with a obligation: actors. received a certificate from the Academy The next day he arrived drunk. He It read night when the strategically placed shadow across the But Bert Batchelor, the trade union shop of Motion Picture Arts sobered up enough by 11 o’clock to “Gallery full. people were here. top of his head. At other times, he wore steward and a devout Communist, and Sciences for “outstanding shoot his scenes. Newton’s agent was No standing room.” It is small gallery- his cap, rumored to be the one that Lord disliked Coward, whom he called “that production achievement.” informed that his client would have to This board is available seating only 111 Louis had actually worn at sea. Fascist,” and proclaimed that since he On their return to London, Coward went pay the penalty. From that day, until the for the stool man, who and the man in When visitors joined Coward in the was also co-director, writer, and to Oxford to rehearse a revival of finish of principal photography, Bobbie puts it up when the charge of the privacy of his dressing room to chat, he producer, he should be required to fire Present Laughter. He stayed at the Mitre Newton managed to drink away £3,500. stools he has sold equals stools took the would invariably sit facing the wardrobe watch just like everybody else. Coward, Hotel, where instead of numbers, each of The Coward, Lean, Neame triumvirate the number of seats in names instead of mirror, glancing at himself now and attempting to be cooperative, agreed. the rooms was given a name: the Duke’s went on to make two more films the gallery. putting the stools again, usually approving of what he saw. On his designated evening, Coward Room, the Prince’s Room, the King’s together, Blithe Spirit (1945), directed A quarter of an hour down. That was Neame feels that a part of Noël was joined the others on duty. Carpenters, Room, the Count’s Room, and so on. by Lean and photographed by Neame, later, a man appeared all wrong.” always on stage. “He never forgot that electricians, painters, among others, When Lean and Neame showed up to and Brief Encounter (1946), directed by and began to place “Our rule is that he had an appearance and a reputation to were just settling down to a card game. discuss their next project together, Lean and produced by Neame. stools with neat little people who book maintain. As an actor on the stage in the “Well,” he said in his Cowardian tones, Coward was propped up in an elaborate Like Coward himself, they were all tickets on them. They were all booked stools must return within an hour kind of roles he created for himself in “where are the fire hydrants?” Everyone four-poster bed. Welcoming his mates witty, stylish and just a bit sentimental. up last night, he told the queue. The otherwise the stools are taken aside.” such successes as Present Laughter and looked blank or down at his cards. “The with a grand gesture, he asked, “Did you Ronald Neame wrote Straight from the disappointed crowd clamoured for the “Generally speaking, the stools are put Private Lives, Noël’s ‘Cowardisms’ were fire hydrants,” he repeated. “Aren’t we notice the room they’ve given me, my Horse’s Mouth with Barbara Roisman manager. Some of them had to leave down only on the morning of the brilliant. When it came to film, he supposed to be fire watching?” dears?” Cooper, who is Arts Editor for British but others waited to see him later in performance. There was such a crowd tended to stiffen and become slightly “Yes, guv,” said the bravest of the Of course, they had noticed. They’d Heritage Magazine, writes extensively the morning. yesterday that as sometimes happens, over-conscious of the camera. He was bunch, “but we’re really not sure where given him the Queen’s Room. for other publications, and is currently If the stools were sold last night, they we sent a man along and told him to not as comfortable on film as on stage.” the hydrants are.” Not long after, Ronald Neame invited working with long-time film and contended, the notice ought to have put the stools down. He should not In one of the tense sequences in the film, “We have been given the responsibility Coward to present some of his songs at television star Anna Lee on her been exhibited before 8.30 am. a German aircraft strafes the men of protecting the studio against enemy Neame’s golf club to benefit a local autobiography. simply have taken names.” clinging to the float, requiring the effect bombs,” he said. “You will stop playing charity. Neame was hesitant; would the To inquire about pre-ordering a copy of “It Isn’t Fair” London Evening News - March 1938 cards at once! We will find and inspect great Noël Coward come to an obscure Straight From the Horse’s Mouth, of a series of machine gun bullets hitting Miss P. Kelly, of Lee Terrace. every fire hydrant in the studio. We will town to perform? contact Mrs. Roisman Cooper by fax: With thanks to Terence Trimmer for the water in rapid succession. Blackheath, said to The Evening check all the hoses, roll them out, make “Of course, I’ll come along,” Coward (818) 788-5156 in the U.S. or by email: this absolute gem - Noël would have The special effects experts strung a News:- “I came over specially from certain they are all in order, and practice responded. “I’d really like to.” [email protected]. loved to have written this! trellis-type contraption just under the Blackheath at 11 am yesterday I was water line. Attached to it were about 500 handling them. Let’s get on with it!” And he did. Page 10 Page 11