Noel Coward Destroys Vivien Leigh

"On Friday I received a long and affectionate letter from Vivien explaining that she is going to have a baby and will be leaving South Sea Bubble on 1 August. This was a considerable shock, particularly as they, she and Larry, have waited so long to let me know. This I consider fairly unforgivable of them, but I rose above my shock commendably and cabled and wrote loving congratulations. I am filled with forebodings and a curious sense of having been let down. Not because of her having the baby, but because they could so easily have let us know before and given us more time to find a suitable replacement."

"What I, most irritably, expected has now happened. Vivien left the cast of S.S.B on Saturday night, had a gay farewell party with the company, drove down to Notley and had a miscarriage on Sunday. She was five months gone and it was a boy..."

"Personally I am naturally very sorry for her, but the hysterical, disorganized silliness of the whole thing infuriates me. In the first place, to try to have a baby at her age is fairly foolish; secondly, it is not very bright, if pregnant, to dance about at the Palladium with Larry and Johnny Mills^ and go out to parties while playing an arduous part eight times a week. The miscarriage was about as inevitable as anything could be. Meanwhile a smash success is destroyed, she is wretched and on her way round the bend again, Larry is wretched, a large number of people, including me, are inconvenienced, and all for nothing."

"Altogether I'm sick to death of them both at the moment. I've been bored and involved with their domestic problems for years and done all I could to help, and as they haven't even troubled to write to me they can bloody well get on with it. I am saddened by this, but not surprised or unduly depressed. Friendship is a rare business and fair exchange is one of its essentials. I have enough true friends anyhow."

So Marilyn died because of Miller and The Method, and Vivien just needed a good punch in the face.

Noel could be quite amusing as a playwright, but he should have stuck to that and stayed away from psychoanalyzing his friends.

Dear Noel- You bore me to tears.

"...... Not a very good party really, owing to a few deadheads. Larry and Viv were there. Larry had been to see me privately in the afternoon and told me ghastly stories about poor Viv.

The whole thing is a nightmare. Vivien, who can be so charming and gay, can also be a terrible little bitch. This I remember from way back when she suddenly attacked me with full viciousness over 'Lie in the Dark and Listen'-'. They are undoubtedly a curious couple."

"We had supper afterwards at Sardi's and he came back to the flat and we gossiped. He said he couldn't really take living with Vivien any longer. This surprised me, as I thought they were safe in each other's arms again. However, we shall see. I personally don't think either of them is willing to face the contumely and publicity of a divorce. Also, deep down, I'm convinced that they're mad about each other. It's all too peculiar"

"Larry is miserable. He has firmly left Vivien after terrible dramas - how long for nobody knows. He now has to fly back again because his brother has died. He clings to me rather when he's in trouble, which I find touching. I'm very fond of him. I'm very fond of Vivien too. But, oh dear - what a perpetual carry-on!"

[quote] However good she is, she will never be accepted in the big tragic roles.

????????

[quote] In the first place, to try to have a baby at her age is fairly foolish

Vivien was born in November 1913 and miscarried in 1945, so she was only 31. What was Coward blathering about?

R6 She was pregnant again and miscarried in 1956.

Ah, okay.. Thanks, R7.

"Larry returned late on Friday night and saw us off yesterday. He has had several more ghastly scenes with Vivien and buried his brother at sea. I feel desperately sad for him. Not only on account of Vivien and his brother but because everything seems to be downbeat with him at the moment. I think he rather self-indulges this, but I am sure he is genuinely lonely and unhappy."

"Larry has left her, and I for one don't blame him; she is certainly barmy up to a point, but she has been so spoilt and pampered for so many years that the barminess becomes ugly and dull. Everyone is in a state about her, particularly Binkie and those who really love her. I am very fond of her, but I am beginning to lose interest in the drama. For all her beauty and charm and sweetness, she has let Larry down for years and really tormented him. If he can succeed in breaking away, good luck to him. Women of Viv's temperament, looks and exigence can raise too much hell for themselves and everyone near them.

I'm quite aware that the poor thing is frantic and lonely. I am also aware that she is the biggest draw in the business and has been making a conceited ass of herself for years. Of course I'm sorry for her, but I'm so bored with the initial premise of her whole behaviour that I would really rather she didn't play Lulu in the English production, draw or no draw. I feel in no mood to cope with the carry-on. If she can manage to pull herself out of this ghastly degringolade by taking a six months' cure and really facing up to things, I shall be relieved and delighted. She has a strong character and maybe she will. One thing, however, is quite certain: nobody else can do it for her, so she had better get on with it chop-chop double pronto."

R5 He meant big tragic roles in the theatre like Macbeth and other classic plays.

