This week I got a wonderful letter back from Judi Dench talking about how Beatrix helped her when she was at Central. It seemed she was someone they brought in to help students, rather than one of the regular staff. Judi said the normal teachers always told them what they were doing wrong, whereas Beatrix said what they were doing right which was much more helpful. It was a really nice and useful letter. It reminded me that I really need to get back to my research now. So I've come up with a plan to kick start the year.
Actors to contact
Roy Dotrice - letter sent
Susan Engel - Letter received 04/02/16
John Leeson
Tom Baker
Lydia - two
John Hurt
Richard Chamberlain
Archives to contact
Central (read book first, books and collections available) -emailed 5/2 still nothing found
Communist (any information, mention member and editoral board of daily worker)
Princeton (asking for copies) -emailed 5/02
Equity (after checking on struggle)
Aylesbury for baby book - open 1st and 3rd Saturdays.
Goal for 2016
Write up one decade a month starting in Feb after planning and final research in Jan complete.
Thursday 21 January 2016
Tuesday 8 December 2015
Two articles to look for at the BL
Methuen & Co
29th May 1934
Dear Beatrix
I don't suppose you remember me but I came twice to Bourne
end when you were a united family and your father was for many years a
cherished (if sometimes feared) colleague of mine on Punch. I write now, as
your publisher as well as admirer, to ask if you will give Mrs. Nicholls, my
friend and secretary, every opportunity to prepare an article about you for
good housekeeping which the editor has promised to print. It should do us all
good.
am your sincerely.
(look up good housekeeping for the rest of the year at the
BL!)
E V Lucas
RNL/6/4/6
The new statesman 4 May 1957
the entertainer
Sir - in his perceptive and sympathetic notice of Mr John Osborne's new play, The entertainer,
Mr T.C. Worsley seems to me to make one grievous error of judgement and criticism
when he says: Granddad, in spite of all the resources of the resources Mr
George Relph, is, frankly, a purely conventional character, who easily, and indeed
very early, becomes a bore. the long opening scene between him and the daughter
is so much waste.
I know I am not alone in thinking this performance not
merely resourceful, but a stupendous joy to watch and listen to. a complete
personality, a new old friend, a bore only to his relatives, was given to us in
those too few minutes. He sharpened expectancy and set the mood an d meaning
for all that was to follow.
Mr Worsley the continues, The necessary information in it
could be conveyed by any competent working dramatists in a page of dialogue. it
is precisely because competent working dramatists have been conveying necessary
information that page of dialogue...
(see the rest at the BL)
Wednesday 4 November 2015
Article to look for at the BL
Yellow Jacket, March 1939 (vol. 1 no. 1) has Massacre of the innocents by Beatrix
First two pages
First two pages
When we were kids we used to play a game called, Life and
death. It consisted of a choice between
two horrors. The last was always: ‘To be hanged by the neck’, and the first
varied according to circumstances and the major fear of the moment. For
instance: ‘Which would you rather – spend the whole summer holidays with
teacher or be hanged by the neck?’
As if it were yesterday I can remember a friend of mine
bouncing up and down and screaming hysterically: ‘Ooer! Holls with stinking old
teacher? Hang me! Hang me quick!’
I always maintain that childhood is the wisest age of man.
An adult is usually corrupted child who has lost the wisdom of choice. For
instance, how many people would prefer obscurity to Stardom? To ‘be in pictures’
has a horrid fascination for most people. There used to be a famous recruiting
phrase, ‘There is a Field-Marshal’s baton in every soldier’s knapsack’. Well
there’s no temptation nowadays when there is a Hollywood contract in every mug’s
pocket. Even if you’ve got a face like the back of a cab it may be just the cab
some talent scout is looking for and you’ll be lifted out of the tomb of obscurity.
But what people don’t realise is that they are choosing the most terrible trade
on Earth. It’s certain death because as we can’t all be Stars at the same time
the more Stars we kill off the more chance there is for us. The moving picture
firms keep on telling the public that a Star’s life is the best in the world
because they have to keep their business going and they don’t seem to be able
to do it without the poor Stars. This form of propaganda has served the firms
very well for as soon as a Star is exterminated there is always another ready
to take the vacant position. In fact the public finds the prospect just as
delightful as being born to die in battle.
There are two ways by which the Big-Hearted Public
exterminates the Stars.
The first is hate. The public refuses point blank to pay to
see the Star, so Firm sacks Star and Star, instead of being glad to be taken
out of the firing line, commits suicide or goes about miserable.
