Lynn Fontanne

This 1957 portrait of Coward by Ida Kar was reproduced in the 1963 JCW Sail Away program.From the mid-twenties until the mid-fifties (which heralded the advent of John Osborne’s Angry Young Man¹), for anyone interested in the English theatre scene the epitome was Noël Coward. Not only was he an accomplished actor and playwright, but also composed music for his own musicals and revues (naturally supplying lyrics as well as book), and in addition wrote short stories, poems and even one novel. Far from being a Jack of all trades and master of none, he excelled at them all and indeed frequently was referred to as The Master.

My first conscious contact with his work was at the beginning of World War II, when I became engrossed in his first volume of autobiography, Present Indicative.² From this I learned much about the theatre of the twenties and thirties, with first-hand glimpses of those who inhabited it. I then became aware that I had seen the films based—some very loosely—upon his plays: Private Lives, Cavalcade, Tonight is Ours (from his play The Queen Was in the Parlour), Bitter Sweet with Anna Neagle, and Design for Living. I had even seen Coward once in a film: the offbeat The Scoundrel.³

As a natural progression I turned to reading his plays and was soon delighted at the purchase of the famous Private Lives recording of he and Gertrude Lawrence.⁴ I remember playing it to my Mother and her strange comment: “Doesn’t he sound like Charles Laughton!”

More films based on Coward’s plays were produced during the early war years: the Macdonald-Eddy travesty of Bitter Sweet, the ridiculous We Were Dancing, supposedly from his Tonight at 8.30 plays and starring Norma Shearer, and of course the memorable In Which We Serve.⁵

Then on one leave I actually saw The Master on stage, at the Haymarket, in his two latest plays: Present Laughter and This Happy Breed, in which he had been touring around England along with Blithe Spirit. The latter of course was enjoying its long run at the Piccadilly. I had attended the first matinee of this and had been thrilled to see Coward himself, along with designer Gladys Calthrop, watching the performance from a box, and taking notes.⁶

Then, just after VE Day, I saw him in a special charity concert at the Cambridge (in which Josephine Baker also appeared). I do not now recall that he sang any of his own songs, but he did sing a few from what he described as the latest smash-hit American musical. Thus, I heard for the first time ‘The Surrey with the Fringe on Top’ and other numbers from Oklahoma!⁷

From the beginning of the war until 1958 I only missed one Coward show (After the Ball),⁸ sometimes seeing them twice when there was a replacement cast (i.e. when Coward came out of the Present Laughter revival, to be succeeded by Hugh Sinclair). I even saw Coward portraying King Magnus in Shaw’s The Apple Cart.⁹

Somewhere along the line, for no particular reason, I ‘went off’ Coward and have since noted this is a phase experienced by a number of people. Perhaps it was a case of over-exposure of the man. Certainly, he was still popular. I belonged to a playwrights’ club and frequently observed members writing plays which had more than echoes of Coward in them. In fact, one member presented a play à la Blithe Spirit, which had two husbands with two wives each, being conjured up at seances!

By the time I had moved to Australia even to me Coward had become rather a has-been, despite my delight at possessing his two LPs: Noël Coward at Las Vegas and Noël Coward in New York.¹⁰

Then in 1963, after productions of Coward’s musical Sail Away in New York and London, it was decided to stage it in Australia.¹¹

Cover of program for Sail Away

Theatre Heritage Australia

Maggie Fitzgibbon

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Rehearsals took place in Melbourne, with a cast assembled locally, and Australian Maggie Fitzgibbon¹²brought back from London for the role created by Elaine Stritch.¹³ Finally, in the last days of rehearsals, Coward was brough out in a blaze of publicity, to give his final approval.

I later heard that one rather ‘mannish’ actress was being made to play her part in the exact manner and clothes in which it had been performed in New York and London, which was alien to her nature, and she was having difficulty in coming to terms with it. Coward immediately sized up the situation, noted how uncomfortable she was, and in no time at all she had been re-directed to play it more in keeping with her own nature and in slacks instead of dresses. In the final result she was one of the hits of the show.

There was great excitement in the air on opening night.¹⁴ Never before had such a distinguished international author attended the opening Down Under of his own work. Accompanied by Lady Casey, an old friend, Coward took his seat in one of the boxes just before the lights dimmed. With one accord the entire audience rose and applauded him, long and loud. He must have been very gratified and stood up and bowed his acknowledgement.

A couple of days after that first night, I had an interview arranged with The Master. He was staying in a suite in a very grand but rather old-fashioned hotel. I went along, believing I would find Coward very blasé and a tough nut to crack. I was determined to be just as tough. But from the word go the wind was taken completely out of my sails.

The hotel suite door was opened by Cole Lesley,¹⁵ Coward’s close friend who had been his general factotum for a number of years. Lesley showed me into ‘the presence’. Noël Coward greeted me profusely like an old friend. It seemed not to be put on, but quite genuine.

“I do hope you’re not in a hurry, dear boy,” he began. “Would you think it awfully impolite of me if we delayed the interview a little? A very dear friend of mine is popping in to see me—he won’t be here very long—and would you mind very much waiting in the bedroom when he arrives?”

Of course, one didn’t say no to such a request from Noël Coward!

“You might know him in fact. He’s the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Menzies!”¹⁶

By now, of course, I had fallen for The Master’s charm.

“Let’s just chat until he arrives,” suggested Coward, and for the next ten minutes we did exactly that. How I wished my recorder had been switched on at the time!

Florence Henderson and José Ferrer in The Girl Who Came to Supper

New York Public Library, New York

Tammy Grimes, Beatrice Lillie, and Edward Woodward in High Spirits

New York Public Library, New York

He told me he was going to New York for his musical The Girl Who Came to Supper, adapted from the Rattigan play The Sleeping Prince.¹⁷

“Jose Ferrer¹⁸ is playing the Prince, and he’ll be wonderful, and a marvellous girl called Florence Henderson¹⁹ will be the leading lady. As a matter of fact, we’ve had to delay it whilst she’s had another baby but, as she’s always in good voice after giving birth, that’s all for the good.’

Coward spoke also about the musical version of his play Blithe Spirit—to be called High Spirits—which he was going to direct.²⁰ I was already aware Beatrice Lillie²¹ would play Madame Arcati in that.

“It’ll be a difficult time, rehearsing Beattie,” he commented quite frankly. “We always row—fight like cat and dog—and stop speaking to each other. But Beattie always ends up doing what I want, and of course she’ll be absolutely wonderful in the role.”

He also said he was going to direct his Hay Fever,²² with Edith Evans,²³ for the National Theatre in England. And so, we chatted on.

I heard a telephone ring in the next room, and soon afterwards Cole Lesley came in to say the Prime Minister had been delayed.

“Oh well, let’s get on with the interview, shall we?”, said Coward, and after I’d plugged my tape recorder into a wall switch, we began.

Pointing out the obvious, that he was a man of so many talents—actor, playwright, composer, lyric writer, novelist, short story writer, director—I asked, if he had the choise of going down to posterity in just one of those capacities, which would he prefer?

“Well, it’s very difficult to say. I don’t really mind, I haven’t got a great eye on posterity. All I like to do is to entertain the people now, while I’m alive. I shall be remembered mostly for my popular music. One doesn’t know. I don’t care which it is, as long as I’m remembered a little bit. I should like that.”

Then I asked Coward where, without any false modesty, he would place himself as a playwright amongst past and present dramatists. There was no hesitation in his reply.

“Without any false modesty, I think I have contributed a certain amount to the English theatre by my plays. I love writing plays. I was brought up in the theatre. Some of them, like Private Lives,²⁴ Hay Fever,²⁵ Design for Living²⁶ will probably—did probably—make a slight revolution. I think The Vortex²⁷ made a slight revolution in playwrighting because—quite unconsciously, I didn’t attempt to be original—I just wrote how I wanted to write and it ‘sort of clicked’.”

“Do you do very much research work on your plays? With Blithe Spirit,²⁸ I imagine you must have delved a bit into spiritualism.”

