[35 School St., Andover, Mass.]
St. Valentine.
IElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;c6 was distressed to learn (first from Dorothy Elsmith) of your sprained ankle, especially coming at that time after your other strain and distress. I have never had this experience, and I imagine that it is very painful for several days – it happened to one of my colleagues a few days ago; and I believe that you should be very careful and ‘favour’ that ankle for a long time afterwards. You are very stoical about such misfortunes. As for myself, I have had no recurrence of bronchial trouble since the one day after my visit to Cambridge, and I see no reason why it should recur (I have not had influenza). Sotravels, trips and plansTSE's spring 1951 trip to Spain;h3;a1 I hope to go on peacefully, not leaving London, until I get to Spain early in April. IMme Amery;a2 shall have to take a two weeks holiday in July also, so as to give the housekeeper a holiday; whether I go abroad again or not depends on whether I have enough balance left after Spain of the travel allowance fixed by the Treasury. The address you have sent me looks suitable for midsummer, though not for when one is told to seek heat and sun at the end of the winter. On the other hand, I might go to Switzerland: I have been invited to a religious conference there, but as I have declined to be an active member, and said I could only go as an observer, I cannot expect to have any of my expenses paid. (IBritish Council;b7 want to go to Spain only as a tourist, and shall not let the British Council people there know, as they would certainly want me to lecture and read). And I shouldn’t want to go to Switzerland unless I could have a few days on my own apart from the conference.
IGeorge, Ruthsubmits poem to TSE;a2 was touched by Miss George’s poem, which struck me as not at all bad, and I wrote to her at once1 – knowing that if I did not write at once I should probably forget to write at all. AsMurder in the CathedralHoellering film;g1still in the edit;b6 for other activities, there are still discussions about one or two scenes in the film: it is still ‘rough’, and there are a few bits to be fitted in, and then the music and noises to be adjusted; but I hope it will be produced in May. OnCocktail Party, The1950 New Theatre production;e1comes off at New Theatre;a5 SaturdayNew Theatre, St. Martin's Lanewhich finally comes off;a4 night was the final performance of The Cocktail Party at the New Theatre, afterGuinness, Alecat TSE's Cocktail Party buffet;b4 which INesbitt, Cathleen (née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt)at cast buffet;a4 gave a buffet supper to the cast (some of the earlier cast turned up too, including Alex Guinness and Cathleen Nesbit) andCocktail Party, The1950 New Theatre production;e1to close with provinicial tour;a4 they are now performing the play in Golder’s [sic] Green, after which Bournemouth, Oxford etc. for about eight weeks before closing altogether. By the end of a run, one realises who are the really accomplished actors, and has a peculiar respect for those whose performance is just as good at the end as ever it was. ThatHunter, Ianin The Cocktail Party;a1 isPeel, Eileenas Lavinia in Cocktail Party;a1 Ian Hunter2 and Eileen Peel. (Cathleen Nesbitt was good too, in New York: all the more creditable since she has never really been able to see what the play is all about). IreneWorth, Ireneas Celia;a7 Worth, I have decided, was too much inside the part: she was living it instead of acting it, with the result that she deteriorated. It is high time she had a change, becauseSpeaight, Robertruined by Becket;e8 I don’t want her to go on being Celia, just as Bobbie has never really got over being an archbishop.
I hope for more news soon, and may it be better news. I shall write again in a few days.
1.Not identified. TSE’s letter not found.
2.IanHunter, Ian Hunter (1900–76): South African-born actor who studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and whose career embraced good supporting roles in film, stage and TV. He worked with directors including Basil Dean and Michael Powell, and appeared in three films by Alfred Hitchcock in the later 1920s. He acted alongside Shirley Temple in The Little Princess (1939), and featured in other films including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1941); in a number of West End productions; and as Sir Richard of the Lea in the TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood. From the spring of 1950 he played Edward Chamberlayne alongside Rex Harrison as Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly in The Cocktail Party, directed by E. Martin Browne at the New Theatre, London.
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
2.RuthGeorge, Ruth George (1880–1959), Associate Professor of English, Scripps College, Claremont, California, had become a close friend of EH at Scripps in 1932–4. EH was to donate thirty-two inscribed books to Scripps; five inscribed items to Princeton University Library.
5.AlecGuinness, Alec Guinness (1914–2000), distinguished English actor: see Biographical Register.
2.IanHunter, Ian Hunter (1900–76): South African-born actor who studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and whose career embraced good supporting roles in film, stage and TV. He worked with directors including Basil Dean and Michael Powell, and appeared in three films by Alfred Hitchcock in the later 1920s. He acted alongside Shirley Temple in The Little Princess (1939), and featured in other films including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1941); in a number of West End productions; and as Sir Richard of the Lea in the TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood. From the spring of 1950 he played Edward Chamberlayne alongside Rex Harrison as Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly in The Cocktail Party, directed by E. Martin Browne at the New Theatre, London.
1.MadameMme Amery Amery: housekeeper at 19 Carlyle Mansions, Chelsea.
1.CathleenNesbitt, Cathleen (née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt) Nesbitt, née Kathleen Mary Nesbitt (1888–1982), English actor of stage, screen and TV (she was encouraged to take up acting by Sarah Bernhardt, a friend of her father’s). Educated at Queen’s University, Belfast, and at the Sorbonne, she first acted in a revival of Arthur Wing Pinero’s The Cabinet Minister (1910). In 1912 she became the fiancée of the poet Rupert Brooke (who was to die in the war). She starred as the mischievously perceptive Julia Shuttlethwaite in The Cocktail Party. Later best known for her roles in film, she starred as Mrs Higgins in My Fair Lady (with Rex Harrison, 1956); as Cary Grant’s grandmother in An Affair to Remember (1957); as Lady Matheson in Separate Tables (1958), and in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film Family Plot (1976). Appointed CBE for her services to drama, 1978.
1.EileenPeel, Eileen Peel (1909–99), British stage and screen actor, was to play Lavinia Chamberlayne at Henry Miller’s Theatre in New York, 21 Jan. 1950–13 Jan. 1951; later in London. GreyBlake, Grey Blake (1902–71), British stage and film actor, was to be Peter Quilpe.
2.RobertSpeaight, Robert Speaight (1904–77), actor, producer and author, was to create the role of Becket in Murder in the Cathedral in 1935: see Biographical Register.
6.IreneWorth, Irene Worth (1916–2002), hugely talented American stage and screen actor, was to progress from TSE’s play to international stardom on stage and screen. She joined the Old Vic company in 1951, as a leading actor under Tyrone Guthrie; and in 1953 she appeared at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, where her appearances included a further partnership with Alec Guinness (Hotel Paradiso). In 1962 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre, London, where her roles included a remorseless Goneril to Paul Scofield’s Lear in Peter Brook’s production of King Lear. In 1968 she played a dynamic Jocasta in Brook’s production of Seneca’s Oedipus (trans. Ted Hughes) – featuring a huge golden phallus – alongside John Gielgud. Numerous acting awards fell to her remarkable work: a BAFTA, and three Tony Awards including the award for Best Actress in a Play for Tiny Alice (1965), and yet another Tony for Best Featured Actress in Lost in Yonkers (1991).