1957-09-14 — Page 5

News From Britain

by

PETER BURGOYNE

THERE comes a point in pursuit of in-

Tthe

dividual freedom when the question has to be asked- "Where does liberty, end and licence begin?"

For Britons last week thi question Wus rulsed by the long-walled (three years in the making Wolfenden report an homo.exuality and prostitution,

That both viery existed on an unwhole:ome scale was no news to the nation.

A series of much-publicised cases had established of Jale that homosexuaisty Why more prevalent $12 "respectable" society than many find thought. And anyone who had Ver walked through the West Ex! of London night knew too well the flagraney of the pro-

titutes and their pimps,

The police werd-and still are --virtually powerlers to do any- thing about the regiments

گونده

street walkers who are often on their ebents" by mid-afternoon. For prostitution, as such is not illegal in England.

Before & prostitute. CHIL 1 prosecuted a member of the publie has to complain that be hu been "annoyed" try ser soliciting. And even when they are handed before the courts the severest punishment meled out is a line of forty-shillings, an

moral

Y ONDON –—– Christmas — R 1921. Outsido, a cold December for to dampen the most festive spirit. But in- side, in the little school hall

a feabite to a gle whose im-in Marylebone, rudimentary

etering

magistrate who sentences her.

But it was not the Wolfenden count.ice's recommendation that the punishment Joitering prostitutes should be made hit exercised the nation.

that 17:

privato affairs

to

romosexuals. And it get the

played Brutus. used

age of consent' as 21.

Teeth, it recrimmended, should still he left in the law to deat with koinckexulis who force or corrupted youngsters.

The thirteen-strong committee headed by Sir John Wolfenden, Vice-Chancellor cf Reading University, defended thele con- troversiel recommendation vowfag they could

Ind

Sho could scarcely leve known, as she wrote this high praise to 14-year-old Laurence Olvier, that he was destined to nu Enjny success and fame eclip-

///

THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER

"I suppose Tom is what you call drossed in the hoight of fashion."

· 1957. ....

Genius & Glamour

the Story of Sir Laurence Olivier

By ALEC HAMILTON

A GREAT ACTOR” *ALREADY

married actress Jun Esmond that July.

Coward's play went to New York, Olivier with it. Finding himself halfway to Hollywood, he set off for the film capital under his own steam when the play ended for the coming of talkies had put a high premium on good-looking actors with voice to match.

E

Olivier wasn't the first or the last

actor to get his fingerk caught in the slam of Hollywood doors. He made some pol- boilers but found himself in the doldrums and led to England. Hollywood enticed him back with a chance of playing oppo- site Garbo, for no reason he CONTACT US could think of. Garbo's attitude towards him was straight from the heart of a Swedish winter, and The door slammed again, Olivier

retired ruefully to Broadway pursued by Gardo's melancholy assurance, "Life's a puin anyway."

had

Rev. Mr Olivier

once cherished ambitions to be an opera-singer, and gave his son continuous support and couragement in his ambitions.

en-

With that thought in mind Olivier shunned Hollywood cun- pletely for the next five years, despite tempting offers, and de- voted himself to the stage and parts he fanclod were artistic- ally if not financially rewarding-

(untaxed of footlights shine upon a tiny Base) bei fvourable com stage and in the excited Brist wi these of

nudience sit three of the brightest stars in the history of the theatre-Eilen Terry. doven of the British stage, Lady Tree, and Misa (now It was Be Tecommendation Dame) Sybil Thorndike,

laws affecting The boys of All Saints Cho'r homosexuals should be liber-School are giving a spirited alised. The Wolfender reprit performance of "Jullus Caesar." argued, in effect, that the law At the anal curtain they are

uld keep its nese out of the

epplauded ond the 4} Lauli reundy

cast lines

backstage

Dramatic Art. Ellen ideal in its single-minded de- Training and to shake hands with

their..or.. To his Shy was a quaint old character, She has a special em- voton to Terry

lad who has country he is

a brace for the

a prime rourca under her huge hat, with That night she of international prestige, to the queenly bearing that an ocea- was to write in her dlary, "He Shakespeare-lover he is The slonal appearance in odd shoes Bard's greatest prophet, to the and a tendency to munch apples is already a great actor."

movie-audience he is producer, during rehearsals could not up- Olivier stood in dire need of director and ular of guarius, to cct. She planted her fore- all the support and determina the theatre-goer he is the sue finger in the middle of his tien he could conjure up

After he left the Central School said "You of Gorrick, Kean and booting brow and

the unkl He is the living ex- have a weakness there" (which he did

two-year provincial repertory, fcccunts for Olivier's life-long grind in addiction to false poses the and it was borne in upon him stage partner, Sir Henry Irving.

fame and for- atago), told him he would be that rarely do Forty years later with

better off on the farm, and

tune come unsought and with- Oilvier at the height of his

He ancholorship.

out sacrifice. Love him powers the

Olivier did not rorket to worked hard great actress's

at the Central

Then, in 1928, he won his perception seems acute, but not fame-although t is tempting School, but was not considered incredible. For today, no role to compare his career to this a gift to the profession.

