by Noel Coward
They are all brilliantly written, exquisitely directed, and I am bewitching in all of them.
Lorn sends love, Jeffrey sends love and I send a molten stream of white hot kisses.
Yours in Christ,
Noël
At the end of the year they took a break before the London opening and Noël, accompanied by Jeffrey Amherst set off for a holiday in Scandinavia. Christmas found them in Stockholm where they ran into Greta Garbo (1905—1990). Noël must certainly have met her in Hollywood, but their friendship blossomed in her own land and—like Dietrich's—lasted for the rest of his life.
The international press had a field day with speculation about a Garbo-Coward romance, which amused the romantically ^interested parties greatly. The following year, 1936, happened to be a leap year in which, by tradition, a woman is allowed to propose to the man of her choice.
Garbo sent her handwritten “proposal” to Noël:
And its Thursday—
Dear Little Coward,
Received your very loved, small and tiny letter. Dear person it almost makes me wish the newspapers in this country was right. I am so dreadfully fond of you, that I wish I could forget you. Can't think of anything more terrific than to fall in love with you. Eternaly (can't spell) occupied as you are and in need of absolutely no one and looking forward to splendid lonelyness (?) completely immune to any female charm!! Well, this might be an English lesson anyhow I take the opportunity to ask if you will be my little bride—(it's Leap Year you know). Don't accept please, I would have to come and get you right away.
How you must dislike my writing this way—but—that fluttering, tired and sad heart of mine has been in such peculiar state since a few weeks ago, but I don't suppose I know you well enough to go into that to much.
I have a very humble wish that you would write a story for me (us), if you ever have time from the theatre. I can't beg you any harder, as you will do as fits you anyhow—naturally. Besides that I would like, horribly I think, to go on dusty roads with you and tell you little fairy tales—beautiful ones about solitary figures living in white castles on top of moonlit mountains (permanent moonlight). And as finish I must tell you that what I really would like to tell you I haven't told—Darling, you are so “flippantly” serious.
•
THE FIRST PROGRAM of Tonight at 8:3o (Family Album, The Astonished Heart, and Red Peppers) opened at London's Phoenix Theatre—scene of their 1930 Private hives triumph—on January 9, 1936. Once again the success of the piece, or pieces, was limited only by Noël's willingness to play a long run. To Woollcott:
1 Burton Mews
South Eaton Place
London S.W.i
6th February 1936
My darling Acky Poo,
You will be pleased, my little dear, that my one act play scheme is the smash hit of the town and we are playing to the most tremendous business, even in spite of the King's death. This, incidentally, has been a very strange experience for the whole country. It has been very dramatic and moving and the Lying in State was quite indescribably beautiful. The whole thing has been handled with the minimum of bathos with the exception of a certain amount of nausea from the cheaper press.
Noël and Gertie make headlines again (1936).
I had lunch with Rebecca [West] the other day and we talked lovingly of you. Now I come to think of it I wouldn't mind a letter from you because in an odd, macabre, perverse, introverted way I am very, very, very, very, very fond of you. (Strike out as many very's as you like but leave the fond).
Love and red hot kisses from top to derriere,
Noëlie-poelie
On June 20 Tonight at 8:30 closed after 157 performances.
But before it did another long run had begun. On March 28, 1936, the twenty-seven-year-old Leonard Cole had been hired to work as some sort of general assistant and “someone to replace Charles,” the cook-valet who had recently caused the Coward household considerable domestic distress before leaving abruptly. Since Noël hated the name “Leonard,” the young man was summarily rechristened “Cole Lesley,” and even that was quickly shortened to “Coley,” which did not particularly please the original Coley (Porter). Coley would remain part of the Coward family until Noël's death nearly forty years later, and would subsequently run the Coward estate until his own death in 1980.
•
THE OTHER PIECE of real-life theater that year, 1936, was the royal family. On January 20, King George V had died and the throne passed to the controversial Prince of Wales, now Edward VIII, and one of Noël's least favorite people. The Princess Diana saga of the late 1990s gives some idea of the strength of feeling the British public expressed at this time.
As Prince of Wales, Edward had become involved with a twice-divorced American socialite, Wallis Simpson, and this at a time when the very word “divorce” was never mentioned in royal circles. Should Mrs. Simpson be allowed to become queen as and when Edward ascended the throne? Should he renounce the throne for “the woman he loved”?
The debate raged pro and con, with Noël most definitely con. At a dinner party with Winston Churchill, who always enjoyed being controversial, the great man grumpily observed that he couldn't see why the prince shouldn't have his “cutie.” “Because England doesn't wish for a Queen Cutie!” Noël retorted.
Later in the year, Noël felt impelled to write to the one friend he thought might, through his family ties, have the influence to affect events—Mountbatten:
Carlton Hotel
Washington
November 19th 1937
My Dear Dickie,
Please read this letter carefully and don't misunderstand it or think I've gone raving mad. I know perfectly well that you mind about a lot of the same things that I mind about, otherwise I wouldn't risk making such a fool of myself.
