YEARS OF THE LOCUST VAL GIELGUD Most peoplehave aninsatiable curiosity asto how various sorts ofwheelsgoround. Alarge number of Mr. Giclgud's locust - eatenyears have been spentat Savoy Hill and Broadcasting House, and people who are interested in how broadcasting works should be able to satisfy a good deal of their curiosity from these pages. But Mr. Gielgud isnot only B.H.C. Director of Drama, he has been an actor, a writer, a traveller, and a devotee of Siamese cats.I le has written onall these subjects, but he has also devoted not the least importantchapters ofhisauto- biography to considered statements on the contemporary theatre, the cinema and television.The style of thesechapters may be con- tentious,but they represent the pointof viewofanindividual whose position is, to some extent, unique inthe world of modern entertainment. 9'6Net. E FAMILY gor pr.; airni BENJAMIN TERRY:---- SARAH BALLARD ACTOR 50NOP AN INNKEEPER ACTRESS AT POPtTSpA %URN NA* .4CHss.0111em MARION TERRY FRED TERRY-zJULLA NEILSON ACTRESS (0.1930) ACTOR (0363-i913) ACTRESS FLORENCE TERRY WILLIAM MORRI ACTRESS (0.1816) SOUL TOR (04934) THYILIS NEILSON-TERRY= CECIL KING ACTRESS ALTO R DENNIS NEILSON TERRY MARY GLYNXE ACTOR01934 ACTRESS HAZEL TERRY ACTRESS JOHN GIELGUI) ELEANOR GIELGLLD ACTOR 0%. 9,4) EOS IF SS WOMAN (8.1907) IT'S IN TE Glisr..ANTHONY GIELGUD JOHN GIELGilD A ssass. /83/ (8 /791) LITHUANIAN FAMILY Founded /56/ POLISH CAVALRY (Come to Enyland /837) KATE TERRY-z -ARTHUR LEWIS ACTRESS (Died 1924.) (Pied 19011 1.G.F.WATTS. R.A. ADAM GIELGLED SCULPTOR - PAINTER0817-1904) DAME WAR OFFICE WRITER FOR PALL MALL GAZETTE 2.CHARLES KELLYELLEN TERRY ACTOR (0.1885) ACTRESS 3.3AMES CAREW (1848 - 1928) ACTOR MABEL TERRY Capt. R.CEPITLEY LEWIS ACTRESS FRANK GJELCitez.KATE LEWIS STOCKBROKER (Married 1893) LEWIS GIELGUD VAL GIELGUD2-"BARBARA DILLON ASSIST. SECRY. GENERAL D.RECTOR ACTRESS LEAGUE OF RED CROSS SOC'c NOVELIST(EA IQOO) IN PARIS. NOVELIST (.0.1894) PUBLISHER'S NOTE In view of the similarity of title,the publishers wish toannounce that this book should not be confusedwith A. S. M Hutchinson's autobiography, A Year that the Locust. YEARS OF THELOCUST VAL GIELGUD NICHOLSON & WATSON LONDON BRUSSELS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1947 BY NICHOLSON & WATSON LTD. 26MANCHESTER SQUARE LONDON W.1 Printed by Love & Malcomson Ltd., London & Redhill In life it does not matter so much what you do, as what you are.- SOMERSET MAUGHAM, The Circle. These our actors... Are melted into air.... SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest. for R. who has given to this record, with all its omissions and im- perfections, a happy ending. CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD - - - viii CHAPT. I.BEGINNINGS - - - - - - - 9 II." GATES OF THE PRISON -HOUSE . .." - - - 17 III." LOTUS -EATING " - - - - - 25 IV.INTERLUDE -AN INNOCENT ABROAD -I. POLAND,1920 33 V." A POOR PLAYER. .. " - - - - - 41 VI.ROUND AND ABOUT THE THEATRE - - - - 52 VII.SAVOY HILL - - - - - -- 67 VIII.ROUND AND ABOUT THE BROADCAST PLAY 75 IX."BROADCASTING HOUSE" - - - - - 89 X.GENERAL TENDENCIES OF CONTEMPORARY ENTERTAIN- MENT - - --- - I0 I XI. ANINNOCENT ABROAD -2. SWEDEN, GERMANY, HUNGARY - - - - -- -III XII. ROUND AND ABOUT THE CINEMA - - - - 126 XIII.AN INNOCENT ABROAD -3. HOLLYWOOD -NEW YORK 140 XIV.BROADCASTING IN WARTIME - - - - - 166 XV.STRICTLY PERSONAL - - -- - - 182 XVI. ROUND AND ABOUT TELEVISION - - - - 187 XVII.POLAND -1945 - - - - - - - 193 ENVOI - 205 Vi ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES GIELGUDYSZKY-1937 - - - - - Frontispiece HOLLYWOOD-SHIRLEY Ross AND V.G. - 1 ELLEN TERRY AT WINCHELSEA -- - - - - 2 THE RIVER NIEMEN AND THE ZAMEK OFGIELGUDYSZKY 3 THE RINGER '-WYNDHAM'S THEATRE, 1926 - 4 TILLY OF BLOOMSBURY AMATEUR DRAMATIC SOCIETY, 1928- - - - -- - - - - 5 ' THE END OF SAVOY HILL ' -- - - - 6 BROADCASTING HOUSE, 1937 - - - - -- - 7 THE DRAMATIC CONTROL PANEL-BROADCASTINGHOUSE, 1932- 7 ' THE MAN. BORN TO BE KING ' - - - - 8 ERIC MASCHWITZ AND V. G., BUDAPEST, 1936 - - - 9 OUTSIDE THE PARAMOUNT STUDIOS INHOLLYWOOD - - 10 II THE PARAMOUNT ARMOURY - - - - - - - I2 BLITZ AT BROADCASTING HOUSE, 1941 - - - - ' THE GREAT SHIP '-BROADCASTINGHOUSE, 1943 - - - 13 14 ' DEATH' AT BROADCASTING HOUSE '- - - - - - ' HUGO ' AND ' RUPERT OF HENTZAU' - - - - 14 TELEVISION-ALEXANDRA PALACE, 1939 - - - - - 15 16 WARSAW, 1945.THE ROYAL PALACE - - - - - VII FOREWORD THIS book is a collection of personal opinions, ofpersonal prejudices, and of personal reminiscences.I have to apologise for the tiresome consistency with which the letter " I "recurs throughout its length. It was, however, written, not because Iam exhibitionist beyond the average of my generation, but because I was asked to doso. I feel an obligation to emphasise that theBritish Broadcasting Corporation is in no way responsible for the viewsherein expressed ; that its approval of conclusions that I have drawn,of points of view that I have 'adopted, should byno means be assumed.I feel that it says something for an