A series of great SPOKEN WORD Records from Movies, Vaudeville, Stage and Humor on 78 rpm Victrola Records
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Coward and Lawrence in Family Album
NOEL COWARD and GETRUDE LAWRENCE perform scenes from NOEL COWARD plays in this early 1930's
Fresh from the 1930 Premiere of Noel Coward's PRIVATE LIVES with the Ray Noble Orch playing
A wonderful treat for all Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, and Private Lives fans! The original performers (Noel Coward wrote the play and music) recorded the Act 1 love scene. It includes Coward's most famous song "Someday I'll Find You" sung in context with the scene around it.
The Act II pivotal Balcony scene with Coward as Elyot and Gertrude Lawrence as Amando
Elyot sits alone on his balcony. Amanda does the same. They do not notice each other until begins singing along to music. Amanda notices him first, and although they are surprised to see each other, they attempt to remain calm. Amanda excuses herself and goes inside.
Elyot tries to explain to Sybil that they must leave at once, but he does not reveal the reason. When she refuses to allow them to leave, Sybil bursts into tears as Elyot rages about her stubbornness. In the next room, Amanda is in a similar argument with her husband. However, when Victor remains obstinate she reverts to the truth. But Victor believes that she has only imagined her ex-husband. Victor storms off, headed for the bar. Sybil leaves in hysterics, headed for the downstairs dining room.
Elyot and Amanda recall their early days together, reminiscing over the pleasant times and walking through the character flaws that led to their downfall.
ELYOT: We're not in love all over again and you know it.
She asks about Elyot's travels throughout the world. In the middle of that conversation, Elyot confesses that he loves her. He wants her back again. They kiss. He proposes that they escape immediately, but she thinks that they should be honest with their new spouses. He convinces her otherwise and together they leave the hotel room.
Gertrude Lawrence, Noël Coward – Love Scene From "Private Lives"
Label: Victor – 36034
Format:
Shellac, 12", 78 RPM
Genre: Non-Music, Stage & Screen
Style: Dialogue, Theme
A Love Scene From "Private Lives"
B Scene From "Private Lives"
Record Company – The Gramophone Co. Ltd.
Published By – Copyright Royalties Supervision
Orchestra – Ray Noble And His Orchestra
Recorded in London, 15 Sept. 1930.
Superb pre war gold circle Victor 12" 78 rpm record
Condition: EXCELLENT CLOSE TO PRISTINE rare finest scratch does not sound plays very quiet light hiss rare ticks
A GREAT COPY
Sir Noel Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 û 26 March 1973) was an English actor, playwright and composer of popular music. Among his achievements, he received an Academy Certificate of Merit at the 1943 Academy Awards for "outstanding production achievement for In Which We Serve."[1]
Early life
He was born in Teddington, Middlesex, England to Arthur Sabin Coward (1856û1937), a clerk, and his wife Violet Agnes (1863û1954), daughter of Henry Gordon Veitch, captain and surveyor in the Royal Navy. He was the second of their three sons, the eldest of whom had died in 1898 at the age of six. He began performing in the West End at an early age. He was a childhood friend of Hermione Gingold, whose mother warned her against him.
A student at the Italia Conti Academy stage school, CowardÆs first professional engagement was on 27 January 1911, in the childrenÆs play The Goldfish. After this appearance, he was sought after for childrenÆs roles by other professional theatres. He was cast as the Lost Boy Slightly in the 1913 production of Peter Pan.
At the age of 14, he became the lover of Philip Streatfeild, a society painter who took him in and introduced him to high society in the form of Mrs. Astley Cooper. She gathered a salon of artists and invited him to live on her property at Hambleton, Rutland, but on the farm rather than in the Hall, due to his lower social class.[2] Streatfeild died from tuberculosis in 1915.
He played in several productions with Sir Charles Hawtrey, a Victorian actor and comedian, whom he idolized and to whom he virtually apprenticed himself until he was 20. It was from Hawtrey that Coward learned comic acting techniques and playwriting. He was drafted briefly into the British Army during World War I but was discharged for ill health. Coward appeared in the D. W. Griffith film Hearts of the World (1918) in an uncredited role. He found his voice and began writing plays that he and his friends could star in while at the same time writing revues.
[edit] Success
He starred in one of his first full-length plays, the inheritance comedy I'll Leave It To You, in 1920 at the age of 20. The following year he completed a one-act satire, The Better Half, about a man's relationship with two women, and it had a short run at the Little Theatre, London in 1922. The play was thought to be lost until a typescript was rediscovered in 2007 in the archive of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, which at that time licensed all plays for performance in the UK , and imposed cuts or complete bans.[3]
After he enjoyed some moderate success with the Shaw-esque The Young Idea in 1923, the controversy surrounding his play The Vortex (1924), which contains many veiled references to drug abuse and homosexuality, made him an overnight sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. Coward followed this with three more major hits, Hay Fever, Fallen Angels (both 1925) and Easy Virtue (1926).
