by Noel Coward
The furniture seems to be more or less intact—the blue sofa and chairs in the drawing room, the desk and odd chairs do not seem to have suffered much. The dining room table and chairs are accounted for. The bedroom is a bit sparse, but recalling the soldierly simplicity—a la Charles X—into which you retire nocturnally, perhaps that is as it should be. The second bedroom is sans bed, sans chair, sans nearly everything. Likewise the kitchen, from which the batterie de cuisine, the vaiselle, and la verrerie have been removed by unseen hands. I might add that there is no linen, blankets, counterpanes, or more serious silver, ornaments or nicknacks. In fact the place rather looks like an apartement meuble, and only just meuble at that. No books …
Lest you get the wrong impression from my would-be facetious-ness, the place would look 100% better after two days of a good femme de menage, and the carpets taken up and cleaned. Likewise some new paint in all the rooms. The curtains are there. I also visited the servant's room, and thought I was being taken to a dungeon in the Bastille. But that is vide, vide, vide.
There are nasty rumours about the maid Gamier. Everyone thinks she was, is, a crook. She apparently had not only the customary sou de franc from the housekeeping, but about 50 centimes per franc en plus. Likewise, at the time of the exode in June 40, she cleared out with all the linen and silver and probably a lot more, anyway two trunkloads, which no one could prevent.
The general feeling is that she helped herself, but whether she did it to hide the stuff on your account or to set herself up is unknown. It might be possible to trace her in due course, but not under present conditions.
As a wind-up, I saw M. Trimbach [the landlord], and what a charmer he is. I gather that you yourself must have pressed Button A and give him something to remember you by in the way of charm and poisonality. The lease is still in his view quite valid and he is anxious that you should stay on. Whether the seven years will be considered as running from 1940 or whether you make a new lease is a matter for subsequent discussion. Likewise, how the hiatus of four rentless years is treated is something to discuss. He most certainly does not expect payment, but in the French fashion, on s'arrangera. Now for the immediate future, the next trimestre begins on 15th October, at which time Frs. 6,450 are due. On your behalf I promised that would be paid. And by the time the next quarter is due you may be here yourself and can handle the business details …
There has not been much time to pick up gossip about your various friends, though I am afraid that little Yvonne [Printemps] is in rather a mess. I will be getting more on that tonight, and on other mutual acquaintances, and will send you further bulletins.
Accept, my dear friend, the assurance of my sentiments the most distinguished.
Bien a toi
ORAJIO
A few weeks later Fraser is writing with more encouraging news:
American Red Cross
PWD/SHAEF (F.P.O.)
B.L.A.
November 2nd 1944
Cher Maitre,
The flat will within the week be pristine and sweet-scented (probably a I'eau dejavel) and it will also have been, in military phraseology, disinfected—de-loused to you. I got hold of an admirable firm … which calls itself “Tout-a-Neuf” and that is what is being done …
As for the lease and the rent, Trimlach was not en ville. However, his office has assured me that he is counting on M. Coward to occupy the premises for many years to come. [In fact, Noël stayed on there until 1950.]
And now, you lucky beast, more good news for you—your bonne [Yvonne] Gamier turned up 2 weeks ago, looked up the concierge at 22, told him she had all your possessions chez elk and that you could write to her. Since then no sign. Have you got her address, which seems to be somewhere near Moulins? If so, please send, and I will cope …
For the time being that is about all concerning No. 22. I shall report in further detail when … I have seen the results of the house-cleaning.
Farewell, sweet coz.
Thine
INGRAM
•
THE REST of the war was a series of snapshots for Noël.
Germany was everywhere in retreat—still dangerous to London life and limb with the Vi and V2 rockets lobbing across the Channel at a British population that had long since shown that it could take anything the enemy could throw. For most people this was almost history. The real question was what sort of society would we be living in in the postwar world?
On April 14, Franklin Roosevelt died, “a personal sadness to me,” Noël wrote, “because although I did not know him really well, he had been friendly, kind and unpompous and had treated me with respect at a moment when I most needed it.”