organisation too often labelledas inhuman or bureaucratic, that it has been not only possible butagreeable for some- one like myself-confessing a weakness for being ina minority of one- to serve it not altogether unsuccessfully for eighteenyears. I should like to express my gratitude to WinifredAshton and Belle Chrystall, to Michael Joseph and Keneth Adam,who read the book in typescript and initiated valuable ' cuts 'and emendations. Where the record may appear too strictly personalI have included it because I felt that the opinions ofa silhouette are unlikely to be either interesting or convincing.I have been so -old-fashionedas to have omitted any account of my love -life.And, pace Pontius Pilate, I have tried to tell the truth. At that I must leave it. V. G. viii CHAPTER I BEGINNINGS WE are, I suppose, rather an odd family.Most families-even the Forsytes, and those inimitably fictional creations of Miss Dodie Smith's-consider themselves out of the ordinary.But the Gielguds are definitely unusual-which is perhaps not so odd after all, if you care to consider their origin. Even in a country largely populated by mongrels, their blood isa remarkably mingled stream. My father is Polish on both sides. My mother is a mixture of English,Irish and Welsh-and has an emotional passion for Scotland.A good deal of inaccurate nonsense has from time to time appeared in print about the Polish side of the family.I have been accused, somewhat quaintly, of claiming to be simultaneously a White Russian, a Russian White-which is not the same thing !-a connection of the Romanoffs, and an ex -cavalry officer in the Polish Army.True, there exists to this day in Lithuania a village called from the family name Gielgaudskis.True, that for nearly three hundred years Gielguds lived in the castle, whose ruins still stand on the bluff beside the River Niemen.But in reality the place was less a castle than a largeish fort, built originally in 1346 by the Knights of the Teutonic Order to guard the river-crosssing.True, that the name appears in the Polish Golden Book, thereby guaranteeing its social standing.But the Gielguds were neither counts nor princes -and I fear that most of them were on the stupid side. The most distinguished among them, in comparatively modern times, seems to have been that General Antony Gielgud, whowas killed by one of his own men at the disastrous close of the Polish Insurrection against Russia in 1831, after grossly mismanaging his own share of the business.I have seen his miniature.And the long, thin face with its prim narrow forehead does not, I fear, imply intellig- ence.Certainly his practical record is against him. My own favourite among my Polish forbears is one of whom nothing is known save that he served with the famous Chevau-Legers, the Polish Light Horse of Napoleon's Guard, and was killed in the battle of Haynau in 1813. I ran across his name, quite by chance, in a regimental history which, my brother Lewis picked up in Wilno some years ago.That unknown subalternof my blood-felixopportunitatemortis-immediately fascinated me. .Knowing nothing of him, I could invent everything. So in 1929 I wrote a novel about him, which, in spite of its determinedly exiguous sales, I still like best of my books. 9 I0 YEARS OF THE LOCUST My Polish grandfather started his life in England as a schoolmaster in Chelsea.Later he became a clerk in the War Office, and simultane- ously acted as a correspondent on foreign affairs for various continental newspapers.He wore a beard, was a great walker, and loved a good glass of wine.His handwriting-very similar to mine-was nearly as illegible.Both for him and for my Polish grandmother I had a great weakness, though by the time I had appeared on the scene they had gone to live for the most part in Cracow, where theycould keep in close touch with my aunt who had married the Austrian painter Axentowicz.During the Great War they moved from Cracow to Vevey in Switzerland, for they had grandchildren fighting on both sides.The eldest of my first cousins was killed in the Bukovina fighting against the Russians, while my brother Lewis was wounded, fighting against the Germans in France.In our family Poland had been most effectively partitioned in miniature.. My father, who was for fifty years on the London Stock Exchange, is about as much like the average man's idea of a stockbroker as I am like a film -star.My principal recollections of him will always centre about him sitting at his piano, playing quite exquisitely by ear, and incredibly unconscious of the beauty of his hands.I doubt if he has ever quite got over his irritation at my incorrigible obstinacy in maintaining that I could enjoy his playing and read a book at the same time.None the less I did, and still-alas, very occasionally-do. The possessor, so I believe, of a temperament definitely unpractical, he has defeated that temperament's demands successfully all his life.To me he is the embodiment of solvency and commonsense, while fundamentally sceptical of the value of both one and the other.