Description:

Porter Cole

Cole Porter TLS regarding His Last Musical Silk Stockings

 

1p TLS signed by American songwriter and composer Cole Porter (1891-1964) as "Cole" on bottom, and with typed signature "From: Cole Porter" at upper left. Pencil inscribed "file" and with a staple in the upper left corner. The watermarked cream stationery with expected paper folds and a few minor chips to top, else near fine. The sheet measures 7.25" x 10.75".

 

Cole Porter wrote New York theater producer Cy Feuer (1911-2006) from his home in Los Angeles on May 8, 1954. The letter reads like a who's who list of Broadway actors, actresses, and theater professionals, and also contains multiple references to what would be Cole Porter's last musical, Silk Stockings.

 

Silk Stockings would premiere on February 24, 1955. The musical story, co-written by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Abe Burrows, was loosely based on Melchior Lengyel's story Ninotchka, in which an overzealous Soviet agent falls in love with a French libertine. Porter wrote the music and the lyrics; Steve's song "All of You", originally performed by Don Ameche, was a break-out hit. Over the next fifteen months, the cast of Silk Stockings gave 478 performances at Broadway's Imperial Theater.

 

Porter wrote Feuer: "I was most interested to read about Henry Lascoe and Leon Belasco. I have finished the new lyric to the former IF EVER WE GET OUT OF JAIL and I hope when you hear it you will approve. It is definitely saccharine and when I over it I feel slightly sick!"

 

Henry Lascoe (1912-1964) and Leon Belasco (1902-1988) would play the comic relief in Silk Stockings as two of three blundering Soviet agents. Along with David Opatoshu, the trio sung a comical ditty called "Siberia", in which they imagined what life in a Siberian gulag would be like. The lyrics are in part: "When we're sent to dear Siberia / To Siberi-eri-a / When it's cocktail time 'twill be so nice / Just to know you'll not have to phone for ice. / When we meet in sweet Siberia / Far from Bolshevik hysteria / We'll go on a tear / For our buddies all are there / In cheery Siberi-a."

 

"If Ever We Get Out of Jail" was the original title of a duet sung by Don Ameche and Hildegarde Neff in the production as "As on Through the Seasons We Sail." In the song, Steve promises Ninotchka that they will live happily together: "I love you, oh, I do / And this I'll prove to you / As on through the seasons we sail / Remote from crazy crowds / We'll float above the clouds / As on through the seasons we sail. / When we are man and wife, / I swear to make our life / A revolutionary fairy tale."



The three individuals that Porter mentions in the beginning of the letter were also Broadway personalities. Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was an English set and costume designer who won a Tony award in 1954 for his work on House of Flowers. Bob Alton (1906-1957) had choreographed the musical comedy Me and Juliet, which had just wrapped up. Shirl Conway was an up-and-coming Broadway actress who would eventually win an Emmy award. Here, Porter might have been talking about her role as Ruth Winters in the 1955 musical comedy Plain and Fancy when he wrote: "I only pray that she can really belt out her numbers."

 

Cole Porter was a classically trained musician who composed music and lyrics for many Broadway hits and Hollywood musical scores. His most popular songs include "Night and Day" (1932), "You're the Top" (1934), and "I've Got You Under my Skin" (1936). His Broadway career peaked in the 1930s, with the aberration of Kiss Me, Kate in 1948, but Porter continued composing movie scores well into the late 1950s.

 

Cy Feuer and his partner Ernest H. Martin (1919-1995) were theatrical producers. Their biggest successes were Guys and Dolls (1950) and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961).

 

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