Germany would surrender unconditionally on May 7, but three days earlier Noël found himself dining with his old friend Juliet Duff at her Belgrave flat. The only other people present were Venetia Montagu—and Winston Churchill. It was an evening charged with emotion. Here was the man who had done more than any other, through his vision, courage, and determination, to give the Western world one more chance to get things right. Instinctively, the three of them rose and drank a toast to the old campaigner.
Within weeks there would be a general election. Instead of turning it into a national vote of thanks to Churchill, the British electorate turned him firmly out of office and put a Labour government into power for the next six years. There was much to celebrate, but Noël had an uneasy feeling about this supposedly brave new world.
When the Japanese finally surrendered on the fifteenth of August he wrote to Joyce Carey:
Well, Chere,
It looks like we've finally got what dear Neville promised us— “Peace In Our Time”—sort of. The only problem is it's nearly a decade and many thousands of lives later.
Oh dear, I really don't hate many people but the late (and decidedly not great) Mr. Chamberlain was one of them. All that ineffectual umbrella-twirling, all that unwillingness to face what was staring him in it!
What's more, I'm afraid he has bequeathed us one of those phrases that are doomed to go down in infamy (if I may misquote FDR, a truly great politician we have only just begun to miss).
So now it's over and I suppose I should share the general jubilation but somehow I don't. I never for a moment doubted that we should win, somehow or other, no matter how black things seemed. We British are at our best in adversity. We won the war but my concern is—how shall we win the peace}
As I've said so often, we betrayed so much of the past, let's try to be faithful to the future.
Your ever-loving
CASSANDRA
PART FOUR
SHADOW PLAY
“Small talk, a lot of small talk with other thoughts going on behind.” Shadow Flay, from Tonight at 8:3 0.
CHAPTER 21
SIGH ONCE MORE …
AND A STORM IN THE PACIFIC
(1945-1947)
White Cliffs, Kent, the house Noël rented immediately after the war, while Goldenhurst remained requisitioned by the army. The famous white cliffs were truly magnificent—until bits of them started landing in his garden.
IT WAS TIME to try to put life back together.
“It is so sweet to be back in London again with the people who are my own closest ones,” Noël wrote. And indeed, there was a great deal to be done. He had committed to write a new revue to be called Sigh No More, which would star Joyce Grenfell, Cyril Ritchard, his wife, Madge Elliott, and Graham (no longer “Master”) Payn, or “Little Lad,” as he would become known.
He also needed a country getaway. Goldenhurst was still at the tender mercies of the army, but a friend showed him a dramatic little house, White Cliffs, at the end of the beach at St. Margaret's Bay, in Kent. Noël rented it straightaway. It was only later that he realized that bits of the famous White Cliffs were in the habit of literally dropping in like uninvited neighbors.
By October, Noël, Coley, and Graham had installed themselves there. The facilities would have to follow in their own good time.
AFTER HIS PROFESSIONAL BREAK with Cochran, Noël never enjoyed a really successful revue. Set to Music was Words and Music rejigged for Broadway, and Bea Lillie and Sigh No More suffered from ignoring the classic Cochran dictum—the result of countless productions with and without Noël—that a revue couldn't easily be sustained by any one person's point of view. “The essence of revue is variety, rapidity, change of mood and contrast of line and colour … homogeneity can lead to monotony.”
1947 and Pacific 1860, Noël's first postwar musical, reopened the bomb-damaged Drury Lane Theatre. Here Noël and designer Gladys Calthrop happily contemplate their star, Mary Martin, for the camera. The mutual admiration, though, was short-lived.
Sigh No More ran for 213 performances—a hit but not a palpable hit— and when Noël attended the final night, “I watched it and, apart from ‘Matelot’ [Graham's big number] said goodbye to it without a pang.”
Much more emotional for him was the closing of Blithe Spirit on March 6. “It was a sad occasion, because it really could have gone on running for another year. However, four and a half years is a nice enough run.” At the time those 1,997 performances set a British theatrical record.
It was time for another Coward extravaganza, and what better than a return to Drury Lane, scene of his Cavalcade triumph? Was it really fifteen years ago? He would reopen the bomb-damaged Theatre Royal with a major theatrical statement that would revive memories of Bitter Sweet.
