Stewart Granger

Stewart Granger0:00

Hallo, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive. This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it is the only version we have. It comes from the British Library's radio collection.

Stewart Granger0:14

The recording didn't contain the guests' eight music choices, so we've rebuilt the original show by using discs from the B B C Gramophone library. For Wright's reasons we've had to shorten the music.

Stewart Granger0:25

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Stewart Granger0:30

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one.

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And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:52

Our castaway this week is an actor, star of very many films in this country and abroad. It's Stuart Granger. Well, it's nice to see you back in London, Jimmy. Are you staying in London? You live in the middle of the morning. Yes, for the moment, but Roy, I was just cunting.

Stewart Granger0:59

It's nice to see.

Speaker 41:00

Uh

Stewart Granger1:00

You

Stewart Granger1:02

Yes, for the moment.

Presenter1:05

What is it, 34 years ago, when I first did this with you? It's 34 years ago. 34 years ago. And you weren't. You haven't changed, you know? I got it in first. You haven't changed. Right, let's pretend we've never done it before. All right, we've never done it before. Right? This desert island proposition. You have eight discs to make life a little better. Is music important to your life?

Stewart Granger1:09

34 years ago.

Stewart Granger1:14

So happy.

Presenter1:27

Well, I was saying to you, Roy, remember when we were having a discussion, it's a strange thing that when I was married with the family and sort of

Presenter1:34

a home and we had an existence that

Presenter1:37

It was ordered, more or less ordered. Music was very important to me but in the last twenty years, looking back

Presenter1:43

Traveling around, I was living in Rome, I was living in

Presenter1:47

In in in in in Switzerland, you know. I was living in Spain.

Presenter1:53

I never never listen to the radio. I never play records.

Stewart Granger1:53

Never

Presenter1:57

because not having a home that I loved, I didn't have sort of my collection with me. That's why it's very difficult to choose, and that's why you'll find that some of the ones I've chosen are going back to when I first did them with you. What's the first one you've chosen? Well, I've chosen Tchaikovsky's piano concerto because

Presenter2:15

The very first job I had was in the Hull Rep.

Presenter2:18

And I was in a play called The Shining Hour.

Presenter2:21

And I had to play the piano, and I had to play this.

Presenter2:24

Tchaikovsky concerto. And I got so carried away because they play they played this record off stage and I was miming it, you see. I used to get carried away and forget to say the lines I'm supposed to say, you see. The actress would sort of look at me and tap her heel, Oh yes and then I'd ask her the line. Anyway, it's very, very effective and and very dramatic and theatrical and I love it.

Presenter3:38

An excerpt from Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto in B-blatt minor, the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, and Arto Rubenstein as soloist, and he wasn't saying anything either. He was better than I was.

Presenter3:52

You talked about your early job in Hull Rep. Let's go further back than that. Now, you're a Scott, aren't you? On your father's side?

Stewart Granger3:59

It's all my favorite.

Presenter4:02

And he was a soldier of your father.

Stewart Granger4:03

Yeah.

Presenter4:03

Oh, from way back. His father was a soldier, his grandfather, great grandfather, you know, yeah. But on your mother's side, I believe the arts took over. Oh, yes. Mummy's, um well, I don't know which. My great great great, I think, grandfather, was Luigi LeBlash, who was

Stewart Granger4:10

Other side I

Presenter4:22

The the greatest basso profondo in the world. Incidentally, there's a

Presenter4:27

a collection in the Wallace collection of his snuff boxes in which he had three hundred and sixty five. He was given by all the crown heads of Europe three hundred and sixty five and I believe there's there's a three hundred and sixty sixth which was given him by Queen Victoria for leap year. And he taught her singing, Queen Victoria singing. So that's why I've chosen uh

Speaker 44:43

Yeah.

Speaker 44:44

Uh

Presenter4:47

a record by Shariapin, because the tragedy of my great great great great was that he died before they had recordings. And Shariapin was the great bass of so I think he probably

Speaker 44:55

And check.

Presenter4:59

Had a voice very like my great-great-grandfather.

Speaker 45:02

What are we getting here?

Speaker 45:22

Um

Speaker 26:08

Glory to thee, O Lord, a Gretchaninov setting, sung by Fyodor Shalyapin.

Presenter6:14

Right, now the arts on your mother's side, martial matters on your father's side. What was your ambition as a boy? What did you want to do?

Presenter6:23

I was a rebel from very young and I didn't want to go in the army because

Presenter6:27

I always had a feeling that somebody got in there two weeks before you and they'd be bossing you around for the rest of their lives, you know, because they had seniority.

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But a doctor I really wanted to be a doctor. I think it was a calling. But I didn't want to be a GP, you see, because I'm a bit lazy, aren't I?

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And I want to be a Harley Street specialist, you know.

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Anyway, my father lost a lot of money and and and he said he couldn't afford to

Presenter6:52

to send me to oh, yes, he could afford to send me to university and college, but after that I'd had to be on my own, because if you're a a specialist, people don't go to a twenty five year old specialist.

Presenter7:01

You have to buy into a practice, you have to study long term. So I.

