Gertrude Lawrence
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| Gertrude Lawrence | |||||||
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| Born | Gertrude Alexandria Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen July 4, 1898 London, England |
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| Died | September 6, 1952 (aged 54) New York City, New York, USA |
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| Spouse(s) | Francis Gordon-Howley (1924-1927) Richard Aldrich (1940-1952) |
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Gertrude Lawrence (July 4, 1898 - September 6, 1952) was an actress and musical comedy performer popular from the 1920s to the 1950s, appearing on stage in London, on Broadway and in several films. She is often remembered for performing the light comedies of Noel Coward. She also sang risque songs by Cole Porter and played characters that dealt with the controversial topics of race relations, atheism and psychoanalysis.[citation needed]
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[edit] Early life
She was born Gertrude Alexandria Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen, of English and Danish extraction, in London, England, and was a professional performer by the age of ten. She had one Jewish grandparent.[1] She was sent to Catholic convent schools and attended the Italia Conti Academy. She understudied Beatrice Lillie in the Andre Charlot London revues in the 1920s. Along with Jack Buchanan, she introduced Furber and Braham's song "Limehouse Blues" in the 1921 revue "A to Z." She achieved stardom when the revues were brought to Broadway in 1924 and 1926. In 1923, She starred in Noël Coward's first musical revue, André Charlot's London Calling!.
[edit] Career
Lawrence was one of the foremost comediennes of her day, capable of playing both slapstick clowns and elegant ladies. She crossed over briefly into films, primarily in her native England.
[edit] Stage work
Lawrence's onstage persona inspired composers and writers. George and Ira Gershwin wrote the musical Oh, Kay! for her, which included her solo number "Someone to Watch Over Me." She was the first British actress to have a lead role on Broadway.[citation needed] Cole Porter wrote Nymph Errant for her to star in, which opened in London in 1933. Noel Coward wrote Private Lives and Tonight at 8:30 (a cycle of nine one-act musicals and plays) for her. She starred as Liza Elliot in Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, and Ira Gershwin's psychoanalytical musical Lady in the Dark (played in the film version by Ginger Rogers).
In 1946 Lawrence saw the film version of the book Anna and the King of Siam, which she decided would make a perfect musical. She persuaded the American team of Rodgers and Hammerstein to write it for her. The result was The King and I, which introduced such memorable songs as: "Hello Young Lovers," "Getting to Know You" and "Shall We Dance."
The King and I opened on Broadway in 1951 with Lawrence in the role of Anna Leonowens and it became her greatest success. That same year she received the prestigious "Woman of the Year" award from Harvard University's famed performance troupe, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. In 1952, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress for her role as Anna. From the fall of 1950 to the spring of 1952 she was a professor of theater at Columbia University. Lawrence died a year-and-a-half after The King and I opened on Broadway. Her understudy, Constance Carpenter, succeeded her. While Lawrence was hospitalized at the end of her life, she requested that Yul Brynner, who played the king and had been an unknown until the show opened, should have his name displayed on the marquee of the St. James Theatre, which showed only Lawrence's name at that time.[1]
[edit] Film work
Lawrence made several films in the early sound era of British films. She appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in No Funny Business in 1933 and opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in 1935's Mimi, a non-musical version of La Boheme. She appeared in Rembrandt, opposite Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester.
Lawrence never became a star in Hollywood. She filmed a short musical number there for the movie Stage Door Canteen, which also featured Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman. This wartime movie is essentially a filmed concert with dozens of cameos.
Lawrence's only other work in Hollywood was playing Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. This first screen treatment of a Tennessee Williams play co-starred Kirk Douglas as the Gentleman Caller and Jane Wyman as Laura Wingfield. It was a box-office success in 1950 even though many critics hated the happy ending that differed greatly from the one Williams presented onstage. The film was very rarely shown on television before the advent of basic cable channels, by which time it was overshadowed by made-for-TV versions of the play that left Williams' ending intact, including one with Katharine Hepburn as Amanda.
Lawrence was offered the role of Margo Channing in All About Eve, which eventually went to Bette Davis.[2]
[edit] Personal life
Lawrence married Francis Gordon-Howley, a director in London's West End theater district, during World War I. Before their divorce in 1928, the couple had a daughter, Pamela. Pamela moved to the United States during World War II and married a doctor who practiced on New York's Upper East Side. Their marriage ended in divorce, and the doctor did not see his mother-in-law (Lawrence) again until the day she died in a hospital across the street from his office.
