Everybody Was So Young (67 page)

Ernestine Leray . . . customs agents impounded it:
REM
to
ALM
, 5 Jan. 1937,
FMB
.

[>] “noted and only american . . . not ready yet”:
PFM
II diary: 16 Jan. 1937,
HMD
.

When Ernest emerged . . . “boy look so sick”: S& G, p. 115. Honoria Donnelly says that Hemingway made this visit alone, and she places it in the fall of 1936. But Hemingway doesn’t appear to have visited Saranac then—only in the autumn of 1935 and in January 1937.

“mother’s milk”:
GCM
to PH, 22 Jan. 1937,
JFK
.

“animal magnetism” . . . put-downs wearying:
REM
to
ALM
, 21 Jan. [1937],
FMB
.

“I feel as if we”:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, 29 Jan. 1937, HU.

Honoria and Fanny Myers . . . now so acute: S& G, p. 118.

On the morning of January 30 . . . “be with you”: Ibid., p. 119.

“Fate can’t have . . . away from you now”:
FSF
to
GCM
and
SWM
, 31 Jan. 1937,
HMD
.

21. “Not on the same course, nor for the same port”

[>] “There is something . . . same port”:
GCM
to CT, [1960],
HMD
.

Alice Lee Myers helped . . . heads to the Hemingways:
ALM
to EH [6 Feb. 1937],
JFK
.

Sara simply gave . . . Boys Club of New York: Title Search of Kirchner Camp, Franklin County Courthouse, Saranac Lake, New York.

“Dear Scott”:
GCM
to
FSF
, 9 Jun. 1937,
PUL
.

[>] “choir-boys’ gowns”:
GCM
to CT, 4 Sept. 1960,
HMD
.

“Gerald threw everything out”: AMacL, “The Art of Poetry,” The Paris Review, vol. 14, no. 58, p. 69.

“He was a painter . . . masochist to do that”: William MacLeish interview.

“It tightens the main-spring”:
GCM
to EH, 22 May 1927,
JFK
.

[>] “grimly socio-politico-economic”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 26 Jul. 1939,
HMD
. “some labor issue . . . longer [an] ingenue”: RB to
GCM
and
SWM
, 1 Jul. 1937,
HMD
.

“she never joked”: Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 222.

“clear, objective statement”: AMacL, quoted in Donaldson, Archibald MacLeish, p. 264.

Virgil Thomson . . . The Spanish Earth:
GCM
to CT, 4 Sept. 1950,
HMD
. Don Stewart . . . Hollywood Anti-Nazi League:
DOS
, By a Stroke of Luck! p. 231.

Archie and Ernest . . . Earl Browder on the platform: Donaldson, Archibald MacLeish, pp. 264–65.

[>] “if there was a fascist . . . most intelligent audience”:
SWM
to PH, 22 Jun. [1937],
JFK
.

“The future . . . mine shall be”: Ibid.

“pitiful . . . dissatisf[ied] at everything”:
REM
to
ALM
, 3 Aug. 1937, and
ALM
to
REM
, 2 Aug. 1937,
FMB
.

“We get up . . . bed at 10 P.M.”:
GCM
to
HMD
, 13 Aug. 1937,
HMD
.

“I know that it doesn’t . . . better time”:
GCM
to
SWM
, [summer 1937],
HMD
.

[>] “with fantastic hats”:
REM
to
ALM
, 5 Aug. 1937,
FMB
.

“they now need . . . they’ll like you”: Lillian Hellman/
HMD
interview,
HMD
.

HeLlman was on her own . . . other friends: Meade, Dorothy Parker, pp. 282–83;
REM
diary: summer 1937.

“private blonde”: DaP to
JDP
, quoted in Mellow, Emest Hemingway, p. 499.

Although Gellhorn was not . . . ever meeting the Murphys: Martha Gellhorn to the author, 20 May 1994. Honoria Donnelly, however, has a vivid if imprecise memory of Sara and Gellhorn having some kind of confrontation involving a locked gate. “Mother was standing outside and Martha Gellhorn wouldn’t let her in,” she says; but where or when this scene might have occurred she cannot remember.

[>] “my great 37–38 epoch”: EH to AMacL, 4 Apr. 1943,
LOC
.

“Never having been . . . comes to nothing”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 4–9 Sept. 1937,
HMD
.

