Hello Goodbye Hello: A Circle of 101 Remarkable Meetings by Craig Brown

Author:Craig Brown [Brown, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Humor, Form, General, Biography & Autobiography, Anecdotes & Quotations, Cultural Heritage, Rich & Famous, History
ISBN: 9781451683608
Google: OEpbDBzwJ3YC
Amazon: 145168360X
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2012-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

WINSTON CHURCHILL

BARGES IN ON

LAURENCE OLIVIER

St James’s Theatre, London SW1

Summer 1951

Winston Churchill has long been an admirer of Laurence Olivier, and is keen on two of his films in particular. When Lady Hamilton is released in 1941, he watches it over and over again – perhaps as many as a hundred times, according to one author. He also loves Henry V. ‘We saw the film of Henry V in Technicolor, with Laurence Olivier,’ writes his Private Secretary, Jock Colville, in his diary on November 25th 1944. ‘The P.M. went into ecstasies about it. To bed at 2.30.’

He admires Olivier as a stage actor, too. During one lengthy speech in his performance of Richard III, Olivier grows aware of another voice speaking his lines. He looks out, and spots Mr Churchill in the fourth row, reciting all the lines in unison.

The influence runs in both directions, though Olivier is inspired by Churchill in a less predictable way. On holiday in the South of France in 1949, he and his wife Vivien Leigh take up painting, having just read Churchill’s book Painting as a Pastime.

In 1951, the Oliviers are starring in Caesar and Cleopatra. During one performance, Olivier is informed that Churchill is in the audience. In the interval, Olivier is hovering about in his dressing room, wondering how his performance is going down with ‘the great man’, when the door swings open, and there he is. Olivier is too taken aback to say anything.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ says Churchill. ‘I was looking for a corner.’

Olivier escorts Churchill back, and points him in the right direction. At the same time, he makes sure there will be someone waiting to take him back to his seats in the auditorium.114

Churchill goes about his business, returning in time for the second half. As he sits down, he jokes to Mary, ‘I was looking for Loo-Loo, and who do you think I ran into? Ju-Lu!’

A few weeks later, the actor and the world statesman are introduced in more formal circumstances, when the Duchess of Buccleuch takes Churchill to see Antony and Cleopatra. Olivier is entranced. ‘Adoring him as of course we already did, we found his sweetly polite, unforced kindness, and the courteous generosity of his conversation an unforgettable example,’ he records in his convoluted prose. In his encounters with other politicians, Olivier, who prides himself on reading faces, has always found them furtive, with ‘a certain guardedness, obviously caused by a fear of being caught out ... only detectable in the slightly hooded look around the eyes’. But not Churchill.

Over dinner, Olivier reminds Churchill of the time he joined in with Richard III, adding, ‘I can’t tell you how envious I am of such a wonderful memory.’

‘Oh, but you – so many myriads of words packed into your brain,’ replies Churchill. ‘It must be a great burden.’

Olivier confesses that, three weeks after he has finished playing a part, he is unable to quote a single word from it.

‘Aaah,’ replies Churchill. ‘That must be a great mercy to you.

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