The second way is love. They band together in innumerable
clubs and other powerful bodies and having chosen a Star as their particularly
prey they proceed to devour it with love. They start writing to the Star threatening blackmail, promising worse than death, proving strange obligations of
Star to public and demanding all kinds of odd things. Instead of calling in the
police the Firms have made it a rule to believe that the more letters of this
kind the Star receives the greater the Star’s value. When this kind of
correspondence has reached startling proportions the Firm decides that the time
is ripe to send the Star out to make personal appearances before the
Big-Hearted Public. The consequences are very alarming because if the Firm has
been so careless as not to provide some adequate barrier between Star and
Big-Hearted the latter will set upon the former and, passing over it like a
plague of locusts over a fruit tree, will leave it standing in the torn shreds
of its drawers with one last button swing by a thread. Only the remnants of
civilization, growing daily less, keeps them from taking home the limbs, eyes
and teeth as love-tokens.
No, one can’t help feeling awfully sorry for the Stars and
the desire to warn them is not only humane but irresistible. The Firms are
inventing all kinds of new ways of making the Big-Hearted want to devour the
Stars. However it is useless because the Stars are very, very brave things who shrug
their shoulders and say the work is well paid. It has become evident from
recent world happenings that it is the female vote that counts so the Firms
have ordered some Stars to take down or take up their trousers as often as
possible in pictures…
Saturday 17 October 2015
Aspern papers articles to look for at BL
Plays and players sept 1959
Theatre world sept 1959
Queen 15 9 59
Vogue Sept 1959 AMAZING out of character photo
Flora Robson and Beatrix Lehmann together for the first time in Redgrave's adaptation of Henry James
Plays and players In character photo
Plays and plays oct 1959 has pictures
Plays and players Jan 1960 Best plays and players of 1959
Letter from the The Playhouse in New York, Robert Joseph dated 29 Feb 1960 stating what a shame it is he won't do the play, and how they wanted him and Flora (mentions not Bea)
Theatre world sept 1959
Queen 15 9 59
Vogue Sept 1959 AMAZING out of character photo
Flora Robson and Beatrix Lehmann together for the first time in Redgrave's adaptation of Henry James
Plays and players In character photo
Plays and plays oct 1959 has pictures
Plays and players Jan 1960 Best plays and players of 1959
Letter from the The Playhouse in New York, Robert Joseph dated 29 Feb 1960 stating what a shame it is he won't do the play, and how they wanted him and Flora (mentions not Bea)
Wednesday 14 October 2015
Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham by Emily Bingham
I was so pleased to
discover a biography of Henrietta Bingham had been written. I'd come
across her name in my Beatrix Lehmann research. I'd suspected that her
and Bea had dated but I knew nothing about her. This filled in those
gaps wonderfully. It was a proper insight into the woman, the times she
lived in and her unusual life.
The biggest surprise for me was that she was from such a rich American background. Growing up in the south, with a father who was "struggling" compared with some of his relatives but one who still ended up as the Ambassador to England on the even of the second world war.
Henrietta's life was an interesting one, even if she didn't "produce" anything. She was in a tragic car accident when she was 13 that saw the death of her mother (p.22-23). She had to be emotionally supportive for her father as well as a fairly useless elder brother. She was bisexual and had a series of relationships with both men and women. The first woman she was seriously involved with was a teacher at her school, Mina Stein Kirsten who she met in 1918 when Mina was 24 (p.47). She first arrived in England in 1922 travelling with her father and Mina. The two women ended up staying in England together and explored the countryside. Mina insisted Henrietta get psychological counselling, and they both saw a Freudian analyst. P. 72-73 talks about how bisexuality was somewhat accepted at that time, with women such as Bessie Smith and Tallulah Bankhead being more open about their sexuality. p. 81 mentions how Henrietta got to know the Bloomsbury group, including Dora Carrington, with whom she had a relationship, through going to Francis Birrell and David Garrett's bookshop. p. 123, 131 talks in more detail about Dora and Henrietta's relationship. It is probably worth noting that the relatively poly attitude of the queer people at that time still seems to make biographers uncomfortable, trying to figure out which relationships were which, and how jealousy fitted in. They can't seem to accept that people could be having more than one relationship and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
In 1927 Henrietta's father and Mina decided she should marry, but in 1927 she met Beatrix, referred to in the book throughout as Peggy, and the two started a relationship that lasted roughly five years. "In the midst of this summer of nuptials, Henrietta tested what her father would ut up with to have her near him. She asked Miss Lehmann - the twenty four year old English actress who had the use of her Bently and had sent so many letters to her while she was in America - to join the family party as it moved from Edinburgh to grouse shooting near Guthrie Castle. They were more than just friends. A framed photograph of Beatrix stood on Henrietta's dresser to the end of her life".
