Leslie Howard's Lucky Coin

This story is taken from "Leslie Howard's Lucky Coin," Photoplay, March, 1934, with a clarification on the timeline which in reality was different than what the magazine reports. The magazine reports the event of Howard Receiving the Lucky Coin took place in 1923, however, it was actually the winter of 1926/1927 if we associate the receipt of the Lucky Coin with the announcement by Gilbert Miller that The Cardboard Lover* would reopen in March as stated by Leslie Howard in the interview and as described in Trivial Fond Records, pg. 59.

*The name of the play was later changed to Her Cardboard Lover at the insistence of Jeanne Eagels.

Leslie Ruth Howard also discusses the Lucky Coin in her book, A Quite Remarkable Father, pgs. 121-122. In her passage, she makes it appear as though her father received the Lucky Coin before the first production of The Cardboard Lover ever opened in Great Neck on September 27. Leslie Ruth includes one detail that all the other versions leave out which clarifies the entire event and that is that Ruth and the two children sailed from England aboard the SS Carmania on October 16th and arrived in New York before Gilbert Miller's announcement that he was re-opening The Cardboard Lover. Here are the two passages:

"It was so sweet of you my dearest—I feel like saying 'I'll have it stuffed,' like 'Charley's Aunt' but I mean I'll have it put on a chain and wear it and always treasure it.

"I am awfully tired and heavy from lack of air. I simply live in the theatre and the hotel and I feel quite rotten. Thank God only four days to our opening in Great Neck. I shall be grateful for the change of atmosphere. I don't know now whether it's morning, noon or night. I suppose it's still 1926!"

What this means is that either the interviewer or Howard himself, or both, embellished the story a great deal for effect. It is the only conclusion.

Neighbors up on Claremont Avenue remember him as a transient tenant, carrying delicatessen food in small paper bags now and then, his clothes not at all the Bond Street perfection of the world-famous actor today.

[The story begins here, in the winter of 1926/1927]

"I lived up there for quite a while when I was broke, going the Broadway rounds looking for a job. I lived in furnished rooms in the Fifties, too, eating marmalade and crackers for days when money was so scarce I'd almost forgotten what a dollar bill looked like.

"That was when my wife, who'd stayed in England because we couldn't afford two boat fares, sent me the lucky guinea."

[Leslie Howard states that Ruth stayed behind because the couple lacked the funds for the family to return to New York. Here is the first inconsistency with the facts. Ronald Howard reports in Trivial Fond Records, pg. 57, that Ruth stayed behind because she had become seriously ill when the family returned to England in June of 1926. Leslie Ruth Howard confirms this in her book, A Quite Remarkable Father, pg. 115.]

"Ruth sent me this because she knew I needed money badly. And the day it arrived, my luck changed. Turned about so completely, that I didn't need the money. So I had it made into this keepsake which I wouldn't part with for the world. I wear it always—just for luck—and the only time I ever take it off is when I go swimming. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't die by drowning, because my lucky token wouldn't be with me."

[It is tragic to note that Howard most likely did die of drowning—if he wasn't already dead from the Luftwaffe bullets fired at the passenger plane in which he was riding or the ensuing fire—when his plane hit the water in the Bay of Biscay.]

[We regress now back to 1916 when Howard left the army.]

"I'd no business wanting to be an actor. I had had no experience when I first went on the stage in England after the war—just a tremendous desire to act, to express something I had always wanted to do with writing but never hoped to attain in that field."

[Here is an omission. Howard did have experience as an amateur writer, producer and actor before the war with his Upper Norwood Dramatic Club. He had also appeared as an extra in his first film in 1914, The Heroine of Mons, arranged by his Uncle Wilfred Noy who was appearing in the film.] 

"I had worked in a bank in London before the war. I've often since accused myself of wanting to join the cavalry just for the thrill of getting away from the monotony of adding up figures.

"During the war I met Ruth. We were married in a little town where our troops were quartered for a while. Ruth didn't know anything about the stage, either. But she had a great sympathy for my ambition. We would talk for long hours about the things I wanted to do. And it was she who fired me with courage to try the stage, believing I should always feel cheated if I hadn't at least one fling at it.

"Just as soon as I was mustered out of the army, I went to a booking-agent [Ackerman May] in London. Ruth and I were very poor, living in a cheap little flat. We had no telephone. So I had to call on the agent every day to learn if he could find me a place anywhere.

"Eventually—and it may have been because he grew tired of seeing me come around so often—he offered me a very small role in a tour company. I grabbed at the opportunity. Ruth and I packed our one bag, got aboard the theatrical company train and started out on our adventure, deeply thrilled that I had at last gotten a start.

"It was summer time and England was lovely. We toured through Devonshire and Wales, playing at stable theaters, gas-lighted back rooms, always amazed that people liked our show and forever wondering just how long this blessed luck would hold out."

[Peg O' My Heart, which was Leslie's first tour, actually played in the fall of 1916 as evidenced by reviews on Inafferrabile Leslie Howard and also as described in Leslie Ruth Howard's book, A Quite Remarkable Father, pg. 36, so either the interviewer or Howard mistook the timeline, the interviewer condensed the story for the magazine, or Howard was thinking about a different tour, possibly Under Cover which happened the following summer in 1917. However, Ruth did not accompany Leslie on that tour because she had become pregnant, so it is more likely that Leslie's three tours, Peg O'My Heart, Charley's Aunt and Under Cover, are all blended together for the sake of the story.]

