I Know What It's Like to Be in Human Bondage

[Leslie Howard with his son and daughter, Ronald "Wink"
and Leslie Ruth "Doodie," in one of the last pictures they
took together before the start of WWII]

Following is an excerpt from an interview with Gladys Hall for Motion Picture Magazine printed in the August, 1934, issue:

I was reminded, as he talked, of a little incident Bette Davis told me about him when they were working on Of Human Bondage together. She said that Leslie was standing just off
the set, waiting to do a scene. She happened to look at him and thought that he looked like a little boy gazing at a far horizon, bewildered and enchanted by what he saw there. He was holding a letter in his hand. Someone came up and talked to him about the honor he had received at the Academy of Arts and Sciences—he was one of the three actors chosen for the best performances of the year [for Berkeley Square (1933)]. He didn't seem to hear, Bette said, much less to care.

He told Bette that the letter was from Leslie, his small daughter. She had seen her first pantomime show and was writing her father about it, very critically, very maturely. He said, "She wants to be a dancer," and when he said that, Bette told me, lights of pride danced in his near-sighted blue eyes, very far-sighted at that moment. "He said to me," smiled Bette, "'She writes that the snowdrops are blooming at home, and the hawthorn is white in the hedges. She says that I may be enjoying the sunshine of California and she adds "But Daddy, it's Spring in England—"' He puffed at his pipe for a moment after he had read me that. He said, kind of low, 'Kids are funny.' He didn't look at me when he said it. I can tell you one thing, it is not Spring for Leslie Howard anywhere on earth except where his children are."

Hall, Gladys. "I Know What It's Like to Be in Human Bondage." Motion Picture, August, 1934. Motion Picture Publications, Inc., Chicago.

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