by Cole Porter
Love to you both – and again, my thanks.
Your devoted
[signed:] Cole
The following letter shows his reaction to the unexpected interest of 20th Century Fox in Jubilee:
8 November 1954: Cole Porter to Irving Lazar108
Dear Irving: –
Thank you for your letter of Nov. 4, 1954, concerning the sale of Jubilee to Twentieth Century Fox. I am surprised that any studio is interested in it if it can not use Begin the Beguine.
I have forwarded your letter of [sic] John Wharton, and he will write to you.
Yours sincerely.
[signed:] Cole
Silk Stockings was nearing its opening date in Philadelphia but it was in deep trouble, as Porter confides to his friend Robert Raison in the next letter. He also mentions his move to a new apartment in the Waldorf and the planned demolition of the main house in Williamstown so that his cottage could be moved in its spot, following Linda’s death:
9 November 1954: Cole Porter to Robert Raison109
Dear Bobbie: –
Thank you for your letter of Oct. 26, 1954. I am sorry that your deal with Nat Goldstone* has not come off – but perhaps it will. In the meantime, you know that you are an excellent agent and are bound to get ahead.
You say that you hope my show is going along beautifully. It is not going along beautifully. It looks disastrous; slow, gloomy, and most of the numbers very badly done. We shall, however, see.
I have only seen Colin Fox once, but I thought he was delightful. Everyone who knows him is devoted to him. This includes Merle Oberon.
[Howard] Sturges arrives on Monday, November 15th, to go with me to Philadelphia and protect me during those awful weeks which I always have to face after an out of town Opening. He’s always a blessing to have along because he never talks show business. He only talks about nice, rich, fashionable people and it’s such a lovely contrast.
My new apartment at the Waldorf is going to be a dream of beauty. And my little cottage in Williamstown, moved to the site of the main house, will look pretty. They start ripping the main house apart as soon as I have taken out of it whatever furniture I need for the New York Waldorf apartment. Everything else in it will be stored as I could never afford to buy what is there again.
I hope your trip with Stannie [Musgrove] to San Francisco howls with excitement.
Gracie sends love to John.
[signed:] Cole
He even found time to respond politely and helpfully to a French actress, who had written to him mistakenly believing him to be an agent:
10 November 1954: Cole Porter to Micheline Bardin, Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris, France110
Dear Miss Bardin: –
I have received your letter and the separate package containing photographs and publicity material.
As for your mentioning that I produce shows: it is incorrect: I merely write music and lyrics for shows.
You give the impression in your letter that you would like to have an agent in New York. I highly recommend the following agent:
LESTER SHURR
Paramount Building
1501 Broadway
New York 36, New York
Telephone:
Chickering 4-8240
I cannot assure you that he can get you work in this country, but I can vouch for his complete honesty, besides which he has a brother, Louis Shurr, in Hollywood, who is completely reputable; and this makes a very good tie-up with both centers of entertainment: New York City, N.Y. and Los Angeles, California.
I have forwarded your letter and your photographs and publicity to Lester Shurr. You will undoubtedly hear from him. This is all I can do for you – but I hope this little bit helps.
Sincerely yours,
[signed:] Cole Porter
On 10 November, Ethel Merman starred in an hour-long colour television adaptation of Porter’s Panama Hattie, which she had originated on the stage. A reviewer felt that Merman ‘brought what sense she could to the occasion’, but the score had been both trimmed and augmented with famous songs from other shows, so it did not prove to be a triumph for Porter.111 In the following letter to Stark, Porter pokes fun at Elsa Maxwell’s recently published autobiography R.S.V.P. in which she made the remark, ‘I have been attracted by two men in my life – Cole Porter and Aly Khan – but I was much too old when I met them to consider an attachment’:112
11 November 1954: Cole Porter to Sam Stark113
Dear Old Theatre and Minstrel Items: –*
Thank you for your letter of November 5, 1954.