Presenter7:06

I said, I I'll I'll bum around and that's how I sort of fell into being an actor. You know, it wasn't a calling with me at all. How did that start? Did you go to a an acting school? No, I I sort of ran into somebody who said, um, you know, do you have a good wardrobe? and I said, Well, you know, I don't know what you mean. He said, What, do you have tails? and

Presenter7:23

Dinner jackets, well I I've you know, I've got dinner jackets, a bit blue, a bit green, because it's second hand. He said, We have a car, yes. Uh Overland whip it.

Stewart Granger7:29

Oh

Presenter7:31

called the Fire Engine, it was bright red. He said, Well, become a film extra He said, You get a guinea a day and you meet fabulous girls You see So become a film extra I became a film extra and I remember the first day I worked

Presenter7:43

I was being pushed into different rooms and said, Put that on your face, bright orange You know, Roy in our day they used to use these arcs, bright orange makeup and there's a awfully good looking young fella sitting next to me and I said, Um you done much of this? He said, No, it's my first day

Stewart Granger7:48

Yeah.

Presenter7:59

I said, oh, really? Why are you doing it? She said, well, you get a guinea a day and you meet these lovely girls. I said, oh, that was Michael Wilding. So we had a bowl for two years.

Stewart Granger8:04

Yeah.

Presenter8:08

And then, you know, another fluke. I won't go into it because it takes too long done.

Presenter8:12

But I fell into being an actor, and that's how I got the whole rep. I played.

Speaker 28:16

Yeah.

Presenter8:17

The Tchaikovsky Concert. That was your first professional engagement. Yeah, I'll rep. At how much?

Stewart Granger8:21

Yeah.

Speaker 48:21

Uh

Stewart Granger8:21

Uh

Presenter8:22

Three quid a week. But you remember in those days, Roy?

Presenter8:26

I remember we stayed

Presenter8:29

and a lovely Yorkshire woman had five daughters.

Presenter8:32

who looked after me. It was twenty five bub a week, all in. That's three big smashing meals a day. Oh yes, you could. And the daughters, you know, stunned my socks, washed my I mean, they were lovely fat. Twenty five bub a day. I mean, can you imagine? And then you moved on to Birmingham. That was one of the things. Like, I managed to get a job in the Birmingham rep. One of the best reps in the country. The best. In those days, it was the place to go.

Stewart Granger8:47

That was one of these.

Stewart Granger8:52

I'm gonna

Presenter8:56

Well, I met Elspeth, my first wife. Elspeth March was the leading lady there. What took you to Birmingham?

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When I had a row with Peppino Sant Angelo of the hull rep,

Presenter9:05

who was only paying me three pounds a week.

Presenter9:08

for for supporting parts and I suddenly found I was playing leading parts.

Presenter9:12

So I went in to him and said, I think I should get more than three pounds a week you see and he said you're lucky to have a job at all which he was quite right, of course. But I was very arrogant. I said, Well, I shall go to the Birmingham Rep. He said, You should be so lucky, you know.

Presenter9:23

And I went back to London and the person who got me a

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The introduction to the theatre, which was a woman called Susan Richmond.

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It was my doctor's.

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wife, who taught at the Weber Douglas School of Dramatic Art, where I learned to be an actor.

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I went to her and I said, I made an ass of myself. I said to this man that I'm going to get in the Birmingham Road. Now, what the hell do I do? He said, well, it's.

Presenter9:46

Incredible, but Cyril Phillips, the secretary of the

Presenter9:50

Rep.

Presenter9:51

is holding auditions.

Presenter9:54

Can you get me in? He said, Well, I might, just I know him. So in I go.

Stewart Granger9:56

And now it

Stewart Granger9:57

Yeah.

Presenter9:59

And I give him this nonsense about I've, you know, been a film actor. I was a film extra, you know, but I gave it up to be a serious actor, and I'd been playing leads in the Hull Rep for a long time. You know, it was, I think, six weeks or eight weeks. And he said, well, I can only offer you seven pounds a week because Stephen Murray is the leading man. He's leading in six months. But would you be prepared to pay second leads at seven pounds a week for six months and then you will take over as leading man for ten pounds a week? I said, well.

Presenter10:28

Give me a little to think it over. I said, Yes.

Presenter10:31

Like three seconds.

Stewart Granger10:31

Like three seconds.

Presenter10:32

and was able to go back to Peppino Saint Angelo, who said to me with a sneer, I suppose you're going to the Birmingham Rep? I said, Yes, sir, in two weeks.

Presenter10:41

He said, No I said yes. How much are they paying? I said they start at seven pounds.

Presenter10:46

And then they go on to tell him about it and he said, Well, I must see

Presenter10:49

Congratulations. You know, I shall hate to lose you. And that's how I do. You see, that's why.

Stewart Granger10:52

Uh

Presenter10:54

People come to me and say

Presenter10:57

My daughter or my son wants to go into the movie business or the theater, how do I advise them? How do I advise them? It's luck. Yes. It's timing.

Presenter11:05

Luck.

Presenter11:06

A lot of application, a little bit of talent, timing and luck. What was your first London appearance in the theater? Ah, now wait a second. Oh yes, The Sun never sets, and it's set in three weeks. It was a big smash at Drury Lane. Drury Lane. Drury Lane, directed by Basildean.

Stewart Granger11:18

Drawer line.

