May 16th, 1924.

Dear Mr. Shaw,

I have been waiting for you
to answer my last letter, but I suppose
you have been very busy with the London
production of "ST.JOAN". I am very
glad to hear it is a great success.

You will note that we have
moved the play from the Empire back
to the Garrick; this is because, owing
to the summer coming on and people going
away over the week-ends, the business
has been dropping off, and we can keep
the play on longer by holding it in
the Garrick Theatre. I have no hesi-
tancy in prophesying what is going to
take place in fifty thousand years
following your illustrious example
(since no one will ever be able to
prove that I am wrong), but I hesitate
to prophesy how long "ST.JOAN" will
continue to run at the Garrick, al-
though I have every reason to believe
that it will last through June, es-
pecially in view of the fact that the
Democratic Convention is to meet here,
and the town is expected to be full
of visitors.

We recently celebrated our
fifth birthday dinner, and I had the
impertinence to write a parody on
"ST.JOAN", which was put on by the
Company. I am sending you a copy
with fear and trembling. I was lead

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to the idea from the fact that Cardinal Hayes blessed a medal, and it was presented to Winifred Lenihan with much pomp and circumstance. In other words, the Catholic Church admits that you are perfectly correct in everything you say in "ST.JOAN" and takes the official position that while they might have been misguided several hundred years ago, they have seen their own mistakes, and corrected them.

I hope you won't be offended with the play; if you cannot appreciate it from any other standpoint, at least consider it as good advertising.

Sincerely yours,

December 16th, 1924.

Dear Mrs. Shaw:-

On returning to New York, I told Miss Helburn and some of the others at the Theatre Guild of Mr. Shaw's answer to our invitation to open the new Guild Theatre, and we were all very disappointed with his answer. But I think that if you and Mr. Shaw have a better idea of the very lovely house and country estate which would be at his disposal, with every facility for living quietly and comfortably, he would feel differently about it.

Mr. Partheim, the only one of our directors who has not had the pleasure of meeting you or Mr. Shaw, has a beautiful country home about an hour out, and he would feel more than honored to have you and Mr. Shaw occupy it; moreover, a limousine would be at your disposal day and night so that you might drive through the country on pleasure trips and also into New York when that was necessary. At one part of the estate is a very lovely lake, which is shown in the pictures I am sending you, and the scenery remains one of the Adirondack Mountains. It is, in fact, one of the most beautiful places near New York and I think that both you and Mr. Shaw would enjoy the exhilarating climate and seclusion just as well here as in Madeira, where you would probably be staying at a hotel.

Since I have returned, there has been nothing but sunshine and blue sky, and while I cannot promise, we nearly always have lovely weather towards the end of March or the beginning of April, which is about the time when we would like you to come. I do hope you and Mr. Shaw will be with us for the opening of the theatre. It will mean so much to us, and we will do everything possible to make the trip pleasant and interesting.

We shall naturally expect Mr. Shaw to bring his secretary, and we would make all the necessary arrangements with the Steamship Company.

Mr. Shaw will not be asked to lecture or to do anything except officiate at the opening of the theatre with "Caesar and Cleopatra", and, of course, the trip will be entirely at our expense. This letter will reach you about Christmas time, and I wish you and Mr. Shaw a happy Christmas and New Year. In the hopes that our next meeting in the New Year will be in the New World, I remain,

Mrs. G. Bernard Shaw,
10, Adelphi Terrace,
London, England.

Very sincerely yours,

January 22, 1925

G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.,
10 Adelphi Terrace,
London, England

Dear Mr. Shaw:

re: Bernard Shaw Cycle

This is to confirm my cable to you telling you of
the plans of the Guild to do substantially a complete revival
of your plays, as a "Bernard Shaw Cycle". We plan to start
next October, using the Garrick as the production centre, and
 placing the plays in other Theatres in which it will be possible
to play from $12,000 to $15,000 per week. By this system, the
plays which succeed can play to capacity business, while those
which do not go so well, will not cause us to lose so much as
to put a crimp in the cycle.

The plays which we expect to produce during the two
or three year period are as follows:

Arms and the Man
You Never Can Tell
Major Barbara
The Doctor's Dilemma
Man and Superman
Getting Married
Fanny's First Play
Captain Braebound's Conversion
Mrs. Warren's Profession
Pygmalion
Androcles

I returned here to find the Guild enjoying great prosperity. Our first play, "The Guardsman" was an enormous success and

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has moved to the Booth Theatre where it will run until the Summer.
Our next play "They Know What They Wanted" written by a young
American, Sidney Howard, has been phenomenal. It looks as though
it will run for almost two years. We have leased the Klaw Theatre
for this play. We expect "Caesar and Cleopatra" to do splendidly
in our new Theatre.

I gather from the papers that you have gone to Madeira.
I thought at first that you had taken this trip instead of coming
to America, but on second thoughts I decided it was a mere pre-
liminary, as you probably want to be as fit as a fiddle on arrival
here. I see that Robert Lorraine, after announcing "Arms and the
Man" and "Man and Superman", is throwing the Guild into hysteresis,
calmly departed for England and will probably not be heard from
again.

With kind regards to yourself and Mrs. Shaw, I remain,

Cordially yours,

LL:MK

March 5th, 1925.

Dear Mr. Shaw:-

I have been accumulating picture postcard after picture postcard until I now have what appears to be quite a tolerably sized letter from you which I hasten to answer by the Olympic.

The Guild Theatre will open about the 6th of April and we are starting to rehearse CAESAR AND CLIVOPATRA. We have high expectations of a very brilliant opening. Regarding your suggestion to get the President to open the theatre, you will be interested to know that one or two people thought you had made it quite seriously, as a result of which we decided to ask the President since you had refused, and we are expecting to hear every day that our second choice has accepted. Unless you should for some sudden reason change your mind and decide to come over and open it yourself, in which case, of course, we would send the President back to Washington. I think the continuous performance of Shaw by the Guild a very wonderful idea; we shall probably keep it up for the rest of our lives and for the rest of yours. We are signing up the most expert and popular troupe of actors we can find, and we feel sure we will do you justice in every way.

I am sending you in a few days a copy of an article I have just written on the Obscene Theatre. You probably know that New York is simply torn to pieces over the censorship question. I wish I knew where to put my hands on those famous remarks of yours before the Royal Commission on Censorship some years ago. Perhaps you have an obliging secretary who will send them to me.

There are probably half a dozen things I intended to write to you about but I have seemingly forgotten. One of them is that I am sending you a book written by Dr. Hinkle who is the foremost psychologist in this country; she is a disciple of Jung and Bergson, and has made some amazingly interesting discoveries along the line of creative evolution, as the result of a modified practice of psychoanalysis. I hope that all these long words will not deter you from reading the book; she shows her great ability by quoting from you at many points!!

With kind regards to Mr. Shaw and hoping that your trip to Madeira has given you the necessary vitality to answer this letter, (not that it particularly calls for an answer, but I keep all your letters in an album). I remain, with best wishes,

Sincerely yours,

March 20th, 1925.

Dear Mr. Shaw:-

re:- Mr. Norman Lee Swartout

Out of a sense of duty and also to some extent in
your own interest, would say that the above gentleman is a repre-
sentative of many hundreds of amateur dramatic associations who
purchase plays through him. He tells me that when he collects
royalties on your plays he sends them to the American Play Company.
I told him he was an idiot to do so. It seems that these people
will write to anybody rather than to you. I do not know why, but
I told him that if he ever collected royalties for you again, he
should send them to you directly. Perhaps you would like to drop
him a line on the subject. One thing I am sure of: he watches the
activities of all the Little Theatres and amateur organizations in
the United States and Canada, and I am quite sure that if anybody did
any of your plays and did not send him the royalty, he would hang on
to him like a leach. He has done this work for me very satisfactor-
ily in connection with my one-act comedies.

With kind regards, I remain,

Sincerely,

G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.,
10, Adelphi Terrace,
London, England.

IO, ADELPHI TERRACE, W.C.2.

9th April 1925

Dear Mr Langner

I am sending you the report from the Joint Select Committee on the Stage Play (Censorship) at Mr Shaw's request. His evidence is in this report, but the written statement which the Committee refused to accept is in the preface to Blanco Posnet.

Lawrence Langner Esq
47 West 12th Street
New York.

Secretary

April 20th, 1925.

Dear Mr. Shaw:-

You will no doubt receive by this same mail the newspaper notices of "CAESAR AND CLIVOPATRA", and will have some sort of a picture of the effect immediately created, but that picture will be a very one-sided one since the atmosphere of our opening night was quite unfortunate from one standpoint. You know the common human failing in regard to your friends who knew you when you were poor, but immediately go off into pious hysterics on the subject of ex-travagance when you buy yourself a new suit of clothes because the one you were wearing was worn out. Well, that is the sort of thing we experienced on the opening night. Because the theatre turned out to be extremely beautiful, al-though it is very simple and perhaps one of the most inexpensive in New York; because the play was put on beautifully though the scene shifting had not been rehearsed down to the minimum since the stage had been ready only a few days be-for; although the acoustics were perfect and the emmulation was made purpose-ly deliberate so that every line could be heard; and finally because the Presi-dent of the United States signalled for the curtain to be raised, many of the critics who sponsored our moving into a larger theatre became afraid that it would all go to our heads, and decided to use the opportunity to make captious remarks about the production and sneering remarks about the opening ceremony. But in spite of all this, many of the criticisms were sincere and helpful, par-ticularly those of the New York Times and the Evening Sun. I saw the play a-gain last night and it is 100% smoother than the opening night performance; the intermissions were cut down so that the play was over at 11:15, and everything

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was running smoothly and happily. But the best news of all is that the play is an enormous success with the public and will undoubtedly play to capacity business until the hot weather begins to affect it. I am also quite sure that we will be paying you royalties on the 15% scale; indeed, the business will probably be over $15,000 per week. Helen Hayes is perfectly splendid in the part, playing the first part of it with childish beauty and graciousness and a spirit of comedy, and the later part, particularly her scenes with Pothinus, wit, great dignity and feeling. Atwill was splendid throughout the latter part of the play, but unfortunately his voice did not find its proper range in the speech to the Sphinx on the opening night, but he has corrected that since. When I compare it with the Berlin production, ours is better in every way.

Some of the critics who have not read your play for twenty years have a fixed idea that Caesar was a kind of clown and should have been played by some sort of short-kneed comedian; that you intended him to go around "joshing" the Sphinx, and in general playing the fool throughout the entire play. Atwill brings a fine sense of humor to the part, but he brings what is much more important than that: a classic dignity, an air of authority, and a magnetic personality; all those qualities are contributing to the success of his performance with the public, though it missed fire with many of the critics on the opening night because of the uncertainty of his voice placing.

The theatre has turned out to be a great success. I shall send you photographs of it by a lateramil, and tell you more about how the play is going. There is not a seat in the house for the rest of this week and only a handful for the next week and the week after.

With kind personal regards to yourself and Mrs. Shaw, I remain,

Sincerely yours,

April 21st, 1925.

Dear Mies Patch:-

Please accept my thanks
for sending the report from the Joint Select
Committee on Censorship, and also convey my
thanks to Mr. Shaw for sending it. I am go-
ing to write an article on the subject for a
forthcoming number of the Theatre Magazine.

Sincerely,

Mies Blenche Patch,
c/o Bernard Shaw, Esq.,
10, Adelphi Terrace,
London, England.

May 13th, 1925.

Dear Mr. Shaw:—

No doubt, like that other great dramatist, William Shakespeare, mothers have long been in the habit of naming their children after you, but I venture to doubt whether you or your Elizabethan predecessor ever had the god-child which I have discovered for you in the person of one "Bernard" Thompson, fourteen months old, whose picture I am enclosing. Bernard Thompson is the son of our colored cleaning maid Kate, who comes in by the day. She asked me who the picture of the gentleman with the white beard was, which occupies a proud position on my desk, and I told her it was you. She was particularly delighted, and while she gave the picture a more than careful cleaning, she told me that she had named her son *after you* some months before!

I was curious to know why. "He's a very smart fellow", was our Kate's reply. "He makes lots of money!" If I call my son 'bernard', he'll do the same! Curious what children they are, and how we corrupt them!

Sincerely yours,

P. S. Is there any truth about the new play? I hope so!

July 22nd 1925.

IO ADELPHI TERRACE.W.C.2.

Dear Mr. Langner,

I much regret this delay in replying to your letter.