The most interesting thing about Elsa’s new book is that none of it is true. Noel Coward and I actually confronted her with the famous lie which she has revived in this book, namely that she was born in a box in Keokuk, Iowa, during a performance of Mignon.† She finally admitted that the noise of a mother’s labor pains during a performance would be slightly disturbing for members of the cast. And when I asked her whether there was a Doctor in the house, she broke down and said that maybe it was all untrue but that was what her mother had told her. I also had my spies check on the Opera House in Keokuk, Iowa, and it doesn’t exist and, therefore, neither did the box.
I could go on endlessly about the number of elaborate false words in this book, but luckily for Elsa, most of the people about whom she tells these fairy tales are conveniently dead.
Silk Stockings is going through major operations, and our Opening in Philadelphia has been put off until November 26th. At the present moment it all looks like a howling flop.
I am so sorry you are finishing your book. What can you do then?
Love to you both,
[signed:] Cole
A further letter to Robert Raison shows again Porter’s excitement about his new apartment at the Waldorf Towers:
15 November 1954: Cole Porter to Robert Raison114
Dear Bobbie: –
I couldn’t be happier about your closing the deal with Nat Goldstone – but I shan’t believe it for about six months . . .
You ask me what color is your room in my new apartment. As a matter of fact, I shall have a guest room, but I wouldn’t ask you to stay in it for anything in the world because you bring strange people in and run up outlandish bills. I shall be delighted, however, to have nice, civilized Stannie [Musgrove].
Love,
[signed:] Cole
The tryout of Silk Stockings opened in Philadelphia on 26 November. Porter wrote twice to the Starks, implying it was a success:
27 November 1954: Cole Porter to Sam and Harriette Stark115
SMASH HIT=COLE=
29 November 1954: Cole Porter to Sam Stark116
Dear Sam: –
Thank you so much for the Exchange Computer. I am going abroad the end of February and will be traveling so much it will be invaluable.
I know you will be delighted to hear that at least a hundred people wired me: “May your Silk Stockings run forever.”
Love to you both,
[signed:] Cole
He reiterated this impression in the following letter to Irving Lazar about the film of Silk Stockings:
1 December 1954: Cole Porter to Irving Lazar117
Dear Irving: –
Thanks for your wire to Philadelphia. When I wired you last I had forgotten that the producers had already made a picture deal with Metro, so there is nothing to be done. It seems too bad now because the property looks so valuable.
All my best,
[signed:] Cole Porter
But the initial reaction did not cover up the fact that the show was in trouble. On 2 December, the New York Times contained a column in which the Kaufmans admitted that they would spend two days in their hotel room rewriting the book. The show would now stay in Philadelphia until 1 January 1955, move to Boston for two weeks, and then open on Broadway on 21 January. This would allow the actress Yvonne Adair to join the show in the secondary female role, following an operation.118 Abe Burrows was also brought in to take
over the direction from Kaufman. Among Porter’s chores during this extended tryout was the addition of the song ‘Siberia’. Kaufman sent him two notes with some suggestions:
[n.d.] George S. Kaufman to Cole Porter119
Monday
Dear Cole:
Here is the revised scene leading to the song for the three boys. And here are at least some subjects for the Siberia song:
There is good skating all year round. You can out figure eights and your throat.
You meet all the best people there. Nicer than the ones you meet in the rest of Russia.
Something about electric blankets and how wonderful they are.
You get rid of your in-laws.
You never get that letter from your dentist, saying “Come in and see me.” You never get any mail at all, not even the ones asking for money. And so you never have to write answers.
You don’t get phone calls saying “Guess who this is!” Or wrong numbers either, in the middle of the night. There are no phones at all.
There are wonderful hockey games.
Take along plenty of anti-freeze.
Wonderful cold drinks.
No traffic problem.
You never burn your tongue on the soup, because it is always cold.
Beautiful mountains to climb – bracing air.