“Yes – I read up a certain amount, not very much, but a little. I do research work mostly if I’m doing a period piece like Bitter Sweet²⁹ or Conversation Piece³⁰ or Cavalcade.³¹ Then I read up a lot. To do Conversation Piece I read about thirty books on the Regency, so I got myself absolutely soused in the atmosphere and knew what I was talking about, or rather what my characters were talking about.”

“Do you find, in the actual writing of your plays, that the frame-work and character change at all?”

“Oh yes, sometimes the characters take charge, because when I wrote Blithe Spirit, I only intended Madame Arcati to be a small part in the first act. But when I started writing her, she sort of took charge of me and I fell in love with her. I thought: she’s wonderful. And so I thought: well, I’d better … she changed the play as she went along. She took charge.”

“Did you have anyone in mind when you were writing the play?”

“No, that happened afterwards.”

“Margaret Rutherford³² came in at a later date?”

“Yes. I thought she’d be wonderful, and I was right. She was wonderful.”

“Do you earmark your witty dialogue long before it’s written, or does it usually come to you?”

“Oh, no, I never earmark it. No. No. No! It comes out. If I’m on the right ‘beam’, it comes out swiftly and easily. If I’m not and feel I’m always hesitating and having to re-write scenes, then I know there is something wrong with the construction. If the construction is strong the dialogue comes easily to me.”

“Do you consider your early plays are now period pieces and as such should be played as comedy of manners in the dress and style of the time, or do you consider they should be updated?”

“Well, it doesn’t seem to matter very much. A little company the other day, in London, put on a production of Private Lives without putting it into period – 1930, when it was written—and I must say it didn’t sound dated at all.³³ They changed one or two lines—they changed the Duke of Westminster’s yacht to Mr. Onassis’s yacht—but apart from that it sounded quite modern. It didn’t seem to me dated. But of course, I’d be prejudiced, I wouldn’t think it was dated anyhow!”

Maggie Smith and Edith Evans in Hay Fever

New York Public Library, New York

“You mentioned you’re going to direct Hay Fever for the National Theatre—will you keep that in the twenties still?”

“Oh, yes, that will be in the twenties. It should be, because that was the twenties. But I didn’t think it will date all that much. In writing contemporary plays—particularly comedy—the only thing that’s liable to date you is if you use allusions to local contemporary figures or contemporary people. If that happens, all you have to did is just snip them out or change them.”

“You seem to have cultivated a style of writing of your own, but have you been influenced by other writers?”

“Oh, a great deal. I was influenced when I was young, curiously enough, by E. Nesbit’s³⁴ books for children and by the short stories of Saki.³⁵ Those were the two who really—unbeknownst to me—started me off writing. Then I was influenced of course, as we all were to an extent, by Shaw. ³⁶ But he was very firm with me when I was young and said: ‘Don’t you read anything more of mine, you write your own things.’ He was charming to me. He was a wonderful man.

“I think every writer should be influenced by those who’ve gone before, up to a point. One of the mistakes of some of the modern young writers is contempt for the past. I admired and studied all the plays of Pinero,³⁷ Haddon Chambers,³⁸ Somerset Maugham,³⁹ Hubert Henry Davis,⁴⁰ Bernard Shaw, J.M. Barrie⁴¹—these were my school. That’s what I learned from. Then I did my own thing and now some other young people have since then followed me a bit. That’s how it goes. You mustn’t ignore the past.”

“Do you find that people tend to imitate you?”

“I don’t know whether they still do. They did for a certain period. Sometimes when I go to the theatre, I wish they imitated me a bit more!”

Program cover for Chips with Everything

Elisabeth Kumm collection

Program cover for Waiting for Godot

Elisabeth Kumm collection

In those days, in the sixties, the kitchen sink drama was all in vogue, so I asked Coward his opinion of it.

“The kitchen sink drama is a sort of generalization. Certain of what is known as the kitchen sink dramas … for instance, Mr. Harold Pinter, ⁴² I think, is a very fine playwright. Mr. Wesker⁴³ is becoming a very fine playwright. His last play—Chips with Everything⁴⁴—was fine; a little bit too class conscious, but very finely written.

“Quite a number of the kitchen sink dramas are a great bore, because they mis-represent what is known—or used to be known—as the working class, and they’re fighting for a gained cause. I don’t think it’s very true of the English cockney now, they’re not always frying onions in back rooms. They live very well. They’re having a very happy time, I’m delighted to say. I’m rather bored with the downbeat drama, I like going to the theatre to be amused.”

“What are your thoughts on the theatre of the absurd, say Ionesco and Beckett?”

“I can’t understand them frankly. I can’t understand Mr. Beckett.⁴⁵ I thought Waiting for Godot⁴⁶ was a cracking bore when I saw it. But I’m sure I must be wrong. I’m assured by very intellectual people that I’m wrong. But I share that being wrong with the public, because he public don’t care for him very much.”

“But don’t you feel it might be a cult, that people may feel that they ought to like those sorts of things?”

“Yes, but you know there are never enough people who think they ought to like anything. I’ve always, having been a professional since I was ten years old, believed that my job was to attract as large a public as possible, without sacrificing my integrity. And I’ve found that that works. I think that the public on the whole are very intelligent.”

Censorship in England at that time had fairly recently been abolished,⁴⁷ and things were being done and talked about on the stage not previously possible. I queried whether, had this occurred in the twenties, say, it would have made any difference to his writing.

“Oh, I got away with quite a lot in the twenties! No, I don’t think it makes much difference. I’m getting rather sick of everything being said. I think, and have always thought, that implication and suggestion is much more interesting than flat statement, and to use a lot of four-letter words … all depending on the type of play it is and the type of character. It’s slightly easy not to have any censorship at all and be able to say exactly what you like. It’s very easy to shock, but it’s not so easy to entertain.”

Act 1, Scene 3 set for for the J.C. Williamson production of Bitter Sweet, 1932

J.C. Williamson Scene Books, Book 01-0042, Theatre Heritage Australia

Act 2 finale for the J.C. Williamson production of This Year of Grace, 1929

J.C. Williamson Scene Books, Book Book 01-0185, Theatre Heritage Australia

When I asked Coward it there were any of his plays and musicals he would like to see revived, perhaps because he felt they didn’t get the success they deserved at the time, he surprised me by being objective about his work.

“Oh, the ones that didn’t get the success that they deserved at the time were not worthy of it! That’s why they didn’t get the success. There’s never anybody to blame but the author. The one that I’d like to see a really good revival of is Bitter Sweet, I must say, because I enjoyed Bitter Sweet. This Year of Grace,⁴⁸ which was a revue, that couldn’t be revived, because it was so contemporary, but that was a good show. Conversation Piece was very charming; I’d like to see that done again. But it would be very difficult to find anybody as good as Yvonne Printemps⁴⁹ to play it.”

“To me, when you write a short story, you seem very different. You use very little dialogue, which is surprising for a playwright.”

“That’s fairly deliberate. I like to improve my prose style, my writing. I can write dialogue by the yard. Some of my stories have a certain amount of dialogue, but I like using descriptive passages because it’s unlike the other things I do.”

“Have you ever thought of turning any of your short stories or your novel into plays?”

“No, I haven’t thought of doing it myself, because I always find it very difficult to work over something I’ve already done. But I hope somebody else will. I’d like somebody to make a good play out of Pomp and Circumstance,⁵⁰ my novel, for instance. Or a good movie that’d make. But I don’t know that I could do it myself.”

“Is that why you’re not doing the book, music and lyrics of High Spirits?

“Exactly. Hugh Martin⁵¹ and Timothy Gray⁵² have done that and they’ve done it brilliantly. I supervised the editing the book part of it. They’ve kept very close to my dialogue. He’s done a beautiful score and the lyrics are very good. They come out of the score. So, on the whole I’m very pleased with that. But I don’t believe I could have done it so well myself.”

