Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/86
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 10 July 1950 (Circa. Letter dated 'Monday July 10th'.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
3 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
Describes his phone call to Garbo. Refers to her taking piano lessons and giving away prizes at the schoolchildren's display. Encourages Garbo to visit him. Reports that he has been working on his Gainsborough play with a director and doing some drawings of the ballet. Is going to London again but will not be so engaged. Debates visiting Taormina for a holiday. Refers to the possibility of a war as a result of the situation in Korea. Mr Churchill says that it is a 5-1 chance. Sympathises with Garbo's hurt wrist. Writes that his cat may be given to Clarissa Spencer-Churchill.