I’d like to introduce our next Guest Blogger– Mr. Mark Mayes! He’s a Vivien Leigh fan from West Hollywood, California. He is the amazing fan who donated many splendid videos to Vivien-Leigh.com including The Oliviers in Love (check out this splendid biography on youtube by clicking HERE). Mark has been a fan of Gone with the Wind since the 1970s and collects foreign editions of the book (many of which he purchased while living in Europe). Currently you can catch him in the well-reviewed stage revival of “Six Degrees of Separation”. Thanks Mark for guest blogging!
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Written by Mark Mayes
A&E’s Biography series was an extremely popular documentary television show by the late 1990s. It profiled big political figures and Hollywood stars and featured interviews with people who knew them or worked with them. It was often produced as freelance by Peter Jones, who had produced and starred in segments exploring Old Hollywood on American Movie Classics et.al. I had met him and liked his knowledge and enthusiasm.
I, for one, loved the series and hoped that someday they would get around to doing a segment on Vivien Leigh (loftily thinking there were lesser lights about whom they seemed to be making a fuss. after all!)
Well, lo and behold, one day in 1999, I got a call from a young lady called Selina Lim, who was producing a Vivien Leigh episode for the A&E series under executive producer Peter Jones. She had been told by my friend Manoah Bowman, who had been doing work for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences archives, that if they were looking for pictures and research on Vivien Leigh, they should most definitely see Mark Mayes!
The reason for his saying so, was that for years I had amassed a wealth of newspaper clippings, magazines and articles, pictures and stories due to my fascination and love of all things on the subject of Vivien Leigh.
I had been drawn to GWTW as a kid simply by seeing the big book on a shelf. When the film came around in 1968 to my city, my dad took me to see it (may have been the worst day’s work he ever did–because my parents have heard very little else except Vivien Leigh and GWTW ever since!). From that point on, the collecting began.
Record albums, souvenir books, towels, calendars, T-shirts—posters, posters, posters.
The best things I noticed about exploring GWTW and how it branched off into a fascination with Leigh, were the endless possibilities and education the fascination kept bringing. From Leigh, I got interested in Olivier and then Shakespeare and then Restoration Comedies and the Kitchen Sink drama–I became familiar with the work of Chekov, Coward, Ibsen, Osbourne,Rattigan, Wilder. And of course, I watched the great “Streetcar” which turned me onto Tennessee Williams. I started watching great films from everywhere. And I even opened a few more books! I started to really learn about actors and actresses and even started acting myself.
Above all, I learned and found more and more about Vivien Leigh and started acquiring things out of the ordinary–cigarette cards with bios, rare books like “A Bouquet” by Alan Dent, pictures which friends or acquaintances had that were candids or unpublished. You see, by this time I lived in Hollywood and there were many things all around to feed my hunger for information on this lady, whom I find to be the greatest actress ever. I got to speak to co-stars of Leigh and Olivier, friends of theirs. I even got to talk with and slightly befriend people who appeared in GWTW. I asked everyone about Leigh from Warren Beatty to Rand Brooks!
Selina made an arrangement to come to my house and view the rather large assortment of Vivien Leigh pictures and collectibles with one of her research assistants. I assembled everything on display over a room while they made copious notes. They asked me a lot of questions and for leads on who to talk to who might have known Leigh. I remember I told them Juliet Mills (they may have already contacted her, but they listened to all my suggestions) and a few others whom I knew were in town and worked with Leigh.
They asked me about details on her life, we discussed their budget and I showed them some rare clips. I also asked if they might be able to secure a television program I had seen with Leigh and would I be able to get a copy? It was “Small World” with Edward Murrow and was shown on the 50th anniversary showing of “Wuthering Heights” at cinemas in LA. I am happy to say they complied and I treasure this intelligent and lively interview with Leigh, Samuel Goldwyn and Ken Tynan. Sadly, it did not make it into the documentary at all.
Finally, I think out of curiosity, they asked me which one of Leigh’s performances I thought was the best. While I was pleased they asked, I remember being a little nervous about the answer (though I didn’t think it would impact the approach of the bio, I didn’t want them to think I was unreasoned or too subjective about all things GWTW). But honesty will out. I said that her greatest acting performance was as Blanche in “Streetcar” and that is what she would most likely want said. But I thought her best performance in total was Scarlett, partly because the character is so much more accessible and lives on, but also because she inhabited it completely whether in repose or action. It is a lasting showcase for her wide range of cinematic talent.
So the immense assembling of info was ordered and shaped to make a coherent and comprehensive television show. Naturally, there were a few things about Leigh that I was disappointed to leave out–Her favorite film, “Waterloo Bridge” was not mentioned, Her private life had a wild side that also could not be explored in much depth on a family program. I quite understand, but I had come to love her for a lot of her off-beat ways and was keen to tell more about how she had to bear up under her illnesses. Looking at the show again recently, I think those points were handled with taste and no sensationalism. Quite right.
At a certain point, I surrendered parts of my collection to be photographed. There was some trouble finding enough from “The Doctor’s Dilemma” I remember, and so we kept looking for more. Generally, though, everything was in my collection and they used some choice bits!
On the day they were to shoot my signed “2 On the Nile” program (which I don’t believe they even ended up using!), I asked to go along to handle it with care. This treasure was given to me by a friend (Jim Pearsall, the commercial artist and creator of the wonderful poster for “Chinatown”) who went to see “Caesar and Cleopatra” in NYC and then was taken by a friend to meet the Oliviers afterwards. He met Vivien in her dressing room first, then met Olivier, who checked to see where Vivien signed and then very specifically autographed above her ! (Love that!)
There were a couple more calls-checking for facts- and then I was sent an advance copy of the complete edited and ready show. At the time I remember thinking, “Oh they left so much great stuff out!”. But having seen it again recently, I think it’s a good, solid job and a great tribute. I must add-not too humbly-I am extremely proud of my two official credits (Photographs and Special Thanks, thank you!) that get to be associated in such a nice way with one of the people whom I admire most in the world!
The great Vivien Leigh.