Next I queried whether there were any special reasons there had been no film versions of his later plays.

“Well, nobody seems to have done them, that’s why. I don’t think anybody asked for them. I haven’t sold the film rights of Relative Values⁵³ or Nude with Violin⁵⁴ or Quadrille.⁵⁵ Those would make quite reasonably good pictures."

"Present Laughter?"

“Present Laughter … no, never done that. I think that would make a very good picture, but you’d have to have a marvellous comedian to play it. It’d be wonderful for Rex Harrison⁵⁶ or for Cary Grant.” ⁵⁷

“You wouldn’t do it yourself?”

“I think I’m a bit long in the tooth for that now!”

“Now as to acting: you once wrote a number ‘Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington’.⁵⁸ Would you still give that advice to dear Mrs. Worthington?”

“I certainly would, unless they had blazing talent. I like talent. Lots of people think the stage is easy. But I have news for them!”

Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt in Quadrille, New York, 1954. Photo by Vandamm.

New York Public Library, New York

Noël Coward as King Magnus in The Apple Cart, 1953. Photo by Angus McBean.

Harvard Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

I then sought The Master’s opinion of method acting.

“Well, every sensible actor has some form of method acting and I don’t hold very much with the constant discussion about motivation and theorizing. I believe first of all in learning the words intelligently and then laying yourself open to a director and thinking how you’re going to play it.

“The Lunts⁵⁹ have their own method, I have my method. I always am word perfect at the first rehearsal, because I want to devote my rehearsal period to developing the various different ways you can play a part.

“I don’t believe in all this ‘getting into the mood’; I don’t believe you’ve got to feel the performance eight times a week. I think you’ve got to feel it sometime during rehearsal and set the feeling and dole it out at each performance to the public. That’s acting. Being is not acting.”

“You haven’t appeared in many plays by other people—I think Shaw’s The Apple Cart was the last one … “

“Yes, The Apple Cart was the last one. Very interesting to do. I enjoyed that very much. Very difficult to do, but very interesting.”

“Is there any particular reason why you don’t appear in other people’s plays?”

“Well, yes, there’s a very good reason and that is that I just haven’t got time. I haven’t even time to appear in my own plays. You see, if I’m playing eight performances a week, it’s a whole time job. The moment you become a star you have the responsibility of the show. And that means you have to watch your diet, you have to live a monastic life and there’s certainly no time to write lyrics and music and short stories while you’re acting. It takes all the energy you’ve got.”

“Have you ever had any desires to appear in Shakespeare?”

“I’ve had one or two. There are two or three parts in Shakespeare I would liked to have played. I would never have cared to play Hamlet. I’d like to have played Iago,⁶⁰ I’d like to have played Malvolio,⁶¹ and I would have liked to have played Benedict.⁶² But that’s about all.”

“How much of your work is autobiographical? Your poem, ‘The Boy Actor’ … ”⁶³

“Oh, that obviously is.”

“And possibly parts of Present Laughter?”

“Oh, nearly all Present Laughter. It’s a sort of send-up of myself. Oh, yes, that’s … The rest—not very much.”

“Are there any people in the theatre today whose careers you feel you’ve had a distinct influence upon?”

“Oh, I’m proud to say quite a lot. Yes. John Gielgud⁶⁴ started his career as my understudy, which I’m very proud of. Laurence Olivier⁶⁵ played the other part in Private Lives with me originally, and through that—I mean he was always a beautiful actor—but through that he got a certain recognition that he hadn’t had hitherto.

“Johnny Mills⁶⁶ I discovered in Singapore in 1930, when he was playing in a touring company, and put him into Cavalcade. Oh, there’re quite a number that I’m proud to have helped. And certainly Elaine Stritch. She became a star in Sail Away; she hadn’t really been a star before. Oh, there have been several who in the old days played small parts in my shows who have later become stars, which is very gratifying.”

Scene from Peace in Our Time. Photo by Angus McBean.

Harvard Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Characters from Waiting in the Wings, with Sybil Thorndike second from left. Photo by Angus McBean.

Harvard Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

“Can we expect you to branch out with any surprising pieces of writing in the future? Like Peace in Our Time⁶⁷ was something rather different for you?” Peace in Our Time, which opened in 1947 and ran for nearly six months in London, was a drama which supposed the occupation of England by the Germans 1940–45.

“Well, I liked Peace in Our Time and I thought it was quite a good play. And I liked Waiting in the Wings⁶⁸ too; but the critics didn’t, but I did. And the public did up to a point. It was rather a sad theme, but I think it’s quite a reasonably good play.

“I don’t do anything with a reason of branching out or doing something original. If an idea for a play comes to me that I want to write, I just sit down and write it and hope it’ll do.”

“Has the legend of Noël Coward grown a little out of proportion to you, do you feel, so that you can now view yourself objectively, rather as an organization than a person?”

“No, I never viewed myself as a legend! That was other people and they all said I was a cocktail-drinking playboy, and if they’d thought for two minutes they’d realise that I couldn’t have been. You can’t work as hard as I’ve worked all these years and drink cocktails all day long and wear dressing gowns. I’ve worked hard all my life. That they never mention.

“I’m supposed to be very sophisticated and sharp and brittle but—it isn’t quite true. I’m a very hard worker, and the reason I’m a hard worker is frankly because I like working.”

During the interview I had heard the doorbell ring and guessed it was the Prime Minister arriving. Coward must also have heard it, but made no comment, and so I continued, thus keeping the Australian P.M. waiting a few minutes.

As I was packing up my tape recorder, Robert Menzies came into the room and the first words Coward said to him were: “I bring you greetings from the Queen Mother.” ⁶⁹

I noticed his guest addressed Coward as ‘King Magnus’—the role he had played in The Apple Cart.

Then, much to my embarrassment, Coward insisted on introducing me to the P.M.

“This is Raymond Stanley who has just done an excellent interview with me.”

Noël Coward and Moira Lister in Present Laughter, Haymarket Theatre, London, 1947

Harvard Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Noël Coward as Sebastian in the Broadway production of Nude with Violin, 1957

New York Public Library, New York

Endnotes compiled by Elisabeth Kumm

1. ‘Angry Young Man’ was a term used in the 1950s to describe the plays of the new wave of young British writers including John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, John Arden and Willis Hall.

2. Present Indicative was the first volume of Noël Coward’s autobiography, published in 1937. It was followed by Future Indefinite in 1954. A third volume, Past Conditional, was not completed.

3. Private Lives was turned into a MGM Hollywood film in 1931, directed by Sidney Franklin and starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery. In 1933, Cavalcade was given the Hollywood treatment by 20th Century Fox, when it was adapted into a film starring Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook, and directed by Frank Lloyd. Tonight is Ours,taken from Coward’s 1926 play The Queen Was in the Parlour, was made into a film by Paramount in 1933, directed by Stuart Walker and featuring Claudette Colbert and Fredric March. Herbert Wilcox’s 1933 film version of Bitter Sweet, shot in the UK, was the first screen adaptation of Coward’s operetta. Design for Living was given the ‘Lubitsch touch’, when in 1933, Paramount produced a film version starring Fredric March, Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins.

4. In 1930, Coward and Lawrence recorded two scenes from Private Lives for His Master’s Voice (C 2043). The first was the Love Scene from Act 1 and the second was a scene from Act 2.

5. MGM’s 1940 film version of Bitter Sweet, directed by W.S. Van Dyke, made such a mess of the original play that Coward vowed he would never let any more of his works be filmed in Hollywood. We Were Dancing, starring Norma Shearer, was a 1942 MGM film, directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It was the last Coward play to be turned into a Hollywood film. In Which We Serve was an original 1942 film written by Noël Coward and directed by Coward with assistance from David Lean for British Lion.