Is there anything on God's earth that can be done to put a stop to this degrading and horrible publicity about the King and Mrs. Simpson?
It is impossible to pick up any paper here without feeling sick. From coast to coast of this over large continent the King's dignity is being undermined very thoroughly and very dangerously.
English people of any position here, official or otherwise, naturally refuse to discuss it but they are all feeling it deeply. I, of course, have been badgered to death about it ever since I landed. The Press never lose an opportunity of trying to drag it into every interview I have to give.
My only reply to date has been that we love and respect the King too much to discuss his private affairs.
I am only writing to you on a sort of hunch that you might not realize the full unpleasantness of the situation here and in the hope that, it being brought to your attention, you might conceivably be able to bring a little personal influence to bear.
I should hate you to think that I am attempting to interfere with what doesn't concern me but as a matter of fact this does concern me. It most vitally concerns all of us.
Is there any way in which the King could be persuaded to make, or have made, an official statement to the American Press which would squash finally these idiotic rumours, announcements, denials, etc.?
I remember saying to the first night audience of Cavalcade, in an outburst of faintly theatrical patriotism, that it was pretty exciting to be English. I can only feel now, in the midst of all this scandal and vulgarity, that it's bloody uncomfortable to be English!
This letter obviously requires no answer but I should like one line from you to show that you have not misunderstood my motives in writing it.
Yours ever
Noël
Even as he put pen to paper, events at home were already well in train. In December, King Edward VIII abdicated, and his brother “Bertie” (Duke of York) became King George VI.
•
BEFORE HE HAD to focus on the New York production of Tonight, Noël took a European holiday … to Venice, Dubrovnik, Rhodes (where he put the final touches to Present Indicative), finishing up in Cairo. A significant regime change
was taking place and the British high commissioner was in the process of becoming ambassador.
He wrote to Violet from the residency: “This has all been great fun— lots of red carpet and general official ding dongs. I now feel almost personally responsible for the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty!”
Back in England Anthony Eden suggested that Noël host a party for the Egyptian delegation that would be arriving on August 25 to sign the treaty.
The party was a great social success, but ever after Anthony Eden and the Mountbattens teased him that it was responsible for the erosion of Anglo-Egyptian relations in general and for the eventual loss of the Suez Canal!
•
AT THE END of the month, Noël sailed for New York on the SS Queen Mary and the Broadway production of Tonight at 8:30,
He was to take over Alec Woollcott's riverside “digs” in the Campanile co-op building. When Woollcott had first moved in, Dorothy Parker had christened the place “Old Manse River,” which she later revised to “Wit's End.”
Back in April, Woollcott had confirmed the arrangements:
April 24th 1936
The routine of consent has now all been attended to. Brown started the wheels moving … and encountered a functionary at the real estate office who had never heard of you and turned pale when he identified you. An actor! It made him a little faint. I believe the New Yorker has already fashioned a paragraph on the subject. Whether the other tenants have become more tolerant of such vagrants or whether they concluded that having an actor was even preferable to having me, I don't know. I only know they have let me go without a struggle.
450 East 52nd Street
Wednesday
Well, we arrived in a cloud of luggage—my apartment is really heavenly. I lie in bed in the morning with the sun streaming into the room and watch the ships go by a few inches from my nose!
I'm having a very busy time furnishing and buying china, glass, etc. It really is a great comfort because it's dead quiet except for the river noises which I don't mind a bit.
We saw the Lunts’ play [Idiot's Delight] on Monday night, Alfred is magnificent and Lynn very bad with a mock Russian accent.
Earlier in the year Lynn had warned Noël that their parts were not what audiences might be expecting of them—although infinitely more conventional than Point Valaine:
We loved seeing darling Jack [Wilson] for a few fleeting visits. And, by the way, do tell Jack that the lighting at the dress rehearsal that he saw was perfectly terrible and had not been done at all, so don't take our appearances, mine in particular, on the strength of that, as it has all been softened down into a lovely glow, and they say we all, including Grand-pa and Grand-ma, look ravishing … THEY SAY!
I am supposed to be a very fakey Russian and started by patterning myself on Princess Paley, as this particular girl would do, but she turns out to be a cross between Garbo, Lady Abdey, and a good smack of Trilby … and this is just as good for the character in a way, as she is a girl who has her eye on every chance, even the movies, and would be quite equal to posing as Garbo just for fun.
Alfred plays a Broadway vaudevillian. It is a marvelous part and he is simply superb. Quite one of the best things he has ever done. I am very good too, but my part is not so good.
Since writing this we have also opened in New York, but you know all about that. Stood them up 81 last night, and ioo Saturday [the number of audience standees].
Old Simon Legree wants to make little Topsy work until July 4, and then take only eight weeks. Isn't he a b-i-t-c-h?
Noël's letter to Violet continues:
But last night we saw Helen Hayes as Queen Victoria [in Victoria Regina] and she was beyond words wonderful! She starts as a girl of eighteen and goes right through up to the Diamond Jubilee. Her make-up alone is miraculous but oh, her acting! It certainly did my heart good.
