Vague Leslie

[Leslie Howard in John Galsworthy's Escape, Booth Theatre,
New York, 26 October 1927 - March 1928, 173 Performances]

By 1927 Leslie Howard had become very well known as one of Broadway's best comedic actors. But it wasn't until his appearance as Matt Denant in John Galsworthy's Escape that he was fully accepted as a dramatic actor. And his reviews were the best of his ten-year career:

"One of the fine performances of our day in the theatre is

Real or Imagined?

[Leslie Howard with Archie Mayo
on the set of It's Love I'm After, 1937]

Leslie Howard's son, Ronald "Wink" Howard, talks about his father's shyness:

"As far as living in Hollywood was concerned Leslie had always kept a pretty low profile, not from any innate hostility to the place, but simply because he was not a very social animal. He was rarely seen 'around and

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

[Leslie Howard with his daughter Leslie Ruth "Doodie," c. 1926]

"He was not a great party-lover, which also endeared him to his children, and most parties, when I was small, found him sneaking up to my room like a conspirator and again dozing off on my bed. He was usually found out; someone would miss him, and my poor mother then had to play the villain and come searching for him. Suddenly, her voice would be heard

A Most Unappreciated Man

[Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, 1939]

Leslie Howard definitely did not want the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind (1939). Howard thought Ashley to be "a dreadful milk-sop, totally spineless and negative." He found the character "unsure and vacillating, uncertain as a moth fluttering between lamps—the done-to instead of the doing man, torn between the opposing polarities of two

William Gargan - This post is dedicated to Leslie Gargan

[Leslie Howard with good friend Bill Gargan, along
with Fred MacMurray, W. C. Fields and George Arliss]

In William Gargan's book, Why Me? An Autobiography, Gargan enjoys recounting his memories of times spent with his good friend, Leslie Howard. One of the traits Gargan found amusing about Howard was his "frugality." This trait in Howard was also noted by Howard's daughter, Leslie Ruth, in her book, A Quite Remarkable Father. Leslie Ruth tells a

Never The Twain Shall Meet

[Leslie Howard and Conchita Montenegro
in Never the Twain Shall Meet, 1931]

[For those following my blog by email, this is my only scheduled post for the week and will be posted to Facebook in sections.]

The next Leslie Howard film to be shown on TCM (Monday, July 25, 11:00am PST) will be the 1931 MGM remake of Never the Twain Shall Meet with Conchita Montenegro. The Peter B. Kyne novel of the same

Howard Meets Davis - Part Three

After months away from his children and his home, both in England, and the purchase of five polo ponies to alleviate his boredom and irritation, Leslie Howard finally began filming for Of Human Bondage (1934) in February, 1934.

The entire cast was English except for Bette Davis and Howard thought an English actress should have been cast as Mildred Rogers. Even though Davis had hired a British maid in an effort to learn the accent, Howard was not impressed. Davis was aware of Howard's feelings that she was ridiculous for the part. To observers Howard was polite but to Davis Howard was unsupportive, reading a book off stage while throwing her

Howard Meets Davis - Part One

[Leslie Howard on the set for Of Human Bondage, 1934]

Leslie Howard's initial experience with Bette Davis was one of disinterest and disapproval.

Howard was in England during the summer of 1933. Having completed Columbia's first film there, The Lady Is Willing (1934), Howard moved on to the Talbot Jennings play This Side Idolatry set in 1592 London with Howard acting as Shakespeare. According to Howard's daughter,

Leslie Howard, The Early Years - Part Five

Leslie Ruth Howard, Leslie Howard's daughter, recounts in her book, A Quite Remarkable Father, that Leslie and Ruth then spent some time together at Mayfield, in Sussex. Leslie's regiment had moved there in preparation to deploy to France for the buildup prior to the Battle of the Somme. Ms Howard states that her father shipped out to France and was there for a time, returning at least once on leave. She remembers in detail a story told to her of how her grandmother, while walking down a London street with her mother and not expecting her father back from the Front, heard a voice call out to Ruth. Turning to look, her grandmother saw a khaki figure covered in mud and told her daughter-in-law, "I think that soldier called to you, Ruth dear." Ruth recognized Leslie and ran to him (much like Melanie runs to Ashley in Gone With The Wind) and embraced him while crying out, "Oh darling! Never mind my suit–thank God you're home!"

Ms Howard goes on to state that after returning to France, it seems Leslie's nerves gave out and Leslie was sent home with "a case of severe shell shock." According to Estel Eforgan in her book, Leslie relinquished his commission on May 18, 1916, having no record of ever seeing action in France. She states that "from the few records that are left, April and May 1916 were relatively quiet times." However, one of the largest and longest battles, the Battle of Verdun, was being waged in northeastern France and since Ms Eforgan can produce no record at all it may be possible the records are incomplete and that Mr. Howard saw action there. Leslie Ruth must have remembered her father's service in WWI based on stories she heard from her family and it is hard for me to imagine her parents and her grandmother fabricating a story of Leslie's war service for the benefit of a child. She later recounted that her father suffered from night terrors especially when traveling in sleeping compartments on trains because of his experience during the war. We will never know for sure. However, because his life was eventually cut short by the German Luftwaffe during WWII, what does it matter? He fought in the war, even if as a civilian, and he died because of it.

Although Leslie and Ruth were living with his family during his recovery, Leslie knew that he must find a way to support the two of them if he wanted to be independent of his father. Ruth was working for the War Office but her pay would not support the two of them. Frank wanted him to return to clerking for Cox, but that suggestion fell on deaf ears. Lilian suggested Leslie try the theatre, she was convinced his future lay there, and so Leslie knocked on the doors of agent after agent after agent day after day after day until finally he knocked on the door of Mr. Ackerman May.

[Leslie Howard, 1924]

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Leslie Howard, The Early Years - Part Three

Leslie Howard had been interested in writing from a very early age. His mother encouraged him by making a small "den" for him in their attic. Leslie spent hours working on his plays, one of which was performed at his school for Christmas, in Latin mind you. His stories appeared in The Penny Weekly and various other magazines. His parents argued for hours over this activity, with his mother as supporter and his father seeing it as a waste of his time.

Howard either decided to leave school or his father withdrew him, but either way, he left Dulwich College and records show he took a job as a junior clerk in the purser's office of a steamboat running on the Thames River. Apparently, he wasn't there long, if at all, because within a short time he is listed as a clerk at Cox and Co.'s bank, a job his father arranged for him. During this time his mother continued to encourage him to write plays. The two of them, along with a couple of friends, had formed their own production company, the Upper Norwood Dramatic Club, based out of their house. The Club held several public performances during the years leading up to WWI. Several of the plays were written by and starred Leslie along with his mother, Lilian, and even his younger sister, Dorice.

People who remember Leslie at this time report that he was reserved with strangers but very confident and companionable amongst friends, which may have been a result of his elegant good looks. An actress he worked with remembered him as a "fresh-faced boy with a charming smile." [from Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor by Estel Eforgan]

Leslie was still working at the bank when the war started and like many young men of his time was caught up by the romance and glamour of it all. Leslie was not suited for banking. He had difficulty making the books balance and it was all just so monotonous. What better way to escape than by joining the army. After his initial training, Howard was accepted as a second lieutenant in the Northamptonshire Imperial Yeomanry, a mounted territorial regiment. Little did he know then that war was neither romantic nor glamorous.

[Leslie Howard Steiner in uniform, c. 1915]

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