6. Present Laughter, comedy in three acts by Noël Coward. This play was first performed at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, on 20 September 1942. Along with This Happy Breed and Blithe Spirit, it toured for 25 weeks under the collective title of Play Parade. The play opened in London at the Haymarket Theatre on 29 April 1943, where it was performed alternatively with This Happy Breed. Noël Coward played the role of Garry Essendine on tour and in London. He also directed. Glady Calthrop (1894–1980), or G.E. Calthrop as she was often credited, designed sets and costumes for most of his plays and films.

7. On 14 May 1945, at the Cambridge Theatre, a gala concert was presented in aid of the Amis des Volontaires Francaise. According to reviews, Josephine Baker (1906–1975) made her first appearance in London since the war, and Noël Coward ‘sang a number of his waltz melodies’.

8. After the Ball, musical play in three acts by Noël Coward, adapted from Oscar Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892). First performed Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, 1 March 1954, with Vanessa Lee, Peter Graves and Mary Ellis. Following a provincial tour, the play opened in London at the Globe Theatre on 10 June 1954.

9. First performed in 1929, The Apple Cart was a two-act satirical political comedy by George Bernard Shaw. Noël Coward played King Magnus in the second major London revival of the play when it opened at the Haymarket Theatre, 7 May 1953.

10. Noël Coward at Las Vegas was recorded in 1955 by Columbia Masterworks (ML 5063) and Noël Coward in New York was recorded in 1957 by Columbia Masterworks (ML 5163).

11. Sail Away, musical play in two acts by Noël Coward. This play had its premiere in the USA. After tryouts in Boston and Philadelphia, it opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on 3 October 1961, with Elaine Stritch as Mimi Paragon. In the tryout version, the play had two leading ladies, but Coward combined the roles and the musical was reworked as a vehicle for Stritch.

12. Maggie Fitzgibbon (1929–2020), Australian actress and singer. After early success as a singer in Australia, her career took her to the UK in the mid-1950s. She returned to Australia in 1963 to play Mimi Paragon in Sail Away. Back in the UK she continued to appear on stage and on TV, including in the early 1970s, with her own show, Maggie’s Place for London Weekend Television. Maggie can be heard singing ‘Why Do the Wrong People Travel’ from Sail Away on You Tube:

13. Elaine Stritch (1925–2014), American actress. Noël Coward selected her for a role in Sail Away after seeing her in the Broadway flop Goldilocks.

14. The Australian premiere of Sail Away took place at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, on 24 May 1963.

15. Cole Lesley (1910–1980) acted as Noël Coward’s secretary and after his death in 1973 took on the role of biographer, producing two books, The Life of Noel Coward (1976) and Noel Coward and His Friends (1979).

16. Robert Menzies (1894–1978) was Prime Minister of Australia twice, 1939–1941, and 1949–1966.

17. The Girl Who Came to Supper, musical comedy in two acts by Harry Kurnitz, based on Terence Rattigan’s 1953 play The Sleeping Prince, with lyrics and music by Noël Coward. After playing tryout performances in Boston, Toronto and Philadelphia, it commenced its New York season at the Broadway Theatre on 8 December 1963 (112 performances).

18. José Ferrer (1912–1992), Puerto Rican actor and director.

19. Florence Henderson (1934–2016), American actress and singer. Best remembered today for playing Carol Brady in the TV series The Brady Bunch, Henderson performed in the musicals Wish You Were Here (1953) and Fanny (1954) on Broadway prior to landing the leading female role in The Girl Who Came to Supper (1963).

20. High Spirits, an improbable musical in two acts by Hugh Martin & Timothy Gray, based on Noël Coward’s play Blithe Spirit. Following tryouts in New Haven, Boston and Philadelphia, the musical opened at the Alvin Theatre, New York, 7 April 1964, with Edward Woodward, Beatrice Lillie, Tammy Grimes and Louise Troy. Despite some teething problems, the play ran a respectable 375 performances. In October 1964, the musical received its UK premiere in Manchester, opening at the Savoy Theatre, London, 3 November 1964, with Denis Quilley, Cicely Courtneidge, Marti Stevens and Jan Waters (94 performances). SEE ALSO Footnote 30.

21. Beatrice Lillie (1894–1989), Canadian-born British actress, was considered one of the ‘funniest women in the world’.

22. Hay Fever, comedy in three acts by Noël Coward. Premiering in London at the Ambassadors Theatre on 6 August 1925, with Marie Tempest in the role of Judith Bliss. It transferred to the Criterion Theatre in September, closing in March 1926.

23. Edith Evans (1888–1976), British stage actress.

24. Private Lives, comedy in three acts by Noël Coward. Opening at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 1930, the play toured for five weeks visiting Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Southsea, prior to its London premiere at the newly constructed Phoenix Theatre on 24 September 1930. With Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward as Amanda and Elyot, Coward withdrew it at the height of its success in December 1930 to take it to Broadway, where it played at the Times Square Theatre from 27 January 1931.

25. Noël Coward’s 1925 comedy Hay Fever received its third London revival in 1964 at the Old Vic Theatre. Coward directed an all-star cast that included, in addition to Edith Evans as Judith Bliss; Derek Jacobi as Simon Bliss, Robert Stephens as Sandy Tyrell, Maggie Smith as Myra Arundel, Lynn Redgrave as Jackie Coryton, Anthony Nicholls as David Bliss and Louise Purnell as Sorel Bliss.

26. A comedy in three acts by Noël Coward, Design for Living premiered in the USA. Playing tryouts in Cleveland and Washington in January 1933, it opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 24 January 1933. The principal roles were performed by Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt and Noël Coward. The play did not reach the UK until 1939. Following a week’s tryout at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, from 16 January 1939, it opened at the Haymarket Theatre on 25 January 1939. In June of the same year, it transferred to the Savoy Theatre. With the outbreak of war, the show was halted after 203 performances and the company went on tour, returning to the Savoy in December 1939 for an additional 33 performances. Diana Wynyard, Anton Walbrook and Rex Harrison played the principal roles.

27. The Vortex, play in three acts by Noël Coward. First performed at the Everyman Theatre, London, 25 November 1924, with Lillian Braithwaite and Noël Coward as the leads. After twelve performances, the play transferred to the Royalty Theatre in the West End for a further 224 performances. In March 1925 it transferred again to the Comedy Theatre, thereafter, moving to the Little Theatre in May 1925. The play was essentially the story of a drug-addict son’s relationship with his mother.

28. Subtitled an improbably farce in three acts, Noël Coward’s play Blithe Spirit was first performed in Manchester and Leeds in June 1941, with Cecil Parker, Kay Hammond, Fay Compton and Margaret Rutherford. It opened in London at the Piccadilly Theatre on 2 July 1941, transferring to the St. James’s Theatre on 23 March 1942, and then to the Duchess Theatre on 6 October 1942. When it closed in March 1946 it had notched up 1,997 performances. Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford would go on to recreate their roles in David Lean’s 1945 film version. Blithe Spirit was played on Broadway in 1941-1943 and in Australia during 1945-1946.

29. Bitter Sweet, an operetta in three acts by Noël Coward was performed for the first time at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, on 2 July 1929, with Peggy Wood (Sarah Millick) and George Metaxa (Carl Linden). It was performed in London at His Majesty’s Theatre from 12 July 1929 to 28 February 1931, transferring to the Palace Theatre from 2-21 March 1931. The company then played Streatham Hill (1 week) and Golders Green (2 weeks), returning to London for an additional 32 performances at the Lyceum Theatre. Evelyn Laye, who had played the role of Sarah in America, replaced Peggy Wood at His Majesty’s from November 1930 to January 1931. She also played the role during the farewell season at the Lyceum.

30. Conversation Piece, a three-act romantic comedy with music by Noël Coward, premiered at His Majesty’s Theatre in London on 16 February 1934. Set in France and England during the Regency period, the play featured exquisite sets and dresses by G.E. Calthrop. The lead roles were played by Noël Coward (Paul, Duc de Chaucigny-Varennes) and Yvonne Printemps (Melanie). During the play’s four-month season, the role of Paul was also performed by Pierre Fresney. In October 1934, the play transferred to Broadway, playing a modest 55 performances at the 44th Street Theatre, with Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresney as the leads.