Presenter11:22

With Leslie Banks and Edna Best. In fact, the only thing it was famous for, I believe is the Guinness Book of Records, was the shortest appearance by any leading actress in the West End Theatre, because Edna Best was playing the heroine. And at the opening, her first night, Leslie and I are tied to two columns by the you know, it's about Sanders of the River. Yes. And she is brought on on the head of an enormous black.

Stewart Granger11:33

Yeah.

Presenter11:50

and carried across stage to be dressed as the goddess or something as in she went off,

Presenter11:55

And then um there's a you know fifteen seconds interval and on comes

Presenter12:01

Should be Edna Berth dressed as a goddess and comes the double, you know, the understudy.

Presenter12:06

And Leslie and I look at each other pulled, but apparently what had happened

Presenter12:10

What had happened was that the the that this great giant had turned too close to the prosemian arch and had cracked Ednabes's head.

Presenter12:19

Blood poured. So she was taken off. So I think that's that's the shortest appearance. That was also my short appearance in the West End. And then you went to the Arl Vic.

Stewart Granger12:20

So she wasn't taking them off.

Stewart Granger12:23

That was awesome.

Presenter12:28

Yeah.

Presenter12:32

I I decided we should get married, Elspeth and I. And I had this contract with Basildine. Although this thing had come off, he still had to pay me thirty quid a week, you see. Yes.

Presenter12:42

And um

Presenter12:43

We're gonna get married. We've taken an apartment.

Presenter12:46

in Swan Court, Flood Street. Yes. I hear that Larry Olivier is doing Serena Blandish at the Gate Theatre with Vivi and me. So I go down and I test for it, you know, I get the job. And I say, Well, there's one problem and I'm under contract to Basildean.

Presenter13:00

But don't go away, I I'll be back in an hour and I went and said, I'll give you back your contract and he jumped at the chance, which was not fairly unflattering and I rushed back and it was three pounds a week at the gate, so I'd given up thirty pounds a week to play three pounds a week at the gate and we got married on that.

Stewart Granger13:09

Yeah.

Speaker 413:10

Uh

Speaker 213:10

Fairly unflattering.

Speaker 413:11

Yeah.

Presenter13:19

What was the very first film you did? A film with lines from Crowder. I can't remember, but somebody said.

Stewart Granger13:22

Well, I'm getting from crowd mic.

Presenter13:27

There. They said it's a

Presenter13:29

So this is London, I think. So this is London with a girl called

Stewart Granger13:32

Yeah, example that

Presenter13:34

Carla Lehman incredible. Carla Lehman. There's a girl called Carla Lehman. We were the juveniles and Alfred Drayton and Robertson Hare were in it.

Stewart Granger13:38

Are we with the juveniles and our

Presenter13:42

I don't think I was a great su su success. Nobody asked me to be in a film after that. So the f the I always consider the first film I made was Man in Grey. Well, that was after you had had a couple of years in the Army, didn't you? Yeah, I'd been in the Army and we'd had a lot of sort of disasters and tragedies and things in the Army and I got invited out. A lot of people asked me why I was such a

Stewart Granger13:50

Well, that was after you had had a couple of years in the army during the war.

Presenter14:01

sort of they they called me belligerent or

Presenter14:06

What is the other word they always use me, arrogant actor? It wasn't really sort of belligerent or ar uh it it was guilt.

Presenter14:13

You see, I came out in forty beginning of forty three and I'd been in the Gordon Highlanders as a private, a very tough regiment, and I was commissioned to the Black Watch as an officer, sixth Battalion Black Watch.

Presenter14:26

And just when I was invalided out, my battalion, Invasion Div, was sent to North Africa and they had received 100% casualties. They were wiped out.

Presenter14:36

And I felt a kind of a guilt thing that I should have been with them, you see.

Presenter14:39

And when I became a film star and people started interviewing me and saying, you know, what's your favorite colour? And I thought this was ridiculous. People were dying. Who cares about my favourite colour?

Stewart Granger14:46

I would

Presenter14:48

And the boys I remember on the boys on the set were complaining that the tea was late, the tea wagon I mean, you know, tea, I mean, you know, it's four o'clock, and where's the tea wagon? Oh, you being the Gordons, old boy, and you

Presenter14:58

Be lucky to get tea at all, at any time.

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Which

Presenter15:02

Made me not that I was belligerent, but I didn't sort of pay enough.

Presenter15:08

Uh how do you say a band? What do you say, a band to the press, to the you're supposed to be terrible? Enough deference.

Stewart Granger15:14

enough deference.

Speaker 215:15

Yeah.

Presenter15:17

Because to me it was all a lot of nonsense. People were dying. Anyway, that first film, The Man in Grey, did it. A smash here, it was a lovely part. I mean, you couldn't fail.

Stewart Granger15:21

Anyway, that first film, The Man in Grey, the first one.

Stewart Granger15:24

Yeah.

Presenter15:28

And that earned you a long-term contract. I'm afraid. Did you want a long-term contract? Well, you made a uh a dozen and a half British films during those great post-war boom years. Uh titles at random, Madonna. Much against my will. Seven moons, love story, the lamp still burns, blanched. Which were the good ones? Oh, the ones in it.

Stewart Granger15:28

And you

Stewart Granger15:30

I'm afraid.

Stewart Granger15:32

No, of course

Stewart Granger15:34

Where

Stewart Granger15:41

Much uh much against my will.

