Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/97
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 29 Oct. 1950 (Circa. Letter dated 'October 29th Sunday morning'.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
2 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
Refers to a telephone conversation with Garbo. Complains about his business in London, the cold weather and his domestic troubles. Plans to go to Paris and to stay with Diana Cooper at Chantilly, as the water at Reddish will be turned off whilst an aga is fitted. Informs Garbo of his plans to travel to America on 30 November and be in New York about 5 December. Invites her to spend Christmas with him. Suggests that she should appear in a film version of a book about Florence Nightingale that he has just read. Postscript written the next day regarding the death of King Gustav V of Sweden.