Mr. Shaw is in the North of Scotland and will not be back in London until late in September so I fear it will not be possible for him to meet your friend.

Yours faithfully,

Beatrice Caldwell

Acting Secretary.

October 19th, 1925.

My dear G.B.S:-

I am sending you herewith copy of my last
play "Those Who Help Themselves." It deals with the idea I told you
about when we were in London. I know that there is something the
matter with it, but I cannot make up my mind what it is, and would
appreciate it tremendously if you can find the hour or so necessary
to read the play, and give me your valuable criticism. After you
have finished it, will you please ask your secretary to mail it to
St. John Prvine at the "Observer".

"Arms in the Man" is a great success, and
we are quite ready to do the next play of the Shaw cycle. By the time
these lines reach you, we shall probably have made a decision, and be
in rehearsal.

I trust that you had a pleasant holiday in
Scotland, and that both you and Mrs. Shaw are well.

The Guild is prospering beyond belief; the
number of paid subscriptions for the six plays now amounts to over
17,000 and it is expected to go up to 20,000, at which point we shall
have reached the limits of human endurance.

I thought that Shakespeare in modern clothes
made it necessary to do Shakespeare in modern language; which is too
bad as it would have provided me with a life job. Have you seen Hamlet?
I was quite enthusiastic about it.

Please give my best wishes to Mrs. Shaw, in
which Mrs. Langner also joins me, and the same to yourself.

LL:MG.

November 30, 1925

Dear Mr. Shaw:

I have not written for a long time, because I had planned to send you the play which I had written this summer, but it turned out so badly that I decided to re-write it before sending it to you.

"Androeleas and the Lion" has turned out to be a great success, and I think you would very much enjoy the production, which is very imaginative and exciting. It seems to be going well with the audiences, and I should not be surprised if it ran for several months.

"Arms and the Arm" is still going strong, and will be moving back to the Garrick Theatre this week.

You will note that all our plays play to very much higher business during the first five weeks than thereafter. This is because of the large number of subscribers who buy tickets in advance to all of our plays. This now amounts to nearly 18,000 subscribers.

Some plays were under way before I left London to start something on the lines of the Guild in London, but whether they will mature or not I do not know. But many such visitors have expressed the opinion that a similar institution could easily be managed in London.

With kind personal regards, and wishing you and Mrs. Shaw the compliments of the season, I re-din,

Very sincerely yours,

G. Bernard Shaw, M.D.
10, Madelinq Terrace
London, England

September 23, 1926

Dear Mr. Shaw:

I am sending you a copy of the last play I have written, called "Celebrities". It deals with what has happened to socialists in America since the war, and it may have reverberations in England among the so-called intellectuals.

I have taken the liberty of dedicating this play to you. If you don't like the play, I will remove the dedication, but I hope you will not dislike it too much. A number of people who have read it over here say that it has not sufficient form, but I quote "Heartbreak House" and "The Cherry Orchard" with telling effect. It would almost seem that every manager in the world is concerned with the plot more than anything else.

I have had two plays produced this season, but neither of them have succeeded, nor have they particularly deserved to succeed. They are talking of doing "Moses" in Germany, and I am daily expecting a letter to that effect.

Very sincerely yours,

G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.
10, Adelphi Terrace
London, W. C. 2
England

October 15, 1926

Dear G. By S.:

I cabled you this afternoon about Gene Tunney. He came up to the Guild office this afternoon and had a long chat with me about the possibility of doing Cashel Byron's Profession. Under the influence of his very charming personality, and also because I was impressed with the possibility of his doing a god job of the play, I sent you a cable, and by the time this letter reaches you it will no doubt be an old story.

I am extremely favorably impressed with the character of the boy and his ability to play the part. He has none of the characteristics of a prize fighter other than a magnificent physique, which strikes you the moment you see him, but there is nothing brutal or animal about him, like Dempsey. In fact, as everyone who saw the fight testifies, his fulfilment of your own prophecy, made to me several years ago, that Dempsey would some day be beaten by a boxer.

Gene Tunney gives the impression of a handsome young man who is scientific to the last degree. But, surprising fact, he noticed a picture of John Masefield up on the wall and told the entire Theatre Guild, to their amazement, of the fact that he had read many of his works and knew him when he worked in a saloon down in this part of town when Masefield was a young man; in fact, though it sounds like a fairy tale, he can almost envisage Tunney as a literary connoisseur who wins world's championships to pay for his library.

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If you let the picture go, I hope you will do so on a royalty basis. You ought to make half a million out of it; and use the money to defray your high cost of living, for (as I gather from three Guild Directors who properly returned to New York with their tails between their legs) these have risen to the same extent as everybody else's.

If, for one of your extraordinary reasons, such as an aversion to the publicity, you decide not to have the picture done, I shall be very disappointed.

I trust by this time that you have read and survived "Celebrities."

Sincerely yours,

G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.
10, Adelphi Terrace
London, England.

November 19, 1926

Dear G. B. S. :

This is just a line to tell you that "Pygmalion" has gotten over very well, and it looks as though it will have a very good run indeed. Last night there was just a handful of seats in the house, and it looks like a complete sell-out so far as anyone can prognosticate. But better than all this, the play comes out as fresh and amusing as the day after it was written, and the audience enjoys it hugely. I will send you some photographs of the sets, the first act being particularly successful and ingenious.

I am sorry to say that Theresa Helburn has been ill with pneumonia and is now slowly recovering, which has thrown us somewhat out of gear, but we are managing to get along somehow.

You will undoubtedly receive a copy of the press notices, and you will find that some of them have referred to our ending being different from the ending of Mrs. Pat Campbell's production, and that other changes have been made. During re-hearsal these changes made by Mrs. Pat Campbell were brought up, which resulted in our cabling you, and I want to state, on behalf of everybody in the Guild, that the play, as it was played in our theatre when the play opened and as it is now being played, is word for word exactly the same as the play in the printed form, without there being one cut, change or alteration of any sort, except that Miss Westley refers to her car, instead of her carriage, as in the printed text. This is purely an alteration due to the fact that the play is being done in the costumes of today.

11-19-26 - 2

I may add that the Director of the play, during rehearsal, came to us with a request to make cuts in the last act, and we told him that under no circumstances was a single cut to be made; I mention this because he has said he would write to you and ask whether you are holding us down to such a condition. The gentleman in question is Mr. Dudley Digges.

May I take this opportunity of congratulating
you upon the Nobel Peace Prize? It seems to me you
should have received it years ago.

With kind regards to you and Mrs. Shaw,

Very sincerely yours,

G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.
10, Adlephiæ Terrace
London, England

October 17, 1927

My dear Mr. Shaw:

I have been so busy since arriving here that I have not found a moment to write to you before this.

"Pygmalion" did very well, indeed, for its two weeks in Chicago, and "The Doctor's Dilemma" is opening in Chicago in about two weeks more, and will play in Chicago for two weeks before it reaches New York. I am going to Chicago in a few days, to assist in the production. You have probably heard that "Arms and the Man" is also on tour, and that an arrangement has been made for a production of "Heartbreak House" in Chicago.

The small moving pictures of you and Mrs. Shaw were developed by the Eastman Company and turned out beautifully. We ordered copies for you and Prince Troubetzkoy, and these will be sent you as soon as they are received by us.

I was horrified, upon picking up an illustrated newspaper, to see what at first sight seemed to be one of our pictures enlarged, showing you taking your sun bath. I thought at first that perhaps the Eastman Company, in developing the picture, had stolen it, but I called them up and they denied it vigorously. I then called the International News Service, which had published the picture, and they told me that they received these pictures from London. Will you let me know whether any picture of this sort was taken by anybody else, because I can hold the Eastman Company responsible, and will certainly do so if it turns out that they have actually stolen the picture.

October 17, 1927

Dear G. B. S. :

Mr. Heywood Broun, who was recently fired from The New York World because he wrote articles in favor of Sacco and Vanzetti, is making a little trip to England, and, as he expressed it to me, one of the things he most hoped for was to be able to meet you while there.

As you know, I am very particular about refusing introductions to anybody who wants to see you, but Broun is a first-rate man, and his recent stand on Sacco and Vanzetti shows that he has the courage of his convictions. He was at one time a very powerful dramatic critic and always a great admirer of yours. I therefore hope that when he is in London you will let him come to see you.

He begs me to tell you that his purpose is not to write a newspaper story or anything of that sort, but to meet you, as one of the persons he has most admired and respected.

With kind regards,

Very sincerely yours,

George Bernard Shaw, Esq.
4 Whitehall Court
London, S. W. 1
England

November 18, 1927

Dear Mrs. Shaw and G.B.S.:

I am sending through the courtesy of my mother, who returns to England today, the two films which we took while we were at Stresa. They came out beautifully, as I think you will agree when you see them. I wish that G.B.S. would do me a set of captions to put under them. I want to give one set to some museum, or something of that sort, as I am quite sure they will have historic interest. To see these films, you have only to go to a Kodak shop in London, and they will put it in their machine and project it for you. I do wish you would get one of these Kodascope cameras and projectors, because I am sure you would have a lot of fun taking movies of yourselves and friends, and they would be immensely valuable to everybody afterwards.

I am getting the Guild interested in the idea of purchasing one of the busts. I wonder if it would be possible to ascertain, discreetly, just how much one would cost us.

I went up to Chicago to attend rehearsals of "The Doctor's Dilemma." It has the most wonderful cast of any play I have ever seen. It acted like a streak and went over beautifully, as you have no doubt noticed by this time. We went down to Baltimore and saw the opening there, too, and it went over equally well, with the audience largely made up of doctors from the Johns Hopkins University. It opens in New York Monday night, and I do not doubt but that it will be as big a success as "Pygmalion" was last year, though considerably more expensive for us to run, owing to the large cast. "B.B." walked off with the play.

With kind regards to you both,

Very sincerely yours,

George Mrs. George Bernard Shaw
4 Whitehall Court
London, S. W. 1

November 21, 1927

R. B. Tonge, Ass't Secretary
The American Dramatists
2 East 23d Street
New York City

Dear Sir:

Replying to your letter of 17th inst.,
will you be so good as to let me know what is
the assessment due the Dramatists Guild from
Mr. George Bernard Shaw's plays (a) whether
produced by us or (b) whether produced by
other parties. As you know, the plays are
done not only in our own theatre, but in
other theatres, and I would like to forward
a letter from you to Mr. Shaw, explaining the
entire situation, as we will of course have
to be guided by his instructions.

Please have your letter quite compre-
hensive, as to both of the above points, and
oblige,

Home address: 14 West 11th Street

TELEGRAMS
SOCIALIST, PARL-LONDON.

4, WHITEHALL COURT,

LONDON.S.W.1.

16th December 1927

Dear Mr Langner

In reply to your letter of the 7th inst., Mr Shaw has asked me to say that he will be obliged if you will pay the assessments on his plays. He is so busy at the moment trying to finish his new book that he cannot spare the time to go into what is, as you say, the unequitable amount of the assessment.

He cannot give you an answer about the pictures because, rather to his surprise, he has not yet seen them. He is wondering if they have gone astray.

I enclose a cutting sent from the Society of Authors. Possibly you, or the American Play Company, authorised the performances of The Devil's Disciple.

Mrs Shaw sends her kind regards and hopes to write after Christmas.

4, WHITEHALL COURT,
LONDON.S.W.1.

20th December 1927

Dear Mr Langner

Mr Shaw wishes me to let you know that he is not going to answer Wells's article. They are very good friends, and it is quite understood that Mr Wells may blow off steam like that whenever he feels like bursting.

As to the proposed lecture and exhibition of films, although Mr Shaw has not seen the latter, he has no objection and thanks you for consulting him. He feels he should have written this himself; but it would have delayed his answer too long.

Lawrence Langner Esq

February 29, 1928

Dear G.B.S.:

I must apologize for not having written to you earlier this year, but I have been overwhelmed with work. In addition to all the activities of the Theatre Guild (and these are rapidly increasing), I have had one of my own plays produced, called "These Modern Women". It resulted in a curious line of cleavage on the part of the critics, and those who brought women with them to the theatre said the play was a thorough-going insult to the fair sex, while those who came alone, or accompanied by men, wrote glowing tributes. Unfortunately, the women were in the majority, as is usually the case, and we have run into bad theatrical conditions generally, so that I am afraid the play is not going to last very long. It is going to be printed, and I will send you a copy.

