London Day 3 & 4 (Friday and Saturday)

This trip is turning out to be one of the richest experiences I’ve ever had! Yesterday (Friday), I woke up early and took the 8:44 train to Hither Green, a suburb of London. There I met Richard Mangan who works at the Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection. Richard has been a serious collector of Olivier memorabillia for about 40 years and his collection is the most glorious thing I’ve ever seen. Literally. As I said on LJ, it took me 7 hours to look through it all and it was mind boggling. he has so many things i never even knew existed! I definitely have a ton to look out for if I’m ever going to have anything nearly as amazing! On top of this, he was a stage manager at the National and worked with Larry. He had some wonderful stories, and it sounds like Larry was a really good guy, a very professional man, and he was awesome! Just as I suspected! I adore Larry, as you know.

Richard and his wife couldn’t have been more kind or hospitable and I LOVED looking at his collection! Thanks, Richard (if you read this), I had a wonderful time! You’ve done good, real good!!

I stopped by David Drummnd’s shop afterword and picked up some fun things for my collection

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So today I woke up at…5:30 am? I know, wtf, when was the last time that happened? (Answer: a looooong time ago). I have been going to bed early and rising early because I’m determined to see EVERYTHING I want to see. I left at 6:30 and my face and hands almost froze off, seriously, it’s SO COLD here. It didn’t help that I mispaced my gloves. I took the train to Leicester Square and walked over to Covent Garden, got some coffee and a croissant, and then took some photos and walked back to Trafalgar Square and had breakfast with Mr Horatio Nelson and his lions in front of the National Gallery. The streets were practically deserted, it was lovely!

Then I wandered with my freezing hands over toward Westminster, and across Jubilee Bridge to Waterloo again for another Old Vic tour with a man named Ned who let me join in with a tour group of some sort. I was disappointed that there was only one Olivier name drop but it was still interesting!

Afterword I grabbed tea at the National Theatre coffee shop and then met Katie (sassygirl on LJ) at the Larry statue (a good meeting place!). We got pizza at Waterloo and then headed to Chelsea to see the famous Vivien leigh places of residence. After walking around in vain for about an hour we weren’t able to find Lowndes Cottage, but we did go to Eaton Square (which is still under construction unfortunately). I got a pic of Viv’s bench over the fence and a rather bitchy lady with her dogs walked into the garden but refused to let us in to snap a photo. No biggie, it turns out I’m rather glad she didn’t let us in…But we were standing in front of 54 Eaton Square when this Asian girl walks up to the door and starts to go in. I asked if she lived there and she said yes, she helps Louise (Rainer, Oscar winner for The Good Earth). She said she didn’t know much about Vivien which made me sad. But it was cool to see someone go in there. I don’t think she totally understood what we were saying. Oh well.

Then we walked over to Christchurch Street and saw Durham Cottage–much better in the daylight. We were loitering across the street when GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?! A man walked up and went in the gate!! Katie went over (I was scared) and told him I was a Vivien fan and asked if we could take some photos! He said yes (Way to go, Katie!!)! So he let us in the gate and we got some nice ones of the garden walkway and everything! He was so nice and pretty cute too. I asked if he lived there and he said his godfather did, whom he helps because he has alzheimers. He said his godfather bought the house from Vivien Leigh. I about died! WHAT LUCK! If the bitchy woman from Eaton Square had let us in we would have missed catching the boy (Max, I think he said) at Durham Cottage! He said he’d have invited us in but his godfather has alzheimers and gets really confused with new faces. We said it was okay, we were just happy be lucky enough to catch him coming back from the grocery store! He also said he’d met Tarquin and I asked if he was nice, and he said yes. Amazing times! Katie, it was lovely to meet you finally!

The reason I asked if Tarquin was nice was because I was to meet him later (I just got back and en route to the tube from his house I stopped in this internet cafe). Anyway, so I was really nervous walking to the Olivier flat, but not so much after meeting him (He’s my fave, by the way, I always said if I could meet anyone who knew Larry and Viv it would be him). He looks so so so much like Larry (was wearing the signet ring Larry wore and has the same eyes–GRAy for the record, like Larry’s!!) and had nothing but wonderful things to say about Vivien and fun stories about his dad. And in case you were wondering (as I was for a long time), yes, he is still friends with “Suzy” who also lives in London.