Even though it didn't last more than a few years it seemed to have been significant as the author said Henrietta had a photo of Beatrix on her dressing table till she died. Which I found very touching.
p. 184 During WWI Peggy disguised herself as a boy so she could attend scout activities. (she would have been 10-13) ... She was likely introduced to Henrietta through Tallulah Bankhead, whom she understudied in three different productions. There were all-night escapades with Bankhead, p. 185 who would suffer pre-opening-night "nerve storms" and insist "that she couldn't be left". Peggy, living on a meagre allowance, meanwhile had "stockings to mend, bills to pay (impossible) and understudy (70 pages) to learn". According to contemporaries - and by the standards of the era - Lehmann was remarkably open about her lesbian leanings. "Tallulah must have been in love with her," recalled Bankhead's co-star Glenn Anders. "We were together all the time". ... The Glasgow bulletin covered the vacationing American press baron and his party, and ran a photo of Miss H. Bingham and Miss P Lehman [sic]. Striding together in their tartans, walking sticks in hand, they flank a shotgun-toting Mr Philips... That same day, Henrietta sat shoulder to shoulder with Peggy, on the moor alongside a chauffeured auto-mobile, their legs tucked sideways under them. The photographer caught them in conversation, cigarettes in hand and nipping dark liquid from small glasses...
p. 186 Henrietta stayed in Britain after the shooting party, fox-hunting and spending time with Peggy...
p. 188 Like Henrietta, Peggy was an entertaining companion, adding spark and cleverness to a group. She could turn her mordant humour against herself, loathed sentimentality, and insisted on her independence. ... But the relationship that began while Henrietta was at least informally engaged to John Houseman persisted through the decade. The woman treated the bond provisionally...
p. 195 The judge relaxed considerably during this period and gave his blessing to the "close friendship" with Miss Lehmann. But even if he and other people knew or thought they knew about his daughter's sexual predilections, Bingham demanded that her clothing and public demeanour not prove it...
p. 198 "Henrietta announced an earlier than scheduled return to England. She talked of taking Peggy Lehmann to see Berlin cabarets and soak up the midnight sun in Sweden... On July 13 1930 Henrietta [bought a new Bentley] and Henrietta and Peggy were off to Stokholm, attracted by a grand exhibition of modern designs. Following that, they installed themselves at a Baltic resort. Sweden was "the greatest fun", Peggy told her sister Rosamond; the country was full of perfect blondes, replete with good food, and amazingly free in it social mores. ... they made their way south, via Berlin, with its open transvestite balls and lesbian bars that went well beyond the Bloomsbury's experiments. (Two years later, Peggy would return to Berlin seeking German film roles). In Munich she and Henrietta attended a vast avant-garde production called Totenmal, or call of the dead, mounted by the lesbian dancer Mary Wigman with over the top lights, dances and unaccompanied choirs, and masked men reading the letters of soldiers lost in he great war. It was a staggering work of peace propaganda even as the Nazi party closed in on political control. the couple were
p. 199 deliriously happy in in Munich. "Henrietta" Peggy wrote to Rosamond, "has been adorable and the best of travel companions (and often unspeakably funny").
[They travelled to the Alps, Paris, then crossed the channel and Peggy joined Henrietta on the family holiday in Scotland] Peggy's show of enthusiasm for Judge Bingham, whom she had first met at Guthrie three years earlier, marked a departure from the antagonistic stance of Henrietta's other friends and lovers toward a man who seemed at best overbearing and narcissistic and at worst Mephistophelean. In bringing Miss Lehmann once more into the house party, Henrietta asserted a relationship that was both unmistakable and unmentionable. ...
p. 205 Henrietta meanwhile endured a series of blows that included the increasingly dire economic crisis and the unwinding of her relationship with Peggy. She had spent Christmas 1931 with the Lehmanns, where the family theatricals involved John comically cross-dressing as their American mother. For Henrietta the cheer came aided by quantities of alcohol. Peggy noted her sweetness and the "largesse and generosity" she brought tot he holiday, but none of the Lehmanns could miss the way she applied "herself with religious and fanatical fervour to all bottles.