"Vivien is in despair about Larry leaving her. I had a long quiet session with her. She was very pathetic and perfectly sane and sweet, and I feel that the shock of Larry packing up and going may have done her a power of good. I cannot understand why she should be surprised at Larry popping off" after all the ghastly scenes. Personally I think he will eventually go back to her, although he swears he won't."

"Vivien I have seen twice. She is calm, sane, incredibly beautiful and heartbroken. She is counting the days until Larry's return and refuses to envisage the possibility that he really intends to leave her for ever.

" I'm awfully sorry for Vivien because Larry's off to America, doesn't wish her to go with him, and she has now no excuse, from the Press and public point of view, for not going! Larry is still enamoured of his newfound bachelorhood and I think he intends to hold on to it. The fact that all this was tremendously her own fault in no way mitigates the fact that she's jolly miserable and, apparently, mad about the boy! Really, people are very peculiar"

He writes like an miserable, envious queen.

"Larry came here this evening for a heart-to-heart. He is in a bad state. He's madly in love with Joan Plowright and has had to tell Vivien. He obviously hates hurting her but is equally obviously determined not to go back to her. I am desperately sorry for her although it is mostly her own silly fault.

Vivien, poor darling, sobbed her heart out. This was when we got home on Christmas night. Whether or not Larry will ever come back to her there is no knowing, but if only she would face up to the fact that he probably won't, and get on with her life until the great old Healer does his job, it would be much better. But her longing for him has become an obsession. It is genuine, sad and almost irritating"

"Larry came on Thursday and stayed two nights. He was absolutely sweet and at his most beguiling best. I really am becoming more and more convinced that he won't go back to Vivien. He's happier than I have seen him for years. I hope he won't get a divorce yet and marry Joan Plowright, but I have grave fears that he will. Vivien has gone to America, miserably, to play Duel of Angels. If only she has a great success in it, it will be a step in the right direction. She will have to face up to the truth sooner or later and the sooner the better. She will inevitably suffer less as time goes by, but she's still at the stage when she doesn't wish to believe this."

"The Larry and Vivien situation has now bust wide open and they are going to divorce and he is going to marry Joan Plowright. Poor Vivien is, I am afraid, on her way round the bend again. I am deeply sorry for her. Duel of Angels., in spite of her enormous personal success, failed to run even for its specified three months. She is apparently staying on in America for the time being.

Meanwhile Joan Plowright has left the cast of Rhinoceros (which is transferring, unwisely I think, to the Strand Theatre). She is a good actress and seems a nice enough girl, but I do wish Larry wouldn't marry her. However, that's his look-out. He has never been remarkable for organizing his life efficiently.

The American magazines have refused Pomp and C. on moral grounds! The American magazines are very, very silly.

"Vivien has appeared in London and is busily employed in making a cracking ass of herself. She is right round the bend again, as I suspected, and looks ghastly. What has driven her round the bend again is the demon alcohol; this is what it has always been. I suspect there is far less genuine mental instability about it than most people seem to think."

Vivien has appeared in London and is busily employed in making a cracking ass of herself. She is right round the bend again, as I suspected, and looks ghastly. What has driven her round the bend again is the demon alcohol; this is what it has always been. I suspect there is far less genuine mental instability about it than most people seem to think.

I went to see her 'alone' and found the flat full of people. She arrived from Notley, where she had been insulting the new owners. She was almost inarticulate with drink and spitting vitriol about everyone and everything. The next morning she called me at 8.30 and said she wanted to see me alone, and I refused flatly and said I didn't want to speak to her so long as she continued behaving like that, whereupon she said 'Oh God!' and hung up, and that's the end of that.

I have a dreadful suspicion that all this disgraceful carry-on is really a vino Veritas condition! She has always been spoilt and when she fails to get her own way she takes to the bottle and goes berserk. Of course I am fond of her and of course I am sorry for her, but however upset she may be about Larry she should control herself and behave better. It's all her own fault anyhow and I am now abysmally bored with the whole situation. It has been going on for far too long and I'll have no more of it"

"Larry and Joan Plowright have opened in New York and both made smash hits apparently.^ This is lovely for them but, of course, horrid for Vivien. The mills of God!"

"Vivien and Jack [Merivale] came on Friday and stayed only until Saturday afternoon. She was perfectly sweet and normal, and I think that Larry's marriage really has made her face up to the inevitability of not getting him back. Jack is good with her and a nice creature. I wouldn't care to change places with him. I'm very fond of her, although there are certainly moments when I could throttle her"

"We saw Ship of Fools in New York. A badly-directed, dull picture except for Vivien [Leigh], Simone Signoret and Oskar Werner. I really am beginning to hate New York. It is getting commoner and commoner."

"Darling Larry-boy has cancer of the prostate. It is at a very early stage so there is hope of a successful operation, but this has to be postponed for a week or so because he developed pneumonia as well. I've just talked to Joan [Plowright] on the telephone and he is much, much better.

