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BBC Report About Leslie Howard's Death
[BBC Report of Leslie Howard's Death] On Saturday, July 30, I posted on Facebook the 2014 BBC report on Leslie Howard's Death ...
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Have A Great Weekend!
It doesn't take brains to remember to have a fantastic weekend. See you Monday. Remember the blog.
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Friday, May 13, 2016
Getting Even
Apparently, Leslie Howard was a bit of a prankster and liked to keep the cast and crew of The Animal Kingdom on its toes during performances by pulling gags and ad libbing during the show. Well, they finally had enough and decided to seek revenge. Following is an excerpt from an article which appeared in New Movie Magazine, December, 1934, by Douglas Gilbert:
"In one of his scenes, alone upon the stage, he had to drink a rye highball. I needn't tell you good readers that a stage 'rye highball' carries about as much jolt as cold tea--which, in fact, it is. Well, he'd been gagging the cast to distraction. They saw this bit of business as a chance to out-smart him.
"Coming to the wings for his entrance the property man handed him his highball which he was to drink on the stage. No quotes on this one--it was a highball and no foolin'. The cast had jolted it with real rye, two-fingers of dynamite that would have lifted W. C. Fields into the flies. Then, they hastened behind the set to various points of vantage where they could watch Howard unseen by the audience. Howard took the drink, drained it, and without batting an eye, turned to the set where he knew the prankers must be stationed and, his back to the audience, raised his glass in a toast to the hidden cast and bowed low."
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"In one of his scenes, alone upon the stage, he had to drink a rye highball. I needn't tell you good readers that a stage 'rye highball' carries about as much jolt as cold tea--which, in fact, it is. Well, he'd been gagging the cast to distraction. They saw this bit of business as a chance to out-smart him.
"Coming to the wings for his entrance the property man handed him his highball which he was to drink on the stage. No quotes on this one--it was a highball and no foolin'. The cast had jolted it with real rye, two-fingers of dynamite that would have lifted W. C. Fields into the flies. Then, they hastened behind the set to various points of vantage where they could watch Howard unseen by the audience. Howard took the drink, drained it, and without batting an eye, turned to the set where he knew the prankers must be stationed and, his back to the audience, raised his glass in a toast to the hidden cast and bowed low."
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| [Leslie Howard and Lora Baxter in The Animal Kingdom at the Broadhurst Theatre, NYC, January - June, 1932] |
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Thursday, May 12, 2016
Leslie Howard, Swindler?
Bill Gargan recalls his time with Leslie Howard at the out-of-town engagement of The Animal Kingdom, 1932:
"When the show went on to Cleveland, before returning to Broadway, we stopped at a hotel near the station. There was a great deal of noise, which Howard, being an Englishman, couldn't stand. So he inquired regarding accommodations in the residential district.
"Finding a quiet location forty-five minutes by taxi from town, really a delightful place, he and Mrs. Howard engaged a suite and insisted I go along. When we signed the register, my room was thirty-five dollars a week. At the other hotel, I had paid at the rate of sixteen dollars a week.
"On my salary, with a wife and apartment to keep in Brooklyn, I couldn't figure how I could stand the gaff until Howard went into his act and said thirty-five dollars was too much for his secretary's room. 'That's different,' the manager told him, 'in that event, the rate will be twenty-two dollars.' At that reduced rent, I occupied a room adjoining the Howards. After the manager had seen the play, he seemed to get a great kick out of the trick played on him."
[from the article, "Pals," New Movie Magazine, October, 1934, by Whitney Williams]
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"When the show went on to Cleveland, before returning to Broadway, we stopped at a hotel near the station. There was a great deal of noise, which Howard, being an Englishman, couldn't stand. So he inquired regarding accommodations in the residential district.
"Finding a quiet location forty-five minutes by taxi from town, really a delightful place, he and Mrs. Howard engaged a suite and insisted I go along. When we signed the register, my room was thirty-five dollars a week. At the other hotel, I had paid at the rate of sixteen dollars a week.
"On my salary, with a wife and apartment to keep in Brooklyn, I couldn't figure how I could stand the gaff until Howard went into his act and said thirty-five dollars was too much for his secretary's room. 'That's different,' the manager told him, 'in that event, the rate will be twenty-two dollars.' At that reduced rent, I occupied a room adjoining the Howards. After the manager had seen the play, he seemed to get a great kick out of the trick played on him."
[from the article, "Pals," New Movie Magazine, October, 1934, by Whitney Williams]
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| [Leslie Howard with Bill Gargan, 1934] |
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Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Best Friends
William Gargan, who named one of his sons after Leslie Howard, recalled their beginnings:
"Our friendship started from the moment Howard grasped my hand and said I was okay for the part ["Red" Regan in the play, The Animal Kingdom, 1932]. We seemed to click from the start, and on the way to Pittsburgh we really had a chance to get acquainted.
"Mrs. Howard accompanied her husband, and both accepted me as one of the family. The play made a great hit at its first tryout, so much so that Barry [Philip Barry, playwright] declared my part, the butler, too important for the sake of the starring role. He told Howard he'd cut it down.
