#vivien leigh

Happy Birthday Viv.

is the month of love

One of the Library’s Rare Books collection items includes photographs of the Library itself. Thisvolume commemorates the 1948 visit to the Library of the legendary actors Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Recently made a Knight, Sir Laurence and his wife Lady Olivier were invited to the Library to see our first and second Shakespeare’s Folios. 

These photographs taken in the still existing Shakespeare Room, are rather blurry - no doubt taken by an excited staff member. Olivier and Leigh were invited by the Library’s principal Librarian John Metcalfe. The letter Metcalfe sent to Olivier is included in the volume along with Olivier’s letter in response. Also included are the resulting autographed title page of this created volume that binds together the letters, the photographs and the programmes of the productions the three plays they appeared in as part of the Old Vic Theatre’s touring companies Australian and New Zealand productions.  The Old Vic productions were arranged by the British Council in conjunction with the Australian Government in order to show that post-war Australia was no cultural backwater but a country that could appreciate this kind of quality theatrical production. Olivier performed Richard III, and with Leigh, Sheridan’s The School for Scandal as well as Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth during the six month tour.

It was during this visit that the Sir Laurence and Lady Olivier attended a lunchtime production of The Imaginary Invalid at a Sydney glass works factory produced by a a local theatre troupe, the Mercury Theatre. The Mercury Theatre was led by five actors actors including Sydney John KayandPeter Finch with the partial intent to bring theatre to non-traditional audiences. It was at this production that the Oliviers’ famously spotted a young Peter Finch and encouraged him to move to England to further his career. Peter Finch’s most famous film role was as Howard Bealein director Sidney Lumet’s Networkfor which he won a posthumous Oscar. A theatrical production of Network is currently on stage at The National Theatre, London staring Bryan Cranston as Beale. The Library also holds Sydney John Kay’s scrapbooks and programmes from his time with the Mercury Theatre. 

Vivien Leigh and Herbert Leigh Holman on their wedding day at St. James’s Roman Catholic Church, London, December 1932

Parade / © VIVIEN LEIGH: An Intimate Portrait