[Reginald Denham, English actor, writer and Broadway director.] Four chatty Autograph Letters Signed to the theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope, with carbon of a reply by MP, and two associated items from other parties.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) The seven items are in good condition, though one of Denham’s letters has slight wear to one edge. All date from the same period. The four Denham letters total 5pp, foolscap 8vo; three are signed ‘Reg’ and the other ‘Reginald’; two are on his letterhead. The fully-dated Denham letter (8 June 1951) is the longest at 2pp, 8vo. Addressed to ‘My dear Mac’, he gives details of a visit he is paying to England to settle his late mother’s affairs (‘She was 83.’) He is also going to ‘confer with Edward Percy. He and his new wife (my ex, Lilian [Oldland], you know!!) have acquired the dramatic rights to a story by my present wife (Mary Orr) which appeared in a nation-wide magazine here, “To-Day’s Woman”. It is entitled “Black Cushion” and is the story of a bigamist.’ He asks MP to contact Eric Barter about this, mentioning that his wife wrote the story on which the film ‘All about Eve’ was based. (‘She has a sequel “More about Eve” appearing in the July issue of “Cosmopolitan”’.) Two paragraphs relating to ornithology follow, with the comment: ‘Talking of “Bearded Tits” - I am not referring to any portion of Frances Day’s anatomy!!!’ In other letters he again mentions ornithology, praises MP’s book ‘Ghosts and Greasepaint’ (‘I read it to an Englishman who has lived here several years - and he burst into tears!! You are magnificent in attack. [...] Do more of it, me lad. Its terrific.’), a short story he has sold ‘to John Shand for English Mystery Magazine’, Sarah Churchill (Winston’s daughter, an actress) referring to MP on American television. In a letter dated 27 August [1951] he asks him to get hold of an ornithological pamphlet for him. The carbon of MP’s letter and the two other items (a carbon of a letter from MP to N. J. Wadley, and Wadley’s TLS in reply) relate to this search. There is also a reference by Denham to the English production of South Pacific, at Drury Lane: ‘I gather “Pacific” is a huge success - in spite of the “little men”. You must have had a field day - rather ‘night’.!!!’