Apropos of bad theatrical conditions, "The Doctor's Dilemma" has begun to show a very considerable decline, and we have had to place the tickets in that institution known as Leblang's, where orchestra seats are sold at half the usual rates. Owing to the very expensive company which we are using in the play, we are running at a loss, and shall have to close it shortly. We are, however, doing very well with "Arms and the Man" on the road, and we are making plans for next season which will result in considerably greater road possibilities for your plays. These plans, briefly, are as follows:

We are forming Theatre Guild Memberships in ten of the large cities of the United States. These cities are overwhelmingly interested in our work, and we will have subscription audiences in these cities the same as we have in New York City. This means that after the play has been produced in the Guild Theatre in New York and run its course in New York, it will be able to go to other cities and play to very large capacity houses. "Arms and the Man" will play for two weeks in Chicago in the fall, as well as in the majority

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of these ten cities, and will no doubt do a very large
business, as our best actors, Alfred Tunt and Lynn
Fontanne, will be playing in it.

We cabled you regarding the announcement put
out that the Washington Square Players of New York
University were going in for professional productions
of your plays, engaging Miss Margaret Wycherley and
planning to take a theatre here and in Brooklyn. While
there can be no possible objection to a college organi-
zation doing your plays, these people have been gradu-
ally slipping away from the college moorings, and their
first step is to drop the words 'of New York University'
out of their name, so that their name if now 'Washing-
ton Square Players'. This is misleading, because I
happen to be one of the founders of the Washington
Square Players myself.

It started in the year 1914 and lasted until
the year 1916, being closed by the war. I believe that
one of the outstanding features of this earlier organi-
zation was to cheat you out of your royalties. So far
as I know, every other author connected with the earlier
enterprise, including myself, lost money in the same
way; but after all, the W.S.P. was an organization of
idealisers, and you cannot expect them to pay quite as
definitely as real business men.

I have not heard how you and Mrs. Shaw liked
the pictures. I trust you have had an opportunity of
seeing them displayed, and that you will buy a Cine-
Kodak yourself and take some more.

When is the long-awaited book on Socialism,
and when - when - when is the new play coming along?

With every best wish to you and Mrs. Shaw,
I remain,

Sincerely yours,

March 1, 1928

My dear Mrs. Shaw:

I must apologize very sincerely for not having written to you for so long.

It is, of course, old history for you to tell you that "The Doctor's Dilemma" has been a very great success and has aroused the most delighted comment throughout the season.

I have had a very busy winter indeed, owing to the fact that I have had to give a great deal of my time to my business, which has taken me away from playwriting. In addition to that, one of my plays went into production, and it literally took weeks and weeks of work. Then the Theatre Guild contrived to keep me very busy, so I hope you will forgive me for not having written to you before, especially as I had so much I wanted to write you about the statue.

Either my brother or I will be going to London in the summer, and while we are there we could make the best arrangement about packing it so as not to trouble you with it. Perhaps it will be better to take it over on the boat, so that there would be no complications about customs, and so forth, which can be very troublesome. So if the statue can, so to speak, "remain in abeyance" until the summer we shall welcome it with great rejoicings at the beginning of next season. I have already discovered a very nice position to place it in the large reception hall of our theatre, and I am sure it is going to be very much admired.

We have made a connection with Mr. Eugene O'Neill, as I think I told you, and we have done two of his plays; one of them begins at 5:30 and ends at 11:30. The actors have to act what the people are thinking about, as well as what they are saying. You would imagine that a play of this kind would be a great strain on the audience, but nothing of the sort. They are coming to the Golden Theatre in droves, and the play is one of our greatest successes. I shall see

March 13, 1928

Dear Mr. Shaw:

Referring to Mr. Maurice Colbourne's plans, we have received a copy of his letter to you which, in the main, meets with our approval. We have good reason to sympathize with Mr. Colbourne's request for a reduction in royalties, though we do not see why Canada requires any preferential treatment as compared with the United States, unless it be that at this late date you are likely to be afflicted with a sudden burst of British patriotism.

Indeed, have every right to submit that, on the contrary, Canada should pay higher royalties than the United States, since, as this country is governed almost entirely by the Irish, the theatre is taxed more highly than anywhere in the world. It seems to us only logical that you, as a good Irishman, would rather give us preferential royalties than any Canadian or any other subject of King George.

Even if we waive the national issue, we do not see how it will be less difficult for Mr. Colbourne to pay you full royalties than it has been for us in recent years. Mr. Colbourne's company will be endowed, and he will certainly not have the heavy expenses which we incur in your productions, in which we have invariably engaged the finest actors in America. Furthermore, the box office receipts in Canada may not necessitate the payment to you of your 15% royalty. Indeed, Mr. Colbourne is likely to secure considerably more of a financial return if the Canadian public does not support your plays as well as the American public does, because (since you no longer allow us to quote statistics) our intuition tells us that when we play Shaw to under ten thousand a week, it is generally more profitable than when we play above that figure. I recall that in the days of *Heartbreak House* with less expensive actors and lower grosses, we made money, while today after a run of ten weeks *The Doctor's Dilemma* still shows a loss of $4939.12.

March 22, 1928

My dear G. B. S.:

I have requested Boni & Liveright, the publishers, to send you a copy of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude". I would be very much interested to know what you think of this play, which has turned out to be of exceptional interest in the theatre. We opened the play about seven weeks ago, and notwithstanding the fact that it lasts for five hours and that the audience has to take dinner in between, it is a great success, both as an acting play and a production; in other words, it is succeeding both artistically and financially. People actually stand up for five hours to watch the play, and one cannot buy seats for love or money.

I am sorry now that we did not have dinner in between each part of "Back to Methuselah". I think one needs nourishment during these long plays and that they are perfectly all right so far as the public is concerned if you allow people to eat in between. If your new play is going to be a very long one, (which I hope it is) please arrange so that we can start at six o'clock and end at eleven, with an hour in between for dinner. This will insure its undoubtedly success.

I do wish you would start to write your new play this summer, because we would so much rather do a new play if an one of the old ones. Don't you think you have done enough for Socialism? Your book will be out of date the minute Socialism is universally adopted by the various governments of the world.

With kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

May 10, 1928

Dear G. B. S.:

I have just come back from a trip to the lead-
ing cities outside New York, where we are arranging to start
Theatre Guild memberships similar to our membership in New
York, which has now reached the figure of twenty-five thou-
sand subscriptions. We expect to have members subscribe to
the Guild plays in all the leading cities of the United States,
and after the plays have been played in New York, they will
play in other cities to an organized audience which will have
bought the tickets in advance. This is likely to work up into
a very wonderful thing for all concerned, although it is going
to take a great deal of work to put it over.

During my visits to these cities, I delivered
a lecture on the subject of "G.B.S. and the Theatre Guild."
It went very well indeed, as you are unquestionably the dar-
ling of all women from twenty to forty-five throughout the
entire United States. It is well for you that you do not
come over here, as I believe you would be literally "hugged"
to death. Indeed, I have considerable doubts about the safety
of my own person, merely because I happen to know you.

During the course of my lectures I found I was
constantly being asked about Mrs. Shaw, so that while my lect-
ture started as one about "G.B.S.", it finally ended up as one
on "Mr. and Mrs. Shaw," as all the women seem to be exception-
ally curious to know how Mrs. Shaw manages to put up with you.

I am sorry to say that, on one occasion I was
somewhat tactless in expressing my admiration for Mrs. Shaw
at your expense, with the result that a rather silly story
appeared in a Detroit paper. I hope that both you and she
will forgive me for this; it has taught me not to talk too
freely in front of dramatic critics.

You may have read in the papers that, owing to
the fact that we did not book our plays in the Shubert theatres
in other cities, they have started a campaign of vilification
against the Guild. They even attempted to get the District
attorney to prosecute O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" as an inde-
cent play, along with Stefan Zweig's adaptation of Ben Jonson's

-2-

"Volpone," The District Attorney sent investigators to see the plays and gave them a clean bill of health, after which "Strange Interlude" was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, so that the Messrs. Shubert have met with one of the greatest rebuffs that has ever come their way. Incidentally, it was a pretty dirty trick to set the censorship working against us, merely because we booked our plays with Klaw & Erlanger. However, he who laughs last, etc., etc.

I am going to finish up "Lady Godiva" over the summer. I had one play, called "These Modern Women," produced this winter. It is going to be printed, and I am going to send you a copy of it. I hope you will like it.

"Strange Interlude" is immensely successful. In spite of running for five hours, people stand up every night, and the theatre has been packed since January. It looks as though it would run for another year in New York and then a year in other cities. I asked Boni & Liveright to send you a copy of this. Did you ever receive it? I would like to know what you thought of it.

I am very anxious to see your new book. I hope it will be out before long. I know how difficult

-2-

"Volpone. The District Attorney sent investigators to see the plays and gave them a clean bill of health, after which "Strange Interlude" was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, so that the Messrs. Shubert have met with one of the greatest rebuffs that has ever come their way. Incidentally, it was a pretty dirty trick to set the censorship working against us, merely because we booked our plays with Klaw & Erlanger. However, he who laughs last, etc., etc.

I am very anxious to see your new book. I hope it will be out before long. Have you found a subject for a play yet? I know how difficult it is for you to find a character sufficiently noble to interest you, but my suggestions about Voltaire and Socrates having been turned down, I have another suggestion to offer: Why not write a play about yourself?

I wish that we might be coming over to Europe this summer, but this cannot be worked out, so I will hope to see you next year. I trust that both you and Mrs. Shaw are in the best of health. Armina joins me in sending best wishes to you both.

Very sincerely yours,

G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.
4 Whitehall Court
London

May 10, 1928

Dear Mrs. Shaw:

Now that it has definitely been decided that I am not going over to Europe this summer, I am wondering whether I could arrange for the shipment of the statue to New York, provided the offer to loan it to me still holds good. G.B.S. need have less fear than ever about the theatre going bankrupt and the statue being its only asset, because I have been lecturing about him in about ten cities recently, and it looks as though we have only to send the Shaw plays to these cities to be able to salvage the statue any time it appears to be in danger.

My half-brother, Mr. E. W. Simons, of Clarendon, Waida Vale, will attend to shipping it to New York, if you will be so good as to drop him a line, telling him that he may arrange for its shipment, and I have asked him to see that a very good firm of professional packers is employed to attend to the matter.

We are very much disappointed that we are not going to be able to go to Europe this summer, but hope to make the trip next year without fail. Armina joins me in sending you our best wishes for a nice summer.

Sincerely yours,

Mrs. G. Bernard Shaw
4 Whitehall Court
London

June 29, 1928

Dear Mrs. Shaw:

I have just received a notice from
the shippers telling me that the statue of G. B. S.
has arrived, and I hasten to thank you for your kind-
ness in loaning this to me.

I am going to see that it is placed
in a prominent place in the Guild Theatre, and I know
that it will be appreciated not only by all the rest
of the Board of Managers of the Guild, but also by
the many people who have been so delighted with the
Shaw plays in our theatre.

We have often remembered our very love-
ly visit at Stresa, and our movie film has been a
source of great delight to us in bringing back vivid
recollections of it.

We are sorry that we will not be able
to come over this year, but hope we shall see you next
Spring - as there is a possibility that the Theatre
Guild Acting Company will play for a short season in
London, which will be very exciting for us.

With kind regards and many thanks,

Very sincerely yours,

Mr. Bernard Shaw is often asked to secure the acceptance of unpublished works by contributing prefaces to them. Sometimes the applicants add that a few words will be sufficient. This obliges him to call attention to the fact that his prefaces owe their value in the literary market to the established expectation of book purchasers that they will prove substantial and important works in themselves. The disappointment of this expectation in a single instance would destroy their value. A request for a preface by him is therefore a request for a gift of some months of hard professional work. When this is appreciated it will be seen that even with the best disposition towards his correspondents it is not possible for Mr. Shaw to oblige them in this particular manner.

4 Whitehall Court (130)
London S.W.1.

August 24, 1928

Dear G. B. S.:

I have heard from the returning hordes who have been swarming over Europe that you have been living in Antibes during the summer. I gather from the description of the hotel where you are staying that you are probably not very comfortable, and I can imagine you and Mrs. Shaw going around swearing under your breaths that you will never trust me again, because I believe I recommended to you that you stay in Antibes instead of in Stresa. Other friends tell me that the weather has been so hot that the place was like an inferno. All in all, I don't suppose that you will ever speak to me again.