I love that he adored Vivien and said he was never bitter about Larry’s leaving Jill for her because he always loved her, as he says in his book My Father Laurence Olivier (READ IT! It’s wonderful!). Viv was exciting and she and Larry were very much in love (my theory was confirmed!!!) even though it was sometimes really hard because of her illness. He said Viv told him once that she and Larry were “Mentally and physically in love but never spiritaully in love” because they knew that their relationship was made from hurting other people and they both felt guilty about it (Larry always it seems from what I’ve read). Anyway, Tarquin is very nice and seems to love talking about Larry and Viv (as you guessed, Lyndsy!) and I really enjoyed talking to him and still can’t believe I got the opportunity! It was a total dream come true! And he had some good stories about David Niven at Notley since I brought him up and said David was my favorite of Larry and Viv’s friends. Apparently Hjordis knew very little English and used to go around saying “WOOOONDERFUL!” all the time. But she was a bitch, as I learned recently when reading the authrized biography, Niv, and was terrible to poor David. And then I got kind of sad because Hjordis and David used to be my third fave couple. BOOO, Hjordis!!

Tarquin used to hang out with Christina Crawford at Joan Crawford’s house. And he showed me his stamp collection from when Thomas Mann used to live next door to them in Hollywood, and the stuff Larry sent him from Australia in 1948.

Anyway, he had to run after a bit and I still had so many questions to ask! I guess I will over email, but it was so amazing to meet him in person!! YAY!

I’m so tired now so I think I’ll go pay and go to sleep soon. Tomorrow I’ll take it easy. Then Monday I’m off to start my adventures at the British Library (You don’t know how excited I am!)!

Good night!

The Eternal Allure of Old Hollywood

I suppose one of the great things about living in the vicinity of a major city such as Los Angeles, is that there are always things going on.  More specifically, there is always something going on pertaining to the MOVIES (which makes sense as Hollywood is the movie capital of the planet).  In Tinsel Town we are lucky enough to have people around who still care immensely about the preservation of older films–not just physically but putting out a great effort to make sure these films and the people who starred in them are not forgotten by new generations; screening them in old picture palaces, restoring them in new formats such as DVD and Blue Ray, exhibiting these long forgotten artifacts for new people to see.

I remember a few years ago when Turner Classic Movies put on an exhibit at the Grove in Los Angeles.  I don’t remember what the exhibit was called, but they had a lot of vintage film memorabilia on display–an original shooting script from The Wizard of Oz, one of Clark Gable’s old costumes (he had shoulders like a linebacker!), a dress of Elizabeth Taylor’s, etc.

Now in Santa Barbara, the Museum of Art has on display a large chunk of the Kobal Foundation photographs.  John Kobal, one of the world’s leading photograph archivists and film historians (he’s dead now, sadly, but his collection and legacy of restoration certainly lives on), amassed one of the largest studio photograph collections in the world.

Most of the photographs in “Made in Hollywood” are vintage silver gelatin prints, rich in their tonality and velvety in their blacks. There are also eight 16-by-20-inch new platinum prints and several giant wall murals made for the show from original 8-by-10 negatives.

The survey’s chronological range covers Kobal’s own interests, beginning with the rise of the studio system. As the studios worked to perfect their star machinery, still photographs were regularly used for advertising and sent out to magazines and newspapers. Individual pictures were also mailed by the thousands to fans.

Some of the famous faces you’ll see at the exhibit include Greta Garbo, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, etc.

“There are also some surprises. A close-up of Vivien Leigh, a publicity shot by Fred Parrish for “Gone With the Wind,” depicts her disheveled and looking half-mad. Her face is lighted from the left, with the other side in darkness — a moment excerpted from the famous “As God is my witness” scene when Scarlett O’Hara is reduced to digging in a field for sustenance. Farther along the wall, in stark contrast, is Leigh in a more familiar pose — as the beautifully coiffed and controlled Southern belle, captured by Laszlo Willinger.”

The exhibit is on display until October 5 so if you live in the greater LA area, it’s probably definitely worth the drive up the coast!

More info at the LA TIMES

I also can’t wait for the Vanity Fair Portraits exhibit coming soon!!

Olivier Statue Finally Unveiled

Actually, it was unveiled about a month and a half ago, BUT, vivandlarry.com visitor and awesome girl, Mariana, from London, went out to take photos last week! The statue shows Larry as Hamlet from his 1947 Oscar winning film, and it is located jut outside his National Theatre on the South Bank, not far from Waterloo Bridge. It was commissioned by Larry’s son, Tarquin, sculpted by Angela Connor, and unveiled for the thespian’s centeniary this year.

Photos copyright Mariana, November 2007.

Thanks Mariana!