Himself

"I look like a silly old fool, not the respectable father I am." A Quite Remarkable Father, pg. 6

"First of all, let me admit that I am one of those unfortunate people to whom any kind of public appearance is an embarrassment, for whom to have to perform before my fellow men is a misery. I always sympathize with those wretched children who are made to exhibit their talents at parties. I, myself, never suffered thus as a child for the simple reason that I was utterly devoid of gifts of any sort; but from the moment when offered accidentally and accepted economically, I got my first job on the stage and sheepishly daubed my face with greasepaint, I had an inner conviction that this was the most embarrassing occupation in the world. And this belief, far from being modified by experience, I find only to be intensified by the years." A Quite Remarkable Father, pg. 5 and Trivial Fond Records, pg. 15

"The truth is that, to enjoy acting, one must be an exhibitionist at heart, one must revel in those exposures of the emotions which would be agonising to a shy or reserved person...As a boy the possibility of being an actor never even occurred to me. Nor could it have occurred to anybody who knew the shy and inarticulate youth that I was. I wanted to write. I felt I could express myself on paper; alone in a room I felt articulate and creative. But I was also lazy, a thing a writer never dare be. Application is, I am convinced, the first rule for authors." Trivial Fond Records, pg. 16

From "Leslie Howard's Lucky Coin"

Howard returns alone to New York to appear in The Cardboard Lover with Laurette Taylor:

"We rehearsed for a long while, then the play had its tryout in Great Neck, Long Island.

"Sadly enough, it was a failure, or shall I call it a flop, as you say in America?

"Oh, I can laugh at the experience now, but frankly I was heartbroken. I'd taken the last money we had to make the trip, anticipating that my previous success would herald a new and greater triumph. And I admit I was a disillusioned, discouraged, very thin and very hungry young actor out of work when the thing blew up.

"I came back to New York and hid away in a shabby, little room on a side street, wondering why I'd ever come from England on so thin a chance. I was terribly lonely. I walked the streets for hours, gazing into shop windows to take my mind off the disappointment which stayed with me like a nightmare.

"I was sitting disconsolately on the side of my bed one morning trying to figure out whom I could see next about getting a job, when the little envelope arrived, with the gold piece, from Ruth. I slipped it into my pocket and started out—really to buy some breakfast.

"At the corner of Broadway and Forty-Sixth Street, I ran into an acquaintance, a fellow I'd met while doing the rounds of theatrical offices.

"'Haven't you heard the news?' he shouted at me with great enthusiasm. 'Miller's going to try Her Cardboard Lover again—this time with Jeanne Eagels. Better hike up there and make a try for the part.'

"I rushed over to Gilbert Miller's office and was greeted with open arms. They'd been looking all over town for me. And there I had been, sitting in a shabby, little side-street room wondering where I'd find a job." 

"Leslie Howard's Lucky Coin," Photoplay, March, 1934

Leslie Howard's diary entries:

Wednesday, 30th January: Missing train, taxi to town. Enormous matinée—dozens turned away. Lynn Fontanne at 1st and 2nd Acts. Feeling particularly depressed. Part seems hopeless and ineffectual. Have desire to leave it as soon as possible.

Monday, 11th February: Today is an auspicious day in the life of our Winkie. First day of School. What a terrible word. Instinctively he recoils from it at the last moment with a nameless dread which I can so well understand, having never got over it myself. Thus must the young bird feel on the day its parents tell it it must fly for the first time. Hated letting him go. Society has laid its first grasp upon him and it will never let him go. Some snow still so after school we buy a sleigh and go forth winter sporting.

Thursday, 3rd April: Thirty-one years ago today there appeared in a small house in Forest Hill, London, a very bald baby boy who was, at least at that time, a great pride to his newly married parents. It seems a long long time to have been in the world and not so very much to show for it. A little knowledge, a little sadness, a little happiness and a good deal of waste.

Trivial Fond Records, pgs. 41-48 

articles:

Howard answers questions about romance, marriage and the temptations of Hollywood. "Is Movie Love Too Real?" Screenland, April, 1934

Howard discusses his feelings about acting and horses and polo and tells the story of Betty. "Tea-Timing With The Horsy Mr. Howard," Silver Screen, March, 1935


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