I have finished my play about Lady Godiva, and I think it is about the best I have written so far. I am going to send you a copy in a little while.

We are expecting St. John Irvine over here to show other critics how to write dramatic criticism.

We shall soon be going into re-hearsal with "Arms and the Man" and "The Doctor's Dilemma" for the road, and "Major Barbara" for New York.

With kind regards to you and Mrs. Shaw, I remain,

Very sincerely yours,

PROPOSAL FOR A FORM OF BIRTHDAY GREETING

(And not to be considered as a preface)

by Bernard Shaw

That the Theatre Guild has survived for ten years as an art theatre surprises everybody else in the world but me. It is obvious that they owe their success entirely to the fact that they produce one or more of my plays each year, and...

Another factor which has contributed to the Guild's success is the fact that during these ten years they have never once produced a play by Shakespeare. This show that I have always been right about...

All the plays I now write are written especially for the Theatre Guild. Indeed, the fact that the Guild produces my plays, is the one thing that makes life worth living for me, and compensates for...

In particular they never pester me for photographs, articles, busts and other relics, as is customary with other producers of my plays, and in general...

So long as the Guild continues to present my plays, they will...

(signed) G. BERNARD SHAW

-2-

"Arms and the Man" is doing astonishingly
well out-of-town, and so is "The Doctor's Dilemma."
"Strange Interlude" is the world's eleventh wonder,
having played to capacity since last January, with
people standing up night after night for six hours.
Petitions are coming in from cities all over the
country asking us to send the company. We may bring
it to London.

The Guild makes its first London produc-
tion in March or April with an all-Negro play called
"Porgy." I hope to be able to come over with it.

It is almost a year since you have writ-
ten to me. Did you like the Riviera?

We both wish to be remembered most kindly
to Mrs. Shaw.

Very sincerely yours,

Lawrence Langner

September 4, 1929

G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.,
4, Whitehall Court,
London.

Dear G. B. S.,

We are now starting in our work for the winter season and, inasmuch as it takes considerable time to get our studio arrangements perfected for the making of the talking picture of "Arms and the Man," we are awaiting your reply to my letter dated July third.

We are looking forward to this new departure with great interest and are eager to get our arrangements made.

I have just finished reading some of the notices on "The Apple Cart," and it seems to have stirred up everybody considerably -- which is just what was intended. I have been amused by some of the reactions, which indicate that the critics are about on the same level in England as they are in this country. I anticipate we shall have a very lively reception for the play when it opens here.

The pictures which we took did not turn out very well, but I am having some enlargements made and am sending them to you. We have spent the whole summer getting our farm into shape, and if you and Mrs. Shaw ever decide to invade the wilds of Connecticut instead of the wilds of Dalmatie, we have accommodations waiting for you.

With kind regards, in which Armina joins me,

Sincerely yours,

LL:II

January 21, 1930

Dear G. B. S.:

The enclosed accounts of the dinner which was given in your honour yesterday may amuse you, or irritate you - I don't quite know which. At any rate, it was quite an enjoyable affair, and I thought it a good opportunity to avail myself of your permission to show the motion pictures I took at Stresa, which were a great success.

Mr. Cecil Lewis called with your letter of introduction, and I have done everything I could to help him while he has been here. I have placed the Guild's acting resources at his disposal, in case he is at a loss to secure the necessary talent for producing plays over the radio. I have also introduced him to a number of personal friends, and they all like him very much.

"The Apple Cart" goes into rehearsal today, and we are all very excited about it. It will open in about four weeks from the present time. We think the cast is A-1, and that it has a real chance. While some people say the question of a constitutional monarchy is something which has not troubled this country for the last hundred and fifty years, the fact that the American Ambassador goes over to England to reconsolidate the British Empire will, I think, give the play a great interest to American audiences.

We are still waiting to hear from you on the subject of the talking pictures.

With kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Shaw,

I remain,

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From Bernard Shaw.

4, WHITEHALL COURT (130) LONDON, S.W.1.

PHONE: VICTORIA 3160.

TELEGRAMS: SOCIALIST, PARL-LONDON.

15th February 1930.

My dear Langner,

Do you think there is any serious chance of The
Guild doing anything with Arms and the Man as a talkie?
Goldwyn is pressing me about it; and Stern cables to
ask whether he may name $150,000 as my price in a deal
which is proposed. There is no immediate prospect of
my entertaining these proposals; for Goldwyn wants to
cut the play down to forty minutes; and I suspect some
of the other applicants of wanting to film, not Arms
and the Man, but The Chocolate Soldier. Also Mary Pick-
ford is very keen to do Cæsar and Cleopatra; and, gen-
erally speaking, my film market is getting excited.
Meanwhile my hands are tied by our understanding about
the Guild having a shot at talkie producing; but it is
obvious that on coming to close quarters with such a
very laborious and expensive new departure, you may find
it quite impracticable - if, indeed, you have not already
done so. How does the matter stand? I am in no hurry;
but I cannot wait unless I see a reasonable chance of
something happening.

I have to thank you very cordially for your recep-
tion of Cecil Lewis on my introduction. He was greatly
gratified by the way you treated him, especially as his
head is full of schemes of film work on my plays.

Do you happen to know Tunney's address. He always
forgets to give it to me when he communicates; and now a
newspaper report that he is in hospital makes me desire
to give him a hail.

How is the old Apple Cart getting on? I presume
Moeller got my photographs and prompt copy all right.

Lawrence Langner Esq
The Theatre Guild Inc.,
245 West 52nd Street,
New York City,
U.S.America.

March 4, 1930

Dear G. B. S.:

Just a line to tell you that "The Apple Cart
is going very nicely in New York. It got over to pretty
good notices, with one or two captious critics, as is usually
the case. So far as the public is concerned, however, it is
a "hit", unless I am very much mistaken. The first week's
business was over eighteen thousand dollars, which compares
very favorably with anything we have ever done.

I think the cast is extremely able, and as
good all around as we could give it. I do not know of any-
body who could have played the King better than Tom Powers,
with the possible exception of Alfred Lunt, who, however,
has been very sick this season and is just leaving to get
away on a long vacation. We had heard so much about the
man who played the King in England that we thought at one
time it might be a good thing to bring him over here, but
we learned from our London representative that he was tied
up for life!

Cecil Lewis complained of not hearing some
of the actors very well on the opening night. This, I think,
was due largely to his seat being very much to one side of
the theatre, as well as the usual opening night nervousness
of some of the actors, but we have been extremely careful
on the subject of diction, as of course this play depends
on every word being heard.

The reception of the play in Baltimore was
marvelous. It almost broke the record of the theatre for
a dramatic play. I believe the total business was twenty-
three thousand.

The play has a very definite message for the
United States, where we miss the presence of royalty more
than you would imagine.

March 4, 1930

DEFERRED CABLE

PARL -
SOCIALIST / LONDON

GUILD BOARD WILL WILLINGLY DROP ARMS AND MAN
BUT HOPEFUL THAT MAY HAVE SOME OPPORTUNITY FOR
TALKING PICTURES LATER STOP WRITING

LAWRENCE LANGNER

March 7, 1930

Dear C.B.S.:

I received your letter regarding "Arms and the Man," and the Guild's situation as regards talking pictures. I have also talked this matter over with Cecil Lewis, and Mr. Stern. There is no doubt about the fact that several of the talking picture companies would be willing to finance us in the production of some of your plays. However, when it gets down to talking finances, and the question of royalties arises, as well as the idea of doing your plays without changes, we seem to make no headway. It is therefore our opinion that we would only be hindering you if it is your desire to sell outright to the "talkies" with no restrictions.

The thought occurred to us that we might act as your agents, somewhat along the lines that we have acted in connection with your amateur rights, attending to the business matters for you, and especially representing you on the artistic side, but we do not want to push this idea in any way unless it is one which appeals to you. We know that in any event you would not release plays that we were either doing or contemplating doing, and we know that when it comes to handling the business end, you are very much better at it than we are.

I feel that either the "talkies" will have to modify their program practice and do your plays in toto, or you will have to modify your plays and allow them to be cut down by the "talkies." Cecil Lewis and I thought that it might be a good idea for him to try to get scenarios in shape so that they would be satisfactory to you and would constitute a compromise between what you wanted and what the "talkies" people want. I doubt whether the plays could be done in their full length on the screen, not because the plays are not sufficiently interesting, but because one cannot spend two yours listening to shadows. The real flesh and blood interest is missing, and the general experience seems to be that a "talkie" will talk you to death in about a quarter of the time it takes a stage production to do the same thing.

-2-

We are much too alive to the future of the "talkies," however, to utter any dictum on the subject. It may very well be that within the next year or so we may ask you to let us do one of your plays as a Theatre Guild "talkie." It was for this reason that my cable expressed the hope that our relinquishing "Arms and the Man" would not mean that we were no longer interested in the situation.

With kind regards,

Copy for Miss Helburn

March 7, 1930

Dear G.B.S.:

I feel that either the "talkies" will have to modify their program practice and do your plays in toto, or you will have to modify your plays and allow them to be cut down by the "talkies." Cecil Lewis and I thought that it might be a good idea for him to try to get scenarios in shape so that they would be satisfactory to you and would constitute a compromise between what you wanted and what the "talkie" people want. I doubt whether the plays could be done in their full length on the screen, not because the plays are not sufficiently interesting, but because one can-not spend two yours listening to shadows. The real flesh and blood interest is missing, and the general experience seems to be that a "talkie" will talk you to death in about a quarter of the time it takes a stage production to do the same thing.

COPY

24th of August, 1930.

Your letter dated the sixth of August did not reach
me until a few days ago. It would be far better to
produce "Heartbreak House" with the first cast you could
pick out of the gutter on the 15th of November than to
produce it on the 15th of October with Sara Bernhardt,
the two Guityns, Edwin Drew, Maude Adams, Charlie
Chaplin, and Mary Pickford. A running play may do
very well because people already know about it and
it needs no press but a new production has no chance.
The presidential candidates play the author and the
cast off the stage; and the election crowds out the
theatre. If you doubt me try with somebody else's
play. You will never try again. I am sorry to unset
the arrangements but a new management has to buy its
experience and it mustn't do so at the cost of a too
old author.

G.B.S.

March 23rd, 1931

Dear Mr. Shaw:-

It is nice to be writing you again that we are in rehearsal with one of your plays. We have a really delightful cast at work on GETTING MARRIED and Mr. Moeller is directing. We open out-of-town the end of this week and come into New York on the 31st.

It would of course be even nicer if we were working on a new play. The latest reports seem to indicate that you are not concerned with plays at all but I shall not believe this until I have first hand information from you.

You are doubtless tired of receiving a letter from me on this subject every Spring but as I have not bothered you with one for so long, I hope you will excuse it. It brings you warm greetings from us all and from me personally, and very profound regret that I have not been able to see you and Mrs. Shaw for so long a time.

Sincerely,

Bernard Shaw

1228 A

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COPY FOR FILES

FROM SHAW

December 4th, 1931

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March 28, 1953

Dear G. B. S. and Mrs. Shaw:

This is just a line to welcome you to
New York. Armina wrote a letter to you which she thought would prob-
ably get to your boat at Egypt, telling you that we would love to
have you stay at our home when you are here, and Maurice Wertheim al-
so offered to put his country place at your disposal. We have not
heard from you, and therefore assume that our letter did not reach
you.

The Academy of Political Science seems to have taken com-
plete charge of you, and I have a feeling that we will be fortunate
if we get a glimpse of you from a seat in the last row of the Metro-
politan Opera House.

I am writing to say that if there is any way in which
either Armina or I can be of service to you and Mrs. Shaw, we would
be only too happy to help you; so do not hesitate to call upon us
both in case we can assist you.

We gather from the Academy of Political Science people
that you have hotels arranged for, and so forth, and we presume that
they will meet you at the boat.

I know that the Theatre Guild is very anxious to have a
small and intimate luncheon in your honour, and I also know that if
you are not completely inundated, Armina and I would consider it a
great privilege if you would either lunch or dine with us, but we
know that everyone is going to press you, and we want to make things
easier for you, and not harder.

If, as stated above, there is anything we can do which
will really be helpful to you, you can reach me by cable from Havana,
sending it to my cable address, "Lawlan New York". Our home tele-
phone number is Algonquin 4-0316, and the address is 14 West 11th
Street.

We do hope we shall have an opportunity of seeing you.