31. When Noël Coward’s Cavalcade opened at London’s Drury Lane Theatre in October 1931, it was described as a magnificent evocation of what it means to be English. Told in 22 scenes, the action spans a thirty-year period, from 1899 to 1930, from the Boer War to the Jazz Age. Against this backdrop, the play’s heroine, Jane Marryot, ages gracefully, as she dines and dances her way through the story. Mary Clare played the role of Jane, alongside a huge cast that included Irene Browne, Una O’Connor, Binnie Barnes, John Mills, Fred Groves and Strella Wilson. Directed by Noël Coward and designed by G.E. Calthrop, it achieved 405 performances.

32. Margaret Rutherford (1892–1972), English stage and screen actress.

33. The second major London revival of Private Lives was at the Hampstead Theatre Club in 1963. Featuring Rosemary Martin and Edward de Souza as Amanda and Elyot, it was directed by James Roose-Evans. Noël Coward attended the opening night and went back stage after the show and was photographed with the cast.

34. E. Nesbit (née Edith Nesbit, 1858–1924), English writer, notably of children’s novels such as The Railway Children (1906).

35. Saki (né Hector Hugh Munro. 1870–1916), English writer.

36. George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Irish playwright and critic.

37. Arthur Wing Pinero (1955–1934), English playwright.

38. Charles Haddon Chambers (1860–1921), Australian-born British playwright. Refer Haddon Chambers and the Long Arm of Neglect (Revisited) by Roger Neill, Part 1 and Part 2, On Stage, 2021

39. William Somerset Maugham (1874–1965), English playwright and novelist.

40. Hubert Henry Davies (1869–1917), English playwright.

41. J.M. Barrie (1860–1937), Scottish playwright and novelist.

42. Harold Pinter (1930–2008), English playwright.

43. Along with John Osborn, British playwright Arnold Wesker (1932–2016) was considered one of the key proponents of the ‘Angry Young Man’ drama of the post war period. With an output of more than fifty plays, it is his early plays that best typify his style: Chicken Soup with Barley (1958), Roots (1959), The Kitchen (1959), I’m Talking About Jerusalem (1960), and Chips with Everything (1962).

44. Wesker’s Chips with Everything premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in April 1962. Using the divisions of the Royal Air Force as a microcosm of the class system in Britain, the play tells the story of an ordinary serviceman, Pip, who rebels against the expectations of the force that as a privately educated recruit, he must join the officer class. His failure to avoid promotion demonstrates the power of the class system to ensure everyone is in their correct place.

45. Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) is now considered one of the most distinguished writers of the twentieth century. 

46. In 1961, Martin Esslin coined the term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ (in his book of the same name), to describe a particular form of theatre that explored man’s existential relationship to the universe and nature, with Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot a key example. Waiting for Godot was first performed in Paris in 1953 as En attendant Godot and given its English-language premiere at the Arts Theatre in London in 1955. Cuts were made to the text by the Lord Chamberlain, and it was not until 1964 that the first unexpurgated version of the play was performed in England at the Royal Court Theatre.

47. Since the 1600s, all plays staged in England were required by law to be licenced for production prior to performance. In 1737 a new Act appointed the Lord Chamberlain as the official licenser of plays, giving him the power to prohibit or censor plays that he felt had the potential to cause offence or incite unrest. With the passing of the Theatres Act of 1843 little changed, and 100 years on, the Lord Chamberlain remained the arbiter of taste and protector of public morals. Moves to abolish theatre censorship began in the post WW2 period and in the early 1960s theatre critic Kenneth Tynan and others were campaigning for liberalisation. Finally with the passing of the Theatres Act 1958, theatre censorship in Great Britain was abolished and it was no longer necessary to submit works to the Lord Chamberlain for scrutiny prior to production.

48. This Year of Grace! was a revue devised by Noël Coward and first presented at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, in February 1928 (where it had the title Charles B. Cochran’s 1928 Revue). It was subsequently performed at the London Pavilion on 22 March 1928, running for 316 performances.

49. Yvonne Printemps (1894–1977) was a French singer and actress. Along with her husband, the actor and playwright Sacha Guitry, she had been seen on the London stage in several seasons of French plays during the 1920s. Noël Coward wrote Conversation Piece as a vehicle for Printemps who he described as a ‘fine actress’ with ‘one of the loveliest voices it has ever been my privilege to hear’. Unable to speak English, Printemps was required to learn her part phonetically. In 1933, she left her husband for actor Pierre Fresney, and he succeeded Coward in the role of Paul in Conversation Piece, and he also played the part on Broadway.

50. Pomp and Circumstance, published by William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1960 and published in paperback by PAN Books Ltd., London, 1963, was Noël Coward’s only full-length novel. Set on the island of Samola, it concerns a visit to the fictitious British colony by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip to the island.

51. Hugh Martin (1914–2011), American composer and playwright, best remembered for his score for the MGM film musical Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).

52. Timothy Gray (1926–2007), American songwriter. In addition to partnering with Hugh Martin on High Spirits, he is also remembered for writing the score of the 1952 London musical Love from Judy.

53. Relative Values, a light comedy in three acts by Noël Coward. First performed in at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, in October 1951, the play toured for six weeks, visiting Glasgow, Oxford, Brighton, Bournemouth and Leeds, prior to opening at the Savoy Theatre in London on 28 November 1951 (477 performances). Directed by Noël Coward, the play featured Gladys Cooper, Angela Baddeley, Ralph Michael, Hugh McDermott and Judy Campbell.

54. Nude with Violin, a light comedy in three acts by Noël Coward. A satire on modern art, it had its premiere at the Olympic Theatre in Dublin in September 1956. Following some revisions, it was taken on a four-week tour, visiting Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh, prior to opening in London at the Globe Theatre on 7 November 1956. John Gielgud played the role of Sebastien on tour and in London. In June 1957, he was succeeded by Michael Wilding, and in November 1957 by Robert Helpmann. Coward played Sebastian on Broadway in 1957. And in 1958, Robert Helpmann reprised the role when the play was given its Australian premiere.

55. Quadrille, a romantic comedy in three acts by Noël Coward. After premiering at the Opera House, Manchester, in July 1952, it toured to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool, prior to opening in London at the Phoenix Theatre on 12 September 1952 (329 performances). Leading roles were performed by Alfred Lunt (Axel Diensen) and Lynn Fontanne (Serena, the Marchioness of Heronden). They repeated their roles when the play was performed on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre from 3 November 1954 (159 performances). Noël Coward directed the UK production. Alfred Lunt directed the New York production. Cecil Beaton designed set and costumes for both.

56. Rex Harrison (1908–1990), English actor. Best remembered for creating the role of Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, on stage and on film, Harrison also played the role of Leo in the first UK production of Design for Living. He also acted the role of Charles Condomine in David Lean’s film version of Blithe Spirit.

57. Like Rex Harrison, British-born Cary Grant (1904–1986) was the epitome of the Hollywood leading man. With his easy-going style, impeccable comic timing and debonair demeanour, he acted in more than 70 films between 1932 and 1966.

58. Written in 1935, Noël Coward’s song ‘Mrs Worthington’was, according to The Methuen Dictionary of the Drama, addressed to ‘Glitters’ Worthington, the wife of a Birchington GP, whose affair with the playwright Frederick Lonsdale resulted in the birth of a daughter, Angela. As a youngster, Angela developed a passion for the stage, inspiring Coward to compose some words of advice to her mother. Though she did not pursue a stage career, Angela later became the wife of theatre impresario Robin Fox, and matriarch of the Fox family of actors that includes Edward and James Fox.

