The Letters of Cole Porter

by Cole Porter

  * Mainbocher (1890–1976) was a celebrated fashion designer. His long-time companion, Douglas Pollard, was a fashion artist.

  † William and Edie Goetz.

  * Issued by RCA Victor (ERA 151).

  † The soundtrack to MGM’s recent film of the same name, starring Fred Astaire (Porter’s long-term friend).

  ‡ An EP of the song from Can-Can with pop singer Jan August accompanied by Richard Hayman and his Orchestra (Mercury 1-3084).

  * Bennett Cerf (1898–1971), founder of Random House publishing house; Peter Arno (1904–68), cartoonist; Ogden Nash (1902–71), American poet; Cedric Hardwicke (1893–1964), British actor; Arthur Fiedler (1894–1979), conductor of the Boston Pops; Maurice Evans (1901–89), British actor.

  * Melchior Lengyel (1880–1974), Hungarian writer.

  † The musical director of Kiss Me, Kate.

  * The Arthur Fiedler recording mentioned above.

  † Wright and Forrest’s Kismet was in its pre-Broadway tryout on the West Coast.

  ‡ Romberg’s The Student Prince (1924) was the quintessential Broadway operetta. The movie version, produced by MGM, opened in June 1954.

  * The 1952 Broadway revival of Pal Joey went on tour after it closed in New York in April 1953.

  † These songs had been cut from the score of Kiss Me, Kate before it opened on Broadway, but Wilson (as director) remembered them.

  * Wilson’s wife.

  * Porter’s friend Fred Lounsberry had proposed this as another opportunity to commercialize the Porter brand.

  * The lawyer Howard Reinheimer (1899–1970). His clients included Rodgers and Hammerstein, Alan Jay Lerner and Moss Hart.

  * A widescreen process.

  * Kenneth MacKenna (1899–1962) was an actor, director, patron of the arts, and story editor and department head at MGM. He was the brother of Jo Mielziner, who designed Can-Can. His final movie appearance was as Judge Kenneth Norris in Judgment at Nuremberg (1962).

  † The Ninotchka deal was presumably the rights to turn the movie Ninotchka into a stage musical – an unusual reversal of the normal situation, since films were not generally adapted into Broadway shows in this period.

  ‡ Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

  * George S. Kaufman and his wife Leueen MacGrath, the writers of the book for Silk Stockings.

  * The Duke of Verdura.

  † Peter Brook’s production of Gounod’s Faust opened on 16 November 1953, with a cast including Jussi Björling and Victoria de los Ángeles. Pierre Monteux was the conductor: http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=164000&limit=2500&xBranch=ALL&xsdate=&xedate=&theterm=1953-54&x=0&xhomepath=&xhome= (accessed 4 July 2018).

  ‡ Paul of Greece (1901–64) was king from 1947 to his death. He married his wife, Frederica of Hanover (1917–81), in 1938.

  § Millicent Hearst (1882–1974) was the wife of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst (of the New York Journal), the inspiration for the title character in Citizen Kane. Millicent was a vaudeville performer earlier in her life. The pair divorced in 1951.

  ¶ Irene Selznick (1907–90) was the daughter of movie producer Louis B. Mayer. She produced the plays A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Bell, Book and Candle (1950) and The Chalk Garden (1955) on Broadway.

  * Wright and Forrest’s Kismet opened on Broadway on 3 December.

  † Jolie Gabor (1896–1997) was a Hungarian-born socialite, best remembered today as the mother of actresses Magda, Zsa Zsa and Eva. She owned a successful costume jewellery business.

  ‡ Although Jean Howard divorced Charles Feldman in 1948, the pair lived together until he died in 1968.

  § The music publishing house.

  * It was broadcast by CBS on 21 December 1953 as Cinderella ’53.

  † A joke in reference to the title song from Can-Can, in which Porter uses the phrase ‘can can-can’.

  * On Silk Stockings. The title of the show was announced on 20 November in the New York Times. See Sam Zolotow, ‘“Gimmick” Plotted by Producing Pair’, New York Times, 20.

  † Herbert Graf’s new production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser opened at the Metropolitan Opera on 26 December 1953, with a cast including Ramon Vinay, Astrid Varnay and George London, conducted by George Szell.