One Arst leading part in London, from high tragedy to low dazzling firework: Whe first of the teachers

and his foot was firmly planted declared him

on the ladder's lowest comedy seems beyond

In those his spark struck

rung, lacking Ho early heavy-footed" and

won the

"Beau lead in crilles Lool productions, the steady, in grace." range, bcriminating

Olivier persevered. hail him as

Geste," supposedly the season's the world's fore- sweeping rise to complete pre- most actor, and

dominance, and at the height of Bo exalled

Perhaps

To take the part the tenacity in acting plum. his name that an Olivier first his career

brilliant herited

war Iltic-fancled from his Hugueno: he left a

drama. helped him. He ancestors Incomplete with flowering of his versatility.

Was R mistake. night seems

a bead of out

state In The But it wasn't quite like that, comes from a long line of "Beau Geste“ collapsed after audience; in Austria the Pre- for in the

while the play long interval be. churchmes, being directly des- only a month,

he had silent of the Republie is there, tween promise and fulalment cended from the Rev. Jourdain

forsaken, "Joumey's in Belgrade Tito leads the ap- the climb faltcred and fought Olivier,

End," was well on its way to who crossed 10 Eng- disaster many times.

land in 1600

His foot pause, in Washington he escoNL-

a classic. as chaplain to becoming panies President Eisenhower to Olivier's first obstacle took William of Orange. Olivier's had slipped the premier of "Richard II" the form of the redoubtable father was a parson at Doris- With h beautiful wife he Miss Elsie Fogerty, founder of ing, in Surrey, where he was toms a romantic partnership, the Central School of Speech born on May. 22, 1907. The

by

tens.or

Irving

evidence that homosexuality

"the decay of civilis-sing even that of her immortal pression of gentis and glamour,

Catties

11on."

They could be right. Maybe homosexuality as such does Bol eanse the decay of civilisations. But they glossed over the his- torically-comonstrable fact that what does bying down nations

Is the ainte of mind which condones unnatural vices,

The committee's one dissenil- ext term this recommendation was hard-hitting lawyer James Adair. ore-time Pencurator Fisc: troughly equivalent to an American District Attorney) for

Glasgow.

He was convinced that the social fabric of a nation could

undwmined by

granting

DC licere

to adult homosexuals. And he spoke us a man whose egreer he brought him into close touch with the dirty side

of life.

the

if,

Now the case is before the British public, The question "Is this liberly or is it licence?"

All the signs

that are Brith public sent ripe for this kind of "liberalism." through, their relers, they ae- cept this main reeeenendatur of the Wolfenden report, each man and woman will have to ask If he or she is prepared to con- dong a s'n which takes its name from the Biblical cities of the plain, destroyed for their de- pravity.

The Government is most un likely to lay this burden on the nation's conscience, and it seems u safe bet that the Government will implement largely the re- commendations for clearing pro- - stitutes off the streets, but will

leave

law effecting homosexuals much as it stands at the moment.

STATUS QUO

the

Britain's mighty Trades Union Congress has decided that for the meantime anyway it is con- tent to rempla hydrabeaded squabbling giant.

At its annual conference 11t Blackpool, the TUC rejected a bid to streamline its organic- tfen and co-ordinate #: polley on wages and related questions.

But, for the momeat, union rivalric and Jealousies are too strong to be overcome. And so the úrtens are going to go right on cerambling selfishly In the econunk free-for-all they acense tho Tories of having created.

is

Sweeping Rise

the

f

A British Miner Finds His Niche In the U.S. .....And Half A Million To Go Along With It.

All

Work and no but Success is so

From RENE MacCOLL: Los Angeles ΤΕΝ

EN years ago this man I was talking to in the blazing sunshine had just emerged from the English cont pits. At that time he had no money and no pall. All he had was ambition, energy, and the driving determination

jo succeed.