p. 206 Peggy's appraisal of her life could easily have expressed Henrietta's own, "getting uglier and more lonesome every moment. Always falling in love with the wrong people. It is small consolation that they return the compliment". ...
p. 208 [on finding out Henrietta was starting a relationship with Hope Williams] "Peggy minced no words at the news of Henrietta's attachment to the star. She told her sister that her ex was "living in homo-sin with Tallulah's best girl".
p. 209 In England Peggy Lehmann admitted to "ride-em-cowboy" fantasies. "I should think, she wrote to Henrietta, "It was the ideal country for bringing out most any girl's subconscious wish for spectacular masculinity" [odd to note that this is one of Peggy's letters to Henrietta that ended up in Rosamond's archive!]
p. 210-211 has Peggy writing Henrietta asking her, "What do you do with yourself all day - and night?" Was Henrietta, "rich, poor, happy, miserable, in-love, out-of-love, analysed, unanalysed?"
p. 215 Hope Williams visited at the embassy, and the whole family went to a play starring Peggy Lehmann as Emily Bronte [Wild Decembers] .
p. 226-227 talks of Henrietta visiting Helen's flat with Peggy to help Helen with her novel.
p. 238 There were jealousies too, such as a night where, after dinner at the savoy with Peggy Lehmann and another guest named Percy, they all returned to Madge's. Helen grew so upset at something she witnessed happen that she fled in the darkness of Stiner's stall, where she stroked him until her composure returned.... or Henrietta and Peggy could have been flirting...
p 248-249 talks about how it was becoming less acceptable to be homosexual
p 275 Peggy Lehmann's acting career was compromised by her leftist politics and her unusually open bisexuality. However, 1960s and 70s British television provided roles that engaged her comic abilities and milked her eccentric profile, and fans of the original Dr Who TV series celebrate her campy (and suggestively lesbian) portrayal of Professor Amelia Rumford.
Things were not so good for Henrietta though who suffered from severe depression and alcoholism, thought to be a result of the constant homophobia she faced. A rather sad ending for an interesting and unconventional woman.
The biggest surprise for me was that she was from such a rich American background. Growing up in the south, with a father who was "struggling" compared with some of his relatives but one who still ended up as the Ambassador to England on the even of the second world war.
Henrietta's life was an interesting one, even if she didn't "produce" anything. She was in a tragic car accident when she was 13 that saw the death of her mother (p.22-23). She had to be emotionally supportive for her father as well as a fairly useless elder brother. She was bisexual and had a series of relationships with both men and women. The first woman she was seriously involved with was a teacher at her school, Mina Stein Kirsten who she met in 1918 when Mina was 24 (p.47). She first arrived in England in 1922 travelling with her father and Mina. The two women ended up staying in England together and explored the countryside. Mina insisted Henrietta get psychological counselling, and they both saw a Freudian analyst. P. 72-73 talks about how bisexuality was somewhat accepted at that time, with women such as Bessie Smith and Tallulah Bankhead being more open about their sexuality. p. 81 mentions how Henrietta got to know the Bloomsbury group, including Dora Carrington, with whom she had a relationship, through going to Francis Birrell and David Garrett's bookshop. p. 123, 131 talks in more detail about Dora and Henrietta's relationship. It is probably worth noting that the relatively poly attitude of the queer people at that time still seems to make biographers uncomfortable, trying to figure out which relationships were which, and how jealousy fitted in. They can't seem to accept that people could be having more than one relationship and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
In 1927 Henrietta's father and Mina decided she should marry, but in 1927 she met Beatrix, referred to in the book throughout as Peggy, and the two started a relationship that lasted roughly five years. "In the midst of this summer of nuptials, Henrietta tested what her father would ut up with to have her near him. She asked Miss Lehmann - the twenty four year old English actress who had the use of her Bently and had sent so many letters to her while she was in America - to join the family party as it moved from Edinburgh to grouse shooting near Guthrie Castle. They were more than just friends. A framed photograph of Beatrix stood on Henrietta's dresser to the end of her life".