With kindest personal regards,

Mr. and Mrs. George Bernard Shaw
c/o "Empress of Britain"
Havana, Cuba

April 25, 1933

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Shaw:

I do hope you had a nice trip
back, and that you are now comfortably settled in Eng-
land. I suppose you really feel the need of a long
rest after all your irritating experiences here.

I wish I had been able to do something to avoid
the final inconveniences of G.B. S's departure. I went
up to one of the stewards and asked whether it wouldn't
be possible to make some sort of a gangway for you to
pass through. The steward leaned over, and with clenched
teeth muttered, "You'd need fixed bayonets, sir".

The newspapers printed the answers to the questions
quite accurately on the whole. In the condensed versions,
however, they misrepresented quite a little, though not
on any serious point. I think the enclosed clipping from
The New York Sun, which I am attaching hereto, explains
the reaction of the general public. The majority of
people enjoyed the speech a great deal, and agreed with
most of it. The newspapers, irritated with some of the
remarks which had been made on the subject of the press,
and also irritated with some of the arrangements which
had been made at the lecture hall to take care of the
press, tried to belittle the affair on the basis that it
was not "funny enough". In other words, they expected a
piece of entertainment instead of a serious talk. The
Shavians were all delighted with the speech, and the
others were irritated that you did not talk a lot of non-
sense.

One of the effects of your trip has evidently been
to throw the state of the world into utter confusion in
your absence. You should have stayed in England, because
now nobody seems to know where they are or where they are
going.

With kindest regards,

February 21, 1935

Dear G. B. S:

We did not cable to you about the "Simpleton", because it seemed as though we could not say anything which could not keep, after reading the perfectly absurd notices written by the dramatic critics. We enjoyed working on the play very much, and it certainly did not deserve the things which were said about it. A number of people who saw the play on the opening night have written to the critics protesting against the tone of the notices. My own feeling in the matter was that the greater part of the play was most enjoyable, but it seems to be the fashion nowadays to object to ideas being aired in the theatre -- that is, more than one idea at a time.

I was looking over the list of plays which are now current in New York, and there are only three out of about thirty which really have an idea behind them of any kind whatsoever. One of the critics actually stated that he thought that the best way to write an idea was to write a few columns in the newspapers.

On the part of the Guild, I feel that we did everything we possibly could to make a good production. We employed excellent actors throughout, and we paid particular attention to their diction. We had them speak distinctly so that they could be heard plainly, though you could certainly never tell this by the notices, as the majority of them are written as though the critics had not even bothered to listen. However, I could go on ad infinitum.

We are all naturally very disappointed, and we are especially disappointed that the play should have been received with so much ill nature.

With kindest personal regards to you and Mrs. Shaw,
and hoping that you will not be too disappointed, I remain,

P. S. Armina joins me in sending our best wishes to you and Mrs. Shaw. We recently had a similar experience with our latest play, "On To Fortune", which was thoroughly attack for having some ideas.

August 7, 1935

Dear G. B. S:

I have been very much tied up at Westport this summer, and did not have time to answer your recent letter which came in the absence of Warren Munsell.

Of course we expect you to do "The Unexpected", but we do hope that if you are contemplating doing "The Unexpected" again, you will let us have a little warning as we are making plans on the basis of continuing playing your earlier plays, and would be glad to have your suggestions in this regard.

We recently leased "Anthony and Cleopatra" to a summer theatre and Helen Hayes is appearing in the part for a week. We may be able to persuade her to reappear in New York City. Her acting has tremendously improved and her box office is quite tremendous. In her recent tour over the country, she was playing to an average of thirty-two to nearly forty thousand dollars. Her picture career has tremendously increased her draw. I shall be glad to hear from you about this at your convenience.

Armina and I are both feeling well, and trust that you and Mrs. Shaw are the same.

With kind personal regards, I remain,

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

August 26, 1938.

Mr. George Bernard Shaw,
4 Whitehall Court,
London, W.C.1,
England.

Dear G.B.S.:

Thank you very much indeed for sending me privately-printed
copy of "GENEVA". I read the play immediately, and while I enjoyed it
very much in the main, I was so deeply hurt by certain parts of it that
I feel I should write you immediately about same.

I refer especially to the part The Jew plays in this play,
and which seems to me to contradict the attitude you have taken for over
seventy years of your life. I do not believe that you will want future
generations of Jew-baiters to quote you as part authority for a program
of torturing, starving and driving to suicide of Jews all over the world.
Yet, on Page 65, you give Battler (obviously, Hitler) a speech in which
he justifies everything that has been done recently in Germany and Austria,
on the ground that in every country "the foreigner is the trespasser". As
the thought is presented so convincingly by him, it seems that you do not
take into account that Jews have lived in Germany for over 1700 years; that
they have contributed largely to the cultural and scientific life of Germany;
that during the last war alone over thirty thousand Jews died in the German
armies, and that but for a Jewish scientist, Heber, who invented the method
of abstracting nitrogen from the air (which scientist later committed suicide)
the Germans would have been defeated in 1916 instead of 1919. You give The
Jew merely the weak answer: "For my race, there are no frontiers", as though
the German Jew of today had anything to do with the historic reasons, begin-
ning with the Roman armies and ending with Torquemada and others, as a re-
sult of which some of the Jews found themselves in Germany. Furthermore,
you justify Hitler as though he had merely opened his doors and allowed the
Jews to depart, taking with them enough to start them off in other countries.
However, in order to tend towards the extermination of the race and to enrich
his own Nazi followers, every schoolboy knows that, as a result of Hitler's
actions, the German Jew who wishes to leave Germany finds every possible ob-
stacle to departing with any means of subsistence which will enable him to
gain admittance or continuance of livelihood in another country, while those

4

through your entire life, will surely not want to add another figure to a collection which breeds intolerance and racial hatred.

I am fully aware that whenever a comic Irishman is put upon the stage, all the Irishmen rise in their wrath and write letters to the newspapers. When anyone puts a comic Jew on the stage, the same thing happens. You and I both come of races that are inordinately sensitive to this sort of thing, but do not overlook the reason: Both races have had hundreds of years of living as minorities in which they have constantly had to fight an assumption of superiority by the majority. This is a sufficient explanation for this hypersensitivity. But my criticism of your character of The Jew does not spring from the fact that you have made him a comic figure. You have not done this. You have made him a pitifully inferior mouthpiece to express his case, thus ploying into the hands of the breeders of racial hatred by ranging yourself unconsciously on their side.

In a broader sense, judged by the standards of the latter speeches of your own play "THE SIMPLETON", I think you have missed even a more important point in the present play. I refer to the fact that, while the Judge, at the end of the play, excoriates both dictatorships and democrats in equal terms, nevertless, the impression is left strongly that you range yourself on the side of the dictators. This is done especially in the character of Bomberdine and his magnificent speech on Page 72, which ends with the words: "Out of the liberal democratic chaos comes form, purpose, order and rapid execution". But if you will send your mind back over the political history of mankind, you will realize that, out of dictatorships too comes ultimately the same kind of chaos. It is merely postponed. Democracies breed liberalism and chaos, and dictatorships breed tyranny and oppression, ultimately leading to chaos. People will not tolerate tyranny and oppression more than a generation or so. Then they come back to democracy, and later on to liberalism and chaos all over again. Strong leaders like Mussoline and Hitler arise, and for a brief moment in the history of the world, their regimes seem admirable from the standpoint of efficiency and "getting things done". But does it last? You gave the historic answer in "THE SIMPLETON". Looking out over the future, you saw that man could never submit indefinitely to tyranny; that he would never be willing to be a well-fed, well-housed political slave. The cry for liberty will always ring out in the world, as long as the world exists. This is the ultimate truth, the truth by which man has progressed upward and onward towards his ultimate destiny.

October 7, 1938.

Dear G.B.S.:

Thank you for your letter of the 20th September. If I am really
one of the most thoughtless of "Sheenies", then you are one of the most in-
consistent of "Micks".

Since you are rewriting the part of Mussolini, I hope that you
will make it quite clear that his anti-Semitism does not spring from any
nobler source than the fact that he believes it is a good way to stir up
the Arabs against the British. This shows the tremendous value to the
world of having supermen dictators, who at the stroke of a pen, can sac-
rifice the future of thousands of individuals on the altar of racial sup-
eriority. It is to laugh.

Practically all the great nations of the world have been racial
mixtures. The mixture of the Nordic blood with the Latin blood produced
the English and French races, the German blood, without Latin intermixture,
producing the Junker.

The Irish as a race were greatly improved by the fact that many
of the ships of the Spanish Armada foundered on the coast of Ireland, thus
producing that group of the Irish people known as the "black Irish", a mixture
of celt and Spaniard, from which most of the men of genius of Ireland have been
produced. A number of the Spaniards were Marenos - or converted Jews, which re-
sulted in a certain admixture of Jewish and Irish people. Undoubtedly, you are
one of the striking examples of this mixture, since you possess all the virtues
of Moses, Spinoza, Heine and all the other Jewish prophets. Then, take your money-
making ability. Nine-tenths of the radical playwrights starve to death; you
make a fortune at it. Then look at your Socialism. Don't you know that, accor-
ding to Hitler, all Socialists are Jewish? Yes, G.B.S., the truth will out.
You, too are a Sheenie; and as to that red beard of yours, did you not know that
the medieval Jew always had a red beard? A friend of mine recently visited what
remains of the Pharisees. He found that they had red beards and blue eyes. You
are undoubtedly a Pharisee throw-back.

And as I look back on twenty years of my life wasted in the American
theatre, I realize how un-Jewish I have been. The only thing I have left for my

support in my old age is the sale of various letters and privately printed
copies which you have sent me from time to time. I have treasured them for
sentimental reasons, but now you, with your characteristic money-making in-
stinct, suggest that I sell them on the bull market. Thanks for the tip.

All joking aside, I shall be tremendously eager to read "GENEVA"
when it comes.

I imagine that the amazing proceedings of the last three weeks
must have confirmed your views about the stupidity of democracies. There
seems no doubt about the fact that you can only destroy Fascism with Fascism.
Too bad, because I suppose, once they begin imprisoning the radicals in England,
you will be led to the slaughter. However, there will always be a home for you
over here with us, in "the land of the free".

I sent you our play based on the Oneida Community, but you returned
it with your compliments on a printed slip. Inasmuch as the leader of the Com-
munity was a combination of Bernard Shaw and Noyes, while Mother Noyes was pat-
terned entirely on Mrs. Shaw, we were disappointed not to get your reaction.
Inasmuch as the play arrived at your home just before you were reported to be
ill with Anaemia, we thought that possibly the play might have something to do
with your illness. We put the play on this summer at Westport, and it was quite
well liked, but we are still doing some work on it.

LL EM

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November 13, 1939.

Dear G.B.S.,

Every so often I read in the newspapers here that you are busy. While I don't agree with your utterances, I, nevertheless, found myself heartily behind you when you stated that it was ridiculous to close the theatres in London in times like these. Of course, if someone destroyed at least half of them, you would have to build decent new ones, in place of the terrible death traps which masquerade under the name of theatres in London. But while I would like to see several of the theatres wiped out, I am all in favor of preserving the audiences - so please don't suggest this in any of your public utterances.

Incidentally, of course the new theatres should be constructed with very much larger seating capacity so that we can have much larger audiences, and enrich the authors more than ever.

-8-

Terry and I are thinking of jumping on a train and going to Toronto to see the productions of GENEVA and KING CHARLES, as produced by Barry Jones. I wrote for a copy of KING CHARLES but you didn't send it - hence the trip to Canada.

I have just had a nice letter from St. John Irvine who tells me that you are in fine fettle, but that Mrs. Shaw has been ill with Lumbago. Armina and I are both sorry to hear this, and wish you would give her our love. I rather felt from St. John's letter that he is not in the best of health and is considerably bothered by his eyesight.

You may be interested to know that a couple of years ago I had dinner with Orville Wright and I asked him whether, when he invented the airplane, he realized that hundreds of thousands of people would be killed as a result of his invention. He replied that he and his brother had often talked it over, and had come to the conclusion that the airplane would make war impossible, because you could not carry it on without killing women and children. I thought at first that this

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NIGHTLETTER
XXXXXX

MARCH 4, 1940.

BERNARD SHAW
4 WHITEHALL COURT
LONDON SW 1, ENGLAND

KATHERINE HEPBURN INTERESTED PLAYING STJOAN LATTER

PART XX NEXT SEASON. WE ARE GREATLY INTERESTED.

WRITING REGARDS.