[>] With it went a chatty note . . . “this autumn”:
SWM
to EH, 20 Sept. 1937,
JFK
.

Sara went through all . . . birthday in November:
REM
diary: 1937,
FMB
. But Gerald was careful . . . still too fragile:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, 16 Dec. 1938, HU.

“given up being . . . Hollywood”: Stella Campbell to
SWM
, Jan. 1937, in S& G, p. 190.

she had not endeared . . . “tiny eyes?”: Patricia Vaill interview.

[>] Sara had hoped . . . flat in London:
ALM
to
REM
, 5 Aug. 1937,
FMB
.

Swan Cove . . . down to the water: Much of this description is from personal observation and from Murphy home movies,
HMD
.

“Arabian Nights house”:
KDP
to
SWM
, 15 Jan. 1938,
UVA
.

“an oasis . . . both of them”:
GCM
to Hale Walker and Harold Heller, [May 1938],
HMD
.

[>] Patrick’s death . . . “far afield”:
GCM
to
FSF
, 29 Jan. and 1 Mar. 1938,
PUL
. Sheilah Graham . . . drank cocoa:
HMD
interview.

“you were awfully damn kind”:
FSF
to
GCM
, 11 Mar. 1938,
PUL
.

“Pears like nobody gits”:
KDP
to
SWM
, 20 Mar. 1938,
UVA
.

Gerald arrived in June . . . “Bed early”:
SWM
, 1938 Weatherbird trip log,
HMD
.

[>] “very engaging . . . happiness already had”: Zelda Fitzgerald to
FSF
, [Sept. 1938] and [autumn 1939], Milford, Zelda, p. 324.

“Look” . . . without speaking to each other:
FMB
interview.

Now, returning to Swan Cove . . . helplessly in the orchard:
GCM
to
HMD
, 14 Sept. 1938, and
SWM
, Weatherbird trip log, HMD;
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, 28 Sept. 1938, HU.

[>] “Hurricane—garden gone”:
SWM
, 1938 Weatherbird trip log,
HMD
.

Sara had a quiet birthday . . . few hours at least:
GCM
to
HMD
, 5 Nov. 1938, and
SWM
to
HMD
, 16 Nov. 1938,
HMD
.

Tallulah quickly . . . “beautiful voice?”: Lillian Hellman/
HMD
interview,
HMD
.

[>] “ordering endless dishes”: Lillian Hellman, quoted in “Hellman on the Time of the ‘Foxes,’” undated newspaper clipping,
HMD
.

“I’ve got a favorite lady”:
REM
, “To Sara,”
FMB
.

Sara drove down . . . stayed three weeks:
SWM
trip log 1939,
HMD
. “Dearest Sara . . . count on it”: EH to
SWM
, 13 Jun. [1939],
HMD
.

[>] “I had that orchestra . . . lovely Sara”: Ibid., 27 Dec. [1939].

“I liked Gerald . . . I love Sara”: EH to AMacL, 27 Aug. 1948,
LOC

22. “Enough to make the angels weep”

[>] “A list of the painters”: Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday, pp. 218–19.

“with Manners . . . even in my heyday”:
SWM
to
GCM
, [Jun. 1939]. This letter was transcribed and enclosed in a letter from
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, 22 Jun. 1939, HU; the original has been lost.

[>] While the Weatherbird . . . Juan-les-Pins casino:
SWM
trip log 1939,
HMD
. “The girls, I hope . . . lines of the Ritz”:
SWM
to
JDP
and
KDP
, 18 Jul. [1939],
UVA
.

“disappointed”:
SWM
trip log 1939: 22 Jul., 5 Aug., 6 Aug., 13 Aug.,
HMD
. 3,300 people . . . “all milling”:
SWM
to
JDP
and
KDP
, 17 Dec. 1938,
UVA
.

[>] “rake the Avenue”:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, [late 1930s], HU.

Alice Lee Myers . . . language of flowers:
FMB
interview.

There was a leather . . . name stuck: Rosmond, Robert Benchley, p. 14iff;
HMD
interview.

company still wasn’t . . . Mark Cross were to survive:
GCM
to
SWM
, 2 Aug. 1939,
HMD
.

Murphys’ investment adviser . . . robust $201,: Ibid., 7 Jul. 1939,
HMD
.