It would be called Scarlet Lady and would star Irene Dunne. Miss Dunne was not available? It would be called Samolo and star Yvonne Printemps— but then he remembered the troubles she had with her English pronunciation. (At one point in Conversation Piece she had declared that “a cloud has pissed across the sun.”) Very well, then, it would be called Pacific 1860 and would star … Mary Martin. He wrote to her immediately.
MARCH 2ND, 1946
MARY MARTIN
PLYMOUTH THEATRE
45TH STREET
NEW YORK
DEAR MARY YOU SAID TWO YEARS AGO YOU WOULD LIKE TO APPEAR IN LONDON STOP I AM WRITING A NEW OPERETTE FOR NEXT AUTUMN THE SCORE IS NEARLY FINISHED AND I THINK IS MY BEST TO DATE THE BOOK IS NOT ACTUALLY WRITTEN UNTIL I KNOW WHETHER OR NOT YOU CAN PLAY IT STOP IT WOULD GIVE ME SO MUCH PLEASURE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO LONDON AUDIENCES CABLE ME IF THERE IS ANY POSSIBILITY NOëL COWARD
Richard Halliday, Mary's husband and manager, replied the very next day. He had never known Mary “as excited and happy” and she was “completely enthusiastic” to come to London under Noël's auspices. So that was all right, he told his Diary: “She has youth and charm and a delightful personality. At the moment it seems all too good to be true. I do hope that later on in the year I shall not re-read this page amid gales of hollow laughter.”
MARCH 5TH
MOST DELIGHTED AND EXCITED BY YOUR CABLE STOP OPENING DATE VAGUELY SCHEDULED BEGINNING OF NOVEMBER WILL CABLE YOU FULLER DETAILS IN A FEW DAYS STOP CAN YOU SEND ME SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OF MARY NOT FOR PUBLICITY BUT FOR GLADYS CALTHROP WHO IS DESIGNING THE SHOW STOP CAN YOU ALSO TELL ME MARY'S COMFORTABLE VOCAL RANGE STOP SO VERY MANY HOPES THAT ALL CAN BE ARRANGED SATISFACTORILY.
Mary's vocal range was “from low G to high A, can go to C but not eight shows each week.”
At this point Noël realized that he really knew very little about Miss Martin. He made it a priority to look at a couple of her film performances:
dear mary have just seen kiss the boys and victor herbert and found you perfectly enchanting in both stop if anything goes wrong with our operette plans now i shall shoot myself stop shall be away for a month in france but any cable here will get me immediately.
Halliday then began to ask a string of questions not only about the piece but about the concerns that occurred to corn-fed Americans about living conditions in austerity England. Noël began by being very understanding on both scores:
MARCH 28TH
OF COURSE ABSOLUTELY UNDERSTAND YOUR POINT OF VIEW IN WANTING EVERYTHING CLEAR AND AGREE THIS BEST DONE WELL AHEAD BUT QUITE CONVINCED YOU NEED HAVE NO MISAPPREHENSION ON POINTS RAISED STOP DEVELOPMENT OF LEADING CHARACTER AND EVOLUTION OF STORY IN FINAL TREATMENT WILL BE SHAPED TO MARY'S PERSONALITY AND TEMPERAMENT STOP LIVING CONDITIONS HERE GOOD ENOUGH TO SURPRISE YOU AND ARE IMPROVING AND IF SLIGHTLY RESTRICTED FOR GROWN UPS ARE VERY HEALTHY FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE SPECIALLY PRIVILEGED [the hallidays had a year-old child, heller] REGARDING EVERYTHING THEY NEED SUCH AS EXTRA MILK PRIORITY IN FRUIT ALLOCATIONS AND EXTRA CLOTHING COUPONS STOP THINK BEST PLAN FOR YOU TO LIVE AT HYDE PARK HOTEL WHICH IS FIRST RATE AND OVERLOOKS HYDE PARK WHICH IS LOVELY FOR CHILDREN STOP TAX SITUATION IS WITHIN REASONABLE AND MANAGEABLE LIMITS WILL GET ACCURATE INFORMATION ON THIS AND FORWARD IT TO YOU STOP I AM SO VERY KEEN AND ENTHUSIASTIC OVER THIS PROJECT SO LETS ALL DETERMINE TO BRING IT ABOUT.