  * The revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac ran from 10 December 1953 to 26 June 1954. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Me and Juliet ran from 28 May 1953 to 3 April 1954 – a disappointing run compared to the team’s earlier musicals together (e.g. the five-year run of Oklahoma! from 1943).

  * The book (New York, 1954) details Huxley’s (1894–1963) taking the psychedelic drug mescaline in May 1953.

  * A reference to the Portuguese Duke of Cadaval and the Greek shipping Niarchos family. Porter later went on two cruises on Stavros Niarchos’s boat.

  † Porter’s house in California.

  * Jerome Robbins (1918–98) was one of the most prolific directors and choreographers of the twentieth century, both on Broadway and in the ballet world.

  † Peter Pan.

  ‡ Eugene Loring (1911–82), choreographer for Broadway and especially Hollywood, whose films included Funny Face (1957).

  § Coward’s After the Ball was an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, set to open on 10 June 1954.

  * Ina Claire (1893–1985) was a prolific actress whose roles included the Grand Duchess in Ninotchka (1939), which became the basis of Porter’s next musical, Silk Stockings.

  † Don Ameche (1908–93) was a popular actor on film and radio. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Cocoon (1985).

  ‡ Hildegard Neff (1925–2002) was a German performer and writer who starred in over fifty films and also made records and wrote several volumes.

  § Porter’s letter is addressed from California.

  ¶ The radio and television broadcasting arms of RCA.

  * Richard G. Hubler (1912–81) was a prolific biographer, known for ghostwriting Ronald Reagan’s autobiography (1965). Of note, he published The Cole Porter Story, as Told to Richard G. Hubler (1965).

  * Rand McNally’s World Guide was published in 1953. It was arranged by continent and included excerpts from the Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World.

  * On 4 July 1954, Fred Lounsberry had written to Cole Porter about the possible use of ‘Let’s Do It’ with new words in a Gillette commercial (CPT, Correspondence 1954): ‘Dear Cole, I am moving soon to Detroit, to enter advertising as a writer and idea man. There are many fine opportunities there, one of them being the chance to write advertising for Gillette razors . . . This is a new slogan, quite clearly connected with one of your song titles. The idea is that however rough a shaving job may be . . . Gillettes do it . . . This would be embroidered into . . . Gillettes do it, / So let’s do it . . . / Let’s get Gillettes.’

  * Stark’s former partner.

  † Chato Elizaga (dates unknown) was at one time engaged to the soprano Grace Moore. He later married the Spanish movie actress María Luisa Pérez-Caballero Moltó (1923–95).

  * Feuer and Martin.

  † Jimmy McHugh (1894–1969) was the composer of over 500 popular songs, including ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ and ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’.

  ‡ Louella Parsons (1881–1972) was a pioneering early movie columnist, known as the ‘Queen of Hollywood’.

  § Writer Luther Davis’s (1916–2008) work included the book for Kismet (1953), for which he won a Tony Award in 1954.

  ¶ Claudette Colbert (1903–96) was a major Hollywood star, with appearances including It Happened One Night (1934), for which she won an Academy Award. She was married for thirty-three years to Dr Joel Pressman, a surgeon at UCLA.

  * A Star is Born, Judy Garland’s most famous post-MGM film, had a screenplay by Moss Hart.

  † Porter planned to close up and destroy Linda’s house and move his cottage from its original plot in the grounds into the space left by
her house.

  ‪ Berlin’s latest movies, White Christmas and There’s No Business Like Show Business, were both released in 1954.

  § The fire took place on 10 September 1954. See https://calisphere.org/item/3642800c3431e31f8c561f6918778e5d (accessed 4 July 2018) for an image.

  * Nat C. Goldstone (1903–66), Broadway producer. He founded a Hollywood talent agency with his brothers Charles and Jules.

  * Stark had set up a business selling theatre collectables.

  † Mignon (1866), an opera by Ambroise Thomas (1811–96).

  * Harold Arlen and Truman Capote’s House of Flowers opened on Broadway on 30 December 1954.

  † Peter Brook (1925–) is one of the greatest living British directors for stage and screen and a multiple award winner.