Tomorrow we go to the first night of Master Gielgud in Hamlet— oh Dear, oh Dear—Leslie's [Howard] doesn't open until November— however I'll let you know all.
Later (October 23) he reports: “I'm seeing Leslie's Hamlet tomorrow afternoon in Boston. I hear it's very good. John Gielgud's is doing quite well here but hasn't set the town on fire.”
In fact, when it came to a head-to-head comparison, Gielgud won hands down. Leslie Howard's production closed early, while Gielgud broke the record for the number of Broadway performances previously held by John Barrymore (152)—a record he held until it was broken by Richard Burton in 1964.
•
TONIGHT AT 8:30 began the traditional out-of-town tour in Boston. In the audience was James Thurber reviewing it (with accompanying drawings) for a theater magazine.
It seems to me that all these plays were written wisely and well. (Mr. Coward … bats them off in no time at all, which appalls me.) They have at their best, a precision that moves towards the absolute. (You can go to Mr.Maugham for a harder granite or to Mr. Huxley for a colder chisel.) … As far as I'm concerned Miss Lawrence could play Little Eva or even Harriet Beecher Stowe herself and he could play Grover Cleveland.
The astonished hands were dancing across the family fumed heart.
More decorous and self-contained than Boston folks, I did not rise and shout but applauded loudly … I liked it; hell, I was crazy about it … I had a swell time.”
Later he wrote to friends—“ We {his wife, Helen} had dinner with Coward, just the three of us, a lovely time, a swell fellow … he lets people talk and is very attentive. A quarter century later he would claim “Coward and I are the last of the great indestructibles.”
The tour went on to Washington, D.C. As always, Noël sent Violet progress reports, interspersed with worries about what was happening in the State of Goldenhurst:
November 1st
The Ritz Carlton, Boston
We had a certain amount of trouble with lights and scenery owing to the theatre staff being half-witted. Shadow Play is pandemonium behind the scenes. We battle our way on and off the stage in the pitch dark and try to do quick changes with all hell going on all round us. Gladys Cooper is here in Call It a Day and we've seen a lot of her. {Mrs.} Tonge {Philip's stage mother} is here, too. I'm afraid she's just as unpopular as ever. Gladys and Philip Merrivale say she's an old devil in the company and never stops explaining to them that Philip {her Philip) would have been just as successful as I am if only he'd had my good luck.
I must say the way Father hovers between death and debauchery is nothing short of fantastic … I do think it's horrid for you but it really is too silly for words!
November 18th
Carlton Hotel, Washington
Washington has been buzzing round me to such an extent that I'm practically in a coma! The British Embassy gave a party for the company yesterday and we all bowed and smirked and carried on like anything. We settle into New York next week and life will become more tranquil.
Oh dear, I'm afraid we were wrong about Gielgud versus Howard. I saw Leslie in Boston as Hamlet and he was awful! He didn't do anything at all but meander through the play as tho’ he were doing a word rehearsal! John, with all his staginess, was much better. Leslie's notices when he opened in New York were frightful—so that's that!
The young John Gielgud.
Noël was always to have slight reservations about what he called Giel-gud's “staginess” or propensity to overact, and on at least one occasion it caused him to overreact himself:
17 Gerald Road, London SW1
September 26, 1932
My dear John,
I hear you were very hurt when I walked out of Musical Chairs, so I am going to be honest and tell you why.
The first reason was I thought you were overacting badly and using voice tones and elaborate emotional effects, and as I seriously think you are a grand actor it upset me very much.
The second reason was that, feeling as I did, I couldn't have come round to your dressing room and abused you roundly because there would probably have been other people present and I thought by slipping ou
t (as I thought unnoticed) I might evade the issue.
This, I see now, was very lacking in moral courage and I am terribly sorry.
Please, dear John, forgive me for having hurt your feelings and believe me when I say I love acting and The Theatre more than anything else in the World and in this case I was genuinely upset by what I considered was a performance far below your standard.
I am going away for a holiday for a few weeks and perhaps when I come back we could have a real heart-to-heart talk about it, if you are not too angry with me.
Yours ever
Noël
Gielgud replied:
7 Upper St. Martin's Lane
W.C.2
Tuesday
Dear Noël,
Thank you very much for writing as you did. I was very upset at the time because, as you know, I have always admired you and your work so very much and also because in a way I have always thought my success in the theatre only began after The Vortex time. This play was my own discovery and I had much to do with the casting and getting produced so naturally I was very anxious that you of all people should like it. But you are quite right, of course. I act very badly in it sometimes, more especially I think when I know people who matter are in front. And such a small theatre as the Criterion is difficult for me who am used to the wastes of the Old Vic and His Majesty's. If I play down, they write and say I'm inaudible. And if I act too much the effect is dire. Now and again one can strike the happy mien and give a good performance. But then, it is no use trying to excuse myself. I played ever so much better today after reading your letter— and I am really glad when I get honest criticism, though sometimes it's a bit hard to decide whom to listen to and whom to ignore. One day you must produce me in a play, and I believe I might do you credit. Anyway, I think it was like you to write like that and I do appreciate it.