Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/78
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 8 May 1950 (Circa. Letter is dated 'Monday May 6th?'.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
7 p. paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Photographer, artist, writer, and designer of scenery and costumes. Educated at Harrow and St John's College, Cambridge, 1922-5. Made his name as a photographer through portraits of the Sitwells. Employed by Vogue in London and New York. Published 'The Book of Beauty' (1930). Photographed the Duke of Windsor's wedding, 1937. War photographer, 1939-45. Designed 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 1945. Designed costumes for 'An Ideal Husband' and 'Anna Karenina', 1948. Worked on 'The School for Scandal', 1949, 'Quadrille' for Noel Coward, 1952, 'Turandot', 1961, and 'La Traviata', 1966. Designed costumes for 'My Fair Lady', 1956, and for the film version in Hollywood, 1963. His play 'The Gainsborough Girls', 1951 and 1959, was unsuccessful. Published 'The Glass of Fashion' (1954), and six volumes of diaries. Exhibited photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, 1968. Knighted 1972.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Writes about his journey to Liverpool with Michael Duff's mother, Juliet. Criticises a play about 'cockney sailors' which he saw on his first evening there. Describes a walk through Liverpool including taxi driver and flower sellers. Writes about his work in the theatre including an anecdote about Juliet. Deliberates between staying in England for his own play and going to New York to take up Leland Hayward's commission to work on a Irving Berlin -- Ethel Merman production. Mentions that he is taking a week off in the country. Refers to Mrs Shoot, his daily woman. Has found an osteopath to work on his bad posture. Describes his photograph shoot for the Queen's fiftieth birthday at Buckingham Place, including the appearance of Princess Margaret. Details the first night of 'The Cocktail Party' in London, including Rex Harrison in the leading role and T. S. Eliot's appearance on stage. Mentions his evening at a French ballet at the Covent Garden Opera and a supper party at the new French Embassy. Writes that he drove down to Wiltshire with Clarissa Spencer-Churchill. Asks Garbo questions about herself.