Letter to Kathryn from Ford Killen

Letter to Kathryn from Ford Killen

Writes that Air Force regulations state that transatlantic marriages are not recognised or condoned. Mentions her flying to Ontario and his financial plans to save money. Goes on to describe his activities in New York including a tour of USS Missouri and Broadway shows. Continues in second part of letter written later with mention of more of his activities. Asks about the plays she is appearing in. Signed Heathcliff.

Three page typewritten letter

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EKillenFReidKM[Date]-08-Part

My darling!

Your letter came yesterday, but I didn’t get a chance to reply on the same day, so will attempt to do so this morning – if I can squeeze in between my other tasks – enough time to write.

The news I have isn’t so warm. In fact it is rather bad …. I checked with Air Force regulations; also with State of New York regulations and I have been informed that TRANATLANTIC MARRIAGES ARE NOT RECOGNIZED OR CONDONED. If I were out, I could go to a state where this practice is recognized, but its no dice. Only now, after I have had this other obstacle flaunted in my face, am I really getting burned up. But they don’t know me very well if they think I am giving up that easily ….

Darling, you see what you can do about the suggestion you had – flying to Ontario … and I’ll guarantee you that I’ll be there if I have to take French leave – I think you call it. I think I can get approved leave though – I’m sure I can – for an emergency like this.

Meanwhile – I am going to put $50 or $75 in savings deposit every month from now on – I have – should say HAD some ready cash, but my sister’s store was struck by lightning, and completely destroyed – stock and all. She built again, as she has a good business (she is a widow) and she needed dough, so I invested in her property. It won’t pay off for quite a while, but I can list it as interest in property. I’ve got to get $500 saved, in the next few months, because that [underlined] is [/underlined] required, BEFORE I CAN FILL OUT ANY FORMS. It’s the deportation fee, in case I don’t accept you. Fat chance that I wouldn’t want you after you got here, but the government makes No exceptions. They can’t realize [deleted] h [/deleted] that I love you and that I wouldn’t be asking you to come over if I didn’t want you to be here. Well, that’s the way things stack up – Dammit, pardon the expression, but it burns me up.

So, Cathie dearest, if there is anything you can do to speed up the reunion, by all means take it …. Anything …. nearly ….. I even have lost my fear of you flying over …. Even though there are air accidents, WHICH ARE PUBLICIZED MUCH MORE THAN ANY OTHER FORM, there are a hundred times as many auto accidents. I flew the ocean in an old knocked out B-24 Liberator. It wasn’t too bad. And with the modern airliners, it should be a cinch.

Not much going on right now, except routine stuff ….. they’re trying to reinstall The Beacon, which will mean more work for me. I have become reconciled to it’s suspension, but I’d dislike to see it resumed, only to fold again, because it doesn’t receive the proper support.

Your letters also make my spirits soar about 500 percent, and when I receive an epistle from you, I am happy the entire day. I read and reread them, getting more from them with each reading. I hope that the pix [sic] you promised me are on the way. I can hardly wait to receive a large photo of you. Tinted, I hope, acceptable if it isn’t I hasten to add.

Navy Day I went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and was taken on an escorted tour of the USS Missouri, the battleship on which the Japs signed the peace declaration. It is a mammoth craft, and [deleted] the [/deleted] is a maze of ladders, doorways and bulkheads ….. I wouldn’t want to be stationed aboard one of those babies, because the sleeping quarters are nothing short of lousy. Four men sleeping in bunks

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one above the other. And the brig! No seats, no beds, nothing. When a guy is thrown in the gaol, he sleeps on the hard deck, isn’t allowed to [deleted] a [/deleted] talk with anybody, and often they are placed on rations of bread and water. At least in the Air Force we give our prisoners a proper place to sleep, they talk with all the other inmates, and they are allowed to see movies every night ….. The Navy tradition of cruelty must date back to the days when there were galley slaves, torture and pirates. I always thought that we had a lot of outmoded customs in the Air Force, but ours are nothing compared to the Sea-going brothers.

