The Letters of Cole Porter

by Cole Porter

  I miss you awfully and I wish you would come back quick. Nice dinners continue rather often. For the first time I went to the Buddy Adlers* for dinner. It was extraordinary – such a beautiful house and food for the Gods. Perhaps the dinner wasn’t big enough for you – there were only nineteen – but, of course, I am a simple boy from Indiana who likes quiet evenings.

  Lots of love –

  [signed:] Cole

  But the main news of August was that Porter was to compose an original musical for television. On 5 August it was announced that Porter ‘had been signed to write the music and lyrics for “Aladdin”, which will be based on the “Arabian Nights” tale about a young man and his magic lamp’. The script was to be written by S. J. Perelman for CBS, with an anticipated broadcast date of 21 February.140 The show was to be produced by Richard Lewine, who met with Perelman and Porter in California in August to make plans. The following sequence of letters charts their collaboration, starting with the following from Richard Lewine to Porter:

  27 August 1957: Richard Lewine to Cole Porter141

  Dear Cole:

  I have sent you today the Osbert Sitwell† book, ESCAPE WITH ME!, that Sid [Perelman] mentioned when we saw you. Only the second half of the book deals with Peking, but this half contains a lot of useful information about the market place. You might look at pages 164–168, 205–209, 269, 307–312. Pages 251–252 list names of various sections of the Imperial Palace.

  I will shortly be sending you further material as promised. This will include a description of the then known world for use in the Emperor’s song; a list of the stars for the Astrologer; and as much detail as we can get about life at the Palace for the song at the tradesmen’s entrance. I will enclose with this letter other information about the market place that had already been researched.

  The city, Peking, was called by this name, but from 1421 onward.

  I want also to send thanks from both Sid and myself for your cordiality to us. We feel that a great deal was accomplished in our meetings and we’re both very excited about the prospect of working with you. Be sure to let me know as you discover other information that we can dig up for you, and I will send you progress reports from time to time. From both of us again, many thanks for everything.

  [signed:] Dick

  Evidently, the research that had gone into Porter’s scores for Can-Can and Silk Stockings was to be repeated for Aladdin:

  31 August 1957: Cole Porter to Richard Lewine142

  Dear Dick:

  Your letter with its detailed information, together with the book by Osbert Sitwell, arrived last night and I shall study it with great care, and thank you and Sid very much.

  I have been working on the MAKE WAY FOR THE EMPEROR number and on the ballad which Aladdin first sings. As usual, when I start a job, I am having a dreadful time, not only with the music but with the lyrics, so I beg you – be patient.

  Could you and Sid [Perelman] find a spot anywhere in the story where the Princess could sing about having met Aladdin, being in love with him and wanting him to be in love with her? This song would be a counterpart to Aladdin’s song about her. I have written this song with the title ALADDIN, which might greatly help our product. The song is very simple and has, I think, a haunting and slightly sad melody. I enclose a lyric of the refrain to give you an idea of what I mean.

  I can’t tell you how nice it was to see you and Sid when you were here and I look forward to our next meeting very much indeed.

  All my best –

  Sincerely,

  [signed:] Cole

  Lewine continued to send him research materials:

  4 September 1957: Richard Lewine to Cole Porter143

  Dear Cole:

  I have your letter which was written before our telephone conversation. As you know, I am delighted with the Aladdin song and as soon as I get your final version, we can start on specific plans for early exploitation.

  I’m sending herewith additional research as follows:

  1. Extent of the then-known world for possible use in the Emperor’s song.

  2. List of the stars as then known for the Astrologer.

  3. General material which might be helpful in describing life at the palace.

  Hope the above is of some help to you and again, the new song sounds wonderful. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.