Stewart Granger15:43

Last story, the lamp still burns, blanched.

Presenter15:48

Really? I mean, Man in Grey was lovely, but I mean, um, Fan Embai Gaslight.

Presenter15:53

Well, you know, it's all right. Puffin Asquith, he was a good director, and James Mason's a lovely actor, and Phyllis is sweet, you know, but it was pretty

Presenter16:00

Melodramatic, Victorian melodrama. Caravan was ghastly. I mean, Madonna of the Seven Moons was was was but very popular, you see. The point was, if they made films in those days, like they make today, they wouldn't go. People wanted escapism. They had enough horror and enough reality and the bombs coming down and the and the, you know, the rationing and couldn't get clothes. I mean, you know, they wanted complete escapism and this is what we gave them. Oh, they were romantic nonsense. Oh, romantic nonsense, yes, but they loved it.

Stewart Granger16:25

Oh the romantic nonsense at times.

Presenter16:28

I'd love to have another record. All right, and what should we have?

Presenter16:31

Oh, let's have one. I'll tell you why I've chosen this one.

Presenter16:35

I was in Cornwall, my beloved Cornwall, where I was as a kid.

Presenter16:39

And we were doing love story, right? Yeah. And Maggie Lockwood had to play the piano and they

Presenter16:43

Did this Cornish rhapsody they wrote for her to play. But the real reason I'm playing it is because Elspeth, my wife, my first wife.

Presenter16:51

when we were staying in this little farmhouse at Capson Just, right on the southern tip of Cornwall, swears that was where Jamie, my son, my firstborn, was conceived. So it's very close to my heart, this concerto that um is going to be played now.

Speaker 417:02

Uh

Presenter17:47

The Cornish Rhapsody from the film Love Story in nineteen forty four starring Margaret Lockwood and Stuart Granger, and Leo Litwin was at the piano.

Presenter17:56

Now after all those films you elected to return to the stage, you went with Jean Simmons, later to be your wife, to play in Tolstoy.

Stewart Granger18:04

Style.

Presenter18:07

I wanted to go back to the theatre.

Presenter18:10

And we had offers to do all the commercial plays possible because I mean here was a pretty good commercial packet, Stuart Grange and Gene Simmons in 1949, 48, 49.

Presenter18:21

was a pretty commercial packet, right?

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And I decided, poor darling Jean didn't get a say, did she?'Cause she'd never been in the theatre, so I had to choose what she went in. I I chose this very heavy Tolstoy, which had never been done before.

Stewart Granger18:32

We have

Presenter18:36

Because it was a challenge. You see, I wanted to do something worthwhile. I wanted b Jean to be in something worthwhile, not some they wanted they wanted us to do private lives. Can you imagine Jean Simmons playing Gertie Lawrence part? I mean, she was all of nineteen. Yes.

Stewart Granger18:39

Wild

Presenter18:49

Never been in the theatre before in her life.

Stewart Granger18:49

Never

Presenter18:51

It's very different from being a film style, you know.

Presenter18:54

I couldn't have played the novel car part anyway, so that made it two of us. But we chose this very heavy thing.

Stewart Granger18:59

Very

Presenter19:01

Power of Darkness by Tolstoy. And I lost every penny I had in it. You were just about the top man in British films at that time, but you were elected to pull up your roots and uh and go off to Hollywood. Before we go there, I I want to go back a little because I've chosen another record.

Stewart Granger19:09

Yeah, I don't have

Presenter19:16

which is long before I went to Hollywood.

Presenter19:18

which is the um Pagan concerto because I played

Presenter19:22

In the magic bow. How you played Paganini? You remember, you remember I played Paganini. So let's go back there first.

Stewart Granger19:24

I played back in the year of course.

Presenter19:29

I was forced, I didn't want to play Paganini, you know, I was forced to do it. And they said, Your next film is Paganini and the Magic Bow and I said, Don't be stupid. Look at these hands, they're a boxer's hands, I'm supposed to play those. I wouldn't say it was first grade visual casting.

Stewart Granger19:40

You're pasting.

Presenter19:42

But I had a man called David McCullum, who was the leader of the Philharmonic, who got me enthused about

Presenter19:48

The Stradivarius and Gunarius, these two geniuses in one little town, little village of Cremona, and two streets. I mean, it's incredible.

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And I and Yuhudi Menuen was going to do the recordings.

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And I remember thinking, I don't know how to play the violin, I'll go and watch him. You see, he'll

Presenter20:05

He'll show me how to act a violinist. Well, he he did nothing, of course. He put the thing under his chin, closed his eyes, and played this magical music.

Presenter20:14

Remember how sweet he was because he had a a wonderful stradivarias. And at the end when he'd finished recording, all the violinists of the Philharmonic would come and say,

Presenter20:25

But I didn't know do like mine, you know, and he'd take the I don't know what it was, but it was not a strat of ice.

Presenter20:30

and play a little and say, what a beautiful tone it has, because he can make any violin sound like a Benarius or Stradivarius.

Stewart Granger20:36

Yeah.

Presenter20:39

And I also did a terrible thing.

Presenter20:42

I can tell this little little story against myself.

