Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/103
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 1 May 1951 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
4 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
Apologises for complaining about the weather. Describes an awful winter turning into a heat wave and back into snow again. Explains that the warm weather resulted in him quitting London for the countryside, where he wrote short stories, designed for play in Salisbury Cathedral and weeded garden. He is now returning to London to visit the Festival Exhibition. Describes Victorian objects in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Exclaims over the sale of Garbo's house in California. Hopes it will result in her eventually coming to England. Sympathises over her cold being in its fifth month. Says his cold is better and he has no pains. Enquires after her pains. Mentions his Viennese Doctor, Dr Gottfried. Refers to the impact of George Schlee's illness. Encourages Garbo to visit in September.