Category: general discussion

general discussion vivien leigh

Vivien Leigh on Life and Love

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Yesterday, vivandlarry.com visitor Meg sent this wonderful article and anecdote about Vivien Leigh that was written by British journalist Godfrey Winn.  A close friend of the Oliviers, Winn had known Vivien since 1936, and stayed friends with both her and Laurence Olivier even after they divorced.  He is also the one who arranged for photographer George Douglas to shoot the lovely photos of Vivien in a rowboat on the lake at Tickerage Mill near the end of her life.  There was a particular passage in the anecdote Meg sent from Winn’s autobiography, and I thought it was so poignant, I just had to make a blog post about it.
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general discussion laurence olivier photography the oliviers vivien leigh

New Layout and Top 25

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The vivandlarry.com blog has gotten (another) facelift!  I liked this layout because it’s a bit different and has a sort of magazine feel to it…as it should since it’s called magazine.  Feel free to take  a look around; most of the info and everything is the same but there are a couple of new additions.

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Yesterday, I decided to make a new list of my top 25 favorite Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh photos.  This may seem redundant as I’ve done favorite lists before, and frankly, there really isn’t a picture of them that I don’t love, but every time I sit down and think about it, my favorites change–especially since new photos of them keep popping up.  It’s always hard to choose a favorite photo, but my favorites usually jump out at me because I find them beautiful, or silly, or a combination of both.  I also love photos in which they look happy together.  So, I hope you enjoy this little photo tribute, and I’d love to know which ones are your favorites!

25 Favorite Larry and Vivien Photos

#25 | Location: Rome | Date: 1953

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All the World’s A Stage

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Yesterday kicked off the opening games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a tradition that started in Uruguay in 1930. Personally, I could not be more excited! The World Cup is my favorite sporting event. There’s something so beautiful, powerful and graceful about the glorious game. I’ve always been Anti-American when it comes to soccer (or football, as everyone else on the planet calls it), simply because in Europe the pace is so much faster and exciting than in America. I’s also like to add that perhaps my enthusiasm stems from the fact that I played competitive soccer for about 13 years–through high school and college, and played in a youth tournament in the Netherlands when I was 16. I personally think our national team–though we have improved greatly in recent years–would be better if we farmed out our players to Europe (England, Spain) for the club season so they can get the experience of playing with the big boys. Tim Howard, our goalkeeper, knows where it’s at. He spends his club season at Everton in England, and lo and behold, he’s our best player.

Today, the USA faced off against England for what had to have been the most anticipated match of the first round. I was supporting England, as usual, and was a bit disappointed with the fact that they couldn’t seem to get the ball in the back of the net after Steven Gerrard’s beautiful goal in the fourth minute. And I was A LOT disappointed with Robert Green’s embarrassing fumble which allowed Clint Dempsey to get a courtesy goal. I hope you don’t get shunned upon your return to your village, Robert Green!

What does any of this have to do with Vivien Leigh or Laurence Olivier? One fan wrote in to the vivandlarry.com formspring wondering if the Oliviers had been football fans, and I’d always wondered the same thing:

I hadn’t recalled every reading anything in biographies about Larry or Vivien being fans, but I knew that England had won the World Cup back in 1966, and I had assumed that since they were British, they must have liked some sport that was popular over there.  A quick google search revealed that Laurence Olivier was indeed a football fan, and supported Chelsea FC, one of London’s best Premier League teams.  Larry would sometimes be seen hanging out with Richard Attenborough in The Shed at Stamford Bridge during the 60s and 70s.

And there we have it: Laurence Olivier was a Blues supporter.

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Buried Treasures (Part 3)

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Some of my favorite collectibles are vintage film star scrapbooks. Not only do they provide a rich record of (in this case) other people’s lives or careers, but they give us a glimpse into the lives of the ordinary people who assembled them.

About 5 years ago, I purchased a scrapbook on ebay that was assembled from 1944-1946 by a young British lady named Joan Still. Joan was an avid theatre-goer and a big fan of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. She went to nearly every play they performed during this time, despite only being able to afford a standing place or stall seats (as shown in some of the ticket stubs). Along with playbills, Joan clipped stories featuring the Oliviers and other prominent British stars of the time out of newspapers and magazines. Like a lot of theatre fans today, Joan also waited by the stage door to see her favorite actors and have her playbills autographed. I found an extra Olivier signature when flipping through a Henry IV playbill!

What emerged from Joan’s hobby is a historical primary source documenting British popular culture and events that shaped the world during the 1940s. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

Laurence Olivier really came to prominence on the London stage during the 1944 Old Vic season when he rocked the West End with his performance as Richard III. Along with Shakespeare, he played Sergius in George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, and the Button Moulder in Henrick Ibson’s Peer Gynt. The clipping above shows Larry in another star turn as Oedipus in the 1945 season.

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