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The sweet man, David McCullum, lent me his own Stradivarius for the actual take, but I'd rehearse, I'd use a a mock-up, you know, just a cheap thing.

Presenter20:57

And uh he knew I was a bit short tempered and and it was terrible these stumps of hands trying to get the right movement and everything.

Presenter21:05

And I'd throw this damn violin across the room and smash it and all sort of thing. And one day when we're taking it, I had a I can't remember what it was, but a very, very difficult bit. And I was getting rather short-tempered. But I kept my sense of humour. And he used to come up and hand me the strad and I'd hand the the fake one to the prop man. And as he turned his back and walked back towards the camera, I switched them, you see, so that they

Presenter21:30

The prop man had the real strat and I had

Presenter21:33

And we start the scene.

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And I lose my temper, I pretend to lose my temper, and smash this strativarius. Smashed it on a table.

Presenter21:42

And David McCullum I thought he'd know I wouldn't have done a thing like it. I thought he'd laugh at the joke. He didn't. He fainted.

Presenter21:49

He fainted, smack on the ground, you see. So I rushed up and I I took the Stradivares from the prop man and I said, David I'm smacking his face. David, darling, it's all right. Look, it's here And he came out and he said

Stewart Granger22:00

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 422:00

Yeah

Presenter22:01

Oh, Jimmy, how could you do that? You know, and I said, David, I didn't. It's here. It was a joke. Laugh. You it you know, and his tears were flowing up. Oh, it was dreadful. And in the end, he was so sweet because he said, Oh, here it is. I'll give it back to you and I'll go and play it properly. And I did it properly. I did it beautifully for him. You know, he was a sweet, sweet man. Anyway, because of that.

Presenter22:23

I'm gonna play the

Presenter22:24

Paglini Concerto, played by Yuri Menuen that we used in the film.

Presenter23:23

An excerpt from the first Paganini concerto in D major.

Presenter23:27

Yehudi Menouin with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter23:31

Now, you were just about the top man in in British films, but you decided to pull up your roots and go off to Hollywood. One had to, you see. To be an international star, you've got to go to Hollywood.

Presenter23:41

And as I say, I'd reached my peak and I I really I see I I didn't plan to go to Hollywood. As you know if you read the book, you know, I'd planned to

Presenter23:51

produce and direct. And I'd bought this lovely book by Ruma Garden called The House by the Sea and it was either Betty Davies um or Catherine Hepburn playing the this middle-aged woman and there's a young actor coming along called Marlon Brando, you know. I'd heard of him, he was in the theater, he hadn't made a film. I thought I might only use him, he had to play this young killer and I wanted to produce and direct, right?

Presenter24:16

Then I lost my money in the in the thing. I owed the income tax.

Presenter24:20

And I got this chance to do King Solomon's mines.

Presenter24:23

And I did it and then, you know, we signed another contract. So here I am in America.

Presenter24:28

Under contract. Now, in Hollywood, it wasn't so much romantic part that you had played in England, it was uh swashbuckling.

Presenter24:36

Well, they were romantic, you know. I mean, there's nothing more romantic than Scaramouche, is there or Prison of Zender.

Stewart Granger24:41

President.

Presenter24:43

Or Young Bess, or King Solomon's Minds. I mean that leopard skin hat, that's pretty romantic. I was very lucky. Look, in two countries I blew it because I signed the long term contract.

Presenter24:53

But I had the chance. I had Man Engraved a wonderful part in England, and the first time America really saw me commercially everywhere was in King Solomon's Minds where I played this.

Presenter25:03

I think very romantic character with a leopard skin and um

Presenter25:08

Can I tell you how we we came about the leopard skin hat?

Presenter25:11

Hollywood dressed me up as they thought I should be dressed, which was not as you dress as a white hunter in Africa.

Presenter25:18

And I had the luck to be introduced to Phil Percival, who was the Doyen of of White Hunters.

Presenter25:24

And um

Presenter25:25

I was a great fan of his because he'd taken Ernest Hemingway out on on Safari.

Presenter25:31

And I went to him and he sort of giggled a bit when I came in and what Metro thought I should wear.

Presenter25:36

He said the most important thing he said we can we can knock down the pants and uh and they wear a gun and, you know, all that. But he says, The hat's terrible, isn't it, Jimmy? He said, It looks as if it's from Miami, Florida.

Presenter25:46

And what are we going to do?

Presenter25:48

So he said, Well, I knew somebody who used to wear a snake skin round his hat. So he brought out a snake skin, shoved it round this enormous hat.

Presenter25:55

That didn't look right. That still looked like Florida. He said another

Presenter25:59

He said, Oh, I've got it He said as a fellow used to wear a leopard tail.

Presenter26:02

round his hat, although it was so thick, the leopard tail. But I liked the idea. And so we cut off a strip, you see, and shoved it round the hat, and it looked wonderful. So that's how

Presenter26:13

We came to be the first people to wear leopardskin round the hat, and I I noticed and I had been back on Safari, I mean, twenty times,

Presenter26:19

that they're selling in Kenya hats with leopard skins round everywhere you go

Presenter26:25

They're not real leopard skin, they're fake leopard skin. But everywhere you go in in East Africa, they're suddenly I wish I'd uh, you know, patented

Presenter26:32

Could have made some money. They gave you some gorgeous leading ladies in Hollywood. Yes, didn't do badly, did I? Rita Hayworth.