At this point Neysa McMein happened to be visiting London and offered to be an unofficial intermediary with her friends, the Hallidays:
May 25 th
Your letter made an enormous hit but they were really worried about two main points.
They were not satisfied with the story you had outlined. I explained how you had seen the light yourself and had already made drastic changes in the Lady's character. I also pointed out that you could not write your book for Mary until you were sure of Mary.
Mary was entranced with her not being such a goody-goody girl. I told her what you had explained to me—i.e. getting your big tunes set. That you were in the process of writing an unsentimental and funny song for her when I left. Also pointing out that you were too good a showman to overlook any bets. She mentioned “Mad About the Boy” two or three times as a song she had always wanted to do in a night club or somewhere.
The great smash hit now is Annie Get Your Gun and it is perfectly wonderful. Merman puts every song over, and of course the audiences like best her funny numbers. Do, when you have the time, write a homey tough little song for Mary. (In case your memory fails you, remember that one great American characteristic is to compare everything they see with something from their home-town … always to its disadvantage. Also we are a race of whopping liars!)
She is worried sick about her voice not being good enough for high-toned arias (tunes). I told her your songs were beautiful and that we had listened to her records—so you knew what her voice was like.
I imagine they will want to know how big the theatre is—and of course they were anxious to have you send over the music. We argued over this for some time, my point being that it would be tragic to have the songs butchered, etc. I think she would be quite satisfied if you decided to send her two or three but you will of course decide that yourself. She is really afraid that her voice is not up to anything operatic. She wondered out loud if she should take voice lessons this summer.
She has called off her movie, and they were anxious to know what other stuff you had to do before you could get down to this show. I explained that as far as I know this was your chief concern. You might emphasise this when you write them.
Another point I thought of was her clothes. She is crazy about Mainbocher's, insisted on having him do them for her movie—and he does make her look beautiful. I imagine that sooner or later this subject will come up … It seems to me that Gladys could do her to a fare-you-well. But remember that Mary is a small town girl and has never been anywhere except Hollywood—and is scared out of her wits at the prospect of London.
What I told them on my own was that it was important that some American actress appear in London. That we had had so many delightful English stars, including the Old Vic [in the United States] and as far as I knew, not one actress or actor of any calibre is appearing on the London stage now.
Noël replied:
July 12th, 1946
Darling Beauty,
I have exchanged a lot of letters and cables with the Hallidays including a very sweet letter from Mary herself. I am quite certain they are really nice people and that we shall all like each other and I feel happy and e
xcited about the whole thing.
After working like a dog for the last few weeks I have completed the whole operette with the exception of a small amount of music to be finished off in September; so now I am going to France for a holiday and taking the car so that I can wander about and really relax. Oh, Beauty, I do hope and believe you will like the operette now it is complete. I honestly think I've done a good job.
I am asked to send you much love by Gladys, Joyce, Graham, Lorn, Cole, Bert [Lister], Windsor Castle, the Curate of the British Museum, the cloakroom woman at the Tower of London and the Dean and several Canons of Canterbury Cathedral. There is no message from Dover Castle, so it is evidently still offended.
All my love to my dearest Beauty.
The next several weeks were taken up with Halliday haggling over details of the contract. By mid-June he is hinting that there are conflicting offers under discussion. “You know we are giving your invitation first consideration but we must begin to be definite.” They remained, he said, “excited nitwits” and could not wait to arrive in September. “We are so happy we could cry and then our tears dissolve into laughter.” They could not wait to “do justice to your beautiful story, your beautiful lyrics, your beautiful self.”
Noël, meanwhile, took himself off to France with Graham. They drove to Biarritz to stay with Edward Molyneux, then went to Paris to reclaim the Place Vendome apartment but, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, they were at that wonderfully convenient destination: incommunicado. The increasingly boring details were left to Lorn, who found herself dealing with two or three detailed cables and queries a day. Was the electric current alternating or direct and what was the amount? Lorn maintained her usual calm:
(HAIR DRIER OKAY BED ATTENDED TO … ADVISE BRING SOAP CANDY COSMETICS UNDERWEAR AND STOCKINGS FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE BUT NO NEED TOILET PAPER)