Programming Note

[Leslie Howard and Kay Francis in British Agent, 1934]

British Agent (1934) to air on TCM Friday, October 28, 10:45 AM EST, 7:45 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

British Agent is a film based on the autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, a member of the British Secret Service. Lockhart's book, Memoirs of a British Agent, was also said to have inspired one of the

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

Serendipity

After filming had finished in Hollywood for British Agent (1934), Howard, who hated to travel alone, convinced his friend and co-star, William Gargan, to accompany him on the train to the east coast where he was to meet his wife, Ruth. Ruth had already made the trip east with Gargan's wife, Mary, and was waiting for Howard to arrive so the two could board the Majestic bound for England where Howard was to begin filming The Scarlet Pimpernel (released in the United States in 1935). Apparently, Howard and Gargan had such a good time on the train that Howard convinced the Gargans to continue the journey to England, even though the Gargans had no cash. Of course, Howard paid their way. He wanted to make sure he had good company on the crossing.

Programming Note

[Leslie Howard and Bette Davis
in The Petrified Forest, 1936]

The Petrified Forest to air on TCM on Friday, July 15, at 8:30 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart reprise their roles from the stage play in which they appeared from January 7, 1935, through June 6, 1935, at the Broadhurst Theatre in NYC. Leslie Howard and Gilbert Miller produced the play in association with Arthur Hopkins. It ran for 197 performances. This two-act play was written by Robert E. Sherwood and adapted for the screen by Delmer Daves and Charles Kenyon.

The film marks a turning point in the career of Humphrey Bogart who had become very discouraged and told friends that if he didn't make it in Hollywood this time he was through. Thanks to the insistence of Leslie Howard, Bogart was offered the role of Duke Mantee, Bogart being so grateful he named his daughter after Mr. Howard. Howard had already had this honor bestowed on him once before when his friend William Gargan named his son after Howard in gratitude for jump starting his career.

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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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