Even though it didn't last more than a few years it seemed to have been significant as the author said Henrietta had a photo of Beatrix on her dressing table till she died. Which I found very touching.
p. 184 During WWI Peggy disguised herself as a boy so she could attend scout activities. (she would have been 10-13) ... She was likely introduced to Henrietta through Tallulah Bankhead, whom she understudied in three different productions. There were all-night escapades with Bankhead, p. 185 who would suffer pre-opening-night "nerve storms" and insist "that she couldn't be left". Peggy, living on a meagre allowance, meanwhile had "stockings to mend, bills to pay (impossible) and understudy (70 pages) to learn". According to contemporaries - and by the standards of the era - Lehmann was remarkably open about her lesbian leanings. "Tallulah must have been in love with her," recalled Bankhead's co-star Glenn Anders. "We were together all the time". ... The Glasgow bulletin covered the vacationing American press baron and his party, and ran a photo of Miss H. Bingham and Miss P Lehman [sic]. Striding together in their tartans, walking sticks in hand, they flank a shotgun-toting Mr Philips... That same day, Henrietta sat shoulder to shoulder with Peggy, on the moor alongside a chauffeured auto-mobile, their legs tucked sideways under them. The photographer caught them in conversation, cigarettes in hand and nipping dark liquid from small glasses...
p. 186 Henrietta stayed in Britain after the shooting party, fox-hunting and spending time with Peggy...
p. 188 Like Henrietta, Peggy was an entertaining companion, adding spark and cleverness to a group. She could turn her mordant humour against herself, loathed sentimentality, and insisted on her independence. ... But the relationship that began while Henrietta was at least informally engaged to John Houseman persisted through the decade. The woman treated the bond provisionally...
p. 195 The judge relaxed considerably during this period and gave his blessing to the "close friendship" with Miss Lehmann. But even if he and other people knew or thought they knew about his daughter's sexual predilections, Bingham demanded that her clothing and public demeanour not prove it...
p. 198 "Henrietta announced an earlier than scheduled return to England. She talked of taking Peggy Lehmann to see Berlin cabarets and soak up the midnight sun in Sweden... On July 13 1930 Henrietta [bought a new Bentley] and Henrietta and Peggy were off to Stokholm, attracted by a grand exhibition of modern designs. Following that, they installed themselves at a Baltic resort. Sweden was "the greatest fun", Peggy told her sister Rosamond; the country was full of perfect blondes, replete with good food, and amazingly free in it social mores. ... they made their way south, via Berlin, with its open transvestite balls and lesbian bars that went well beyond the Bloomsbury's experiments. (Two years later, Peggy would return to Berlin seeking German film roles). In Munich she and Henrietta attended a vast avant-garde production called Totenmal, or call of the dead, mounted by the lesbian dancer Mary Wigman with over the top lights, dances and unaccompanied choirs, and masked men reading the letters of soldiers lost in he great war. It was a staggering work of peace propaganda even as the Nazi party closed in on political control. the couple were
p. 199 deliriously happy in in Munich. "Henrietta" Peggy wrote to Rosamond, "has been adorable and the best of travel companions (and often unspeakably funny").
[They travelled to the Alps, Paris, then crossed the channel and Peggy joined Henrietta on the family holiday in Scotland] Peggy's show of enthusiasm for Judge Bingham, whom she had first met at Guthrie three years earlier, marked a departure from the antagonistic stance of Henrietta's other friends and lovers toward a man who seemed at best overbearing and narcissistic and at worst Mephistophelean. In bringing Miss Lehmann once more into the house party, Henrietta asserted a relationship that was both unmistakable and unmentionable. ...
p. 205 Henrietta meanwhile endured a series of blows that included the increasingly dire economic crisis and the unwinding of her relationship with Peggy. She had spent Christmas 1931 with the Lehmanns, where the family theatricals involved John comically cross-dressing as their American mother. For Henrietta the cheer came aided by quantities of alcohol. Peggy noted her sweetness and the "largesse and generosity" she brought tot he holiday, but none of the Lehmanns could miss the way she applied "herself with religious and fanatical fervour to all bottles.
p. 206 Peggy's appraisal of her life could easily have expressed Henrietta's own, "getting uglier and more lonesome every moment. Always falling in love with the wrong people. It is small consolation that they return the compliment". ...
p. 208 [on finding out Henrietta was starting a relationship with Hope Williams] "Peggy minced no words at the news of Henrietta's attachment to the star. She told her sister that her ex was "living in homo-sin with Tallulah's best girl".
p. 209 In England Peggy Lehmann admitted to "ride-em-cowboy" fantasies. "I should think, she wrote to Henrietta, "It was the ideal country for bringing out most any girl's subconscious wish for spectacular masculinity" [odd to note that this is one of Peggy's letters to Henrietta that ended up in Rosamond's archive!]