But today Claude S. Birtle, born in Lancashire, bia youth spent near Wellingborough, Northants, and who resembles a bulldozer version of George Formby, is, at the age of 30, an extremely successful Southern Cali- fornian capitalist worth nearly half a (£180,000).

million dollars

He is one of those men who belleve in curstant, restless ex- get started, and werd to work periment and unremitting hard as a labourer. work,

"I was watelling out for the

Play Sweet

Since then Birile has played hero in a glittering Succe story. He now has thren plants at El Monte, with a combined floor space of nearly 45,000 square feet.

The payroll

Is payroll for this year 350,000 dollars (£120,000).

He has never had a strike or of labour trouble any und

His alm among his workers. wes to turn out 3,000 trailers this year-but already in the first six months he has sald 1,000.

Mrs. Birtle, from Yorkshire, takes in stride such littlo While he was the pits he coming thing. Suddenly it touches as the deep freeze, the clothes-washing and dish-wash- studying the ecal- looked as though TV might be

the glant IC- it. So I went to work in TV ing machines.

the electric frigerator, and factory. After that I took on

garbage-disposal unit.

sald

a go at

started conveyor syster.

After that he had inte:-

running a pickle factory in post- seven different jobs in one year. "You know something."

"I used to work 70 and 80 Birtle. "The banks tell me that hours a week then-and some- If I keep going the way times sit do now. I have been doleg, in a few more years never missed an hour of work the business will be worth since I came to this country."

5,000,000 bucks (£1,800,000). Not

The incit understanding is, of course, that if and when the Soel:lsts purn to power then the leaders of truly united TUC would kel together with the Cabinet to thrush out the nation's economic is. Though why they should imagine that a chunge of government would quell their rivalries and jea. loustes is beyond this observer,

Footnote: One popular Lon- fon newspaper areetca the Walfonden report with. the wlartling headilan "VEĆE: OFFICIAL" Now we know,

10

ear Brain. Then, in 1948, he Came The United States "entirely on spec. and with no dough."

atier

I've

The shandy

In 1952 Birtle got into the so bad." bonnuza business of traile

I put routine question. Tedny's Birtle, now tho tots holiday caravans. Trollers are "Where do you "vacation?" I around here, act in the ledustrial the fastest-growing luxury ask. town of El Monte, 20 miles cast business

U.S. In the

single I haven't taken a of Los Angeles, sipping a brava pleasure boals."

day's vacation kines I got here: Imitation of English "shandy" Sald Birtie: "I began 250 nino, years ago," Birtle replies.

Amerlenn lager beer laced carpenter. When I left, in 1955, · No holidays in ninc years. with a bubbly soft drink. I was the general manager. My Seventy hours' work a week. The clank and thud of pro- vatory was 160 dollars (250) a Concentration-ard a 'wittlog- ductive effort of the assembly week, plus 10 por cont of the hats to experiment, That, it Ine, which is the Hie's blood firm's prosta. But I wanted to seems, can leave man with modern America-sounded near be my own muster.

big businoca, a nice car, lots of by. And that particular $3- "I went to a dealer and got perks, lots of capital, lois sembly line belongs to Birtle. a contract for 800 trailers to be Calltorolan sunshine and

delivered in one year. I started ground him A rpoat production by gotting payment aroma;dman porn bin, dollam (£170). from a bkúš; to. đá sdvæños da sva trailerik

The meetžinall or killende,

d

of

11

Ho talk "When I reached California. 1. borrowed;

fetching

500

1t

2

Empty Bank

Two years later, in the sum- mer of 1930, Olivier was still on the ground, He could look back sedly on long, bleak workless months, and forward, desperate- ly, to his impending marriage on an empty bank account. He was rescued by Noel Coward, who gave him small part in that most famous, or "infamous" of modern ecmedies "Private

Vivien Leigh

nufficiently By 1935 he was

in

Landon the established theatre to alternato with John Gielgud, then Britain's reigning player, as Romeo and Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet." The play had its longest run since it was first presented in 1597, despite one of the opinions of critics, whom complained that Olivier "ployed Romeo as though he Of were riding a motor-bike." his very

Mercutio, popular Ouvier himself said "A good music-hall performance."

Alexander Korda, the am- was busily boyant Hungarian, establishing a British Blm in- Olivier dustry, and persuaded back to films with tat contract. This was very acceptable to the young star, whose new status in him the theatre hadn't saved

an from losing money backing unsuccessful play.

Korda was ready to start production on a lavish scale, and he decided to Alm A.E.W. Mason's Elizabethan novel "Fire Over England." For the hero ho chose Laurence Ollyler, and as a young Lives." The sleek young juvenile the heroine he cast with the fashionable Ronald actress he had put under con- Coleman moustache was slowly tract after her overnight triumph in the West End the year before. beginning to climb again, and on the strength

of his small role Her name was Vivien Leigh.

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