In 1928, Gertrude Lawrence announced her engagement to Bertrand L. Taylor Jr., a New York stockbroker, but the marriage was eventually called off. Lawrence then married Richard Aldrich, an American theater owner and producer from a blueblood family in Massachusetts, on July 4, 1940. They remained married until her death. A Harvard graduate, Aldrich owned several legitimate theaters, including the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, then as now the oldest summer theater in the United States.[citation needed]
In between her marriages, Lawrence allegedly had an affair with film star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with whom she worked. She allegedly had lesbian affairs, including possible ones with the British novelist Dame Daphne du Maurier, and with Beatrice Lillie who, when referring to Lawrence, supposedly said: "I knew her better than her husband."[citation needed] Du Maurier's passionate letters about Lawrence were published in a 1993 biography of the novelist. Lawrence might have had a connection to du Maurier's father, Sir Gerald du Maurier. Daphne du Maurier referred to Lawrence as "the last of Daddy's actress loves."[citation needed]
Lawrence's marriages were reported by newspapers and magazines during her lifetime, but alleged affairs with the du Maurier family and with Beatrice Lillie were not mentioned by journalists. A posthumous biography written by her husband, Richard Aldrich, makes no mention of the alleged affairs. After he wrote the book, which became a bestseller in 1955, Aldrich had little to do with the entertainment business. He did not seek publicity again regarding his memories of Lawrence during the 33 years that he survived her.
[edit] World War II
Richard Aldrich became a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II, during which time his wife became one of the most active entertainers at the New York club portrayed in the Hollywood film Stage Door Canteen. In the spring of 1944, Lawrence, at home in Dennis, Massachusetts near the Cape Playhouse owned by Aldrich, had a standing invitation from the head of her native Britain's Entertainments National Service Association to perform for British troops. Her obstacle was getting to England. As Lawrence wrote in her 1945 memoir, "After weeks of more or less patient waiting, repeated timid, pleading, urgent, and finally importunate requests to the authorities who rule such matters in Washington and London, and a rapid-fire barrage of telegrams, cables, and telephone calls, it had happened. At last I had permission to do what I had been wanting desperately to do for four years — go to England and do my bit on a tour for E.N.S.A."[3]
Lawrence's attorney had managed to book the actress on a British Airways flight from Washington, DC to London that lasted 36 hours, including two refueling stops. When Lawrence boarded the plane she discovered that she and Ernest Hemingway were two of the few passengers without diplomatic passports. Hours after landing near London, she performed with E.N.S.A. for British and American troops who, it turned out, had been deployed for the imminent D-Day invasion at Normandy. Lawrence's husband Richard Aldrich was among them. As Allied forces scored more victories in the South Pacific later that year, Lawrence endured long plane rides and dangerous conditions to perform for troops there.[2]
[edit] Post-war concerns
After World War II ended, Lawrence and Aldrich returned to their homes in Dennis, Massachusetts and New York. Lawrence became the first notable client of a pioneering African-American limousine owner/driver named Roosevelt Zanders.[4]
In early 1946, Lawrence toured with Pygmalion (play), playing in Washington, DC. Bringing her African-American personal assistant with her, Lawrence argued with the managers of several DC hotels who refused to let the two women check in.[2]
[edit] Unexpected death and funeral
In August 1952, two days after performing in The King and I without faltering on the stage, Lawrence was admitted to New York Hospital, today known as Weill Medical Center, with a diagnosis of liver cancer. Her former son-in-law was a physician with an office across the street from the hospital. Having lost contact with her years earlier, he did not visit her because the hospital staff expected her to recover.[1] After three weeks in a private room, however, Lawrence unexpectedly slipped into a coma before she could be transferred to intensive care. Her former son-in-law and other doctors and nurses "managed to get [Lawrence] out of shock,"[1] as he recalled many years later. She opened her eyes, seemed puzzled by her former son-in-law's presence and then she died at the age of 54. The medical staff was surprised when they conducted an autopsy and discovered that Lawrence's cancer had spread far beyond the liver.[1] She had been able to dance around her hospital room one week earlier until her husband had lifted her up and returned her to bed.[2]
