Hello!
I hope you’ve all had a lovely summer and are enjoying the final few weeks of warm weather before autumn officially starts (although I did see yesterday that Starbucks has already rolled out the pumpkin spice latte, so maybe autumn has already “started” and I’m the one who’s clinging on to the last vestiges of my favorite season).
… Continue readingcollecta-belle general discussion
Hello!
I hope you’re all having a lovely summer and aren’t sweating it out in the heat too much. Maybe you’ve been on a nice beach holiday? Climate change: not a Chinese hoax (sorry, Trump). The past few months have been hectic. Here’s what’s been happening — in life and work — since my last update:
… Continue readingHas spring arrived where you are? We still seem to be stuck in the doldrums of winter here in Northern England. There was a metaphorical bright spot about a week ago when I learned that my book, Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait, was translated into simplified Chinese and published in China! They’ve apparently changed the title to something like Vivien Leigh: Forever Gone With the Wind (because sure, why not!) and the cover is different as well. But the photos and, I’m assuming, the content remain the same. I quite like the design!
What do you all think?
In other news, the weather is horrible today, a perfect excuse to say in with a cup of tea and a box of Viv and Larry ephemera. Work on digitising and cataloguing the Richard Mangan Laurence Olivier Collection continues apace. I’m currently finishing up with box 7 and have repackaged 11 boxes of material, thanks to the support and generosity of the Viv and Larry Patrons. Some people may find cataloguing archives to be boring and tedious, but I actually really like getting stuck in with this sort of work. It gives me an opportunity to carefully look at and consider each photograph, playbill, etc. Plus, it’s kind of soothing. I do it all the time during my day job. Just stick my headphones in, turn on Spotify, and off I go.
Here are some highlights from Box 5. As of this writing, I’m up to 1947 in Olivier’s stage career and have catalogued 784 individual pieces of ephemera.
… Continue readingProgress report! The Richard Mangan Laurence Olivier Archive cataloguing project is going smoothly. I’m currently finishing up with box 3 and trying to keep ahead of the game so I can share regular progress reports with all of you. As mentioned in the post about Box 1, each item is catalogued in a spreadsheet, scanned (playbills and photos only at this point), placed in an archival-grade acid free sleeve, and then stored in a special archival box. I’m not sure why archival materials are so expensive, but they are, and I wouldn’t be able to undertake this project without the help of the lovely Viv and Larry Patrons. Thank you so much for your support!
collecta-belle laurence olivier
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’d recently purchased a major Laurence Olivier ephemera collection, which I’m currently in the process of repackaging and cataloguing — similar to what I did with the Vivien Leigh private photo albums. I always enjoy seeing other people’s collections, unboxing videos, reveals, etc. so I thought I would share some goodies from each portion of this project as I go along.
