Letter to Cathie from Ford Killen

Letter to Cathie from Ford Killen

Writes of music and plays he had listened to on the radio. Continues about shows he will or had seen, including many British films. Mentions Italian film industry and winning a bet on a horse. Mentions activities and asked if she had received the record he sent. Continues with more chat about his activities.

1948-01-03

Two-page typewritten letter

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EKillenFReidKM480103

Mitchel Air Force Base, [missing words] 3, 1948

Darling Cathie:

I was charge of quarters from 11:30 a.m. Saturday (last) to 11:30 a.m. Sunday, and tried to find time to write to you, but there were so many things standing in my way -- answering telephones, reading The Beacon proofs, etc. -- that I found the 24-hour period had passed without my writing so much as one line ……

Also I listened to Rise Stevens in “Carmen” -- it was broadcast directly from the stage of the Met in N. Y., but just as the hero Don Jose was chasing Carmen around the stage with a dagger, trying to inflict the fatal incision, someone called me up and wanted to know the address of a GI on the base, thus when I returned to the radio Carmen [missing words] my adorable Carmen …. but to no avail ……

Then last night, for the first time in my life I heard a presentation of Romeo and Juilet [sic] …. an hour program over the radio …. theatre Guild presentation .. with England’s Maurice Evans as Romeo and Dorothy McGuire as Juilet [sic] ….. Considering the fact that a 47-year old man was playing the part of a 16-year old lover, and a 35-year-old girl playing a 15-year-old lassie, it was just short of great. Beautifully adapted …..

I have tickets to “Mister Roberts”, a play to open Feb 16 …. my ducats are for Sat .. Feb. 21, 11th row, center [sic] orchestra ….. cost me $3.60 each, but they will be worth it …. because HENRY FONDA has come back to Broadway for the first time in 10 years to play the lead ….. I read the book …. it was great ….. they tell me the play has a $200,000 advance sale, which automatically puts it in the hit class … even if the critics pan it, but it has previewed in Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the local critics lauded it ……

Yesterday I saw “The Best Years of Our Lives” again … third time ….. and I still enjoyed it …. will have to see it again before it completes its run … first time at popular prices …. it has been playing for a year at advanced prices. But the event of the week on this base (about the only event we have is attending the movies) was a British importation called (and why did they ever tack such a name onto a pix that good?) “The Smugglers” ….. Photographed in Technicolor, the pix starred Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent and a youngster named Attenborough, or something like that ….. It played on the base only one night -- Friday -- when nobody usually goes to the movies (I decided to go at the last minute) and proved to be one of the best I have ever seen …. First time I had ever seen Redgrave …. the kid in the picture turned in a terrific performance as a coward ….. I don’t know when it was made or released in England …. we usually get British pictures a couple of years late over here (This Happy Breed, Col. Blimp, The Tawny Pipit, Blithe Spirit, etc. which were playing in England when I was over there, have only recently reached here) but if you haven’t seen The Smugglers (Check on the British name; they usually change them over here -- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, was simply called Col. Blimp in America and A Matter of Life and Death was called Stairway to Heaven; thank Heavens Dickens’ “Great Expectations” remained Great Expectations when it was played over here, putting the Hollywood pictures to shame, and making a fortune …. It was the biggest success of an English picture since the [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] monumental “Henry V” which I contend is the greatest picture and the greatest performance (by Laurence Olivier) that has ever been made in the history of the [deleted] fil [/deleted] “flickers” …. What I started out to say was if you haven’t seen “The Smuggler” see it ….. because as Juiliet [sic] said last night … “what is in a name …..?”

Speaking of the cinema industry, Italy has been putting out pictures which the American public (for 40 years allergic to foreign films) are eating up. Even in small towns which never show foreign pix of any kind, Open City, To Live In Peace, etc. have done excellent. Of 200 films playing in metropolitan New York now about 60 are foreign -- France, England, Italy, Mexico, evern [sic] Hungary, and the first Indian picture ever to play in an American theatre.

Darling, I put away exactly $100 out of this month’s pay (25 pounds). Hate to tell you why I could afford to do it, but I had a lucky horse …. for $2 I got $58, so I slapped it in the bank. This way it won’t take me long to save that $500. I [underlined] will [/underlined] get it eventually. I have found out that I can economize --- eat more meals [missing word] mess hall where they cost me nothing …. that has been my largest bill so far --

[page break]

Now I am trying to catch the good meals -- and eat at the cafeteria only when I know they are serving lamb or fish in the mess hall -- which I cannot bear. It should be a crime to raise or kill sheep ….. and the person who first caught fish for human consumption -- I don’t know what should have become of him …. but it would be too horrible to mention.

Darling, I still haven’t heard whether you’ve received the record; I’m waiting to make another as soon as possible …. as soon as I get a record-reply from you. If you don’t receive it soon, please make one anyway and send it to me …. quote something anything …. a little of White Cliffs of Dover, etc.

I haven’t heard from you in some time …. I’m still sending your mail to your mother’s address because I know you will get it from there ….. about a week late …. but you travel around so much, I’m afraid you’ll never get it if I send same to those Devon addresses.

I almost envy you your travel …. I love to travel …. and yet I’ve [deleted] ebbn [/deleted] been stuck away here for a year and a half ….. there were shipments to the European theatre recently, but nothing for me ….. they don’t need public relations men in Europe … it seems ….. I’d love to see you emote, from the second row, and with you not knowing I was in the audience …. think I’ll slip down to Devon and catch one of your shows …. Does that suit you? Or should I inform you? I don’t want you to be nervous ….

Last night we were discussing the greatest books of all time -- popular fiction, someone said Jane Eyre …. to which I made a rebuttal that WUTHERING HEIGHTS had it all over Eyre, as far as composition and story were concerned …. and I think it’s true ….. Even Thackeray said that Jane Eyre, although it would probably outsell Heights, would not hold a candle to it as far as construction [deleted] n [/deleted] and plot were concerned. True, both the Bronte girls (I don’t think the third was) were geniuses, but the tragic-genius of Emily was much more proficient. Jane Austin wasn’t so bad either [missing words]

I sent you a flock of Beacons, many of the last issues …. have you received them yet? I still have no help ….. am trying to get some reporters though ….. [deleted] I plan [/deleted]

Went on a record-buying spree last Saturday --- first time in a year --- the one I wanted particularly -- and got -- was Fantacia Mexicana -- a concerto that is hauntingly beautiful …… It shows that the composer was battling violently between two or several emotions, and ends up in [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] chaos, but until he reaches that point his emotions provide a thundering theme which sweeps you along the crest of its tide, alternately sending you to the pinnacle of joy and to the abyss of desolation. Anyway that’s my conception ….. probably the music critics wouldn’t agree with me (They usually don’t.) What are critics for, anyway? Their powers over the music-listening and theatre-going public are [deleted] so [/deleted] of such magnitude that within [deleted] the space [/deleted] their fingertips is installed [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] the life or death of a symphony or play. How can one man possibly set himself up as a ruler -- a dictator of the paying-public -- telling them what to see; what not to hear; etc. But right here on Broadway many a good drama has died because of the [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] critics’ despotism …. ‘Taint’ fair …… we sould [sic] be able to make up our own minds …. dontcha think …..

Enough of that crusading …. There has always been critics, and unfortunately there always will be (I suppose.)

It is time for me to go to chow ….. I have to relieve the WAC here so she can go when I get back … so for now, I’ll say …..

All my love,
ALWAYS,
H.
Heathcliff

P.S. Please note the new address:
Sgt. Ford Killen
Editor, The Beacon
Mitchel Air Force Base, N. Y.