A Very Surprising Man

[Leslie Howard as Peter Standish in Berkeley Square, 1933]

When I first decided to start my Leslie Howard Fan Page on Facebook I had only intended to post some pictures. But in my search for new photos my natural curiosity was piqued and I wanted to know the stories behind the images. This launched me on an almost compulsive search for information about Leslie Howard—The Man. I soon realized that I needed a blog to contain all the information I was discovering and that is how LeslieHowardSteiner.blogspot.com came into being.

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

Serendipity Concluded

After seeing The Petrified Forest on Broadway in 1935 and expecting the same success for the film version, Jack Warner excitedly purchased the film rights. It took six months of negotiation but the deal was finally closed and it was agreed that Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart would reprise their roles for the film, something on which Howard insisted. The only other actors invited to Hollywood were Slim Thompson and John Alexander, the two African American actors who appeared in the play. [Note: IBDB links to the wrong actor.]

Leslie Howard was tired at the play's close on June 29, 1935. He had performed the part of Alan Squier 197 times during its run and needed a

Acting vs. Horses

This week I have talked about Leslie Howard's dislike of acting vs. his love for horses. I am not one of those fortunate people who have spent my life around horses, but I know some who have. And those who have will tell you that people can learn a lot from horses. Horses challenge those who care for them to be better people. And horses are unpredictable. And, of course, horses are beautiful. All these qualities are opposite to Howard's feelings on acting.

Leslie Howard may not have liked acting, but just as he loved the beauty, challenge and unpredictability of horses, I love the beauty of his performances. I wish that Mr. Howard could have appreciated that his acting, for a great many people, was the same as his quiet talk to the horse that needed soothing.

Watching Leslie Howard on the screen is a beautiful thing. Just look at his eyes and you will see his despair after he kills Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable) to protect the woman he loves (Norma Shearer) in A Free Soul (1931). Or feel his resignation with every movement of his hands when he realizes his wife, Cee (Myrna Loy), is manipulating him with sex, not love, to get his money in The Animal Kingdom (1932). See the shock and hurt on his face when Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis) screams the words he feared but always expected to hear, "a cripple, A Cripple, A CRIPPLE," in Of Human Bondage (1934). And then, in just the turning of his head, see his surprise and then disappointment when he realizes that Scarlet (Vivien Leigh) would strip him of all his dignity without a second thought in Gone With The Wind (1939).

I wish that Leslie Howard could have enjoyed acting the way he enjoyed horses. I wish that he had found acting a challenge. I wish that acting for him had not been so predictable and boring. And I wish that Mr. Howard had realized the beauty in his performances and how much they meant to his fans then and how much they would still be enjoyed nearly 100 years later by people like me. I wish that Leslie Howard had realized that in his acting there was artistry.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

[Leslie Howard by Reginald G. Eves]

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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."

[Leslie Howard and Lora Baxter in The Animal Kingdom
at the Broadhurst Theatre, NYC, January - June, 1932]

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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]

[Leslie Howard with Bill Gargan, 1934]

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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]

[From left: Mrs. Gargan, Leslie Howard, Mrs. Howard,
William Gargan, and Leslie's son, Ronald Howard]

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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.

[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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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.

[Leslie Howard with Leslie Howard Gargan]

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