p. 210-211 has Peggy writing Henrietta asking her, "What do you do with yourself all day - and night?" Was Henrietta, "rich, poor, happy, miserable, in-love, out-of-love, analysed, unanalysed?"
p. 215 Hope Williams visited at the embassy, and the whole family went to a play starring Peggy Lehmann as Emily Bronte [Wild Decembers] .
p. 226-227 talks of Henrietta visiting Helen's flat with Peggy to help Helen with her novel.
p. 238 There were jealousies too, such as a night where, after dinner at the savoy with Peggy Lehmann and another guest named Percy, they all returned to Madge's. Helen grew so upset at something she witnessed happen that she fled in the darkness of Stiner's stall, where she stroked him until her composure returned.... or Henrietta and Peggy could have been flirting...
p 248-249 talks about how it was becoming less acceptable to be homosexual
p 275 Peggy Lehmann's acting career was compromised by her leftist politics and her unusually open bisexuality. However, 1960s and 70s British television provided roles that engaged her comic abilities and milked her eccentric profile, and fans of the original Dr Who TV series celebrate her campy (and suggestively lesbian) portrayal of Professor Amelia Rumford.
Things were not so good for Henrietta though who suffered from severe depression and alcoholism, thought to be a result of the constant homophobia she faced. A rather sad ending for an interesting and unconventional woman.
Social life (a little bit off topic but 20s lesbians)
So looking through the events at the Kings' Head Theatre I came across a play about Gwen Farrar and Norah Blaney.
https://kingsheadtheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873541227/events?TSLVq=96150ec4-f11b-4130-883c-f2dd957283b7&TSLVp=0b79e0c9-9f97-4027-a953-f29a1a9032a1&TSLVts=1444832495&TSLVc=ticketsolve&TSLVe=kingsheadtheatre&TSLVrt=Safetynet&TSLVh=1c32ec7f6469a41d4be706ff58f99ded
Which sounded intriguing.
The two have an amusing video that can be watched here http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-stars-off-stage-miss-norah-blaney-and-miss-gwe
There are a couple blogs about Gwen
https://elvirabarney.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/gwen-farrar/
http://footlightnotes.tumblr.com/post/55400116649/gwen-farrar-1899-1944-english-duettist
It seems like she was good friends with Tallulah Bankhead in 1924 so it seems quite likely that she would have crossed paths with Beatrix if she was still hanging out in the same circles a year later.
https://kingsheadtheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873541227/events?TSLVq=96150ec4-f11b-4130-883c-f2dd957283b7&TSLVp=0b79e0c9-9f97-4027-a953-f29a1a9032a1&TSLVts=1444832495&TSLVc=ticketsolve&TSLVe=kingsheadtheatre&TSLVrt=Safetynet&TSLVh=1c32ec7f6469a41d4be706ff58f99ded
Which sounded intriguing.
The two have an amusing video that can be watched here http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-stars-off-stage-miss-norah-blaney-and-miss-gwe
There are a couple blogs about Gwen
https://elvirabarney.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/gwen-farrar/
http://footlightnotes.tumblr.com/post/55400116649/gwen-farrar-1899-1944-english-duettist
It seems like she was good friends with Tallulah Bankhead in 1924 so it seems quite likely that she would have crossed paths with Beatrix if she was still hanging out in the same circles a year later.
Tuesday 29 September 2015
Coral Browne by Rose Collis
I'd not heard of Coral Browne but my friend Matt mentioned her and she
sounded fascinating, she worked in the theatre around the same time as
Beatrix Lehmann so I thought it would be good for my research to borrow a
copy of this from the library for background reading. I almost didn't
read it but I'm so glad I did.
It starts with a general background of Coral's childhood in Australia. Getting into theatre and then moving to London and working there. All interesting, and then the author mentions she might have had a 5 year relationship with Beatrix!!! I was blown away! Coral had told her step daughter that she'd had a five year relationship with a woman not long after she got to England, and that it was a woman who was likely to be an actress, they lived together, and broke up when the woman wanted to be more public with their relationship. Rose suggested Beatrix and said some very interesting things about her which I'd not yet uncovered. She mentioned her relationship with Henrietta Bingham, which I had suspected but not yet found any evidence of, that the reason her biography hadn't been written yet was because Rosamond had insisted no reference to her sexuality be made. That the performance where Shelaugh and Beatrix met was Igloo at the first year of the Edinburgh festival in 1965. Also it mentioned Beatrix's understudy Mary Morris who had fallen in love with her. It seems highly unlikely that it was Beatrix however, in 1935 she basically left the London stage after her career had been doing exceptionally well and spent a lot of time in Berlin with Isherwood. Then a couple years later she began her relationship with Viertel. That was taking place when this relationship would have been, also the description said that she was sad that this woman left her for another woman, in 1940, so with that in mind it seems unlikely to have been Bea. Especially if no evidence survived, as she did write to her siblings about the time she spent with Henrietta, so assuming she would have done the same with Coral if they were together.