Gertrude Lawrence's funeral was described by the New York Times as follows. "Five thousand persons jammed the area of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street yesterday [Tuesday, Sept. 9] as 1,800 others filled the flower-banked auditorium of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church for the funeral of Gertrude Lawrence."[5]
In the eulogy he delivered, Oscar Hammerstein II quoted from an essay on death written by the poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore.[5] The 1,800 mourners inside the church included Yul Brynner, her co-star in The King And I, many child actors who played the Siamese king's children, John Davis Lodge, who was then governor of Connecticut, Marlene Dietrich, Tom Ewell, Phil Silvers, Luise Rainer, Moss Hart and his wife Kitty Carlisle. Daphne du Maurier was not in the long list of attendees reported by the Times.[5] Lawrence was buried in the champagne-colored gown worn during the "Shall We Dance?" number from the second act of The King and I in the Aldrich family plot in Lakeview Cemetery in Upton, Massachusetts. The cemetery is near the house in Dennis where Lawrence and Aldrich had lived. In his posthumous biography of his wife, Aldrich claimed she was always nice to locals who recognized her while the couple strolled near his Cape Playhouse. The book includes a photograph of her wearing sunglasses and chatting with a passerby.[2]
[edit] Legacy
In early 1953, Lawrence's name was on a list of Columbia University professors who had died the previous year and were honored with a memorial service and flags on the campus lowered to half-staff. Another professor on the list was John Dewey, the philosopher and educational reformer.[6]
In the musical biopic 1968 film, Star!, loosely based on her life, Lawrence was portrayed by Julie Andrews. Richard Crenna played the part of Richard Aldrich, who worked as a consultant on the movie. A failure at the box office and with critics, the film became Andrews' last Hollywood musical.
The Paley Center for Media has kinescopes and written research material reflecting that Gertrude Lawrence was one of the first stars of either Broadway or Hollywood to appear on the new medium of television.[citation needed] In 1938, Lawrence took a night off from performing Susan and God to a packed Broadway audience so she could broadcast some scenes from this play inside a primitive TV studio.[citation needed] When TV broadcasting resumed after World War II and spread with the networks, Lawrence made some live appearances in 1950 and 1951, including an The Ed Sullivan Show segment in which she and Rodgers and Hammerstein performed selections from The King and I.
Lawrence is rarely seen in the electronic media today. Turner Classic Movies and other basic cable channels have revived her British-made film Rembrandt. In 1992, American Movie Classics revived The Glass Menagerie, the only Hollywood film in which she starred. Immediately after the closing credits, the channel's host Bob Dorian summarized Lawrence's long career for cable viewers who might not have been familiar with her.
Lawrence's grandson is Benn Clatworthy, a jazz saxophonist who was born after Lawrence died. Born to Lawrence's daughter, Pamela (who had returned to her native England after her divorce from the New York doctor) and her second husband, Clatworthy performs often at jazz clubs in his home base of Los Angeles.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | Early Mourning | ||
| The Battle of Paris | Georgie | ||
| 1932 | Aren't We All? | Margot | |
| Lord Camber's Ladies | Lady Camber | ||
| 1933 | No Funny Business | Yvonne | |
| 1935 | Mimi | Mimi | |
| 1929 | Rembrandt | Geertje Dirx | |
| Men Are Not Gods | Barbara Halson | ||
| 1950 | The Glass Menagerie | Amanda Wingfield |
[edit] Broadway
- Andre Charlot's Revue of 1924 - 1924
- Charlot Revue - 1925
- Oh, Kay! - 1926
- Treasure Girl - 1928
- Candle Light - 1929
- The International Review - 1930
- Private Lives - 1931
- Tonight at 8:30 - 1936
- Hands Across the Sea
- Red Peppers
- The Astonished Heart
- We Were Dancing
- Shadow Play
- Fumed Oak
- Ways and Means
- Family Album
- Still Life
- Susan and God - 1937
- Skylark
- Lady in the Dark - 1941
- Gratefully Yours - 1942
- Pygmalion - 1945
- The King and I - 1951
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Ethel Merman for Call Me Madam |
Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical 1952 for The King and I |
Succeeded by Rosalind Russell for Wonderful Town |
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Morley, Sheridan. Gertrude Lawrence: A Biography. New York: McGraw Hill, 1981.
- ^ a b c d e Aldrich, Richard. Gertrude Lawrence As Mrs. A. New York: Greystone Press, 1954.
- ^ Lawrence, Gertrude. A Star Danced. Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Company, 1945. p.12
- ^ Talese, Gay. A Chauffeur With A Chauffeur Drove Boyish Dream To Fortune. The New York Times April 17, 1959. page 27.
- ^ a b c The New York Times. September 10, 1952. Page 29.
- ^ The New York Times. January 19, 1953. Page 27.