  Best regards,

  [signed:] Dick

  In his reply, Porter reveals his progress on the score:

  7 September 1957: Cole Porter to Richard Lewine144

  Dear Dick:

  Thank you for your letter of September 4th, including additional research. I have not been able to look at this, as yet, as I am working very hard on the song MAKE WAY FOR THE EMPEROR and the song THE SUPER MARKET IN OLD PEKING. On the MAKE WAY FOR THE EMPEROR song there is one lyric line which I cannot get and it is driving me crazy. In the THE SUPER MARKET IN OLD PEKING song I am progressing beautifully and am trying to write two sets of lyrics, in case the song can stand a repetition in its one spot. The lyrics to this song will have to be sung by somebody with excellent diction. Otherwise, it will lay an old Chinese egg.

  I enclose the corrected lyric for the refrain of ALADDIN. I believe this is as well as I can do.

  All my best to you and Sid.

  Sincerely,

  [signed:] Cole

  Later letters suggest Porter was struggling with his work:

  14 September 1957: Cole Porter to Richard Lewine145

  Dear Dick:

  Thank you for your letter of September 12th, 1957. I was most interested to read that Sid [Perelman] has finished more than half the script. At present I expect to return to New York on October 15th and I don’t know, as yet, whether it will be wise to send me the new script or not, as my progress is not as speedy as I had hoped.

  The Supermarket song is practically finished and I hope you will both like it, but the song about the constellations worries me greatly as I think very few people know anything about the constellations. In fact, most people even think that planets are stars. I am trying to write a song based upon the title TRUST YOUR DESTINY TO THE SKIES, as I refuse to rhyme “stars” with “Mars.” It has been done far too often. My problem is to work out this refrain so that the words be general instead of specific but, as yet, I cannot solve it.

  I have written a song with the far from startling title of I ADORE YOU, to be used as a duet for Aladdin and the Princess. I hope you will like it.

  And I also hope you get Cyril Ritchard.*

  All my best –

  [signed:] Cole

  Of course, work rarely prevented Porter from maintaining his social life, as the following note to the writer Clifford Odets* shows:

  21 September 1957: Cole Porter to Clifford Odets146

  Dear Clifford:

  Thanks so much for your charming painting of naive flowers.

  It was a joy having you for dinner the other night.

  All my best –

  [signed:] Cole

  The arrival of Alex Steinert, whom Porter had been using as his musical assistant for a number of years, signalled that the score was at an advanced stage of completion:

  21 September 1957: Cole Porter to Richard Lewine147

  Dear Dick:

  I enclose two lyrics on the Marketplace song and I don’t believe I can write any more on this subject. I also don’t believe that it needs a verse as it is a 48 bar song, written in a fairly leisurely swing tempo. The first section of each refrain is 12 bars long. Also the second section. The third section is the release and is 8 bars long, and the final section is 16 bars long.

  I hope you will approve of this lyric, because if you don’t I will take an overdose of ant poison.

  Alex Steinert has arrived and we start on Monday to write out the tunes I have written, which consists of five. This will be slow work as I want every detail to be correct.

  I have nearly finished the NO WONDER TAXES ARE HIGH song but I am still having trouble
with lyrics. This is another long song – in fact each refrain, of which I hope to write three, has 60 bars of music, but this NO WONDER TAXES ARE HIGH song is in a quicker tempo than the Market song.

  My best to you and Syd [Perelman]. [sic]

  [signed:] Cole

  A week later, Porter wrote again to Lewine with further updates on Aladdin. This is the last extant letter from Porter to a collaborator while writing a musical:

  28 September 1957: Cole Porter to Richard Lewine148

  Dear Dick:

  When I sent you two blueprints of the song ALADDIN I also sent one blueprint and the onion skin to Dr. Sirmay at Chappell, so that you can get as many copies as you wish.

  Today I am sending you two blueprints of COME TO THE SUPERMARKET IN OLD PEKING and to Dr. Sirmay one blueprint and the onion skin. At first you may find the rhythm of the bass in SUPERMARKET song a bit complicated, but if you play it often enough it will become easy for you. I think that this bass will be most effective when orchestrated. I have written half of MAKE WAY, which is the song introducing the procession of the Emperor and the Princess. When you receive it don’t be upset by the fact that the vocal part goes up to a G. Perhaps it should be put in even a higher key, as it should be sung by a first tenor with a very nasal voice. This trick, as you undoubtedly know, was used in LE COQ D’OR* in the sorcerer’s part and is most outstanding. The whole number, which is not long, sounds completely Chinese until the finish – when I shall probably cheat a bit.