Cole Porter . . . unreachable and uninterested: Leonard Hanna telegram to Serge Denham, 11 Feb. 1939; Ghost Town files, Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, DC/
NYPL
.

[>] Irving Berlin . . . “completely out of my field”: Serge Libidins telegram to Serge Denham, 21 Feb. 1939; Ghost Town files/Ballet Russe archive, DC/
NYPL
.

At the end of February . . . “Top Hat”: Irving Berlin to Serge Denham, 6 Mar. 1939, Ghost Town /z/es/Ballet Russe archive, DC/
NYPL
.

[>] The person who . . . Gerald Murphy: Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 194. Rodgers, as it happened . . . understanding with Berlin: All documents are in Ghost Town files, Serge Denham Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, DC/
NYPL
.

[>] “he was a very, very good . . . sense of humor”: Frederic Franklin interview. “We all had crushes”:
HMD
interview.

“O worst imprisonment”:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, 20 Oct. 1939, HU.

“notes, records” . . . Raoul Pene DuBois:
GCM
to SD, 3 Apr. 1939, Ghost Town files, Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, DC/
NYPL
.

popular nineteenth-century . . . even dances:
GCM
, “Ghost Town” scenario; Ghost Town files, Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, DC/
NYPL
.

“it was so exciting . . . arts again”:
HMD
interview.

“furious . . . 3 days and that is all”:
REM
to
ALM
, 10 Jul. 1939,
FMB
.

[>] recordings of Ghost Town’s score . . . unavailable: Nicolas de Gunzbourg to
GCM
, 16 Jun. 1939, Ghost Town files, Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, DC/
NYPL
.

The scene allows . . . top-heavy company roster: Besides Franklin and Platoff (or Platov, as he sometimes appears) the men included Serge Lifar, Michel Paniev, Roland Guerard, and Igor Youskevitch; the women, Alexandra Danilova, Alicia Markova, Tamara Toumanova, Nina Tarakaova, Mia Slavenska, Lubov Rostova, and Nathalie Leslie; “there are so many stars,” wrote one company member, “that I cannot see how there will be enough ballets to go around” (Walker, De Basil’s Ballets Russes, p. 82).

“The . . . story . . . much simpler form”: Serge Denham to Leonide Massine, 5 Apr. 1939, Ghost Town files, Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, DC/
NYPL
.

“complicate our work . . . on the increase”: Serge Denham to Jacques Rubinstein, 11 May 1939, Ghost Town files, Records of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, DC/
NYPL
.

[>] Ballet Russe used Gerald’s . . . popular ballet reference book: “Ghost Town,” in Goode, ed., The Book of Ballets, pp. 114–18. The typewritten version of the scenario, which is identical, was produced on GCM’s typewriter, samples of which appear elsewhere in the Ballet Russe files and in GCM’s own personal files.

some tricky maneuvering . . . fourth speeding offense:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, [Jun. 1939], HU.

“Thanks for the film . . . Aff’y. Gerald”: Ibid., 21 Apr. 1939.

[>] felt the redirection of his attention:
SWM
trip log 1939:13 Aug.,
HMD
“the English”:
GCM
to
SWM
, 26 Jul. 1939,
HMD
.

“Very lovely . . . all fell asleep”:
SWM
trip log 1939:19 Aug.,
HMD

“Paris is on a wartime”:
REM
to
ALM
, 31 Aug. 1939,
FMB
.

At Maxim’s . . . “perfectly normally”:
HMD
interview.

“gave us advice” . . . Sara declined:
SWM
trip log 1939: 3 Sept.,
HMD
.

[>] “For heaven’s sake . . . come back”: Noel Murphy to
SWM
, undated [1939],
HMD
.

[>] soldiers’ canteen:
REM
to
GCM
, 27 Aug. 1939,
FMB
. dissuaded only when Honoria . . . without her mother:
GCM
to Alexander Woollcott, [postmarked] 11 Sept. 1939, HU.

“very angoissante day”:
SWM
trip log 1939:1 Sept.,
HMD
.

The Guaranty Trust . . . carting it around:
REM
to
ALM
, 31 Aug. 1939,
FMB
. Sara, Honoria, and the Myeres . . . Southampton and New York:
SWM
trip log 1939:1–18 Sept.,
HMD
.

There were nearly two thousand . . . “holding someone’s thumb”:
GCM
to
JDP
and
KDP
, 21 Sept. 1939,
UVA
.