LAWRENCE LANGNER
THEATRE CUILD

March 9, 1940.

Dear G.B.S.:

This is to confirm my recent cable to you to the effect that Katharine Hepburn is interested in playing SAINT JOAN and has asked me to write you in regard to same. I think she would make a magnificent Saint Joan, as she has all the fire and spirit and mental quality, as well as physical build, to play the part superbly. Katharine tells me that it has been the dream of her life for a number of years to play this part. She has been playing all of this season in a Theatre Guild play by Philip Barry and the question has come up as to what she will do next season after the road tour. Her idea was that after the road tour of PHILADELPHIA STORY was over, which would either be around the middle of next season or the end of next season, she would then do SAINT JOAN.

I understand that a benefit performance of SAINT JOAN is being given in Washington next week and that Luise Rainer is playing the part. I feel that Katharine Hepburn would be far more right to play the part, and with her tremendous following in the United States, would give the play an additional seat. It still remains the greatest play of the century and I am very proud to have been the first to produce it.

The Guild is getting along very well this season. We had a bad time for a couple of years but now we have three hits in a row. The Guild is being run by Terry and myself.

I hope you are feeling well and that Mrs. Shaw is also in good health. I had a letter from St.John Irvine recently in which he tells me that his eyesight has not been too good. You may be interested to know that my daughter Phyllis recently married Katherine Cornell's cousin. This makes me Katherine's uncle.

George Bernard Shaw, Esq.,
4 Whitehall Court,
London, S.W.1, England.

From Bernard Shaw.

PHONE: WHITEHALL 3160.

3rd April 1940

Dear Lawrence Langner

I rejoice to hear that the Guild is up on its feet again. I had given it up as finished. It has, as you know, dropped me as an author. I did not blame it, as my plays did not seem to be bringing it any luck. The Press attack on Geneva and its flop has not improved matters. However, the sensational success of the Pygmalion film has suddenly brought me into vogue as a screen expert (I was supposed to know nothing about the cinema); and this bears on the Hepburn question.

St Joan has been pretty thoroughly exploited lately by your new niece, Kit. That irresistible lady called on me when she was last in London, and put me in her pocket in five seconds, not to mention that she had made a pot of money for me while the Guild was turning down my plays one after another and throwing me into the arms of the late lamented Federal Theatre. Is it not a bit soon to start a fresh tour of St Joan on the heels of such a charmer?

Besides, I have a St Joan film coming on with Wendy Hiller as the star - she who did so well in Pygmalion. Until this is released I cannot put up a rival Joan against Wendy. If Hepburn can act - and as she has been playing successfully for the Guild I take it that you are satisfied that she can - she would be a formidable rival. I never feel that I have any moral right to lock up a part against anyone who feels called on to play it, and has fairly won an artist's right to try it; but business has its rights too; and when I have given Pascal an agreement on which he must raise $500,000 to film the play I cannot reasonably do anything that could spoil his claim. So, until the film is released, I am afraid I must hold up the play unless Miss Hepburn can persuade Pascal that her performance would be a help. Kit easily persuaded him that his film of Major Barbara, now in hand, would be helped by her appearance as Barbara with Maurice Evans; but then Kit could persuade anybody to let her do anything. She only gave it up because she could not find an actor good enough for Undershaft.

Meanwhile my play The Millionairess, with Edith Evans in the title part, is next on the list at the Globe Theatre in London. In the original version I made the woman a boxer; but, on the stage, that was unconvincing and unladylike. So I have made her a Judo expert. Judo is what we vulgarly call jujitsu, which is magnificently spectacular. The part requires just such a personality as Miss Hepburn. Has she ever read the play?

August 30, 1940.

Dear G. B. S.,

When I read these accounts in the papers about
air raids, I often think of you and Mrs. Shaw and wonder how
you are. I hope it is not causing you to lose too much
sleep, because the accounts over here indicate that the raiders
fly over London at night and are apparently able to destroy
people's sleep more than their property.

I recently had a brain-wave -- that since America
had the finest inventors, we ought to mobilize them to out-
invent the Germans. So the Government has formed a so-called
National Inventors Council, headed by our greatest inventors,
and your humble servant is the Executive Secretary. So I
alternate between New York and Washington - construction and
destruction.

I have met Miss Baldwin over here, who is repre-
senting Gabriel Pascal, and we have talked several times about
Katherine Hepburn. Katherine is very, very keen to do St. Joan,
and I am sure will do a good job. I hope something can be
arranged but, of course, Mr. Pascal must have his hands full
at the moment trying to finish "MAJOR BARBARA". I imagine that
the conditions under which this picture is now being made, show
how really topical it is.

Did I tell you my daughter, Phyllis, is married?
She married Katherine Cornell's cousin, John Cornell, a young
man engaged in the ridiculous business of putting on plays.

My best wishes to you and Mrs. Shaw. I wish I
could see you both again.

George Bernard Shaw, Esq.
4 Quality Court
London, S. W. 1,
England

August 30, 1940.

Dear G. B. S.,

When I read these accounts in the papers about
air rides, I often think of you and Mrs. Shaw and wonder how
you are. I hope it is not causing you to lose too much
sleep, because the accounts over here indicate that the raiders
fly over London at night and are apparently able to destroy
people's sleep more than their property.

November 4, 1940.

Dear C.B.S.:

Thank you for your letter of October 11th. I cannot tell you how pleased I am to hear from you and to know that you are well. I am having a hectic time shuttling back and forth between New York and Washington as the National Inventors Council is growing more and more important. I believe that the war is going to be won in the brains of the inventors rather than in the armies and navies and I feel the theatre work must take a back seat for the moment. Compared to the anxiety under which you must live at this time, I imagine my lot is a very happy one.

I have talked with Katherine Hepburn and she is very delighted to know that she is in the running for St. Joan. I cabled to ask whether I could be of service on the financial side and in making arrangements here because Hepburn is working with Metro and it might be possible to arrange some kind of a deal. This might take a variety of forms according to the way you wanted it handled. But I thought I should cable you and ask you to cable a reply so that Hepburn would not get off into something else. She is really most eager to play St. Joan and, in my opinion, the best person to do it because she has much of the quality of a crusader in her own character. She is athletic, flies her own airplane, and is courageous and has improved steadily as an actress. Her following has also grown greatly. I visualize her as a thrilling St. Joan!

With kindest regards to you and Mrs. Shaw, I remain

LL:BR
George Bernard Shaw, Esq.
Ayot, St. Lawrence
Wellwin, Herts
England

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LAWRENCE LANGNER

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1-38

## CLASSES OF CABLE SERVICE

### ORDINARIES

### DEFERREDS

### NIGHT LETTERS

### URGENTS

### SHIP RADIOGRAMS

WESTERN
UNION

1201

(18)

R. B. WHITE
PRESIDENT

J. C. WILLIAMS
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT

NOV 9

The filing time shown in the date line on telegrams and day letters is STANDARD TIME at point of origin.

Time of receipt is STANDARD TIME at point of destination

NBD8 CABLE=WELWYN HERTS 38 NOV 8

NLT LAWRENCE LANGNER=

=THEATRE GUILD 245 WEST 52ND ST NYK=

=SORRY YOU MUST DISAPPOINT HER BUT AFTER A CAREFUL STUDY
OF SEVERAL FILMS OUR CHOICE HAS FALLEN ON ANOTHER
CANDIDATE NO TROUBLE ABOUT FINANCE MANY THANKS=
=BERNARD SHAW=

245 52

THE COMPANY WILL APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS FROM ITS PATRONS CONCERNING ITS SERVICE

October 24, 1941

My dear G.B.S.:

I have not written to you for some
time because I have been very busy here getting the
Guild's new season started. In addition to our regular
plays we are also doing a series of revivals. Gaby
Pascal has been coming in and out getting us all excited
about the idea of doing a production in the theatre while
he will then do it in pictures and we have had quite
some excitement about producing ARMY AND THE MAN in the
theatre while he would make the picture in Hollywood.
The latest news however is that he has Ginger Rogers and
Cary Grant and I am sure that he will be able to make a
wonderful picture with these two and I doubt whether it would
be possible to revive the play by the Guild with a cast
which would in any way compare from the standpoint of
popularity.

I greatly enjoy hearing from you and
also in reading from time to time your pungent remarks
in the papers. It is good to know that you must evident-
ly be in good health and, so far as anyone can be in these
conditions, in good spirits. I was greatly entertained by
your desire not to have any important revivals of your
plays because of the income tax. Terry and I decided that
you wanted to save money for your old age. For obviously
only a man with a spirit of eternal youth would be worry-
ing about his income tax at the age of 85.

All joking aside, however, we would
like to do some revivals of your plays on this new Theatre
Guild revival season - if not for your benefit, at any
rate for the benefit of the public which enjoys going to
the theatre, and at a time when our modern playwrights
are not writing anything particularly good, it is refresh-
ing to get back to the older generation for entertainment
in the theatre. Indeed to deprive the American public

-2-

of the chance to see your plays at a time when the American public is making a supreme effort to turn out war material and otherwise assist Great Britain-seems to me to be taking a rather unshavian view of this situation. This public, which you used to call your "congregation" has seldom failed to support your plays when things were good. Surely you have been the first to state that the theatre was an important factor in maintaining public morale, and you of course are an important part of the theatre. We on our part will do everything we can to produce the amount of your taxes. Something could be sent to the Red Cross, Bundles for Britain, or anything to provide warm food and clothing for the soldiers or the families in England. All this could be deducted from American income tax, if not from British. One of the plays which I would like to do is YOU NEVER CAN TELL. We could get together an excellent cast and have a lot of fun out of it.

Armina is well and is now working with me at the Guild. The Guild Theatre is still in our hands but the sheriff has been around a couple of times. The Shuberts have not yet taken us over, but we, to some extent, have taken over the Shuberts. The Guild now has over 100,000 members in 18 cities and any play done by the Guild has $150,000 in advance waiting for it - but I shouldn't mention this to you because it will probably sound like too much money.

In addition to my Guild work, I am continuing my activity as Secretary of the National Inventors Council. We have been getting some very good inventions there, but, oh lord, how long it takes to get anything done in these days of mass production!

Please give my love to Mrs. Shaw. Gaby told us many things about his visit with you when he spent the weekend with us on his arrival here.

With all the best, I remain

Sincerely,

Mr. George Bernard Shaw
Ayot St. Lawrence
Welwyn, Herts
England

November 27, 1942

Dear G.B.S.:

I have asked Mr. Munsell to drop in to see you and talk with you about a possible revival of SAINT JOAN for a limited period, say three or four months. The blowing up of the French fleet has had a most tremendous effect on the attitude of the American people towards the French people and I do not believe that any time could be better for a revival of SAINT JOAN than the forthcoming year.

I have written to you several times about the fact that Katharine Hepburn has developed splendidly as an actress and in my opinion of all the young women available to perform the play, and make the picture, she should be the finest. She has something in her own character which is very akin to Joan and she is young enough and ardent enough to bring out the fanatic side of the Saint's character. Then she has in herself very fine spiritual values which will enable her to portray the saintly part of the character.

Finally she is America's most beloved young actress today and most represents for us over here the crusading spirit of young womanhood.

Now I know that you have made a number of statements to the press and also written to me that you do not want your plays revived on account of the high income tax. Do have a heart about this. The only place where the theatre is still alive today is England, Russia and the United States. And this is the very time when people need to go to the theatre to see plays of an inspirational character and experience some of your plays, such as SAINT JOAN, which transcends the usual kind of nonsense you see in the theatre at wartime. This is all the theatre left in the world and you certainly should not go down in history as refusing to allow your plays to be done at this time merely on account of the income tax. Actually the taxes will be just as high as this for the next ten years, if

-2-

not higher, so you have nothing to hope for in the way
of reduction because the expenses of the peace are going
to be almost as high as the expenses of the war - that
is they should be if anything is going to be done for the
long suffering people who have paid the highest price for
the war. It does seem to me that the Guild and its
audiences who put on play after play of yours when times
were had, should have the opportunity of doing some
revivals now when there is such a shortage of good plays.
Furthermore, the war has been quite hard on us financially,
and it would not only be a beater in our cap artistically
but also from the monetary side to be able to produce
SAINT JOAN.

Warren Munsell will tell you all about this aspect
of the situation. I know that as a result the picture
would follow and some arrangements could be made for a
payment of same over a period of years which would at
any rate alleviate the income tax situation.