"A visit to Vivien, who is in bed with a recurrence of tb! Oh dear! However, it's apparently very mild and curable."

[quote]However, it's apparently very mild and curable

Yeah, right.

"I can't even remember the date of the morning that Coley came into my suite at the Savoy, suffused with tears, and told me that Vivien had died^. The shock was too violent. I mind too deeply about this to go on about it very much.

Apparently Jacko [Merivale] came back from his theatre, saw her sleeping peacefully and went to warm up some soup for himself in the kitchen. When he came back a few minutes later she was lying on the floor in a welter of blood, having had a haemorrhage. Jacko, with almost incredible courage and tact, cleaned up all the hideous mess because he knew that she would hate anybody, even the doctor, to see her like that. Then he telephoned for the doctor.

Jacko is a good and kind man. A day or two later he rang me up and asked me to read the address at her memorial service which is, I believe, to be on the twenty-fourth. I lovingly but very firmly refused. I truly do not believe I could have done it without breaking down and making a shambles of it. I know this was cowardly, but I can't regret it. The emotional strain would be ghastly, and as I am not feeling any too well at the moment it would possibly cause me great damage. All my own loved ones agree and I can only hope that they're right. If it could have helped Vivien in any way I would have done anything, but it couldn't because she's gone for ever. I loathe and despise the miserable Christian trappings of death."

She was bipolar and was greatly helped by lithium later in life.

Coward's diaries are almost impossible for me to read. I love behind-the scenes theater and film memoirs, but he's insufferable.

R19 " and was greatly helped by lithium later in life."

I doubt it. There are many horror stories about Vivien's conduct and behavior during the 1960s and before her death. She was also still subjected to shock treatments.

He seems fairly level headed in his assessments to me; but I have a bi-polar person in my life.

Coward's mistaken belief that Vivien's drinking problem was the cause rather than a symptom of her difficulties is not uncommon. With mental illness addiction can often mask the underlying condition. People with bipolar affective disorder who have been self-medicating with booze are capable of causing tremendous suffering and havoc. Sadly for Leigh and everyone affected by her illness there really wasn't an effective treatment available for most of her adult life.

Was he in deep unrequited lust for Larry? Has that tone.

R23, I suspect that Coward and Olivier may have had a fling when Olivier was young, so I'm not sure how unrequited Coward's lust may have been. In his autobiography Olivier mentions a relationship he had with a man (whom he declines to name) when Olivier was in his 20s but denies having sex with him, claiming that this conflicted with his religious beliefs at the time.

Where does Danny Kaye fit into all this?

Coward sounds like a tedious, pompous, vitriolic queen who was envious of the women in Olivier's life.

I don’t pick up any envy of the women or jealousy of LO in those entries. He’s whiny but incisive. Good reading.

She will never be accepted in the big tragic roles huh? Whoever wrote all that sounds like one of the vicious little cocklet having elder gays from HERE

Sad last degringolade.

[quote]Noel could be quite amusing as a playwright, but he should have stuck to that and stayed away from psychoanalyzing his friends.

These are entries in his own private diaries.

He can write whatever the fuck he wants.

R30, I suspect that both Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton wrote their diaries with the intent that the diaries would be published at some point.

He's the quintessential Datalounger. "How dare she leave the play because she's pregnant, also it was incredibly foolish of her to do the play when she was pregnant."

"Her miscarriage was entirely her fault and it's inconvenienced me terribly."

"Her mental illness would have been cured had someone just beat her up."

I wonder what made Noel Coward such a selfish, nasty piece of work? I wonder why he keeps calling Leigh spoiled? Not debating the point but I'd like to understand that.

Noel Coward? How kind. I would have thought Noel Big Pussy far more suitable.

R33 "I wonder why he keeps calling Leigh spoiled?"

Because she was a spoiled brat.

R28 He meant the tragic big roles in theatre and classic plays not movies. Theatre critics always tore Vivien to shreds comparing her to Larry Olivier.

Yes, I'm SURE Coward had no intention of publishing his diaries, R30. 🙄

R33 — I’m pretty certain in real life Vivian had BIG doses of both Scarlet and Blanche in her personality.

This thread made me dig out my unread copy of Coward's diaries, I'm on page 14 and he's already being a cunt, saying he was delighted by Pearl Harbor because it meant the US would join the war without being able to say they pulled Britain's "chestnuts out of the fire."

He's also certain the entire government is conspiring against him and at every tiny bump in the road he goes running to important friends of his to get him what he wants.

Great post OP

[quote]saying he was delighted by Pearl Harbor because it meant the US would join the war without being able to say they pulled Britain's "chestnuts out of the fire."

Wrong. They've been claiming it ever since.