Description:

Porter Cole

Single autograph musical score sheet from "Maid of Mystery". Titled "Maid of Mystery / Introduction", 10.5" x 13.75". Rendered in graphite on heavy paper stock. Page toned, else near fine with small separation along a fold, now professional restored. Provenance: The musical scores were a part of a larger archive of personal materials that Cole Porter gave to Clifton Webb, an accomplished actor who maintained both a professional and a personal relationship with Porter for decades.

A spectacular unpublished musical score of "Maid of Mystery" completely in Cole Porter's hand, including 17 hand written bars of musical notation, and notes. The page is headed "Maid of Mystery", and features a note at the bottom "Tom - Please get an oriental effect in this verse. Also, in refrain, in measures 1, 5, 17, and 21 dot the second note of the melody as indicated."

This stunning musical score is from the lovely archive of material originally from Porter to actor Clifton Webb, who maintained both a professional and a personal relationship with Porter for decades. Webb, previously a dancer, first appeared on Broadway in Porter's first Broadway play.

Webb worked mostly on Broadway in the 1920's and 1930's before his film career blossomed in the forties in such movies as "Laura" (1944), "The Razor's Edge" (1946), and "Sitting Pretty" (1948). His performances in those three films earned him academy award nominations.

Hints as to the musical score and lyrics to this piece lay in several pieces, both including as photocopy of an autographed letter to Webb, in addition to a telegram to him. The letter read: "Dear Clifton -- I am sending you the refrain of your song. You should have a copy made by Olivier, chez Durand, music shop, Place de la Madeleine. He is the head copyist there. Keep one copy for rehearsal & give the other to Tom Waring & pet him into doing it for his band. I will send the verse and the lyric as soon as finished. Also tell Leteutre, Sayag's secretary, to put this on the program -- this title Maid of Mystery. And when you have done all these things, take you finger and stick it up your ass. My address is Chateau de Gourdon, Gourdon-par-le-Bar, Alpes Maritimes. Goodbye & Love to all my playthings. Cole Saturday morning". The telegram dated 1928 reads: "Oh Maid of Mystery let me guard your secret. Oh Maid of Mystery tell me who you are neath you incognito are you someone I know or some princess from lands afar are you prosperpiny from the realms of infernal or are you Venus dear and a star divine. Just remove your disguise, let me gaze in your eyes, oh mysterious maid be mine."

Even with these clues, "Maid of Mystery" still remains a bit of a mystery, apparently never publicly performed, and still unpublished. Instead, it was replaced by "Looking at You," a song Porter was so fond of he also included it in the 1929 revue "Wake Up and Dream." However this set is intensively revealing and alludes to Cole's secret life.

William McBrien, author of "Cole Porter: A Biography" , makes a compelling argument that the composer's homosexual love affairs inspired his most personal and passionate work. "The love songs were very coded. They make sly references," McBrien says. "And there is a wonderful ambiguity to most of them. That's why they could get so much heterosexual mileage. Cole was aware that if you disclosed too much in Hollywood, you were likely to lose your job--and your audience." As he delved deeper into the composer's trunk of more than 800 songs, songs such as "I Loved Him, but He Didn't Love Me" began to take on new meaning. The bittersweet lyrics can now be viewed in a more contemporary light, with many of Cole's songs displaying fiery emotions.

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