Vivien Leigh
November 5, 1913 – July 7, 1967
(Click the link above to read my tribute from July, “A useful life: Remembering Vivien Leigh”)
Brideshead Revisited: A trip to Castle Howard
“I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ve been happy and then, when I’m old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.” – Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
One of my favorite things about living in the UK is having the opportunity to visit so many stately homes. I love buildings that are steeped in history. We don’t really get that in America – not on the same scale, anyway. The British have a thing for preserving their heritage and that makes me happy because there are so many beautiful stately homes and other architectural wonders here to photograph.
Last Monday, my friend Ali and I traveled to York to visit Castle Howard. Literature and film lovers probably know it best as the setting for the fictional Brideshead Castle in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. Both the 1981 Granada mini-series featuring Sir Laurence Olivier in an Emmy Award-winning performance as Lord Marchmain and the 2008 feature film starring Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw were filmed here. In 1940, a fire broke out and destroyed the dome and the East Wing of the castle. Although it has been restored on the outside, the East Wing remains gutted and tourists are only allowed to walk through the West Wing. In 2008, Julian Jarrold transformed a few of the rooms into sets for his Brideshead adaptation. These rooms are now a permanent exhibit about Castle Howard’s involvement in the Brideshead films.
In real life, Castle Howard is home to one of the oldest aristocratic families in England. Charles Howard, the 3rd Duke of Carlisle, commissioned Sir John Vanbrugh to build his stately home in the countryside outside of York. It was constructed between 1699 and 1712 and is still occupied by the Howard family today. Everything about the house and grounds is lavish. From the ostentatious interiors to the beautifully landscaped grounds and the giant Atlas Fountain in the south-facing courtyard, Castle Howard offers no shortage of photogenic beauty. Like Charles Ryder in Brideshead, I had been here before, years ago. This time I came armed with a sense of nostalgia and improved photography skills, or so I like to think!
This is Castle Howard through my eyes.
All photos © Kendra Bean
Banned Books Week: Gone with the Wind
From September 30th to October 6th, readers, writers, publishers and booksellers across the United States will be celebrating Banned Books Week in an effort to bring attention to the harmful effects of censorship. Books have been banned in select libraries and schools for a number of years and a number of reasons. Some titles have been challenged multiple times by teachers/school board members/leaders of moral and religious groups because the content expressed within their covers is deemed offensive.
The American Library Association has organized a Virtual Read-Out, inviting lovers of the printed word to read aloud from their favorite banned or censored books. My contribution is a not-so-dramatic reading of one of my favorite passages from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. This book, which happens to be my favorite novel of all time, has come under fire several times in the past for its depiction of slavery, its free use of the word “nigger”, and the loose morals of Scarlett O’Hara. I’m currently on my fourth read-through of this brilliant tome. Eight years have passed since I last picked it up, but I can say that I still love it after all this time; I connect with Scarlett in different ways and, as always, Mitchell’s imagery is some of the best I’ve read in any novel.
It’s also a real tongue-twister to voice out loud!
What’s your favorite frequently challenged book?
cinema archive documentaries vivien leigh
Vivien Leigh: Made in Japan
A couple of years ago, I did a contest on this site during which I gave away a couple copies of a recently released Japanese documentary about Vivien Leigh. I’m still not sure exactly what it’s called, but according to my Japanese-British friend, it’s something like, “Vivien Leigh: Young Heroine that Loved Eternally.” I call it “The Japanese Vivien Leigh Documentary.”
Made by Basara Ltd. in 2010 as part of a series of TV documentaries that focused on classic film stars that are still big in Japan, “The Japanese Vivien Leigh Documentary” takes a unique approach to telling Vivien’s story. Rather than just replaying Vivien Leigh’s life through photos and video footage, it follows her great-granddaughter, Sophie Farrington, on a journey of discovery. Sophie travelled to London and Hollywood (and to Notley Abbey and Tickerage Mill) to interview those who are still alive who knew Vivien, and in the process learned more about her famous relative.
Like any documentary, there are good and bad things about this one.
The Good:
- It’s really interesting to see members of Vivien’s family today, especially considering how private they’ve always been.
- There are people interviewed here that I’d never seen in previous documentaries.
- Hearing audio clips of Jack Merivale speaking about Vivien Leigh in an interview with Hugo Vickers.
- I got to help as a photo consultant. Many of the photos used as filler came from my personal collection.
The Bad:
- The editing is very, very sloppy. You’ll notice things like people being cut off mid-sentence, the English translator whispering in the background, cameramen not ducking out of the shots in time.
- Random historical re-enactments.
- They interviewed Sophie having dinner at the Olive Garden. Okay, maybe that should be in the “good” section.
- Sparkly purple text.
- No English subtitles, including names of people being interviewed.
People featured include Hugo Vickers, Trader Faulkner, Tarquin Olivier, Ann Rutherford, Daniel Selznick, Sally Hardy (Jack Merivale’s step-sister), Louise Olivier, Rupert Farrington and Amy Farrington.
This documentary has a running time of 90 minutes. It has been uploaded exclusively for readers here at vivandlarry.com and cannot be found on DVD.
Enjoy!
[flv:http://vivandlarry.com/videos/Vivien_Leigh_Japanese_Compressed.mp4]
Vivien Leigh: Adorable Vixen
The Old Vic Company with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier has given the New Theatre the national character of Drury Lane in Nell Gwynne’s Day
News Review
February 10, 1949
This evening (Thursday) the Old Vic has another first night at the New Theatre.
After a curtain-raiser – Anton Chekhov’s Proposal – the serious business of the evening will begin: Jean Anouilh’s modern dress version of Sophocles’ tragedy, Antigone, with Vivien Leigh as the highborn Cadmean maid and Laurence Olivier as Chorus.
At first by purring beauty, but increasingly by merit and then by marriage, Vivien Leigh has become part of the finest theatrical constellation in the world.
“I’ve been awfully lucky,” she said thoughtfully last week, adding with a laugh: “I’m half-waiting for some blow to fall.”
At 35, Vivien Leigh is a star by technique, and some say by temperament. But none of the quirks of a prima donna accompanied her quiet insistence on a softer lace cuff when she was being costumed for Sheridan’s Lady Teazle. Miss Flora Campbell, of Hardy Amies, in Saville Row, where she gets most of her clothes, thinks “she’s delightful to deal with.”
Petite, she weighs 8 stone, has 34-in. bust, 22-in. waist, 35 ½-in. hips. Miss Leigh drapes her 5 ft. 3 ½-in. in voluminous mink (“Call is sable. I won’t mind”), in which she sparkles like a white diamond. There are red lights in her hair, green lights in her eyes.
She was born in Darjeeling, India, on November 5 1913, and was christened Vivian Mary. Her father, Ernest Richard Hartley, was an English stockbroker of French descent; her mother, Gertrude Robinson Hartley, was Irish.
Wherever they went in those first five years they took young Vivien. But in 1918, a sensitive, imaginative child, she was boarded in at Roehampton’s Sacred Heart Convent, where she carried the fairy’s wand in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Only Vivian seemed to realize history had been made. She solemnly announced her intention of becoming a great actress. ‘I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything else.”