59. The Lunts: Alfred Lunt (1892–1977) and Lynn Fontanne (1887–1983) were a celebrated acting couple who enjoyed popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. Milwaukee-born Lunt and London-born Fontanne married in 1922 and from that time were inseparable stage partners. Coward first met them in 1921 and in 1932 wrote Design for Living as a stage vehicle for the three of them. The story of a ménage à trois, the play caused a storm when it premiered on Broadway. Hoping to replicate this success, he wrote Point Valaine for them in 1934, but it lacked the wit and glamour of the earlier play and was withdrawn after only a few weeks. They also appeared in his 1952 comedy Quadrille in London and on Broadway.

60. Iago, one of the principal characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello, hatches a plan to destroy Othello by making him believe that his wife, Desdemona, is having an affair with his lieutenant Cassio.

61. In Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, Malvolio is a figure of fun. A selfish and pompous man, he becomes the victim of a cruel joke, when members of his household send him a love letter purporting to be from Olivia. 

62. Benedick is the principal male character in Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, whose love-hate relationship with Beatrice is central to the play.

63. ‘The Boy Actor’, autobiographical poem by Noël Coward included in Not Yet The Dodo and other verses, published by William Heinemann, London, 1967. Listen to Sir Derek Jacobi reciting the poem:

64. John Gielgud (1904–2000) was one of Britain’s most celebrated stage actors, notably in Shakespeare.

65. Laurence Olivier (1907–1989), English stage and film actor.

66. John Mills (1908–2005), English stage and film actor. Mills and his second wife, the playwright Mary Hayley Bell (1914–2000), were lifelong friends of Coward, who was godfather of their eldest daughter, Juliet Mills. In addition to performing on stage in Cavalcade, Mills also played Ordinary Seaman ‘Shorty’ Blake in Coward’s 1942 moral boosting film In Which We Serve.

67. Peace in Our Time, play in two acts and eight scenes by Noël Coward. After opening at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, in July 1947, the play received its West End premiere at the Lyric Theatre on 22 July 1947, transferring to the Aldwych Theatre on 29 September 1947 (total 167 performances). The action of the play takes place in the saloon bar of a public house called ‘The Shy Gazelle’, situated somewhere between Knightsbridge and Sloane Square.

68. Waiting in the Wings, play in three acts by Noël Coward. The play opened in London at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 7 September 1960, following short tryout seasons at the Olympic Theatre, Dublin and Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, during August 1960. The play was dedicated to Dame Sybil Thorndike, who created the role of Letta Bainbridge, one of the residents of ‘The Wings’, a charity home for retired actresses, in the Thames Valley, not far from Bourne End.

69. As the wife of King George VI, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002), was Queen of England from 1936 to 1952. After George’s death, when her daughter, Elizabeth ascended to the throne, she became known as the Queen Mother. According to Philip Hoare, ‘it was with Noël Coward that the Queen Mother struck up her strongest relationship with a gay man’. She found him entertaining, and they sang duets together. In 1961 she lunched with him at ‘Firefly’, his home in Jamaica.

On my secondvisit to New York I felt less like a stranger in a strange land, despite the fact that it was winter; and Arctic winds swept the streets. Even the dingy theatres seemed more friendly than when I first saw them in 1925, and this feeling was further enhanced through my meeting with people whom I had known in Australia and England.

The New York winter of 1934 (left), Cyril and Madge brave the cold in Central Park (right)

The Illustrated London News, 24 February 1934, p.277 & Cyril Ritchard album, National Library of Australia, Canberra

One of my first London acquaintances was Mr. John Van Druten, author of Young Woodley, There’s Always Juliet, and other successful plays, and here he was in New York for the premiere of Most of the Game, with Herbert Marshall and Edna Best in the leading roles. [1]

Playwright, John Van Druten. Photo by Carl Van Vechten.

Library of Congress, Washington DC

Playbill for There’s Always Juliet with Herbert Marshall and his wife Edna Best

Playbill Vault

After the first night on Broadway he had plenty of time on his hands, and with Cyril we made a trio of sightseers. In short trips about the city I learned something of the real depression affecting America. Crowds of out-of-work men and women thronged the streets day and night, aimlessly parading, and seemingly with all hope gone. They were mostly hard looking types, all of them with that ‘Yeah" and ‘So what?’ expression on their faces. Broadway was a favourite ‘beat’ . . . yet only a few blocks further East was Fifth Avenue with all its splendour and signs of wealth. There were no hungry looking men here. Instead glittering motor-cars purred along the street with well-dressed, clean-shaven gentlemen and beautifully gowned, bejewelled, and admirably made-up ladies as their passengers. Women visiting New York for the first time get the money-spending habit so badly in Fifth Avenue that they have to ask a policeman to remove them while they still have their car fare home.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The Russian Ballet was in season at this time, and Cyril and myself spent many dollars at the box office. [2] There were two ballets new to us The Beautiful Danube, set to the music of Strauss, and The Ballet School, with choreography descriptive of dancing. Danilova, whom I met some years previously as premiere danseuse in Waltzes from Vienna, was a member of the company.

Le Beau Danube with Edouard Borovansky as The Strong Man and Danilova as The Street Dancer (left); Alexandra Danilova (right)

National Library of Australia, Canberra & Private collection

My greatest thrill, however, so far as entertainment was concerned, was in an attempted visit to the premiere of Cecil B. De Mille’s picture, Four Frightened People. [3]New York, which takes its films very seriously, turned out in thousands and stormed the theatre entrances. Cyril and I managed to get in one doorway, and there we were jammed. I have never in my life seen such a vast crowd, nor such a huge auditorium. We seemed to be a mile from the screen in this wonderful theatre in Times Square. We had trouble about our seats, and after a terrible struggle with hordes of humans in a like predicament, eventually found ourselves in the street. Cyril fought his way to the ticket office and demanded his money back, and was quite disappointed to have it returned without a murmur of protest... It is a way they have in America, and are seemingly used to the procedure on first nights.

Movie poster

Internet Movie Data Base

Paramount Theatre, Times Square, New York City, 1934

Private collection

Paramount Theatre entrance lobby

Private collection

The proscenium—viewed from the upper levels

Private collection

Frank Lawton, who was playing in The Wind and the Rain, [4]Ethel Morrison, and Dorothy Purdell, well remembered by Australians, were others who visited me at the Gotham.

* * * * * * * * * * *

London. Back once more! The mere business of unpacking reduced the two years away by at least 20 months. From now on I carry a banner ‘Travel Cunard.’ The service is simply amazing. After the usual posing for photographs and waving at the cameramen, Cyril and I were introduced by a Cunard man to the chief of the Customs, and we were really so social that he blushed at the very thought of asking us to open our luggage. Instead he wrote mysterious little signs all over the trunks and things, and these acted like magic and just dissolved barriers right and left. [5]

The trip from Southampton to London was unbelievable for February. We had full sunshine all the way. It must have been a mistake—or perhaps the Cunard people were using their influence again. But even they could not alter dear old London, and sure enough we had glorious fogs and cold and sleet. In short, we were back!

I found my flat at Hanover Square full of flowers and friends, with a lift-man, a porter, a housemaid, and the manager all smiling welcome in the background. Things began to move at once. Vivian Buckley—who wrote that very successful book With a Passport and Two Eyes [6]—gave a large cocktail party for us. He had very thoughtfully gathered a great many of our old friends together. Everyone seemed very pleased to see us, and refused to believe it was two years since we had left. Not very flattering, perhaps, but London is like that. Time flies, people disappear for months and return, and you resume a conversation that was commenced before they left.

Travel writer, V.C. Buckley (a self-portrait)

The Badsey Society

Actor-comedian, Leslie Henson

Private collection

We were also bidden to a cocktail party given by Mrs. Claude Beddington. As usual, there were at least six languages being spoken very loudly in one room. Fortunately the room was gigantic. Then Leslie Henson gave a party for us at the Green Room Club. Everyone on the London stage was there, and our welcome started with the gallery girls, who were assembled outside. It was all very cheering, as Cyril and I had been suffering a little from the feeling that perhaps we had been quite forgotten.