  * George Balanchine (1904–83), one of the most prolific and influential choreographers of the twentieth century.

  † Around this time Herbert Ross (1927–2001) had choreographed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951) and Three Wishes for Jamie (1953) on Broadway and later choreographed and/or directed films such as Funny Girl (1968) and Pennies from Heaven (1981), among many others.

  CHAPTER TEN

  PORTER’S LAST MUSICALS, 1955–1957

  Over Christmas 1954, Nunnally Johnson* had signed a contract to produce, write and direct the screen adaptation of Can-Can for 20th Century Fox.1 It was natural that he would turn to Abe Burrows, writer of the Broadway version of the book, for help. In his reply, Burrows shares some ideas for Can-Can that he had had to drop when writing the stage version and reports on the current state of Silk Stockings, then in its Boston tryout:

  15 January 1955: Abe Burrows to Nunnally Johnson2

  Dear Nunnally:

  Your letter was forwarded to me up here in Boston. I am here to help out on Silk Stockings (the Ninotchka musical). George Kaufman got ill what with the strain of directing and writing and he had to go back to New York – so they asked me to jump in and I’m up here to do what I can.

  The show is not in bad shape. There are just a lot of little things that George wasn’t able to get to because of his physical condition. We are doing terrific business in Boston – sold out for the whole four weeks – and then we go to Detroit for three weeks and it looks as though we will be sold out there too. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to go to Detroit. It’s a wonderful place to spend February in.

  In order to send you the additional stuff on Can-Can, I’ll have to get back to New York and dig it out. I hope you’re in no rush for it. Basically, what it involved was a character named Senator Beauvallon, who was based on an actual fellow named Senator Rene Berenger* who was an odd kind of sophisticated blue nose in Paris in the ’90s. He actually was backed by a group called The League Against Sidewalk Licentiousness which is mentioned in the present play. He led the first raid against the Quat’z Arts Ball.

  In my original opening courtroom scene I had Senator Beauvallon come on and demand drastic punishment for the girls. Later, I used him to furnish some pressure on the hero and in the final courtroom scene the hero and heroine’s victory was a defeat for him. That’s what the thing generally amounted to.

  When I get back to New York, I’ll send it on to you for what it’s worth. If, from my brief resume, you decide that you can’t use it, just let me know and I won’t bother sending it.

  It’s snowing in Boston.

  Aside from Burrows’s impressive collegiality in sharing his ideas for something he would not be actively involved in, the letter shows that Silk Stockings was well on the way to becoming a success. Porter himself seems to have spent most of his time in New York rather than being permanently on the road, perhaps for reasons that he revealed to his cousin Omar Cole and his friend Sam Stark on 17 January:

  17 January 1955: Cole Porter to Omar Cole3

  Dear Omar: –

  I am really ashamed of this show, “Silk Stockings”. The opening in New York has now been put off till February 24th. I shall not be here as I am flying to Switzerland on February 20th – but if you and Jo want to come, everything will be arranged for your comfort, with an apartment here at the hotel, opening night seats, seats for any other show you wish to see, and the use of my limousine and chauffeur. It would be a joy if you came.

  Four new scenes go into the first act tonight in Boston, but as new scenes are always badly played when they first go into a show, I am waiting till the latter part of the week to go there and see them; also, I have a new song going in tonight.

  Thank you for the Jouett check – and love to you all,

  [unsigned]

  17 January 1955: Cole Porter to Sam Stark4

  Dear Sam: –

  I have ordered The Searchers.*

  The great dramatic moment in “Anastasia”† is in the second act when the Grand Duchess recognizes Anastasia as her true granddaughter.

  When you call Harriette‡ “Har”, how do you pronounce it? Do you pronounce it as if it were “Har”, or do you pronounce it as if it were “Hair”? I find both the abbreviations unattractive.

  I did receive your history of the Keokuk Opera House, but I still maintain that little Elsa [Maxwell] was never born in one of those boxes.

  Love to all,

  [signed:] Cole

  P.S. – If you have not read “The Wilder Shores of Love”, by Lesley Blanch,§ get it quick. Don’t let Harriette read it though, because it might give her ideas.