p. 14 mentions many actresses Bea worked with who were Dames, Edith Evans, Flora Robson, Peggy Ashcroft
p. 34-35 have her working in Australia, so maybe the relationship would have started in 35 rather than ended? They also mention how she was seriously ill and underwent an operation. Similar to what happened to Bea, the author speculates that it could have been an appendectomy, or an ovarion cyst or a miscarriage or botched abortion.
p. 43 Coral had joined a list of of eminent performers - including Jessie Mathews, Jack Buchanan and Beatrix Lehmann (who understudied Tallulah Bankhead in Green hat)- who got their first big break stepping in for a star.
p. 47 In every respect, 1935 was turning out to be something of a watershed year for Coral - including a development in her personal life that wouldn't feature in any cable or press cutting sent back to her parents. It was something she revealed to her step-daughter Victoria Price, more than 50 years and two marriages and what must have felt like several lifetimes later. 'Not long after moving to England, she had a five year relationship with a woman. I got the sense that the woman was also an actress, or at the very least in the theatre. They lived together, or were together for five years, but then this woman, whoever she was, asked Coral to be more public about the relationship. Essentially, Coral chose her career over the woman, and she said ti was the hardest decision she ever had to make. And what hurt the most was that the woman began another relationship not too long after. 153. ...
p. 48 One was Beatrix Lehmann, sister to literary siblings, Rosamond and John Lehmann. Adrian Wright, John Lehmann's biographer said, "In the theatre, such intelligence was too often unwelcome, and Beatrix could be a forbidding and arresting presence. 156 According to Wright, Rosamond had a Queen Victoria like attitude to Beatrix's sexuality, simply believing it did not exist. 157 Christopher Isherwood's biographer, Peter Parker, said the bisexual Peggy lehmann was no great beauty but a certainly striking in appearance. Fiercely left wing, funny, a gifted actress and mimic.... she represented for isherwood woman in acceptable form. 1258 In the 1920s Lehmann had a relationship with Henrietta Bingham, daughter of the American Ambassador to Britain and one time lover of Bloomsbury artist Dora Carrington. One of her secretaries fell in love with her; when the affection was not returned, the woman attempted to kill herself. For the last 15 years of her life, Lehmann had a relationship with fellow actor Shelaugh Fraser, who she met when they appeared together in the play, Igloo at the 1965 Edinburgh Festival. In 1980 Trader Faulkner was approached by John Lehmann to write Beatrix's biography but, after Rosamond vetoed any mention of her sister's sexuality, Faulkner withdrew from the project.
One of those expunged from any sanitised Lehmann biography would have been an equally unorthodox actress who, during her time as Beatrix's understudy, had fallen in love with her. Mary Morris. Born in Fiji in 1915, Morris had two ambitions to be an actress or a painter, preferably both. ..... By 1946 Morris was living in an artist's studio in Notting Hill Gate with Cecilie Krog.
p. 62 mentions Coral as one of the undersigned in Nov 1942 for the letter in the time about performances on Sundays.
p. 68 mentions that she became a regular client of Angust McBean, the top theatrical photographer...
p. 69 mentions McBeans trail and arrest in November 1941 on suspicion of homosexual offences. trial began in March 1942
p. 160 talks of the killing of sister George, nothing to do with Bea but worth watching.
p 195 mentions that she was cast in a revival of Waltz of the Toreadors, in the same role as Bea.
p 207 mentions that she was friends with Christopher Isherwood.
