cinema archive vlogs

Leigh/Olivier Q&A

Last week, I asked people on the Oliviers Facebook Fan Page as well as on tumblr if they had any questions they’d always wanted to know about Vivien Leigh and/or Laurence Olivier. After seeing my friend Almie do a fab video post on her blog, I decided to give it a try here, in effort to make the website more personal…? Or something. Straight off the bat I’d like to apologize for sounding like Audrina from The Hills–I do live in CA, in my defense. Also, sorry for the bad lighting, it makes me look like my make-up doesn’t match my skin tone. Just saying! 😛 This is making me self conscious. Anyway, let’s get to it!

Hello!

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Hopefully I’ll get better at this with time!

EDIT:  I’m sorry, in talking about books about Viv and Larry, I completely forgot that there are actually three.  The other two that I neglected to mention are Darlings of the Gods by Gary O’Connor, and Love Scene by Jesse Lasky Jr.  They both read like fan fiction, but they’re pretty interesting, even if they don’t cite real sources.

Kendra has been the weblady at vivandlarry.com since 2007. She lives in Yorkshire and is the author of Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait, and co-author of Ava Gardner: A Life in Movies (Running Press). Follow her on Twitter @kendrajbean, Instagram at @vivandlarrygram, or at her official website.

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Comments (16)

  1. Very informative! And you are so cute! And yes they should have had kids for sure. It would have been both talented and gorgeous, ugh. Also, what bad things did Larry have to say about Gloria? haha I should have asked a question I think I missed your post about it though. Fail. Anyway, this was great!

  2. thanks, guys! I’m glad you liked it!

    Ashley–I don’t remember ever reading him saying anything negative about Gloria. There is that one picture from the 1950s where he’s kidding her hand in a doorway that’s really cute.

  3. I remember seeing that photo on your site or somewhere, I love it. 🙂 I remember reading the things he said about Marilyn haha. I know Gloria had nothing but great things to say about him, she thought he was so handsome but what person with taste doesn’t lol. Thanks!

  4. somebody give this girl a book deal! this was awesome. and we will say that audrina sounds like you instead.haha.

    heck YEAH greer garson. have you read anything else about them dating for a short time? her biographer mentions it but it didn’t seem to amount to much of anything other than friendship natch.

  5. Dear Kendra,

    I enjoyed very much your speech. You were wonderful. You know so many details about Vivien and Larry Olivier. Congratulations! I hope to see more of these nice videos. I heard there will be a new book about their marriage. It’s called “Damn You, Scarlett O’Hara: The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier”, by D. Porter and R. Moseley, and it will be released on September 16, 2010.

  6. thanks, everyone!

    meredith–I have read that they possibly had a fling in the mid-30s as well. Actually, I heard that on TCM straight from Robert Osborne’s mouth, so maybe it’s true?

  7. Thank you so much for doing this. It is very nice of you to do this for all of us Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier fans! What was the name of the book that you have? I was looking around on Amazon and I found a book called: Darlings of the Gods: One Year in the Lives of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. That would be a cool book to have but its $111.92! yeah looks like I won’t be getting that book very soon lol. Thanks again for sharing, there where some great questions:D

  8. It’s called “The Oliviers” by Felix Barker. I’ve read Darlings of the Gods and it’s worth about 11 cents out of those $111.92, lol. If you do read it, get it from the library for free.

    I’m glad people like this video! Maybe I can do some more in the future

  9. You’re adorable 🙂 Joy does smell a bit like old lady, my mom got it for me for my 17th birthday. I only wear it when I need a bit of luck, and its just a dab at that. haha.

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