Presenter26:39

Deborah Carr.

Presenter26:41

Um Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Summons.

Presenter26:44

Acid Charisse.

Presenter26:46

Oh, blame me, I've forgotten. Eva Gardner, my beloved Eva Gardner. In those days, in in in your big time in in Hollywood, they were they were opening up, they were using real locations instead of studio mockups. So you were getting about the place.

Stewart Granger26:56

So that's two deal mockups.

Presenter26:59

Oh God, yes. Well, to go back to King Solomon's mines, I mean, we were in Africa five months.

Presenter27:06

And you know, we were suffering from malaria and dysentery and amoeba. It really was rough. It was really rough. But at least I've seen the film. you know, quite recently. And although the love story is pretty old fashioned, the l the locations and the the animal shots are sensational because we were there.

Presenter27:23

And that that it's proven it really counts if you're really there. If they'd built it on the back lot at Metro.

Presenter27:29

It wouldn't have been the same, would it? Yes. Yes, for you the the fifties in particular w were golden years for movies. Yes, when I was in South America and I was in um Canada on the borders for another film and in India.

Stewart Granger27:33

Going to use for Monk.

Presenter27:43

Do you know?

Presenter27:44

I was I think that's what smashed up my marriage actually, was who

Speaker 427:44

But I think

Presenter27:47

Or was separated. Yes, of course.

Presenter27:49

The marriage doesn't doesn't stand long separation. Jean was busy somewhere else. Well, she was busy. She never could travel. Anyway, you know, a wife to be on vacation with you is dreadful for her.

Stewart Granger27:53

Well she was busy, she know

Presenter27:59

She's sitting at home in a tent all the time while you're working.

Stewart Granger28:03

I forgot.

Presenter28:05

I'm going to choose one that I've got no anecdote about. It's not connected with me in any way of any of my movies or anything, but

Presenter28:12

There were some chaps called the Beatles,

Presenter28:15

Well, I loved a lot of them the Beatles stuff, but the one I thought was absolutely sensational, and the lyrics are sensational, which is called Yesterday.

Stewart Granger28:21

Called yesterday.

Presenter28:23

And this is sung by Paul McCartney.

Speaker 428:26

Yesterday.

Speaker 428:29

All my troubles seem so far away

Speaker 428:34

Now it looks as though they're here to stay, Oh I believe

Speaker 428:40

Yesterday, suddenly.

Speaker 428:46

I'm not half the man I used to be

Speaker 428:51

There's a shadow hanging over me Born yesterday came sudden

Presenter29:00

Paul McC

Speaker 229:00

God

Presenter29:01

Yesterday. Now you have mentioned it once or twice. You've written a book.

Presenter29:06

And it's I've written an autobiography. Yes. It's unusual. It's unlike most film star autobiographies. You wrote it yourself. Yes, for sure. Was there any opposition to that?

Stewart Granger29:07

Yeah.

Speaker 229:07

It's been a book of

Stewart Granger29:09

I've written an audible.

Presenter29:17

Yes. I mean, I had a ghostwriter'cause you see I wrote it because I thought it was easy money. You've got a ghost writer and the publishers came and offered you a lot of money to publish the book and everything.

Presenter29:27

Not true.

Presenter29:28

Well, not for me, anyway, because a ghost writer he's probably a much better writer than I am.

Presenter29:33

But he doesn't write the way I speak. He doesn't it's not me.

Presenter29:36

The the publisher and my agent got very worried and said, What are we gonna do? Who are we gonna get?

Presenter29:42

Are you sure you're right about this? And I said, Well,

Presenter29:45

I'll show you why I think I'm right. So I wrote in longhand what I thought this chapter should be. So I gave it to my agent, who showed it to the publisher, and he said

Presenter29:55

That's what it should be, is he? They said, But, Jim, but then why don't you write? I said, I can't write, I can't write a letter, you know.

Presenter30:01

Course you can. There it is.

Presenter30:04

So that's how I picked up the pen on December the twentieth, I think, and started in May the sixth, nineteen thirteen. I was born and I thought, That's an awful beginning, we'll have to change that and we and I and I wrote it and it was fairly traumatic. How long did it take you?

Presenter30:18

Well, the actual writing took five months, but I'd made uh tapes for two or three months before in Spain for this ghostwriter who then had to leave.

Presenter30:29

So the actual writing was five months. Then I found another terrible thing was finding photographs, because I think David Niven had planned at the age of seventeen to write an autobiography, because he seemed to have collected.

Presenter30:39

You know, photographs from way back when he's not. You have to get no, I mean, for instance.

Stewart Granger30:41

You have

Stewart Granger30:42

No, I mean for

Presenter30:44

Spencer Tracy was our best friend. I mean, my daughter was named after Tracy, who was the godfather of the daughter of Jean.

Presenter30:51

I haven't got one photograph with Spencer Tracy because I wouldn't think

Presenter30:55

when he came to our home to say, Spence, would you mind having your photograph taken with me? For a for a for a film actor to say, Would you have your photograph taken? It was like a slap in the face, isn't it? So all these people that I knew so well, I never had photographs taken with me. They're still skeptical? None, none, none. So to search for

Presenter31:11

Stills of me, they're mostly in in in f I got I managed to get one or two pretty good ones, you know, sort of you've seen them, have you? I have well. They're not bad, yes. They're not bad. You haven't told us what the book's called.