  I am also writing down I ADORE YOU. You will receive two versions of this song, in the hope that Aladdin can first sing it, either to or about the Princess, and that later Aladdin and the Princess can sing it as a duet.

  I believe I have solved the difficulty of the song about the stars. This is a slow waltz and the title is TRUST YOUR DESTINY TO YOUR STAR. If you wish, I can write a verse mentioning some of the stars of the greatest magnitude and then mention the fact that Aladdin should choose one of these stars.

  Don’t forget also that I shall write two verses for the song ALADDIN by which Aladdin can sing it, first, in thinking about the Princess and, later, the Princess can sing it to, or about, Aladdin. These two verses will be entirely different, not only musically but lyrically, the one from the other.

  I return to New York on October 15th to stay.

  Get Cyril Ritchard. Get Cyril Ritchard. Get Cyril Ritchard! He could also sing beautifully the TAXES ARE HIGH number, of which I have finished the lyric but not the music.

  All my best to you and Sid –

  [signed:] Cole

  A month later, he remained too busy with Aladdin to consider projects that had been offered to him by the producer Leland Hayward and the screenwriter Howard Emmett Rogers:

  22 October 1957: Cole Porter to Leland Hayward149

  Dear Leland: –

  I thought I could read the Lady from Colorado* immediately, but I find I have a lot to do on the spectacular which I am doing for CBS. So, please be patient.

  Best,

  [signed:] Cole

  22 October 1957: Cole Porter to Robert Montgomery150

  Dear Bob: –

  I am returning to you the copy of THE GUARDSMAN, as I cannot consider a Broadway show at the present moment. I am too busy on the CBS spectacular.

  Please thank Mr. Emmett Rogers* for thinking of me.

  Best,

  [signed:] Cole

  Les Girls had its world premiere at the Radio City Music Hall on 3 October. One reviewer called it a ‘joy and delight’ and Porter came out of it well: his music was described as ‘excellent’ as well as ‘agreeably mischievous and daring’.151 Porter’s friend and record producer Goddard Lieberson was also an admirer: on 24 October he wrote to the composer to compliment him on one of his new songs – ‘I have not seen “Les Girls” yet, but this song is enough to get me there’ – and Porter responded:

  29 October 1957: Cole Porter to Goddard Lieberson152

  Dear Goddard: –

  Thank you so much for your letter about “Ca C’est L’amour”. I am so happy that you like it.

  All my best,

  [signed:] Cole

  Meanwhile, work continued on Aladdin. On 29 November, Lewine wrote to Porter to report that the team had ‘[come] up with a much better ending for the story. I won’t try to describe it here, but it keeps the suspense alive until the very last moment and is generally much better story construction.’153 Lewine also sent Porter a copy of a recording of the actress who was to play the Princess in the production:

  3 December 1957: Cole Porter to Richard Lewine154

  Dear Dick: –

  Thank you so much for sending me the Anna Maria Alberghetti* album. I played it and enjoyed it very much. But we must get her down. I heard her on another TV program a few nights ago, and she didn’t go up in the clouds until her finish number, which was most pleasant; and she looked very beautiful.

  I shall await with expectation the new script.

  I am delighted that Irene Sharaff and Bob Markell are already at work. It looks most promising.

  Quite a few people have heard the private recording and liked it very much indeed.

  All my best. I hope you are enjoying California.

  Sincerely,

  [unsigned]

  The last letter of 1957 is Porter’s typical post-Christmas message to the Starks, thanking them for their Christmas gift:

  27 December 1957: Cole Porter to Harriette and Sam Stark155

  Dear Harriette and Sam: –

  The beautiful red leather book to record my luncheons and dinners arrived. It is so practical and lovely, and I thank you both so much.

