NOEL COWARD’S LIFE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1937, Page 10

NOEL COWARD’S LIFE

HIS EARLY SUCCESS At the ago of thirty-seven Noel Coward has written his autobiography. says George W. Bishop in the “Daily Telegraph."

II is a frank and lively book of more than 400 pages, which will seti Ic once and for all many of the. doubtful stories in the Coward legend. For instance, it is quite true that his father did act as waiter on occasion in the Ebury Street apartmenthouse which was taken to help the family income. He talks of the visitors’ embarrassment when father came “waltzing into the room with the tea-tray." his son having overlooked the fact that friends were invited on the housemaid’s afternoon out.

The first part of the book is devoted io the- early struggles. The family had tremendous fun. but Mr. Coward states that "at limes there wasn’t quite enough food."

His education seems to have been somewhat spasmodic, for'lie was very young when he started his stage career —as Prince Mussel in “The Goldfish," in which June was Princess Sole —and he attended school with little enthusiasm.

He often played truant, and used to spend the whole day in Waterloo Station or Clapbain Junction watching the. trains.

“Once 1 bought a pennyworth of crepe hair a! a chemists, and walked up and down the Embankment with a red beard.” he says. Mr. Coward’s first public appearance was at. the. age of six. when he sang “Coo" from "The Country Girl," and also a piping little song about the Spring, for which lie accompanied himself at the piano. He "brought down the house.” and the following Summer h‘- had no difficulty in winning the children’s competition run by I’ncle George’s Concert Parly on ■J he sands at Bogner. li was Charles Hawtrey who gave him his first real engagement in the West End as a page-boy in "The Great Name." Shortly afterwards he appeared in the original production of “Where the Rainbow Ends." When he was fourteen he reached the Mecca of the youthful actors' dreams -be was engaged for “Peter Pan." Io play Slightly, at a. salary of £4 a week. Shortly before that he appeared in

Liverpool in Basil Dean's production of “Hannele,” and a member of the company was “a vivacious child with ringlets, to whom I took an instant fancy.

“She was very mondaine. carried a handbag with a powder-puff, and frequently dabbed her generously turn-ed-up nose. She confided Io me that her name was Gertrude Lawrence.”

It was his first meeting with an actress who was to be associated with him in some of his greatest successes. He owed a good deal to Charles Hawtrey. It was under' Hawfrey's management that ho blossomed forth in “The Saving Grace” as a “juvenile." After the opening performance at Manchester, Hawtrey told the audience that, they had better watch him carefully in the future, as he was undoubtedly going to be a good actor. i A LETTER FROM SHAW Noel Coward’s war experience was brief and inglorious. It was shortly after he left the Army that he sold his first play, "The Last Trick,” outright to an American management for 1,500 dollars.' Tn 1.920 his comedy. "I'll Leave It to You." was done at the New Theatre, but. although the critics proclaimed the discovery of a new playwright, the piece ran for only’ five weeks.

Mr. Coward states frankly that in writing "The Young Idea." he was “primarily inspired" by Shaw’s "You Never Can Tell.” "I felt guilty of plagiarism, however inept.” ho writes, "and when (he play was finished J. E. Vedrenne kindly sent it to Shaw to find out whether or not he had any objections.

| "A short while afterwards 1 roceivj cd Hie script back from Shaw, scribI bled all over with alterations and suggestions, and accompanied by a long letter, which, to my lasting roJgrct, I was idiotic enough Io lose. | However, the gist of if was that I • showed every indication of becoming a good playwright, provided that 1 | never again in my life read another I word that. he. Shaw, had over writf ten.”

Charles B. Cochran entered the Coward scene before the author had become a success. 'l’he production of "'rhe Young Idea," which ran for only eight weeks, brought a letter of generous praise from Mr. Cochran, but it was Andre Chariot, at the suggestion of the Earl of Lathom. who presented his first revue, "London Calling."

[which really put him on the map as author, lyricist, and composer. Although lie was very young. Mr. Coward limited his own engagement in "London -Calling” to six months, a policy he has adopted throughout his career. BORED WITH ACTING "1 consider myself a writer first and an actor second,” be writes. "If 1 play the same part over and over again for a long run, I become bored and frustrated, and my performance deteriorates: in addition to this, I have no time to write." It was not until “The Vortex” -was produced at. the tiny Everyman The- j atre in Hampstead that Noel Coward,: the dramatist, really emerged from ob- j scurity. The story of that adventure makes fascinating reading Michael Arlen provided the cheque for £2OO for the production, and Lilian Braithwaite was not cast for the leading part of IHorence until a. day or two before the first night. There | was also a last-minute duel with the} Lord Chamberlain, who had to be [ persuaded by the author that the play was a “moral tract." j That was in December, 1924. and I from that date. Mr. Coward became j one of the. most enviable young men > living. Shortly afterwards he had three pieces running in the West End. “Everyone but Somerset .Maughan |

said that 1 -was a second Somerset Maugham, with the exception of a few who preferred to describe me as a second Sacha Guitry,” lie says. Mr. Coward has bad some failures since that time. In a dressing-room at the Selwyn Theatre, Chicago, there is written on Hie wall in his handwriting. "Noel Coward died here.” That, was after the unaccountable failure of “'rhe Vortex." which was immensely successful elsewhere in America. Another was the famous first night, of "Sirocco." al. Daly’s, when the • in-lain finally fell amid a bedlam of sound.