A quick runaround of what is going on Broadway ….. “Man & Superman” Bernard Shaw’s Classic comedy has been revived on the Great White Way with Maurice Evans starring and is the hit of the decade. The critics did kudos, and bent over backward in their praise, and the public has agreed and now the mad rush is on, to get to the boxoffice. [sic] Judith Anderson, that perennial favorite [sic] Australian actress and your own John Gielgud have produced, and star in “Medea” …. which hasn’t been on the boards since 1902 in New York. Of her (Miss Anderson) the critics said … “she is like a panther, screaming, tearing all over the place, biting scenery, clawing …. Acting a la Bernhardt.” Nothing subtle about her performance, but that was one characteristic the Greeks didn’t know about. It is a smash hit too. This has been a very good season for the stage. Better than the last two when only one or two entries survived. Already “Allegro”, the new Rogers and Hammerstein musical has a million dollar (250,000 pound) advance sale. It’s been opened about three weeks. And tickets are selling for the 2d year. It’s the biggest smash that has touched New York – ever. Cicely Courtnedge, the London favorite [sic] brought over “Under The Counter” – which flopped. She got good reviews but the comedy got very poor ones. “An Inspector Calls”, a London entry by J. B. Priestly, has opened with Thomas Mitchel and has clicked. “Duet [deleted] With [indecipherable word] [/deleted] For 2 Hands” still another London hit, had only three showings here before it failed. “That Winslow Boy”, which, I am told, won all kind of prizes in London opens tomorrow night. Written by Terrance Rattigan, who penned Alfred Lunt’s & Lynn Fontainne’s “Love in Idyleness” [sic] – known over here as O Mistress Mine, which has just closed after the most successful season the Lunts have had – ever. So Broadway, for a while, must have looked like West End.

Uncanny “Finian’s Rainbow”, which didn’t go over so well in London as the beautiful Oklahoma and Annie Get Your Gun, is the smash of last season, and despite new shows, continues to pace the field in established musicals. It [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] is more American, and has situations pertinent only to the Americans, though. What really surprised me was that London didn’t like Margaret Sullavan [sic] in “The Voice of the Turtle”, which is in its 5th year over here, and is the longest-run play now on Broadway, now that Life With Father, after chalking up an eight-year run, has terminated. Margaret S. is a great actress. When I was preparing to go overseas in 1943, the hottest thing on Broadway was Oklahoma! It still enjoys capacity patronage, after all these years, now approaching its fifth year. I wonder if it will run as long in your city. By the way, did you get to see it.

Enough about the theatre. But I wish you would tell me why you left your company …. didn’t you like them … the actors …. producers …. pay …. or what? I would loved to have seen you as Elvira in “Blithe Spirit” …. You know I never saw the play, or the movie, which was made with Rex Harrison. You know Rex is a number 1 star in America now that he has made 3 straight hits. Anna & the King of Siam, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and now “The Foxes of Harrow” … “Harrow” is the story of Creole society and an interloper Mr. Fox (Harrison) in the first part of the 1830’s. New Orleans was a spectacular city of sin then, and attracted scoundrels like honey does a bee. I read the book, which was rich with the idiom of the era, but the picture failed to capture that aura. They seldom do though. James Mason is making quite a few radio appearances over here. Every program is bidding for him and only the lucky gets him.

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I’ve had a few hectic weeks …. a few days since I began this letter ….. I’ve received another letter from you with the bit of heather (I think) enclosed. It is lovely and I keep looking at it all the time. Last night I went to Smithtown here on Long Island to see Julie Haydon in “Peg o’ My Heart,” the greatest success of the late Laurette Taylor. Although it was summer theatre and was presented 20 miles from New York, the big New York newspapers sent out their top-flight critics to [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] cover it, and the star, who has starred in the “Glass Menagerie” on Broadway and opposite Noel Coward long ago in THE Scoundrel, made a terrific personal success.

Darling the paper is still suspended; but not my work. I’d rather be getting out The Beacon, because in it I can see what I have accomplished, while many of the releases I send out, I never get to see, and I don’t know if they’re printed or not.

Cathie, dearest, when you write me, why don’t you tell me the plays you are appearing in, you tell me you’re acting in a play or that you’ve moved to another town, but I’m a stickler for statistics; I read Variety every week to find out what the grosses are on all the Broadway houses, and all over the country for that matter. So if you’d oblige …. or if you have a program, how about sending some of those along? Please …..

I’m glad you received the stockings, but don’t applaud me for picking out the shade. One pair I bought was the last set in the shop, and the other,,, well I don’t know if I selected them or not, so you see it wasn’t my initiative …. As long as you like them [deleted] th [/deleted] that is all that matters. I tried to get both pair the same color [sic] so if one was ruined you’d have three remaining alike. A girl who works in the headquarters here gave me this [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] hint.

Oh baby, I wish I could see you. They’re trying to pull strings to get me to Germany. A major I work for, but I don’t put any faith in the results. How I would have loved to be on one of the B-29s that landed in England a short time ago. Maybe …. I pray …. maybe soon ……

Darling, my work is piling up, and both my WACs are taking examinations this ayem (morning) .. did you know I had another WAC working for me now. My staff has increased to [deleted] W [/deleted] 4 … 2 WACs & 2 Airmen. The other WAC, a corporal, is also married to [deleted] another [/deleted] a GI on the base …. but enuff [sic] of that chatter …. Write me soon darling and often … will you? Please.

All my love, [underlined] ALWAYS, [/underlined] Heathcliff