It was charming, too, when we went to the theatre and perfect strangers came to tell us how very glad they were to see us back. I am not writing this in any spirit of boastfulness, but to point out that the same loyalty exists in London as I always found in Australia. Much as I loved America, I do not think you would find that in a theatre there.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The first plays I saw were Mr. Whittington, with Jack Buchanan, [7]which disappointed me a little, though London seemed to like it, and Fred Astaire in Gay Divorce. [8] This was the piece that Billy Milton played in Melbourne. Then I saw Marie Tempest in The Old Folks at Home, which Melbourne recently found rather naughty, but very amusing. [9] Marie looked younger than ever. Also In the cast were Graham Browne, Margaret Rawlings, Frank Allenby, and Ronald Ward—all of whom will be remembered at odd times in Australia by some of the people who read this story of mine.

Elsie Randolph and Jack Buchanan in Mr. Whittington

Mander & Mitchenson collection

Fred Astaire and Claire Luce in Gay Divorce.Photo by Houston Rogers.

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Cyril and I had two or three rather interesting suggestions about appearing in London. The main trouble was the little time at our disposal before we would once more be Australia bound. The newspapers every day were mentioning the Melbourne Centenary. The fact that Prince George then intended to go out undoubtedly gave the whole thing an added importance in London's eyes. I had an odd chuckle when I read that a prize offered for an Australian novel had been given, according to the Daily Mirror, by ‘Mrs. James Dyer, daughter of the Lord Mayor of Melbourne!’ I am sure no one appreciated that joke more than Sir Harold Gengoult Smith. [10]

After a week in London I found the queer old place was getting hold of me again. My first reaction to it had been annoyance at its mixed climate and its lack of what the Americans so love to call ‘creature comforts.’ In any case spring in the offing, and the certainty of summer in Australia when London was next wrapped in its winter blankets, drove such thoughts away.

The thing I had to fight most hard at that moment was an almost terrifying wanderlust. After more than two weeks I was still not quite unpacked, and I hesitated about taking the smallest trifle from my trunks and putting it in a permanent looking wardrobe.

I had to exercise the greatest control and fairly run past a Thomas Cook’s office, and my breakfast often grew cold while I read of winter cruises. The south of France called so strongly—so very strongly. And Spain was quite a new country to me, with the exchange in my favour. I found that for £27 I could go to Madeira and back. For less than £50 I could go to Portugal, to Brazil, and a thousand miles up the Amazon! The luxurious motor vessel Columbia could take me from Dover for a seven weeks’ sunshine voyage to the British West Indies, and the Spanish Main, including St. Lucia and Jamaica. I had to stop thinking like that before I threw everything to the winds.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Interesting contrasts were presented in two plays I saw at that time. The first was Richard of Bordeaux, with John Gielgud, [11]and the other was Reunion in Vienna, with that incomparable pair, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. [12]

Richard of Bordeaux disappointed me a little. It really was a beautiful production, but it could not live up to its advance publicity! I felt, too, that Shakespeare had said the final word about Richard II, and the music of his language made the other version rather trite. And I am not really a highbrow.

Programme for Richard of Bordeaux (left);  John Gielgud, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Barbara Dillion and Francis Lister in Richard of Bordeaux. Photo by Bertram Park. (right)

Programme Rob Morrison collection

For the Lunts I had nothing but praise. They are a grand pair, and can give anyone lessons in stage craftsmanship. ‘Finesse’ is the word to be applied to them.

Reunion in Vienna with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, from The Illustrated London News, 20 January 1934, p.102 (left); Programme design by Rex Whistler (right)

Programme Rob Morrison collection

The people who took Cyril to Reunion in Vienna had to use a great deal of influence to get seats. We had tried several times without success. We had been on our knees to ticket agencies just bristling with banknotes, trying to get in to that show, to the first night of Magnolia Street, [13]and to Escape Me Never, [14]with Elisabeth Bergner.

At that time I met two of the most interesting people I have ever known. They were Jerome Kern and Hassard Short. Kern wrote the music for Sally, The Cabaret Girl, Sunny, The Cat and the Fiddle, Show Boat, Music in the Air, and for Roberta, which we have recently done in Melbourne.  Short was the producer of Waltzes in Vienna and Roberta—the best man at his job in New York and London.

To be continued

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Published in The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.), Thursday, 11 April 1935, p.19, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article182036348 and The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), Wednesday, 31 July 1935, p.3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/30098474

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Endnotes

Compiled by Robert Morrison

1. On 21 December 1933, The New York Times reported (on p.24) that: ‘John Van Druten, English playwright, arrived yesterday on the White Star liner Olympic in connection with the presentation next month of his play, Most of the Game, in which Herbert Marshall and Edna Best will have the leading roles. The author said he hoped to present here his play, The Distaff Side, before long.’ However Madge was mistaken in her assumption that the play received its Broadway premiere around the time that she and Cyril arrived in New York in mid-January, as The New York Times subsequently reported on 8 March 1934 that Basil Sydney would produce ‘John Van Druten’s Most of the Game, now being rewritten, with Herbert Marshall and Edna Best … probably … in the Autumn.’ In fact the next of his plays to open on Broadway was The Distaff Side, on 25 September 1934, and Most of the Game did not arrive there until 1 October 1935 (without Marshall or Best) when it flopped after a mere 23 performances. (Ref.: ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/john-van-druten-6910 )

2. The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo’s New York season played at the St. James Theatre from 22 December 1933 to 25 March 1934. In addition to Alexandra Danilova, the company’s principal dancers included Leonide Massine, Tatiana Riabouchinska, Leon Woizikowski, Nina Verchinina, Tamara Toumanova, Irina Baronova and David Lichine. Its repertoire of ballets included La Concurrence, Les Presages, Le Beau Danube, Petrushka, Prince Igor, Les Sylphides, Beach, Jeux d’Enfants and Scuola di Ballo. (Danilova had been the principal ballet dancer in the London production of Waltzes From Vienna at the Alhambra Theatre in 1931.)

3. Cecil B. De Mille’s picture, Four Frightened People was released in the US on 26 January 1934. It received its New York premiere at the Paramount Theatre, Times Square on that date.

4. The Wind and the Rain (by Merton Hodge) premiered at the Ritz Theatre, New York on 1 February 1934.

5. Passenger lists for the Cunard line of the period note that Madge and Cyril sailed from New York City on the S.S. Berengaria on 14 February and arrived in Southampton, England on the 21 February 1934.

6. British travel writer, photographer and lecturer, Vivian Charles John Buckley was born on 26 June 1901 in Brompton, London, the elder of two children of Charles Mars Buckley, a brewer, and his wife, Ida (née Fennings). He was the grandson of Mars Buckley (1825–1905), an Irish businessman from County Cork, who had emigrated to Australia in 1851, and co-founded the prominent department store, Buckley & Nunn (with Crompton John Nunn) in 1852, which operated in Bourke St., Melbourne for over 130 years, until it was taken over by David Jones in 1982. Charles Mars Buckley (1870–1946), the youngest of his eight children (who was born at the family mansion ‘Beaulieu’ in Heyington Place, Toorak) emigrated to England in the 1890s, marrying Ida Fennings at St Saviour, Chelsea in 1898. (Ref.: https://www.badseysociety.uk/people/buckley/vivian-charles and https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/200143915)

7. Mr. Whittington (music by John W. Green, Jack Waller and Joseph Tunbridge; book and lyrics by Clifford Grey, Greatrex Newman and Douglas Furber; additional lyrics by Edward Heyman) received its West End premiere at the London Hippodrome on 1 February 1934 for a total run of 300 performances, which included a transfer to the Adelphi Theatre, where it concluded on 20 October 1934.

