RATTIGAN

[Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in Rattigan’s ‘Sleeping Prince’.] Duplicated typescript of article by W. Macqueen-Pope: ‘This is Real Theatre / The Oliviers Return to Town’, with carbon of covering TL, and commissioning ALS by Barbara Beauchamp.

Author: 
[Laurence Olivier [Lord Olivier] and Vivien Leigh] W. J. Macqueen-Pope [Walter James Macqueen-Pope] (1888-1960), theatre historian; Barbara Proctor Beauchamp (1909-74), journalist and novelist
Publication details: 
Beauchamp’s commissioning TLS: 15 September 1953; on letterhead of publishers Newnes & Pearson’s, London. Carbon of MP’s covering TL: 24 September 1953. MP’s article undated, but contemporaneous.
£150.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. The occasion of the article was the forthcoming premiere of Rattigan’s play ‘The Sleeping Prince’, Olivier’s production of which, at the Phoenix Theatre in London, opened on 5 November 1953. The movie rights were bought by Marilyn Monroe, and the Hollywood film appeared in 1957 as ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’, with Olivier reprising his stage role, and Rattigan also writing the filmscript. See the entries on the Oliviers and Macqueen-Pope in the Oxford DNB. Interest in Beauchamp’s novels has grown in recent years.

[Anthony Asquith, British film director.] Signed Autograph Inscription to Louis Frewen, of rHodes Hose Library, autograph collector..

Author: 
Anthony Asquith ['Puffin'] (1902-1968), film director ('The Winslow Boy', 'The Browning Version', 'Pygmalion') and aesthete, son of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and socialite Margot Asquith
Asquith
Publication details: 
December 1931. No place.
£45.00
Asquith

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, with light dabs of glue from mount on reverse. On 11.5 x 9 cm card with rounded edges. Clearly in response to a request for an autograph, he writes: 'For Louis Frewen / with all good wishes / from / Anthony Asquith / December 1931'.

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