--------
Our love,
[unsigned]
[Handwritten note below:] Where all day the sun shines bright
And I’m also told that it shines all night.
[n.d.] George S. Kaufman to Cole Porter
Tuesday
Dear Cole:
Two more minuscule notions for “Siberia.”
You never run out of ice at your cocktail parties.
Your relatives do not drop in on you.
And Vladivostok is up there some place. Sounds like a good word, that’s all.
Anything about sighing for Siberia?
I’d better keep my mouth shut.
Love,
[signed:] George
But Porter struggled to come up with enough lyrics. An old friend came to his assistance:
23 December 1954: Cole Porter to Noël Coward120
Dear Noley: –
How grand it was of you to take all that trouble about sending me more lyrics for “Siberia.” I shall take them along when I return to Philadelphia, and I am sure that some of them will come in most handy.
At the present moment, I am in exile, as I have nothing to do until more changes have been made in the libretto. We are having very great trouble about filling the role of the Hollywood actress. The girl who was going to take the understudy’s part turned out to be so unreliable that we gave up and got another girl, named Marilyn Ross. Never in your future theatrical career get Marilyn Ross. She looked like a saucy little pony, with platinum locks and a bobbed nose; and during rehearsals let out a voice that could only be equalled by [Ethel] Merman. Then she went into the show. Every good quality she had completely disappeared the moment she was on stage, including the voice. So – we are hunting for another girl. Today, it was decided that the show is in such bad condition that we shall stay in Boston for a month instead of two weeks, and open in New York on Feb. 3rd. My impression is that the producers are terrified, due to their past record, to bring in anything that isn’t a smash hit, which I must say is a very high standard.
Our troubles, however, are as nothing to those of “The House of Flowers”.* A week ago Friday, Miss Pearl Bailey, due to anger from another girl in the cast having been given a song which registered, pretended to be ill and retired to her dressing room during a performance. Then Saint Subber received a note from her Doctor saying she was too ill to work for the Saturday matinee or the Saturday night performance. That same Saturday night she was seen in a night club in New York, feeling very well indeed. She repeated this little gesture again this last Tuesday night. And Natasha told me yesterday that Peter Brook† had left the show. In the meantime, they have fired [George] Balanchine* and have a new dance director named [Herbert] Ross,† from Hollywood. There is a constant rumour that “The House of Flowers” may never come to New York, but I cannot vouch for this.
Your little Elsa [Maxwell] telephoned me earlier to say that she has a wonderful new game in her column once a week. From now on, she will rave about the sartorial splendour of the Duke of Windsor and never once mention the Duchess’ clothes. Isn’t that a dull little game.
Good-bye, dear Noley, and again my gratitude for the lyrics. You are a wonderful friend, and I wish you great happiness for Christmas and New Year.
Your fan,
[signed:] Cole
The last surviving letter of the year shows that Porter turned down the opportunity to write new material for a screen adaptation of Anything Goes:
27 December 1954: Cole Porter to Irving Lazar121
Dear Irving: –
Thank you for your letter of Dec. 24, 1954.
I hate to let people down, but I am in no position to do any work on “Anything Goes” at all. In the first place, Cy feuer [sic] just telephoned from Philadelphia saying that George Kaufman and Leueen have definitely retired from the show, due to George’s health. It appears that this constant re-writing has put him in such a state of worry that his sleeping pills no longer work; besides which, his blood pressure has gone way up. I feel sure that somebody else will be brought in to rewrite, although this has not been mentioned to me as yet. But I must keep my calendar open so, in case the rewrite job calls for definite numbers from me, I shall be on hand to do them. The opening in New York has already been put off till February 3rd, and I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if it were put off to a later date.
My plans are to fly to Switzerland on February 20th, and then go on quite a long trip with friends. I have been working on Silk Stockings for over a year and a half, and the brain is frankly tired. I want to go to work on a new show in the middle of June, 1955 for Feuer & Martin, and it seems to me that this vacation will prepare me better than anything else.