"'You won't cut down any of the parts,' Howard informed him. 'If you have to make the play stronger, build up the star, but don't chop any of the lines the others have.' At that opening night, too, Howard made me take five curtain calls of my own."
[from the article, "Pals," New Movie Magazine, October, 1934, by Whitney Williams]
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"Our friendship started from the moment Howard grasped my hand and said I was okay for the part ["Red" Regan in the play, The Animal Kingdom, 1932]. We seemed to click from the start, and on the way to Pittsburgh we really had a chance to get acquainted.
"Mrs. Howard accompanied her husband, and both accepted me as one of the family. The play made a great hit at its first tryout, so much so that Barry [Philip Barry, playwright] declared my part, the butler, too important for the sake of the starring role. He told Howard he'd cut it down.
"'You won't cut down any of the parts,' Howard informed him. 'If you have to make the play stronger, build up the star, but don't chop any of the lines the others have.' At that opening night, too, Howard made me take five curtain calls of my own."
[from the article, "Pals," New Movie Magazine, October, 1934, by Whitney Williams]
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| [From left: Mrs. Gargan, Leslie Howard, Mrs. Howard, William Gargan, and Leslie's son, Ronald Howard] |
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Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Too Tall for Leslie
Rehearsals began for The Animal Kingdom in November 1931. The play was to appear at the Broadhurst Theatre beginning in January, 1932. Leslie, the co-producer, was set to play Tom Collier and Bill Gargan had secured the part of his butler friend, "Red" Regan.
Katharine Hepburn had been cast in the part of Daisy Sage, Tom Collier's bohemian girlfriend. Hepburn only lasted through six days of rehearsal, though. According to Hepburn's biography, Me: Stories of My Life, she blamed Howard for her demise stating that she was too tall for him and that he was afraid she would run away with the play. In fact, Hepburn was at least three inches shorter than Howard and anyone who has studied Howard would know that he wouldn't care who emerged as the bigger star. As a matter of fact, the play's co-producer, Gilbert Miller, and the playwright, Philip Barry, thought Hepburn all wrong for the part. Even Bill Gargan noted that she was too inexperienced for the role which called for a passive femininity. A year later her performance in The Lake was panned by all the New York critics. Dorothy Parker wrote in The New Yorker that "she ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." [from Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor by Estel Eforgan]
Katharine didn't seem to hold a grudge though, as seen in the photo below.
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Katharine Hepburn had been cast in the part of Daisy Sage, Tom Collier's bohemian girlfriend. Hepburn only lasted through six days of rehearsal, though. According to Hepburn's biography, Me: Stories of My Life, she blamed Howard for her demise stating that she was too tall for him and that he was afraid she would run away with the play. In fact, Hepburn was at least three inches shorter than Howard and anyone who has studied Howard would know that he wouldn't care who emerged as the bigger star. As a matter of fact, the play's co-producer, Gilbert Miller, and the playwright, Philip Barry, thought Hepburn all wrong for the part. Even Bill Gargan noted that she was too inexperienced for the role which called for a passive femininity. A year later her performance in The Lake was panned by all the New York critics. Dorothy Parker wrote in The New Yorker that "she ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." [from Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor by Estel Eforgan]
Katharine didn't seem to hold a grudge though, as seen in the photo below.
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| [Leslie Howard and Katharine Hepburn leaving a private screening at Jessie Lasky's beach home in Santa Monica, May 12, 1933] |
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Monday, May 9, 2016
Lots of Leslie Howards
Did you know that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are not the only couple to have named their child after Leslie Howard in gratitude for his help and friendship?
Howard first met Bill Gargan when Gargan read for the part "German Play Reader" in Leslie's new play, Out of a Blue Sky, which Howard wrote and directed. Howard had dismissed Clark Gable from the part during rehearsals. The comedy ran at the Booth Theatre in NYC for 17 performances in February, 1930.
A year or so later when Gargan heard that Leslie was returning to Broadway to perform as Tom Collier in The Animal Kingdom he didn't waste a minute asking Howard for the part of Richard "Red" Regan, Tom Collier's comic butler. Gargan met Howard at the pier as his boat pulled in from England. Initially, Howard thought Gargan too young for the part but brought him along to the theater to try out anyway. Gargan got the part and the two were on their way to becoming fast friends with Bill promising to name his next child, boy or girl, after Leslie. It was a boy and it was named Leslie Howard Gargan.
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Howard first met Bill Gargan when Gargan read for the part "German Play Reader" in Leslie's new play, Out of a Blue Sky, which Howard wrote and directed. Howard had dismissed Clark Gable from the part during rehearsals. The comedy ran at the Booth Theatre in NYC for 17 performances in February, 1930.
A year or so later when Gargan heard that Leslie was returning to Broadway to perform as Tom Collier in The Animal Kingdom he didn't waste a minute asking Howard for the part of Richard "Red" Regan, Tom Collier's comic butler. Gargan met Howard at the pier as his boat pulled in from England. Initially, Howard thought Gargan too young for the part but brought him along to the theater to try out anyway. Gargan got the part and the two were on their way to becoming fast friends with Bill promising to name his next child, boy or girl, after Leslie. It was a boy and it was named Leslie Howard Gargan.
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| [Leslie Howard with Leslie Howard Gargan] |
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