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.
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