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

[Leslie Howard with his children, Ronald and Leslie Ruth, c. 1930]

In August 1934, Gladys Hall interviewed Leslie Howard for Motion Picture Magazine. I do not know if Ms Hall realized before the interview began that Howard was at that moment so preoccupied with thoughts of his children, but she definitely knew it afterward. In one of the longest interviews Howard ever gave, he talks exclusively about his feelings on
being separated from his children for the first time in his career. Howard and his wife, Ruth, had decided that because the children were older, they should be allowed the choice of whether to make the "awful annual exodus" to America or stay at home in England. The children opted to stay behind—I am sure with some subtle prodding from the two grownups who had become convinced that Hollywood was not a good environment for their children. Howard had just completed Of Human Bondage (1934) when he made these comments:

"Yes, I am in human bondage, and not to a lady with a greenish pallor, either. 

"I have been in bondage ever since my son was born. I have never, from that moment to this, drawn one completely free and all-for-myself breath. I am in bondage to my love for my children, my concern for them and for their concerns, my nostalgia when we are separated, my anxiety for the way their lives shall go when we are not together. There is no human bondage unless the chains are riveted on by love. If love does not exist, then, naturally, one does not care—and where one does not care, bondage is impossible.

"No, it is not physical bondage. It's a matter of mental and spiritual bondage. Never again, after the birth of children, is one free for one moment from worry about what they are doing, wondering if they are safe, happy, in the right environment, getting what they should be getting from life and countless other things. It is the most subtle and the strongest of all the slaveries in the world. Mothers, frequently, feel it more keenly than fathers. I must have a good deal of the mother in me."

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

Subscribe to Leslie Howard by Email • And don't forget to respond to the verification email!