I was looking over the recent biography of you
which states that SAINT JOAN was first done in London
and later on in New York. If the book is no more accurate
than this, it is very inaccurate indeed. We were the first
to produce SAINT JOAN as you well know. And now please
let us do it again.

My best regards to Mrs. Shaw.

Sincerely yours,

October 24, 1941

My dear G.B.S.:

I have not written to you for some
time because I have been very busy here getting the
Guild's new season started. In addition to our regular
plays we are also doing a series of revivals. Gaby
Pascal has been coming in and out getting us all excited
about the idea of doing a production in the theatre while
he will then do it in pictures and we have had quite
some excitement about producing ARMS AND THE MAN in the
theatre while he would make the picture in Hollywood.
The latest news however is that he has Ginger Rogers and
Cary Grant and I am sure that he will be able to make a
wonderful picture with these two and I doubt whether it would
be possible to revive the play by the Guild with a cast
which would in any way compare from the standpoint of
popularity.

-2-

of the chance to see your plays at a time when they are
making a supreme effort to turn out war material and
otherwise assist Great Britain - seems to be taking
a rather unshavian view of this situation.

This public, which you used to call your
"congregation", has seldom failed to support your plays
when times were "good". Surely you have been the first to
state that the theatre was an important factor in maintain-
ing public morale, and you are an important part of the
theatre. We on our part will do everything we can to reduce
the amount of your taxes. Something could be sent to the
Red Cross, Bundles for Britain, or anything to provide warm
food and clothing for the soldiers or the families in England.
All this can be deducted from American income tax, if not
from the British. One of the plays which I would like to do
is YOU NEVER CAN TELL. We could get together an excellent
cast and have a lot of fun with it.

Armina is well and is now working with
me at the Guild. The Guild Theatre is still in our hands,
but the sheriff has been around a couple of times. The
Shuberts have not yet taken us over, but we, to some extent,
have taken over the Shuberts. The Guild now has over 100,000
members in 18 cities and any play produced by the Guild has
$150,000 in advance waiting for it - but I shouldn't mention
this to you, because it will probably sound like too much
money.

In addition to my Guild work, I am con-
tinuing my activity as Secretary of the National Inventors
Council. We have been getting some very good inventions
there, but, oh lord, how long it takes to get anything done
in these days of mass production!

Please give my love to Mrs. Shaw. Gaby
told us many things about his visit with you, when he spent
the weekend with us on his arrival here!

With kindest regards, I remain

Sincerely,

(COPY OF LETTER FROM BERNARD SHAW)

Ayot St. Lawrence, Welwyn, Herts
Station: Wheathampstead, L & N.E.R. 2½ miles
Teleg. 7 phone: Codicot 218

4, Whitehall Court (130) London S. W. 1
Telegrams: Socialist, Parl-London
Telephone: Whitehall 3160

28/11/41

William Brady also wants to revive "You Never Can Tell" with a magnificent cast; but I am sufficiently ruined already by Katharine Cornell's revival of the "Doctor's Dilemma" and the "Pygmalion" film, with royalties taped 27% in the States and 95% here. I shall have to let Gabriel film "Arms & the Man" to keep him alive; but that is all for the duration. I may die at any moment now; and what is to become of all the people provided for in my will if my property is swallowed up by this infernal war? Don't mention another production to me unless you can guarantee a flop worse than "The Apple Cart" or "The Unexpected Isles". However, I rejoice in the recovery of the Guild from its phase of apparent slow extinction. It sounds more like its old self now.

G.B.S.

(Original at 14 W. 11th St.)

December 29, 1942

Dear G.B.S.:

First of all, here's wishing you a
Happy New Year, insofar as it is possible to be
happy at this time. Also Armina and I send our
love to Mrs. Shaw.

Warren Munsell, our Business Manager,
is in London and I believe is going to call on
you while he is there. He is now a Major in the
Army.

Armina is the head of the Washington
Stage Door Canteen and we spend our time travelling
between New York and Washington - not a very good
idea as we are not growing any younger and each
trip takes four hours amid great discomfort.

We have just opened a new Soviet play,
"The Russian People", a very exciting melodrama
in which the Red Army is the hero. I invited
half the Government in Washington to see it,
including several cabinet ministers and they all
liked it.

I have recently been requested by a
publishing house to write the story of my work
with the Theatre Guild and I want to include in it
our correspondence which over a period of years
has been both interesting and amusing. This will
represent a small but important part of the book
for I am very proud of the fact that after the last
war, the Theatre Guild made the first productions
of "Heartbreak House", "Back to Methuselah", "Saint
Joan", "Too True to be Good" and other plays.
Incidentally, the credit was taken away from us on
"Saint Joan" and given to the English production -
by Hesquith Pearson.

-2-

The Theatre Guild has been rather badly hit by the war because we are up against a bad situation with shortage of gasoline and tires. Unlike England, our cities depend very much on automobile transportation and theatre-going has been very considerably affected by the difficulty which people have in getting to and from the theatre and their homes. On the other hand, this is gradually clearing up and in certain cities, e.g. New York City, we do not have quite the same problem.

My daughter, Phyllis, is married to John Cornell, a nephew of Katharine Cornell, and my son, Philip, is now sixteen years old - a mathematician and scientist with very little interest in the arts - fortunately for him.

I am enclosing bulletin about "The Russian People" which you may find interesting.

Once more - all good wishes for 1943.

Sincerely,

Mr. George Bernard Shaw
Ayot, St. Lawrence
Welwyn, Herts,
England

September 20, 1943

Dear GBS:

Terry, Armina and I sent you a telegram telling you
how deeply grieved we were to hear of the death of Mrs. Shaw.
She was a truly wonderful woman, and Armina and I always
thought of her with real affection.

In the memoirs which I am writing, I particularly
wrote a number of things about her which showed how much we
admired her, and I am going to send you, within the next couple
of weeks, the chapters which deal with this so you will not
have to bother to read the old letters as they will be in the
chapters.

There is nothing one can say at a time like this
which is appropriate to the occasion. Your pictures hang on
the wall in my office, and I look at you every day and think
fondly of you and on your many kindnesses to me. I am begin-
ning to feel the passage of the years myself, and I only hope
they will sit as lightly on me as they have done on you. To
which I add that I hope this great loss will not make you too
lonely. You have so many friends who love you, and I am sure
they will be some consolation in your grief.

Mr. George Bernard Shaw
Ayot, St. Lawrence
Welwyn, Herts
England

LL:KS

April 13, 1945

George Bernard Shaw
4 Whitehall Court
London, SW 1, England

RATHBONE INFORMS US HE NOW HAS OTHER COMMITMENTS WHICH MAKES PRODUCTION KING CHARLES IMPOSSIBLE NEXT SEASON. WE ARE EXTREMELY DESIROUS OF PRODUCING SAINT JOAN WITH KATHERINE HEPBURN WHO IS WILLING AND AVAILABLE AND ACTING ABILITY AT PEAK. HOPE YOU WILL AGREE TO OPENING NEXT OCTOBER AS PUBLIC HERE GREATLY DISAPPOINTED BY ABSENCE YOUR PLAYS FROM THEATRE. PLEASE CABLE CONSENT.

REGARDS.

TERRY AND LAWRENCE

Charge to the account of

THEATRE GUILD, 23 West 53rd Street

$

1206

WESTERN
UNION

A. N. WILLIAMS
PRESIDENT

<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">CLASS OF SERVICE DESIRED</th></tr><tr><th>DOMESTIC</th><th>CABLE</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>TELEGRAM</td><td>ORDINARY</td></tr><tr><td>DAY LETTER</td><td>URGENT RATE</td></tr><tr><td>SERIAL</td><td>DEFERRED</td></tr><tr><td>NIGHT LETTER</td><td>NIGHT LETTER</td></tr></tbody></table>

Send the following telegram, subject to the terms on back hereof, which are hereby agreed to

Ordinary Cable

April 13, 1945

<table><tr><td>FOR VICTORY</td></tr><tr><td>BUY</td></tr><tr><td>WAR BONDS</td></tr><tr><td>TODAY</td></tr></table>

RATBONE INFORMS US HE NOW HAS OTHER COMMITMENTS WHICH MAKES PRODUCTION KING CHARLES IMPOSSIBLE NEXT SEASON. WE ARE EXTREMELY DESIROUS OF PRODUCING SAINT JOAN WITH KATHERINE HEPBURN WHO IS WILLING AND AVAILABLE AND ACTING ABILITY AT PEAK. HOPE YOU WILL AGREE TO OPENING NEXT OCTOBER AS PUBLIC HERE GREATLY DISAPPOINTED BY ABSENCE YOUR PLAYS FROM THEATRE. PLEASE CABLE CONSENT. REGARDS.

TERRY AND LAWRENCE

To guard against mistakes or delays, the sender of a message should order it repeated, that is, telegraphed back to the originating office for comparison. For this, one-half the unrepeated message rate is charged in addition. Unless otherwise indicated on its face, this is an unrepeated message and paid for as such, in consideration whereof it is agreed between the sender of the message and this Company as follows:

1. The Company shall not be liable for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery, or for non-delivery, of any message received for transmission at the unrepeated-message rate beyond the sum of five hundred dollars; nor for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery, or for non-delivery, of any message received for transmission at the repeated-message rate beyond the sum of five thousand dollars, unless specially valued; nor in any case for delays arising from unavoidable interruption in the working of its lines.

2. In any event the Company shall not be liable for damages for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery, or for the non-delivery, of any message, whether caused by the negligence of its servants or otherwise, beyond the actual loss, not exceeding in any event the sum of five thousand dollars, at which amount the sender of each message represents that the message is valued, unless a greater value is stated in writing by the sender thereof at the time the message is tendered for transmission, and unless the repeated-message rate is paid or agreed to be paid, and an additional charge equal to one-tenth of one per cent of the amount by which such valuation shall exceed five thousand dollars.

4. Except as otherwise indicated in connection with the listing of individual places in the filed tariffs of the Company, the amount paid for the transmission of a domestic telegram or an incoming cable or radio message covers its delivery within the following limits: In cities or towns of 5,000 or more inhabitants where the Company has an office which, as shown by the filed tariffs of the Company, is not operated through the agency of a railroad company, within two miles of any open main or branch office of the Company; in cities or towns of 5,000 or more inhabitants where, as shown by the filed tariffs of the Company, the telegraph service is performed through the agency of a railroad company, within one mile of the telegraph office; in cities or towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants in which an office of the Company is located, within one-half mile of the telegraph office. Beyond the limits above specified the Company does not undertake to make delivery, but will endeavor to arrange for delivery as the agent of the sender, with the understanding that the sender authorizes the collection of any additional charge from the addressee and agrees to pay such additional charge if it is not collected from the addressee. There will be no additional charge for deliveries made by telephone within the corporate limits of any city or town in which an office of the Company is located.

5. No responsibility attaches to this Company concerning messages until the same are accepted at one of its transmitting offices; and if a message is sent to such office by one of the Company's messengers, he acts for that purpose as the agent of the sender.

6. The Company will not be liable for damages or statutory penalties in the case of any message except an intrastate message in Texas where the claim is not presented in writing to the Company within sixty days after the message is filed with the Company for transmission, and in the case of an intrastate message in Texas the Company will not be liable for damages or statutory penalties where the claim is not presented in writing to the Company within ninety-five days after the cause of action, if any, shall have accrued; provided, however, that neither of these conditions shall apply to claims for damages or overcharges within the purview of Section 416 of the Communications Act of 1934.

7. It is agreed that in any action by the Company to recover the tolls for any message or messages the prompt and correct transmission and delivery thereof shall be presumed, subject to rebuttal by competent evidence.

9. No employee of the Company is authorized to vary the foregoing.

10-43

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Accepted up to 2 A.M. for delivery not earlier than the following morning at rates substantially lower than the standard telegram or day letter rates.

CABLE SERVICES

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6. The Company will not be liable for damages or statutory penalties in the case of any message except an intrastate message in Texas where the claim is not presented in writing to the Company within sixty days after the message is filed with the Company for transmission, and in the case of an intrastate message in Texas the Company will not be liable for damages or statutory penalties where the claim is not presented in writing to the Company within ninety-five days after the cause of action, if any, shall have accrued; provided, however, that neither of these conditions shall apply to claims for damages or overcharges within the purview of Section 415 of the Communications Act of 1934.

Special terms governing the transmission of messages according to their classes, as enumerated below, shall apply to messages in each of such respective classes in addition to all the foregoing terms.