Stewart Granger31:17

I have it well.

Presenter31:21

Oh, I thought you'd told her. No, I haven't heard a word about it. I can't remember. What's it called? Sparks doing something? Sparks fly upwards. Yes, Sparks Flyup.

Stewart Granger31:24

Commercial

Stewart Granger31:28

But

Presenter31:28

Yes, what's the it's from the Bible, my dear chap. From the book of Job. Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. And this book is about trouble, wouldn't you say? Well, an awful lot of it seems to be yours and other people's. Yes, I know.

Stewart Granger31:41

But it goes in.

Presenter31:43

I hope I gave a little trouble.

Presenter31:45

'Cause they sure's act gave me some trouble. When did you make your last film? What was it?

Presenter31:50

The last film was called The Last Hunt. Oh, well, let's I don't count the one. The one I did a sort of a sort of a a cameo shot with Richard Burton. I don't count that. I I did um a guest shot on a on a film because he was a friend of mine.

Presenter32:03

The producer was a friend of mine and they said, Would I come and do a show? But my last film film was called The Last Safari.

Presenter32:10

Which was a bit heartbreaking, was made by a very unpleasant character called Henry Hathaway. He really was.

Presenter32:16

I think the most unpleasant director I've ever worked with in my life. He seemed to he was a charming man off, off the set. You go to his home.

Presenter32:24

A very generous host and suite. He got on the set and he chewed cigars and he would look around thinking, Who can I destroy? Do you know, he he really was a was a dreadful man and he made this film.

Stewart Granger32:33

Do you know he

Presenter32:37

which I think was probably the worst film made in Kenya.

Presenter32:41

And as I'd made the best film, which I think made in Keene, it was awfully unhappy for my last film to be the worst film. Which was the best? The last safari. The best one was King Solomon's Mind. Yes. And I think this uh this last one was a

Stewart Granger32:47

There's a lot

Presenter32:52

and I more or less saw the writing on the wall.

Presenter32:55

That uh

Presenter32:57

I wasn't being offered the best part. I I really had sort of cut my own throat because in in Europe when I had this divorce I was very unhappy.

Presenter33:04

And I just took anything, I did anything because it was tax-free. It was the first time in my life I'd ever worked for tax-free money and I sort of anybody who came up with the dough

Presenter33:13

I did and then you can't do that. You've got to protect your career. So I said, Well, that's it. I hung up.

Presenter33:19

I hung up my gloves, right, and didn't do any more films, really.

Presenter33:24

Another record. Right. Let's have that one I had thirty-four years ago. Because I still love it, it's the Beethoven.

Presenter33:31

Emperor Concerto. Which movement?

Presenter33:34

Well, I don't know. The slow movement. That's how the slow movement is. That's the one you translate.

Stewart Granger33:36

That's the same one as I had thirty four.

Presenter34:33

The slow movement from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, number five in E-flat, once again Arto Rubenstein, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barrenboy. Now you're a man of many interests, Jimmy, and these interests seem to have been slotted into phases in your career. In your days as a star of British films,

Presenter34:54

You were rather into the English country gentleman image, shooting and all that field sports. Johnny Mills and I became country gentlemen. Actually, it's the only thing that kept me sane was the gardens and I had a couple of horses. Then there was the spell of luxury yachting. That came a little later when again we rather like the south of France. This is the period when my marriage has gone wrong.

Stewart Granger35:04

Uh

Stewart Granger35:09

Then load the

Stewart Granger35:11

But that's the only thing.

Presenter35:21

And, um, I had to disappear while the divorce is going through.

Presenter35:27

And Mike and I love the south of France. And look here, we're two big movie stars, right? And we should be able to afford to, you know. But it was so expensive in these hotels we said, let's buy a boat, you see. We'll have the boat, and we'll live on the boat. Cheap, you see. So we had this boat that we bought.

Presenter35:44

an ARC rescue pinnace that we had converted.

Presenter35:48

And um eventually got to the south of France where Mike and I never were on it together because when I was working he was free, when he was I you know.

Presenter35:56

But when I was free he was working. We never own it together.

Presenter36:00

But during that period

Presenter36:02

which in a strange way was a very romantic, although sad, because that one marriage was had gone wrong.

Presenter36:09

But uh I was then after the divorce met Jean, you see, and

Presenter36:15

had the boat and had her down there and and it was a very romantic period.

Presenter36:19

I remember taking Gene once too.

Presenter36:22

to Entibes. And this lady was singing, whom we'll hear next, um Edit Piaf.

Presenter36:32

And this record reminds me of that whole period.

Presenter36:35

So why don't we play that?

Speaker 436:37

Unicoloshas Pomer Swamer Prabhuade Koanekon.

Speaker 237:05

Yeah.

Presenter37:05

Des trois cloche with Les Compagnon de la Chanson and Edit Biaff.

Presenter37:10

Now you are on this little island. Yes. And you've travelled so much in in primitive parts in Africa you should have some ideas of putting up a waterproof shelter for a start.

Presenter37:19

What a poor shadow? Yeah.

Presenter37:21

But what have I got?