  Porter’s irritation at seeing another preview of Silk Stockings is palpable in the following terse letter to one of the show’s producers, Cy Feuer, about its secondary female star, Yvonne Adair:¶

  27 January 1955: Cole Porter to Cy Feuer5

  Dear Cy: –

  Adair sings “Where she rose to reach the highest peak” (in JOSEPHINE).

  This does not make sense. The line should be:

  “Yet she rose to reach the highest peak.”

  Later on in the number, she sings: “But other good points as well.”

  The line should be: “Plus other good points as well.”

  Best,

  [unsigned]

  Rather than waiting for the opening of Silk Stockings, Porter, Robert Bray and Jean Howard departed for Switzerland, from where the composer wrote to his friend George Eells (according to McBrien,6 ‘Richard’ is a reference to Porter’s masseur in New York):

  24 February 1955: Cole Porter to George Eells7

  Dear George –

  [Howard] Sturges went to bed, Jean Howard went to bed & I’m sitting here all alone with a whisky & soda worrying about Richard. What does one do about all the Richards in our great country? I don’t mean the Richard whom I know & for whom I have a strange affection. I mean all the Richards all over the U.S.A., beautiful, sweet as hell but with, instead of schooling, television sets. It scares me. Please try to keep track of this victim of the atomic age. I’m sure that the equivalent of the contemporary Richard was much better equipped for the future, before Noah’s flood.

  Jean, Sturges & I have become very Swiss since our Zurich season started what with falling into German with all the local servants.

  Last night we were practically quoting Goethe in a little German restaurant here which nothing but the old aristocracy knows when in walked a sad-looking little man with bad teeth and so lonely. We had had several drinks and so we decided to take pity on him and asked him to join us.

  He turned out to be . . . [over]

  Darryl Zanuck.*

  Best –

  Cole

  Meanwhile, far away in Boston there was considerable tension behind the scenes at Silk Stockings. An unusually explicit news item appeared in the New York Times:

  Herewith a telegram sent from Boston yesterday by George S. Kaufman and his wife Leueen MacGrath, authors of “Silk Stockings”, the impending musical with songs by Cole Porter: “It has been mutually decided that the areas of disagreement between ourselves and the producers [Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin] are too great to be bridged. Accordingly, we ha
ve withdrawn and the show is now in the hands of Mr. Feuer as director, with Abe Burrows working on the book. It is our wish that Mr. Burrows be billed as co-author.” Astonishment was expressed by Mr. Martin when the contents of the joint wire were relayed to him in Boston, where “Silk Stockings” is being whipped into shape for its delayed premiere on Feb. 24 at the Imperial. After regaining his poise, Mr. Martin said, “The Kaufmans are in complete disagreement with all those in charge of the show.” [. . .] Lately, the Kaufmans have been collaborating on changes with Mr. Burrows, who was invited to step in during the emergency. The first act is “much improved,” it was said by Mr. Martin, who added that second-act revisions will be inserted this week.*

  Burrows’s work continued through February and the show was ready to open as planned. The New York Times ran an interview feature with Porter, in which he commented on his work:

  [Porter] will attend the opening but not the opening-night party. Nor will he wait up for the notices. “The next morning,” he said recently in his suite at the Waldorf Towers, “this valet, Paul [Sylvain], I’ve had for twenty years will wake me up and either nod or shake his head. I cannot wait until I begin the next one. I begin in June. I’d rather write than do anything on earth.” [. . .]

  He has no helpful hints for aspiring songwriters. “I haven’t the faintest notion how one writes hits,” he said. “I don’t know of anybody who sits down to write a hit, with the exception of Irving Berlin who can’t help writing hits. I certainly don’t know how. It never enters one of our heads when I sit down to write. ‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy’ was a hit. It was written simply to fill in a stage wait in ‘Leave it to Me.’ ‘I Love Paris’ in ‘Can-Can’ was written because Jo Mielziner had designed such a beautiful set. I once wrote a song called ‘Rosalie’ for a picture called ‘Rosalie.’ I’d written about six of that title. I handed in the sixth and played it for Louis B. Mayer. ‘Forget Nelson Eddy,’ he said. ‘Go home and write a honky-tonk tune.’ It was a hit. I don’t like it. The one he threw out was better.” [. . .]