The Letters of Cole Porter by Cole Porter

Author:Cole Porter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300219272
Publisher: Yale University Press

* Rodgers and Hammerstein’s third Broadway musical, Allegro, opened on 10 October 1947.

* Morgan Harjes & Co. was a Paris-based investment bank founded in 1868 by John H. Harjes.

† Robert Bray.

‡ A severe outbreak of influenza, reported in The Stanford Daily: https://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19480109-01.2.5 (accessed 11 September 2018).

§ Michael Pearman, a friend of the Porters from the mid-1930s.

¶ Williamstown.

** Perhaps Lord Stanley, Sylvia Stanley Alderley’s ex-husband, though references to ‘Stannie’ in Porter’s letters to Stark normally relate to Stanley Musgrove.

†† The actress, model and socialite Sylvia Stanley Alderley, Lady Ashley, widow of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. (1904–77).

‡‡ Presumably the movie star Clark Gable.

* Kiss Me, Kate.

† The City and the Pillar was Gore Vidal’s third novel, published on 10 January 1948.

‡ On 27 January 1948, Porter also sent an impatient telegram to Stark: ‘WHY DONT YOU ANSWER QUICK MY LONG LETTER OR TELEPHONE REVERSE CHARGES=COLE.’ Stanford University, Cole Porter Collection, shelfmark FE209, Correspondence: 1948 (TLS on Waldorf stationery), 1–6.

* Porter’s worries about tax continued throughout his adulthood; see various letters in Chapters 4 and 5 where he expresses concern on the topic.

* Al Jolson (1886–1950), a prolific actor and singer, perhaps best remembered for his appearance in the early talking film The Jazz Singer (1927).

* Lemuel Ayers (1915–55), a prominent set designer of major Broadway (e.g. Oklahoma!, 1943) and Hollywood (Meet Me in St Louis, 1944) musicals. He also designed Kiss Me, Kate.

† Arnold Saint Subber (1918–94), producer of numerous Broadway productions. He was especially successful, later in his career, in producing seven of Neil Simon’s plays.

‡ Anything Goes, Red, Hot and Blue!, Du Barry Was a Lady, Panama Hattie and Something for the Boys.

* Presumably a reference to Richard Wagner’s Parsifal.

† The high-class French restaurant at the Ritz Tower Hotel in New York that the Porters regularly frequented.

‡ Jarmila Novotna (1907–94), a Czech soprano who was a star at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 1940s and 1950s.

§ José Ferrer (1912–92), a prolific Puerto Rican actor, director and producer. He later won an Academy Award for Cyrano de Bergerac (1950).

¶ An English-language version of Jacques Offenbach’s La belle Hélène ran at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway with Novotna in the title role, from 24 April to 15 July 1944.

* Perhaps a theatrical or film agency, as Bray was an actor.

† A reference back to Porter’s letter of 9 March.

‡ Presumably the actor Richard Cromwell (1910–60), who appeared in major films such as Jezebel (1938) and Young Mr. Lincoln (1939).

* See above, p. 285.

† Note by Stark: ‘Sylvain his chauffeur-valet’.

* A further contract held at the Cole Porter Trust reveals an agreement between Bella Spewack and Porter to write the work, which is ‘suggested by THE TAMING OF THE SHREW’. It is unclear why this further agreement (dated 2 April 1948) was necessary.

† McBrien, Cole Porter, 311, cites a letter from Linda Porter to Bernard Berenson detailing the nature of the illness: ‘[I] picked up a virus “Flu” germ & I spent three weeks in bed. I am up for the first time today – a bit shaky.

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