I can’t tell you how sorry I am not to be more help in “Anything Goes”.
All my best to you, dear Irving, and thanks for your constant kindness.
[signed:] Cole
P.S. – I would like to telephone Edie Goetz on New Year’s day. Where will she be then? If still in Palm Springs, would you let me know how I can track her down.
* The $150 million anti-trust suit was announced on the front page of the New York Times. See Val Adams, ‘Composers Sue for $150,000,000; Allege Radio-TV-Record Monopoly’, New York Times, 10 November 1953, 1.
† Porter’s publishing company, named after his Williamstown address.
* Screenwriter Norman Corwin’s (1910–2011) work includes the screenplays for The Blue Veil (1951), Lust for Life (1956) and The Story of Ruth (1961). He was particularly active during the golden age of radio.
† Corwin’s The Undecided Molecule was a fantasy radio play originally broadcast in 1945. See http://www.radiodramarevival.com/episode-173-norman-corwins-undecided-molecule/ (accessed 19 September 2018). Descent of the Gods had earlier been broadcast, again on radio, in 1941: https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/drama/columbia-workshop/columbia-workshop-41-10-19-023-descent-of-the-gods (accessed 19 September 2018).
* McBrien, Cole Porter (338), cites a letter from Linda Porter to Bernard Berenson in which she reveals details of this: ‘The Porters have started the New Year badly. Cole has some mysterious skin infection which itches constantly & almost drives him crazy . . . and I have been confined to my apartment for days with bursitis in my right arm (a new disease for me) and a rather alarming cough. I hope to get out for some air next week. I have so few activities that I miss them terribly when they are taken away.’
† Can-Can.
* St Francis of Assisi (1181/2–1226), the patron saint of animals.
† Hylton was the producer of the London production of Kiss Me, Kate.
* On 6 April 1953, Robert H. Montgomery infor
med Porter that instead of writing three additional songs for the film of Kiss Me, Kate (at $7,500 each), MGM would like to use ‘From This Moment On’ and would pay $7,500. Since the song was cut from Out of This World, there were no contractual obligations with producers or authors of that show. CPT, Correspondence 1953.
* Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, shelfmark YCAL MSS 468 (TLS).
* A reference to de Mille’s disastrous direction of Out of This World.
† A drama society that ran for sixty-five years, closing in 1964.
* A restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles that opened in 1932. It closed in 1986 and was demolished in 2005.
† Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel (1945), which was enjoying a brief revival at City Center from 6 March to 27 June.
* A reference to ‘Anything You Can Do’ from Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun (1946).
† Writer and director Garson Kanin (1912–99) and actress Ruth Gordon (1896–1985) were a legendary theatrical and Hollywood couple.
* The SS Europa was a high-speed German ocean liner that worked the transatlantic route. It was built in 1929 and renamed the SS Liberté in August 1950. The ship was scrapped in 1963.
† Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Me and Juliet had opened to lukewarm reviews on 28 May 1953.
‡ A reference to MGM’s film Kiss Me Kate.
* Edward Molyneux (1891–1974) was a British fashion designer.
* Both Byron’s Gershwin and Kern albums were released on Atlantic Records in 1952.
* Robert Wright (1914–2005) and George Forrest (1915–99) were the composer-lyricists of the forthcoming Kismet (1953).
† Kaufman’s wife was Leueen MacGrath (1914–92), who played Clara Eynsford-Hill in the 1938 movie version of Pygmalion. With Kaufman, she wrote the unsuccessful plays The Small Hours (1951) and Fancy Meeting You Again (1952). They divorced in 1957.
* Nymph Errant.
* Ansco color was originally a German process called Agfacolor. Although it was only used in Hollywood from the late 1940s, it was introduced in Germany in 1932.
† Howard Keel (1919–2004) was one of MGM’s most beloved leading men and the star of films including Annie Get Your Gun (1950) and Kismet (1955).