Much of Coward's best work came in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Enormous (and enormously popular) productions, such as the full-length operetta Bitter Sweet (1929) and Cavalcade (1931), a huge extravaganza requiring a very large cast, gargantuan sets and an exceedingly complex hydraulic stage, were interspersed with finely-wrought comedies such as Private Lives (1930), in which Coward himself starred alongside his most famous stage partner, Gertrude Lawrence; and the black comedy Design for Living (1932), written for Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
Coward again partnered with Lawrence in Tonight at 8:30 (1936), an ambitious cycle of ten short plays that were randomly "shuffled" to make up a different playbill of three plays each night. One of these plays, Still Life, was expanded into the 1945 David Lean film Brief Encounter. He was also a prolific writer of popular songs, and a lucrative recording contract with HMV allowed him to release a number of recordings, many now reissued on CD. Coward's most popular hits include the romantic I'll See You Again and Dear Little CafT; and the comic Mad Dogs and Englishmen, The Stately Homes of England and (Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage) Mrs Worthington
[edit] World War II
The outbreak of World War II in 1939 saw Coward working harder than ever. When the war started he had only just left Paris. He took time off from writing to perform for the troops, but after was eager to return. Alongside his highly-publicised tours entertaining Allied troops, he was also engaged by the British Secret Service MI5 in intelligence work[4]. He was frustrated by the criticism he faced for his glamorous lifestyle, apparently living the high life while his countrymen sufferedùespecially his trips to America to sway opinion there.[5] Coward was unable to defend himself because he could not reveal that he was working for the Secret Service.
Had the Nazis invaded Britain, Coward would have been arrested and killed as he was on The Black Book along with other figures such as the socialist writer H. G. Wells. Before CowardÆs work for the Secret Service came to light, it was assumed the Nazis only targeted him as a homosexual.[citation needed] George VI, a personal friend, encouraged the government to award Coward a knighthood for his efforts in 1942. This was blocked by Winston Churchill, who disapproved of Coward's flamboyant lifestyle.[5] Churchill advised giving the official reason as Coward's ú200 fine for spending ú11,000 on a trip to America.
Coward wrote and released some extraordinarily popular songs during the war, the most famous of which are London Pride and Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans. He complained to Churchill, his frequent painting companion, that he felt he was not doing enough to support the war effort. Churchill suggested he make a movie based on the career of Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten. The result was the naval film drama In Which We Serve, which Coward served as writer, star, composer and co-director (alongside David Lean). The film was immensely popular on both sides of the Atlantic and Coward was awarded an honorary certificate of merit at the 1943 Academy Awards ceremony.[1]
In the 1940s Coward wrote some of his best plays. The social commentary This Happy Breed and the intricate semi-autobiographical comedy-drama Present Laughter (both 1939) were later combined with the hugely successful black comedy Blithe Spirit (1941) to form a West End triple-bill, which starred Coward in all three simultaneous productions. Blithe Spirit went on to make box-office records for a West End comedy that were not beaten until the 1970s,[citation needed] and was later filmed by David Lean.
[edit] Later works
Coward's popularity as a playwright declined sharply in the 1950s, with plays such as Quadrille, Relative Values, Nude with Violin and South Sea Bubble failing to find much favour with critics or audiences. Despite this he maintained a high public profile, continuing to write (and occasionally star in) moderately successful West End plays and musicals, performing an acclaimed solo cabaret act in Las Vegas (available on CD), and starring in films such as Bunny Lake is Missing, Around the World in 80 Days, Our Man in Havana, Boom! and The Italian Job.
After starring in a number of American TV specials in the late 1950s alongside Mary Martin, Coward left the UK for tax reasons. He first settled in Bermuda but later moved to Jamaica, where he remained for the rest of his life. His play Waiting in the Wings (1960), set in a rest home for retired actresses, marked a turning-point in his popularity, gaining plaudits from critics, who likened it to the work of Anton Chekhov.[citation needed] The late 1960s saw a revival in his popularity, with several new productions of his 1920s plays and a number of revues celebrating his music; Coward dubbed this comeback "Dad's Renaissance".
Coward's final stage work was Suite in Three Keys (1966), a trilogy set in a hotel penthouse suite, with him taking the lead roles in all three. The trilogy gained excellent reviews and did good box office business in the UK. Coward intended to star in Suite in Three Keys on Broadway but was unable to travel due to illness. Only two of the plays were performed in New York, with the title changed to Nodl Coward in Two Keys and the lead taken by Hume Cronyn.