Vivien Leigh: A Southern English Rose
The Green Sash led to another invitation, this time to appear onstage as the ingenue in Mask of Virtue. On opening night, Vivien became an instant star. Suddenly, she was bombarded with requests for interviews and photography sessions. The press was ecstatic about the "overnight" success of such a lovely and charming actress; not much was said about her acting skills.
Gliddon had been trying to convince the famous England movie producer Alexander Korda to give Vivien a chance. Korda had refused to see her because he already had enough actresses of her "type" in his employ. The press attention from Mask of Virtue made him suddenly change his mind. Three days later, Vivien had signed a five-year contract with Korda that was worth £50,000.
By now, Holman knew that he was going to have a hard time keeping Vivien at home. When he found out that his wife was stepping out on him, he took the news well. The man in question was a dashing young actor named Laurence Olivier. From the first time she saw him tumbling around the stage in one of his more energetic performances she was smitten.
Soon Vivien and Olivier were inseparable. They were determined to perform classic theater together and the mutual goal only strengthened their already fiery passion for each other. Korda was pleased to exploit this chemistry by pairing the two in Fire Over England(1937). Though Flora Robson, as Queen Elizabeth, was meant to be the star of the movie, the young lovers were obviously the main attraction.
They spent the next few years appearing on the stage together and apart, only consenting to do movies when they needed the money. Vivien began to tackle the classics, she appeared in Richard II, Henry VII, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Every step of the way, Olivier was her devoted acting tutor.
Though she now looked down her nose at movies as Olivier did, Vivien did appear in some worthy movies early in her career. She had her first significant leading role in the wartime spy romance Dark Journey(1938) and she was charming as a street entertainer opposite Charles Laughton in St. Martin's Lane(1938) [released as Sidewalks of London in the USA] . She also made a good impression in a Yank at Oxford(1938) in a performance which especially pleased her costar, Hollywood actor Robert Taylor.
Taylor went home and told his colleagues
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