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June 26, 1945

Mr. George Bernard Shaw
4 Whitehall Court
London SW 1

Dear U. B. D.:

It looks as though there is going to be
a severe theatre shortage in New York next season,
and we have to begin to make our plans early.

1. We would like to do SAINT JOAN with Katharine Hepburn, and I have been corresponding with Gabby Pascal. Pascal has no doubt communicated with you on the subject, and we want you to know that, in our opinion, a stage production will only enhance the picture. Katharine Hepburn is at the peak of her career and has become a much finer actress. She has the inspirational quality to make a great Saint Joan.

2. Because of the theatre shortage, we are going to have a radio program which will, later on, lead to television. We should like to have the right to do your plays over the radio, at your usual rates.

Terry and I are in wonderfully good health, and we hope that you are too. The Theatre Guild is going strong, and we have a wonderful new building, in the hallway of which stands the bust which you loaned me. It has a commanding position, eyeing everybody who goes up the stairs. You will be interested to note that, since your bust was placed in the hall, all dishonest characters, upon passing it, turn tail and fly out of the building without going upstairs.

Now please remember to answer the following questions: (1) How about Katharine Hepburn? (2) How about the radio plays?

Please give my best regards to Miss Patch.
Armina and I hope to see you both in England during
the coming year.

June 26, 1945

Dear G.B.S.:

Terry and I are in wonderfully good health, and we
hope that you are too. The Theatre Guild is going strong,
and we have a wonderful new building, in the hallway of
which stands the bust which you loaned me. It has a com-
manding position, eying everybody who goes up the stairs.
You will be interested to note that, since your bust was
placed in the hall, all dishonest characters, upon passing
it, turn tail and fly out of the building without going up-
stairs.

June 26, 1945

Dear G.B.S.:

9th July 1945.

Dear Lawrence Langner:

The lady's age and very striking
Dago-American personality are right for The
Millionairess and wrong for Joan, a revival of
which must wait until the projected Pascal film
has had its fling.

My plays are mostly too long for radio,
and the art of producing plays invisibly is a
special one in which the choice of contrasting
voices (the vocalists may be as ugly as Satan)
is all important. I doubt whether you will find
it possible to run the two distinct businesses
together, and shall not commit myself to it
until my doubts are resolved one way or the
other.

Your news of the renovation of the
Guild is very welcome. I had written it off as
moribund.

In great haste -- I am over-
whelmed with business on the
verge of my 90th year --

G. Bernard Shaw

Lawrence Langner, Esq.,
The Theatre Guild, Inc.,

2. In any event the Company shall not be liable for damages for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery, or for the non-delivery, of any message, whether caused by the negligence of its servants or otherwise, beyond the actual loss, not exceeding in any event the sum of five thousand dollars, at which amount the sender of each message represents that agreed to be paid, and an additional charge equal to one-tenth of one per cent of the amount by which such valuation shall exceed five thousand dollars.

4. Except as otherwise indicated in connection with the listing of individual places in the filed tariffs of the Company, the amount paid for the transmission of a domestic telegram or an incoming cable or radio message covers its delivery within the following limits: In cities or towns of 5,000 or more inhabitants where the Company has an office which, as shown by the more inhabitants where, as shown by the filed tariffs of the Company, the telegraph service is performed through the agency of a railroad company, within one mile of the telegraph office; does not undertake to make delivery, but will endeavor to arrange for delivery as the agent of the sender, with the understanding that the sender authorizes the collection of any additional charge from the addressee and agrees to pay such additional charge if it is not collected from the addressee. There will be no additional charge for deliveries made by telephone within the corporate limits of any city or town in which an office of the Company is located.

5. No responsibility attaches to this Company concerning messages until the same are accepted at one of its transmitting offices: and if a message is sent to such office by one of the Company's messengers, he acts for that purpose as the agent of the sender.

10-42

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4. Except as otherwise indicated in connection with the listing of individual places in the filed tariffs of the Company, the amount paid for the transmission of a domestic telegram or an incoming cable or radio message covers its delivery within the following limits: In cities or towns of 5,000 or more inhabitants where the Company has an office which is shown by the filed tariffs of the Company, is not operated through the agency of a railroad company, within two miles of any open main or branch office of the Company; in cities or towns of 5,000 or more inhabitants where, as shown by the filed tariffs of the Company, the telegraph service is performed through the agency of a railroad company, within one mile of the telegraph office; in cities or towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants in which an office of the Company is located, within one-half mile of the telegraph office. Beyond the limits above specified the Company does not undertake to make delivery, but will endeavor to arrange for delivery as the agent of the sender, with the understanding that the sender authorizes the collection of any additional charge from the addressee and agrees to pay such additional charge if it is not collected from the addressee. There will be no additional charge for deliveries made by telephone within the corporate limits of any city or town in which an office of the Company is located.

10-62

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August 21, 1945

Dear GBS:

Regarding our radio program

We have engaged the very best radio people
in the United States to manage the program, as
we would not dream of going into this without
good help. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne are
going to do ten shows.

Since this program is supposed to embrace
the history of the Theatre Guild, won't you please
let us do some of your plays with Lunt and
Fontanne and other actors? We would like to have
the right to select five plays from the following:
PYGMALION; ARMS AND THE MAN; CANDIDA; YOU NEVER
CAN TELL; SAINT JOAN; THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE; MAN
AND SUPERMAN; IN GOOD KING CHARLES' GOLDEN DAYS;
MAJOR BARBARA; TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD. For each of
the plays which we use, we will pay you the sum
of $500. Will you please cable your assent to
the above? Practically all of the important
authors in England and the United States whose
plays we have done in the past are giving us
permission to do their plays on the air.

P. S. I saw a reprint of your letter regarding
the atomic bomb. I thought everything you said
was splendid. We are beginning our program with
Robert Nichols' and Maurice Browne's play, WINGS
OVER EUROPE, which prophesied the dire possibili-
ties of this bomb in the year 1926. When we pro-
duced this play, everyone said we were crazy.
The artists are always ahead of the scientists,
as you will be the first to admit.

August 21, 1945

Dear GBS:

Regarding our radio program

Since this program is supposed to embrace the his-
tory of the Theatre Guild, won't you please let us do
some of your plays with Lunt and Fontanne and other ac-
tors? We would like to have the right to select five
plays from the following: PYGMALION; ARMS AND THE MAN;
CANDIDA: YOU NEVER CAN TELL; SAINT JOAN; THE DEVIL'S
DISCIPLE; MAN AND SUPERMAN; IN GOOD KING CHARLES' GOLDEN
DAYS; MAJOR BARBARA; TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD. For each of
the plays which we use, we will pay you the sum of $500.
Will you please cable your assent to the above? Prac-
tically all of the important authors in England and the
United States whose plays we have done in the past are
giving us permission to do their plays on the air.

Sincerely yours,

P. S. I saw a reprint of your letter regarding the atomic
bomb. I thought everything you said was splendid. We are
beginning our program with Robert Nichols' and Maurice
Browne's play, WINGS OVER EUROPE, which prophesied the dire
possibilities of this bomb in the year 1926. When we pro-
duced this play, everyone said we were crazy. The artists
are always ahead of the scientists, as you will be the first
to admit.

September 18, 1945

Dear GBS:

Just a line to let you know that our radio show started off as a great success. Enclosed please find the notice which just appeared in the New York TIMES about our first show. The second one also went very well.

I have talked to Alfred and Lynn about your tele-
gram, and our idea of doing some of your plays in two
parts, the first half one week and the second half the
next. They are very eager to do PYGMALION, and the
reading part of this will just about fit into two hours,
with such emendations as may be necessary for the exi-
gencies of radio. In this way, we ought to be able to
get through without "cutting or cooking," which you
could not do in a one-hour show.

I heard indirectly that Katharine Cornell might
also be interested in doing CANDIDA--possibly in the
same way--but this is only a rumour.

By doing the plays over the air in this way, we
will keep them alive until such time as the income tax
permitx them to be done in the theatre again.

Once again, we are very grateful to you for giving
us your consent to do these plays on the air. With
kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

Mr. George Bernard Shaw
4 Whitehall Court
London, SW 1

September 18, 1945

Dear GBS:

Just a line to let you know that our
radio show started off as a great success. En-
closed please find the notice which just appeared
in the New York TIMES about our first show. The
second one also went very well.

I have talked to Alfred and Lynn about
your telegram, and our idea of doing some of
your plays in two parts, the first half one week
and the second half the next. They are very eager
to do PYGMALION, and the reading part of this
will just about fit into two hours, with such
emendations as may be necessary for the exigen-
cies of radio. In this way, we ought to be able
to get through without "cutting or cooking," which
you could not do in a one-hour show.

By doing the plays over the air in this
way, we will keep them alive until such time as
the income tax permits them to be done in the
theatre again.

Charge to the account of

BERNARD SHAW
4 WHITEHALL COURT
LONDON ENGLAND

WESTERN
UNION

A. N. WILLIAMS
PRESIDENT

1206

OCTOBER 15, 1945

RUMORS OF REVIVALS OF YOUR PLAYS BEING CIRCULATED AROUND BROADWAY WE ASSUME WE ARE STILL ACTING AS YOUR AGENTS. ALSO IF YOU ARE RELEASING NOW FOR NEW YORK WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE OUR CONTROL OF PLAYS WE HAVE PRODUCED ESPECIALLY PYGMALION ARMS AND THE MAN DEVILS DISCIPLE ANDROCLES AND THE LION SINCE WE MADE THE LAST SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTIONS OF THESE WOULD FEEL VERY BADLY IF THEY WERE RELEASED TO OTHER MANAGEMENTS WITHOUT OUR HAVING FIRST CHANCE AT PRODUCTION OURSELVES.

THERESA HELBURN AND LAWRENCE LANGNER

To guard against mistakes or delays, the sender of a message should order it repeated, that is, telegraphed back to the originating office for comparison. For this, one-half the unrepeated message rate is charged in addition. Unless otherwise indicated on his face, this is an unrepeated message and paid for as such, in consideration whereof it is agreed between the sender of the message and this Company as follows:

1. The Company shall not be liable for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery, or for non-delivery, of any message received for transmission at the unrepeated-message rate beyond the sum of five hundred dollars; nor for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery, or for non-delivery, of any message received for transmission at the repeated-rate beyond the sum of five thousand dollars, unless specially valued; nor in any case for delays arising from unavoidable interruption in the working of its lines.

2. In any event the Company shall not be liable for damages for mistakes or delays in the transmission or delivery, or for the non-delivery, of any message, whether caused by the negligence of its servants or otherwise, beyond the actual loss, not exceeding in any event the sum of five thousand dollars, at which amount the sender of each message represents that the message is valued, unless a greater value is stated in writing by the sender thereof at the time the message is tendered for transmission, and unless the repeated-message rate is paid or agreed to be paid, and an additional charge equal to one-fifth of one per cent of the amount by which such valuation shall exceed five thousand dollars.

4. Except as otherwise indicated in connection with the listing of individual places in the filed tariffs of the Company, the amount paid for the transmission of a domestic telegram or an incoming cable or radio message covers its delivery within the following limits: In cities or towns of 5,000 or more inhabitants where the Company has an office which, as shown by the filed tariffs of the Company, is not operated through the agency of a railroad company, within two miles of any open main or branch office of the Company: In cities or towns of 5,000 or more inhabitants where, as shown by the filed tariffs of the Company, the telegraph service is performed through the agency of a railroad company, within one mile or towns of 5,000 or in cities or towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants in which an office of the Company is located, within one-half mile of the telegraph office. Beyond the limits above specified the Company does not undertake to make delivery, but will endeavor to arrange for delivery as the agent of the sender, with the understanding that the sender authorizes the collection of any additional charge from the addressee and agrees to pay such additional charge if it is not collected from the addressee. There will be no additional charge for deliveries made by telephone within the corporate limits of any city or town in which an office of the Company is located.

6. The Company will not be liable for damages or statutory penalties in the case of any message except an intrastate message in Texas where the claim is not presented in writing to the Company within sixty days after the message is filed with the Company for transmission, and in the case of an intrastate message in Texas the Company will not be liable for damages or statutory penalties where the claim is not presented in writing to the Company within ninety-five days after the cause of action, if any, shall have accrued; provided, however, that neither of these conditions shall apply to claims for damages or overcharges within the purview of section 415 of the Communications Act of 1934.

10-42

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