[Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in Rattigan’s ‘Sleeping Prince’.] Duplicated typescript of article by W. Macqueen-Pope: ‘This is Real Theatre / The Oliviers Return to Town’, with carbon of covering TL, and commissioning ALS by Barbara Beauchamp.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. The occasion of the article was the forthcoming premiere of Rattigan’s play ‘The Sleeping Prince’, Olivier’s production of which, at the Phoenix Theatre in London, opened on 5 November 1953. The movie rights were bought by Marilyn Monroe, and the Hollywood film appeared in 1957 as ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’, with Olivier reprising his stage role, and Rattigan also writing the filmscript. See the entries on the Oliviers and Macqueen-Pope in the Oxford DNB. Interest in Beauchamp’s novels has grown in recent years. All three of the present items are lightly-aged and in fair condition; the first two somewhat creased at extremities, the third less so. Item One with rust spots to one corner from paperclip. ONE: ALS from ‘Barbara Beauchamp / Fiction Editor’, Newnes & Pearson’s, London, 15 September 1953. 1p, 12mo. Sheila Gould has informed her that MP ‘will be able to write us a 1,500 word feature article on the new Terence Rattigan play, which the Oliviers are appearing in’. The publishers are planning the feature ‘as a double spread in our issue of the 5th November, which is, incidentally, both the opening night, and, I believe, Vivien Leigh’s birthday’. She asks for the article before the end of the month, and suggests ‘a payment of forty guineas for British Empire serial rights’. The following two items are typed on 4to leaves of cartridge paper. TWO: Carbon of MP’s covering TL to Beauchamp, 24 September 1953. 1p, 4to. With short autograph pencil filing note by MP. Begins: ‘Here you are - the Olivier and Leigh First Night story - not critical naturally as being written before the event - but an attempt to show the whys and wherefores of the importance of this occasion and a little of the Theatre atmosphere.’ He asks her to excuse his typing: ‘being in the middle of hectic rehearsals at Drury Lane and without a secretary throws it all on me’. In a postscript he suggests a future article on ‘the inside story of a first night’. THREE: Duplicated Typescript of MP’s article, ‘This is Real Theatre / The Oliviers Return to Town / by / W. Macqueen-Pope’. It does not seem to have been published in book form, nor does it appear to have left a digital footprint. 6pp, 4to, with each page on its own leaf. Double-spaced. MP begins in anticipation of a first night ‘providing a thrill which no other type of entertainment can give, a thrill beyond anything which the Films, the Circus, Radio or Television can compass, and which even Grand Opera never reaches in general appeal’, when ‘the Leader of his Profession and his Leading Lady take the stage again’. He places the occasion within a wide context, with historical references beginning with ‘the first true Theatre in Europe - that playhouse so rightly called The Theatre, in Shoreditch, where it arose in 1576’. After mentioning a number of notables in the history of the London stage, he praises Rattigan’s play, of which he gives a synopsis. He continues in fulsome terms: ‘Everybody who is Anybody - and a sprinkling of those who are not - will be there. [...] It will be like one of the great days of old. [...] an Occasion of Occasions’.