Leslie Howard In Sing-Sing

[Leslie Howard, New York Public Library,
Billy Rose Collection, c. 1924]

On 1 January 1924 Leslie Howard began to keep a diary. Whether it was because he received a leather-bound journal for Christmas, or he had made a New Year's Resolution, or he merely wanted to keep a record of his life and the people he met, we don't know. Howard and his family were living just a block away from Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in Great Neck, New York, at the time.

Ronald "Wink" Howard included the first six months of entries in Trivial Fond Records (1982), the book of Leslie Howard's own writings with

Holy Hollywood

[Leslie Howard by Vandamm Studio, 1932]

By 1927 Leslie Howard had been working in New York on the Broadway stage for seven years. He had appeared in seventeen plays there and many others in his native England going back to the start of his professional career in 1916. Howard had even authored and directed some of his own productions. He was well-known in New York.

Leslie Howard Begins His Love of Horses

[Leslie Howard]

Leslie Howard had a very active imagination and used it to begin writing plays and stories at a young age. He wrote his first play, in Latin, by the time he was 13 years old. Young Leslie's drama was presented at the Christmas pageant at his school. His mother encouraged her son, but his

Trivial Fond Records, Concluded

[Leslie Howard and his son, Ronald, at
their home, Stowe Maries, c. 1938]

Over the last two days I have been sharing Ronald Howard's "Hamlet" letters to his father. Those letters were written when Ronald had come to believe that his father had been murdered by the Germans. Howard had also finally accepted the fact that he would never know who ordered the shoot down of his father's civilian plane. Ronald had tried so

Trivial Fond Records, Continued

[Leslie Howard with his son, Ronald, at
the Hotel Carlyle in New York, 1935]

Ronald Howard states in Trivial Fond Records, a book containing the writings of his father, Leslie Howard, that he wrote a series of poems in a "sense of protest" immediately after learning of his father's death. However, after the younger Howard understood what his father must have gone through in the minutes before his death, he wrote another

Trivial Fond Records

[Leslie Howard with his son Ronald
on one of their many crossings]

I have recently been reading transcripts of Leslie Howard's WWII radio broadcasts transmitted from England to the United States asking the U.S. to enter the war in support of the Allies. I will be sharing his thoughts this week.

But first I would like to give you this poem Howard's son, Ronald, wrote to his father on the occasion of his father's death. Ronald Howard was

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

"Winkie"

In Leslie Howard: Trivial Fond Records, a book containing the writings of Leslie Howard, Howard tells a story of the first time his son, at the age of nine, visits him in the theater, long before Howard made his way to Hollywood and the movies. His son was Ronald Howard, aka "Winkie," who became an actor himself.

Howard recalls that his son, upon entering his dressing room, commented on how small, poorly furnished and dirty it was. Winkie wanted to know why his dad didn't have a dressing room like the movie stars. His father tried to explain that everyone connected to the movies had a lot more money than was available in the theater. Of course, Winkie wanted to know why his dad wasn't in the movies. Movie actors had much bigger houses--bigger than theirs. He also wanted to know why his dad's name wasn't on the marquee outside. Leslie Howard was beginning to see that his son thought his profession undignified and poorly paid.

Winkie watched as Howard applied his makeup, commenting that he would hate to have to put that "stuff" all over his face everyday. At that point the stage manager came into the room to advise Mr. Howard that in Act I he had called the bartender George instead of Charles. Because his son was watching, instead of saying what he normally would have said, he apologized and admitted how terrible it was that he had made this error. When the stage manager left the room Winkie asked him if he had to say the same words every day, over and over again. "Holy smoke," he exclaimed, "I wonder you don't go cuckoo!"

What Howard wanted to say was, "I do go cuckoo, my lad. After the first few weeks of saying the same things night after night even the substitution of George for Charles is a holiday." But what he actually said was, "A play is a work of art conceived by an artist and every word counts." Howard told his son he would realize this after he had watched his performance, to which Winkie replied, "Have I got to see it?" "Isn't that what you came for?" asked his father. "Well, no," his son explained apologetically. I came to get 75 cents to see The Student Prince."

[Leslie Howard with his son, Ronald]

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More Inward Bound

Outward Bound (1930) was Leslie Howard's first "talkie." By this time he already had an extensive background in the theatre, having authored, acted in and directed his own productions many times. He had also appeared in many silent films.

It's hard to figure out why Howard ever acted at all. He never felt himself suited to the profession and he didn't seem to enjoy the process. He once wrote:

"First of all, let me admit that I am one of those unfortunate persons to whom any kind of public appearance is an embarrassment...from the moment when...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."

His real love was writing. But he considered himself to be lazy, unable to apply himself in that solitary confinement required by the writer. His friends and family, however, asserted that he was far from lazy.

After appearing in Gone With The Wind, he returned to England somewhat disillusioned and angry. And he actually feared that England might not win the war against Germany. But Howard would do his best to see a different outcome. He worked tirelessly creating films to bolster his countrymen's spirits and determination. Howard also appeared on radio broadcasts heard in America and traveled throughout Europe attempting to bolster the support of England's allies. It was on such a trip that his civilian aircraft was shot down by Nazis over the Bay of Biscay.

Unfortunately, Howard would never be able to experience the joy that so many others felt when the enemies of peace were eventually vanquished. Ronald Howard, Leslie Howard's son, in speaking of his father's short time on earth in Leslie Howard: Trivial Fond Records said "that was his destiny, to end his life incomplete, as if on the penultimate note of an unfinished concerto."

[Leslie Howard in a publicity photo
for Outward Bound, 1930]

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