153 author correspondence
154 author interview
156 157 John's biography
158 Parker's isherwood.
It starts with a general background of Coral's childhood in Australia. Getting into theatre and then moving to London and working there. All interesting, and then the author mentions she might have had a 5 year relationship with Beatrix!!! I was blown away! Coral had told her step daughter that she'd had a five year relationship with a woman not long after she got to England, and that it was a woman who was likely to be an actress, they lived together, and broke up when the woman wanted to be more public with their relationship. Rose suggested Beatrix and said some very interesting things about her which I'd not yet uncovered. She mentioned her relationship with Henrietta Bingham, which I had suspected but not yet found any evidence of, that the reason her biography hadn't been written yet was because Rosamond had insisted no reference to her sexuality be made. That the performance where Shelaugh and Beatrix met was Igloo at the first year of the Edinburgh festival in 1965. Also it mentioned Beatrix's understudy Mary Morris who had fallen in love with her. It seems highly unlikely that it was Beatrix however, in 1935 she basically left the London stage after her career had been doing exceptionally well and spent a lot of time in Berlin with Isherwood. Then a couple years later she began her relationship with Viertel. That was taking place when this relationship would have been, also the description said that she was sad that this woman left her for another woman, in 1940, so with that in mind it seems unlikely to have been Bea. Especially if no evidence survived, as she did write to her siblings about the time she spent with Henrietta, so assuming she would have done the same with Coral if they were together.
p. 14 mentions many actresses Bea worked with who were Dames, Edith Evans, Flora Robson, Peggy Ashcroft
p. 34-35 have her working in Australia, so maybe the relationship would have started in 35 rather than ended? They also mention how she was seriously ill and underwent an operation. Similar to what happened to Bea, the author speculates that it could have been an appendectomy, or an ovarion cyst or a miscarriage or botched abortion.
p. 43 Coral had joined a list of of eminent performers - including Jessie Mathews, Jack Buchanan and Beatrix Lehmann (who understudied Tallulah Bankhead in Green hat)- who got their first big break stepping in for a star.
p. 47 In every respect, 1935 was turning out to be something of a watershed year for Coral - including a development in her personal life that wouldn't feature in any cable or press cutting sent back to her parents. It was something she revealed to her step-daughter Victoria Price, more than 50 years and two marriages and what must have felt like several lifetimes later. 'Not long after moving to England, she had a five year relationship with a woman. I got the sense that the woman was also an actress, or at the very least in the theatre. They lived together, or were together for five years, but then this woman, whoever she was, asked Coral to be more public about the relationship. Essentially, Coral chose her career over the woman, and she said ti was the hardest decision she ever had to make. And what hurt the most was that the woman began another relationship not too long after. 153. ...
p. 48 One was Beatrix Lehmann, sister to literary siblings, Rosamond and John Lehmann. Adrian Wright, John Lehmann's biographer said, "In the theatre, such intelligence was too often unwelcome, and Beatrix could be a forbidding and arresting presence. 156 According to Wright, Rosamond had a Queen Victoria like attitude to Beatrix's sexuality, simply believing it did not exist. 157 Christopher Isherwood's biographer, Peter Parker, said the bisexual Peggy lehmann was no great beauty but a certainly striking in appearance. Fiercely left wing, funny, a gifted actress and mimic.... she represented for isherwood woman in acceptable form. 1258 In the 1920s Lehmann had a relationship with Henrietta Bingham, daughter of the American Ambassador to Britain and one time lover of Bloomsbury artist Dora Carrington. One of her secretaries fell in love with her; when the affection was not returned, the woman attempted to kill herself. For the last 15 years of her life, Lehmann had a relationship with fellow actor Shelaugh Fraser, who she met when they appeared together in the play, Igloo at the 1965 Edinburgh Festival. In 1980 Trader Faulkner was approached by John Lehmann to write Beatrix's biography but, after Rosamond vetoed any mention of her sister's sexuality, Faulkner withdrew from the project.
One of those expunged from any sanitised Lehmann biography would have been an equally unorthodox actress who, during her time as Beatrix's understudy, had fallen in love with her. Mary Morris. Born in Fiji in 1915, Morris had two ambitions to be an actress or a painter, preferably both. ..... By 1946 Morris was living in an artist's studio in Notting Hill Gate with Cecilie Krog.
p. 62 mentions Coral as one of the undersigned in Nov 1942 for the letter in the time about performances on Sundays.
p. 68 mentions that she became a regular client of Angust McBean, the top theatrical photographer...
p. 69 mentions McBeans trail and arrest in November 1941 on suspicion of homosexual offences. trial began in March 1942
p. 160 talks of the killing of sister George, nothing to do with Bea but worth watching.
p 195 mentions that she was cast in a revival of Waltz of the Toreadors, in the same role as Bea.
p 207 mentions that she was friends with Christopher Isherwood.
153 author correspondence
154 author interview
156 157 John's biography
158 Parker's isherwood.
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