"We never hoped to play London. That is the last word in England, the London stage, just as Broadway is the goal of every American actor.

"But I found this tour an amazing training school. I was learning to be a good trouper, to take disappointment with a grain of philosophy, to look up and out and never back—the creed that keeps people of the theater going along so hopefully."

[Oct 1920 • Leslie made his way to America]

"Ruth had to remain in England. We couldn't scrape together enough money for two boat tickets. So I came alone, with high hopes."

[Winter 1920 • Ruth followed Leslie to New York]

[Summer 1921 • Leslie and Ruth returned to England]

[Fall 1921 • Leslie and Ruth returned to America along with Winkie and, according to the books written by Howard's two children, stayed in New York until 1926, with Leslie making only one brief trip to England during the summer of 1925 to see his mother who was in poor health. His daughter was born in New York in 1924. Ronald Howard does acknowledge (Trivial Fond Records, pg. 32) that the family did live on Claremont Avenue in 1922 when the Howards were just eking out a living.]

[Jump to 1925]

[The article states that after playing in The Green Hat in 1925 the family's luck turned and it was then that they "moved" to the Claremont Avenue flat where neighbors remember him as "the actor out of work." However, in 1925 Leslie and his family were living the good life in Great Neck in a house they had purchased the previous year. Ronald Howard states the play was a success and ran for a year (Trivial Fond Records, pg. 50)—from September 1925 onward—but then goes on to state (pg. 57) the family returned to England in June, 1926. IBDb.com shows the play with 231 performances but closing in February 1926. The article states that after Howard played in The Green Hat "and made some money. He sent for Ruth and she came over, happy to be with him again. But luck turned for them a little while after she arrived with their son." But Leslie Ruth, their daughter, was born in 1924, and if the time of Ruth's arrival (with their son) was actually after the The Green Hat (1925), the article would have said "after she arrived with their son and daughter." This obviously means that the interviewer was confused and was talking about the time when Leslie and Ruth returned to New York at the end of 1921, bringing their son with them.

It is more likely that the play closed and, after going on a road tour which lasted until May 1926, Leslie, not having a job at that time, decided to return to England for the summer. He had promised Ruth this vacation the year before. I find it difficult to believe that Leslie found no work after February 1926, with the family (Leslie, Ruth, Winkie, Doodie and Miss Goss) being forced to move back to Claremont Drive from the suburban life they had enjoyed for almost four years in Great Neck—first on Maple Drive and then Magnolia Drive and finally in a house they purchased at 7 East Road, along with a Cadillac, and spending time with friends such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. When would the poverty have begun? And why didn't either of the children mention it in their books?

The article acknowledges the Howards returned to England after The Green Hat and then Howard was offered a part in The Cardboard Lover. Actually, the Howards left New York in June knowing that they were to return in the fall so that Howard could begin rehearsals for The Cardboard Lover. The article states Howard could not afford not to take the part and returned to New York in the fall of 1926, making it appear as if Howard's desperation for money was the sole motive. Although, I am sure that Howard was miserable about having to leave his sick wife behind, not to mention the fact that he relied on Ruth to manage his life, I believe he was actually required to return to fulfill his contractual obligation.

After the failure of the first The Cardboard Lover in October, 1926, and continuing until January, 1927, when Gilbert Miller made the announcement that he would reopen the show in March, Leslie did not have an income, that is true. But he owned his own home, along with a Cadillac, both of which he had rented out when the family returned to England in June 1926, so he was not destitute. According to Leslie Ruth (pg. 124) he also owned some stocks and bonds. After his family returned to New York in October 1926, Leslie, Ruth, the children and Miss Goss, merely moved back into their own house on East Road and took up their lives as they had been before they left for England in June, according to Leslie Ruth. (pgs. 124-125)

What does all this mean? In my opinion, Howard either wrote the article "Leslie Howard's Lucky Coin" himself as a "story" and submitted it to the magazine and there was no actual interview—but the article has an interviewer's name attached so that is not likely—or he took an actual event in his life and created a fictional story that the interviewer took as fact—or at least reported it that way—or the interviewer was so enamored with Mr. Howard that she only heard every other word. Whichever way you look at it, I think it proves that Howard was a good storyteller and he didn't take himself too seriously. He was probably highly amused when the magazine appeared on the racks.]

[Following is the conclusion to the story.]

"Laurette Taylor was to be the star and I her leading man. 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? 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."

[About the Lucky Coin]

"It's funny how significant the thing has become. I suppose nothing would happen to me if I lost it, though it would make me very uncomfortable, indeed. That's why I guard that lucky coin so carefully."

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



Howard, Leslie, ed. with Ronald Howard. Trivial Fond Records. London: William Kimber & Co Ltd, 1982. ISBN 978-0-7183-0418-8.
Howard, Leslie Ruth. A Quite Remarkable Father: The Biography of Leslie Howard. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1959.
Maxwell, Virginia. "Leslie Howard's Lucky Coin." Photoplay, March, 1934. Photoplay Publishing Co., Chicago.


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