Macbeth

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier on the cover of Plays and Players, October 1955.

Plays and Players was a theatre magazine that began publishing in the 1950's. The magazine deals primarily with the London stage, but mentions noteworthy plays in other major cities. In 1955, Vivien played Viola in Twelfth Night, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Lavinia in Titus Andronicus. All three plays co-starred her husband, Laurence Olivier.

There is a half page review of Vivien as a Shakespearean actress. It ends with these words: Let nobody say then that Vivien Leigh is a beauty who cannot act, when she is prepared to risk her reputation in parts for which she is physically unsuited, playing them better than most people would have expected. Vivien Leigh is an actress and an adventurous spirit in the theatre, who is prepared to extend her range at a time when most leading ladies are content to go on playing the same type of part over and over again.

How truly amazing it must have been to see Leigh onstage in these roles. It's a shame that none of these plays were ever filmed, so that decades later, other generations could enjoy them.

Happy Birthday, Vivien Leigh

Today marks the 99th anniversary of Vivien's birth.

Happy Birthday!

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett

The first time I saw Vivien Leigh was in the epic movie Gone With The Wind. I was about 9 years old and from the first moment, when the Tarleton twins parted and Vivien was revealed on the porch of Tara, I was hooked.

Vivien brought Margaret Mitchell's heroine, Scarlett, to life in a vibrant way no other actress could possibly have achieved. George Cukor, the first director of the film, recalled that Leigh had a kind of indescribable wildness about her. Vivien transcribed her wildness brilliantly into the role of a lifetime.

After reading the book for the first time, Vivien decided she'd be the one to play Scarlett. And it was this sort of determination that allowed her to capture the role. She traveled from England to America in November, 1938. And in less than a month's time, she secured the role of a lifetime. On Christmas Day, 1938, George Cukor told her, Well, Vivien, I guess we're stuck with you.

David Selznick and George Cukor auditioned hundreds of unknowns and many known actresses for the role of Scarlett.  Alexander Walker writes in his biography of Leigh: The search for Scarlett had taken 2 years, cost $92,000 and included 1,400 candidates of whom ninety had been tested. Two days after they filmed the burning of Atlanta, and Vivien read for Selznick, he wrote to his wife: Saturday night, I was greatly exhilarated by the fire sequence. It was one of the biggest thrills I have had out of making pictures- first, because of the scene itself, and second because of the frightening but exciting knowledge that Gone With The Wind was finally in work. Myron rolled in just exactly too late, arriving about a minute and a half after the last building had fallen and burned and after the shots were completed. With him were Larry Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Shhhhhh: she’s the Scarlett dark horse, and looks damned good. (Not for anybody’s ears but your own: it’s narrowed down to Paulette, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett and Vivien Leigh).

 I don't think anyone imagined the lasting legacy Leigh created in Gone With The Wind. She went on to win the Academy Award for her portrayal of Scarlett, the first of two Oscars (the second was for Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, another Southern belle).