8. Gay Divorce (music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Dwight Taylor) had its London premiere at the Palace Theatre on 2 November 1933 for a run of 180 performances concluding on 7 April 1934. Fred Astaire and Claire Luce reprised their lead roles from the original New York production, which had premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 29 November 1932 for a run of 248 performances. Its Australian premiere was given by J.C. Williamson Ltd. at the King’s Theatre, Melbourne on 23 December 1933 for a season which ran until 16 February 1934 in a production directed by Charles A. Wenman with dances by Edward Royce, jun. British star Billy Milton made his Australian stage debut in the male lead role of ‘Guy Holden’ and Sydney actress, Mona Potts stepped up from the chorus to take on the female lead role of ‘Mimi’ at two days’ notice when British leading lady, Iris Kirkwhite fell and sprained her ankle at a rehearsal. (In his opening night curtain speech, Billy Milton paid tribute to Miss Potts for having mastered five dances, forty pages of dialogue and three songs in two days.) Miss Kirkwhite recovered from her injury in time to re-join the production for the Adelaide season at the Theatre Royal (from 21 to 27 April), the Perth season at His Majesty’s Theatre (from 19 to 26 May), the Kalgoorlie Town Hall on 29 May and the Brisbane season at His Majesty’s theatre (from 9 to 22 June) which played in repertory with revivals of The Girl Friendand The Quaker Girl.) Local cast members on the tour included Frank Leighton, Leo Franklyn, Elved Jay and Gus Bluett. (On their return to Australia, Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard subsequently took over the lead roles for the Sydney season at the Theatre Royal from 28 July to 12 September 1934.)

Photo by Bruno of Hollywood, 1935

Wellcome Collection

Marie Tempest, 1935. Photo by Bassano.

IMDB

9. The Old Folks at Home (by H.M. Harwood) premiered at the Queen’s Theatre, London on 21 December 1933 and played for 203 performances concluding on 23 June 1934. J.C. Williamson Ltd. presented its Australian premiere at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney on 25 October 1934 for a season concluding on 22 November. Its Melbourne season opened at the Comedy Theatre on 5 January 1935 and concluded on 21 February.

 ‘Old Folks at Home’ Tonight

Theatregoers are to see a large number of modern plays this year. The 1935 programme will open at the Comedy tonight, when The Old Folks at Home is given its Melbourne premiere.

An interesting fact is that this three act comedy is produced by Grace Lane, who also enacts the central character, Lady Jane Kingdom, a role in which Marie Tempest achieved a notable success on the London stage last year.

The play is a sophisticated drama of human life, with broad situations and exceedingly frank conversation. The theme underlying the whole story is that ‘the old folks at home’ know as much and are as capable as the young people who are apt to regard their elders with a good humored contempt for their tack of worldly knowledge.

Lady Jane Kingdom sees her strong-willed daughter (enacted by Jane Wood) and her son's empty-headed wife (Kathleen Goodall) whirling hopelessly in the frantic and purposeless eddies of young modernistic society, and saves them from themselves by her tact and understanding of life.

The Herald (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday, 5 January 1935, p.24, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245436944

10. Mrs James Dyer was the sister of Sir Harold Gengoult Smith, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne from 1931 to 1934. She served as Lady Mayoress on her brother’s behalf until his marriage to Cynthia Brookes (the daughter of tennis player Sir Norman Brookes) in 1933. As Lord Mayor, Smith chaired many of the organising committees for the 1934 Centenary of Melbourne. In her own right, Mrs. James Dyer founded the Victorian branch of the British Music Society in 1921, and acted as honorary local representative for the parent society (based in London) as well as honorary secretary of the Victorian branch. In addition she was president for five years of the Alliance Français in Victoria, and was one of the first Australian women to be awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French government (amongst other such honours.) (Ref.: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/smith-sir--harold-gengoult-15901; http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140842392 andhttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10957710 )

11. Richard of Bordeaux (by ‘Gordon Daviot’ pseud. of Elizabeth Macintosh) premiered at the New Theatre, London on 2 February 1933 in a revised version (having previously previewed at the theatre for two Sunday performances on 26 June and 3 July 1932) for a run of 463 performances concluding on 24 March 1934.

12. Reunion in Vienna (by Robert E. Sherwood) had its London premiere at the Lyric Theatre on 3 January 1934 and played for 196 performances concluding on 23 June. The Lunts reprised their roles from the original US production, which had played at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York for a run of 264 performances from 16 November 1931.

13. Magnolia Street (by Louis Golding and A.R. Rawlinson, based on Goldings’s novel) premiered at the Adelphi Theatre, London on 8 March 1934 for a run of 36 performances concluding on 7 April.

14. Escape Me Never (by Margaret Kennedy, adapted from her novel) premiered in London at the Apollo Theatre on 8 December 1933 starring Viennese actress, Elisabeth Bergner in her West End debut, and ran for 232 performances concluding on 12 April 1934.

Cyril Ritchard Filmography

• Danny Boy(1934) (British Dominions Films)—screenplay by A. Barr-Carson, Oswald Mitchell and Archie Pitt. Directed by Oswald Mitchell. Original music by Eric Spear, with lyrics by Frank Vincent. Cast included Frank Forbes-Robertson, Ronnie Hepworth, Dorothy Dickson, Archie Pitt, Fred Duprez, Denis O’Neil and Cyril Ritchard.

In production in May of 1934 at the Cricklewood Studios, the picture was first released in London in July 1934 and in Australia in May of the following year. Local critical reaction to the film was mixed, although Cyril Ritchard received praise for his acting in a supporting role, which gave little scope for his talents.

Picture Theatres

A tip-top programme of British films was screened at the Athenaeum on Friday, consisting of The Triumph of Sherlock Holmesand Danny Boy …

Danny Boy proved to be a musical film with a strongly emotional story, and as a film it bears evidence of a cinema quality which has not been sustained in some of the more recent British productions. This popular picture gives us glimpses of Cyril Ritchard in a straight role, and as a theatrical magnate he fills the bill with smoothness and poise. No doubt we shall see more of Mr. Ritchard as an actor in the future. As Pat Clare, Frank Forbes-Robertson is a romantic and vagrant violinist, and Ronnie Hepworth, as Danny, is delightful characteristically English in contrast with the too precocious types of boys which Hollywood has developed. The last close-up of him in the cabaret scene is irresistible. Dorothy Dickson plays the role of Danny's mother, Jane Kaye, the actress, and Leo Newman is cast as the manager. Musically, Danny Boy is interesting, but the recording is not up to the best standard.

The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), Monday, 20 May 1935, p.10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204354539

‘Danny Boy’

A well-drawn but inadequate sob-story, deficient in action and humor. A musical genius, estranged from the wife who loves him, wanders forth with their boy of 12 to fiddle in the streets. The streets treat him as they usually treat geniuses; meantime, the wife has become a Great Star. Her continued efforts to find her husband and child failing, she is tempted to love another man, when suddenly somebody finds the husband, tells everybody he is a genius and everybody believes it. All are happy, except the noble-minded lover, who goes forth like the Boy Scout, content with his day’s good deed. The acting is worthy of a better story. Frank Forbes-Robertson never faults as the genius. Ronnie Hepworth is another of those wonderful child performers who have come into the lime-light of late. Archie Pitt as the tough proprietor of the penny doss-house is the real thing. [Dorothy Dickson as] Jane Kaye looks well as the heroine. Cyril Ritchard, as the lover who wasn’t, has little to do, but does it well.

‘Shadow Shows’, The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 22 May 1935, p.40

Everyone’s (Sydney), 12 December 1934, p.104

Everyone’s (Sydney), 31 October 1934, p.7

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Additional sources

Raymond Mander & Joe Mitchenson, Musical Comedy: A story in pictures, Peter Davies, London, 1969

Ernest Short, Sixty Years of Theatre, Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1951

J.P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1930–1939: A calendar of productions, performers, and personnel, 2nd ed.; Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 2014

Internet Broadway Data Base, ibdb.com

Internet Movie Data Base, imdb.com

The New York Times on-line Archive

‘The Shows of 1934’, Everyone’s (Sydney, NSW)—(Vol. 14 No. 772)—12 December 1934, p.112, https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-571101604

‘The Shows of 1935’, Everyone’s (Sydney, NSW)—(Vol. 15 No. 310)—11 December 1935, p.124, https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-552304594