Presenter37:23

Well, you've got whatever's on the island. You've got palm leaves, you've got wood, you've got.

Stewart Granger37:26

Oh yes.

Presenter37:28

What are you going to eat? You good fishermen?

Presenter37:31

Yes.

Presenter37:32

Are you good at campfire cookery?

Stewart Granger37:32

Yeah.

Presenter37:34

I'm good old cookery, like so many men.

Presenter37:37

I'm not a bad cook. I'm messy cook. You know, I must have cleaning up. Oh, I must have something to clean up, because I managed to use more pots.

Stewart Granger37:39

I

Speaker 437:40

Yes,

Stewart Granger37:41

Uh

Presenter37:45

Than anybody, you know. You've been a boat owner, do you know about, um, navigation?

Presenter37:51

Yes. Would you try to get away? Would you try to construct some kind of craft? A raft or something like that. These lovely records after a time would drive me up the wall, you know. I mean, they're gorgeous records to hear now.

Stewart Granger37:51

Uh

Presenter38:02

But after, you know, a month, two, three months, you know

Presenter38:06

I think I'd wanna get off that island.

Presenter38:08

Let's have your last record.

Stewart Granger38:08

Have you

Presenter38:10

It was funny because I I wanted to play my way because it it sort of

Presenter38:15

Slightly indicative of my life, this the words of my way. And I said to you, sung by almost anybody but Frank Sinhatra.

Presenter38:23

You remember we couldn't get anybody seeing it as well as Frank Sinatra. And I think Frank Sinatra is the most incredible.

Stewart Granger38:25

And I think

Presenter38:30

Singer.

Presenter38:31

But I got slightly disillusioned with him when I was in Rome and he was there.

Presenter38:36

And uh when you're a big star like he is.

Presenter38:40

I mean a lesser degree, I was a star.

Presenter38:42

You have to sign autographs, you have to have the paparazzi take photographs, it's part of your job. And I didn't like the way Frank had his

Presenter38:50

bodyguards who would push people aside and take the cameras and smash them. I I thought this was disgraceful. So I slightly off him, so I said to you as a joke

Presenter38:59

I love my way sung by almost anybody except Frank Sinacher, but I will give him this. He sings it better than anybody.

Speaker 239:07

I plan

Speaker 239:10

Each jaw to course.

Speaker 239:13

Each careful step

Speaker 239:16

On the byway

Speaker 239:20

More

Speaker 239:22

Much more than this.

Speaker 239:25

I did it

Presenter39:31

My Way by Frag Zinatra. If you could take only one Discard to the Eight, which would it be?

Presenter39:37

That's difficult, isn't it? I think it'd have to be the classic, the great classic, it'd have to be Beethoven, wouldn't it?

Presenter39:43

Beethoven. The Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. And one luxury to take to the island, nothing of any practical use.

Stewart Granger39:44

The base air must be.

Presenter39:50

Oh, you've you've you've you've pulled one and you I haven't thought of that at all.

Presenter39:55

One luxury.

Presenter39:57

A blonde?

Presenter39:58

No must be inanimate. We've got rules about all this. Even inanimate blondes, no. I thought I could make a very inanimate.

Stewart Granger39:59

Oh, that rose.

Stewart Granger40:03

Net

Presenter40:06

Ah.

Presenter40:08

There's something that I travel with. I have done for twenty two years.

Presenter40:13

My great her hero during the war was Churchill. I mean, I thought this man was absolutely fantastic. And Nieman did this sculpture of Churchill, which is in I believe it's in House of Parliament, isn't it? The Nieman sculpture of Churchill. And Asperay was clever enough to have Nieman do some miniatures. I think he did fifty in gold and two hundred in silver. And I had some a few bob spare and I went into Asper's and I bought one of gold of this little model of this lovely man Churchill. And I've travelled everywhere. Wherever I go, he goes in the bag with me and I

Stewart Granger40:32

Plan

Presenter40:47

He's out on the dresser in the hotel, or wherever it is. I see Churchill.

Presenter40:51

I think probably I'd take him. Yes, I've seen that. It it's beautiful. It's beautiful, isn't it? But I mean, he was such a.

Stewart Granger40:52

Yes.

Stewart Granger40:54

Beautiful.

Presenter40:57

It's not that the thing is beautiful. It reminds you of this incredible man who, you know, he had all the failures and pushed down and he at the time we needed it, didn't he? He came up and there he was.

Presenter41:07

Wonderful, wonderful person. And one book for the island. One book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Presenter41:12

Well, when I was terribly young, I haven't read them recently, but

Presenter41:17

I was mad about a man called Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway. Right. And there is a book called called The Collected Works of Ernest Hemingway, and I think I'd probably take that. Can you get all in one volume? Yes, there's a great big fat book which has got, I think, everything.

Speaker 241:26

Can you get a

Stewart Granger41:28

Yeah.

Presenter41:32

I'll be on a semi-including short stories. All right, the biggest book of Ernest Henry. The most of Ernest Henry I can get, yeah. And thank you, Stuart Granger, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. Thank you, Roy.

Speaker 241:36

Yeah.

Presenter41:45

Goodbye, everyone.

Stewart Granger41:53

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Island Discs archive.

Stewart Granger41:57

For more downloads, please visit the Radio 4 website.