  It arrived this morning, Dec. 27th, with a sticker on the outside, “Do Not Open Till Christmas”, but I decided not to wait until next Christmas and broke the instructions.

  I think of you so often and do hope that we shall meet next summer and have a lot of laughs.

  Love,

  [signed:] Cole

  * Nunnally Johnson (1897–1977) was a writer, director and producer of movies, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

  * René Bérenger (1830–1915) was a French judge and politician.

  * Alan Le May’s The Searchers is a Western novel (New York, 1954). A movie version, starring John Wayne, was released in 1956.

  † Marcel Maurette’s play Anastasia opened on Broadway in December 1954.

  ‡ Stark’s wife.

  § The novel was published in 1954. It tells the story of a group of women travelling to the East in search of love and adventure, hence Porter’s joking reference in the following sentence.

  ¶ Yvonne Adair (?1922–?2001), Broadway actress. She originated the role of Dorothy Shaw in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949). She was replaced in Silk Stockings by Gretchen Wyler before it reached Broadway.

  * Darryl F. Zanuck (1902–79) was a prolific film producer and studio executive at 20th Century Fox. The story is significant because Fox was to produce the film of Can-Can.

  * Sam Zolotow, ‘Run of “Festival” Will Be Extended’, New York Times, 24 January 1955, 20.

  * Lily Pons (1898–1976) was one of the foremost American opera singers of the twentieth century, specializing in the Italian coloratura repertoire.

  † Gretchen Wyler (1932–2007) was a veteran Broadway actress who appeared in the original productions of Guys and Dolls, Silk Stockings and Bye Bye Birdie, among others. She played Janice Dayton in Silk Stockings, replacing Yvonne Adair.

  * A musical by Sigmund Romberg from 1927.

  * Joseph Moskowitz, an executive at 20th Century Fox.

  * For the MGM film version.

  * Richard Hawkins’s review of Silk Stockings in the World Telegram and Sun was the only negative notice the show received.

  * Jackie Gleason (1916–97) was a comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Porter is making a joke about his physical stature.

  † Cowles was Eells’s edito
r at Look magazine; see Howard, Travels with Cole Porter, 31.

  ‡ Porter’s masseur, according to McBrien.

  § John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) was an American politician. At that point, he was U.S. Secretary of State under President Eisenhower.

  ¶ Marlene Dietrich (1901–92), the German-born Hollywood movie star.

  * A photograph of Bebino di Salina (dates unknown) at a masquerade ball with Porter resides at Yale University in the Natalie Paley photograph albums (call number: GEN MSS 574). This suggests Salina was a friend from Porter’s European days.

  * A Catalan dance.

  † José Ensesa Gubert (1892–1981) was the proprietor of the Hostal de la Gavina on the Costa Brava. See Catherine Reynolds, ‘Sedate Splendor on the Costa Brava’, New York Times, 17 July 1994.

  ‡ Eddie Fisher (1928–2010) was a hugely successful popular singer and the husband of Debbie Reynolds. He later married Elizabeth Taylor and then Connie Stevens. He had his own television show and had seventeen Top Ten hits during the 1950s.

  § Debbie Reynolds (1932–2016) was one of MGM’s most popular actresses, notably appearing in Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964).

  * Umberto II (1902–83) was the last King of Italy, reigning for thirty-four days from 9 May to 12 June 1946. Italy became a republic and Umberto moved to Cascais in Portugal for the rest of his life.

  † Howard’s diary notes that Robert Bray and Henry May went with him.

  ‡ The book Napoleon III: A Great Life in Brief was published in New York in 1947.

  § A reference to Porter’s new apartment in the Waldorf Towers, which had been lavishly refurbished.

  ¶ Bus Stop (1956), a film directed by Joshua Logan and starring Marilyn Monroe. He played Carl in the movie.

  * On 29 April 1955, Howard’s diary (Travels with Cole Porter, 50) notes: ‘Cole left for Rome. I hope to feel well enough to meet him there tomorrow.’

  † Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) was the prolific writer of novels such as Les Enfants Terribles (1929) and director of films like Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949).