Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice

Notes and Sources

 notes and Sources Claude Rains had an extraordinary facility for memorization, a gift that aided him exceedingly well in learning his roles and that enabled him to vividly recall a multitude of conversations and encounters from his early childhood onward. Unless otherwise noted below, all quotations and memories attributed to Rains in this book are taken from approximately thirty hours of undated audiotape interviews conducted by San Francisco journalist Jonathan Root in the mid1960s for a biographical project on Rains cut short by the actor’s final illness and Root’s own premature death. The tapes were eventually purchased by the Rains estate, along with Root’s fragmentary chapter drafts and many preliminary notes. The original analog tapes are now part of the Claude Rains Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University. (This book utilized Jessica Rains’s professionally enhanced digital copies of the originals.) Although Rains’s recollections may seem, as presented, so detailed as to suggest some degree of fictionalization, in fact the interviews have been only lightly edited for clarity and grammar. Rains had a near-photographic memory, which served him well as a prompter and stage manager in his early years. Another major resource was a pair of scrapbooks, lovingly maintained by Audrey Homan, an adoring Rains fan in Britain, covering the actor’s stage work in the 1920s and early film work of the 1930s. She made a gift of them to Rains on the occasion of his daughter’s birth, fearing for their safety during the looming war. The scrapbooks, unfortunately, largely lack source information (the clippings are taken from dozens of London periodicals, many of them now untraceable), but they nonetheless provide rich and informative documentation . (Sources have been identified wherever possible.) Unsourced, undated, or partial clippings are cited simply in these notes as “Rains scrapbook” unless additional information is available. All quotes and anecdotes attributed to Jessica Rains are taken from several taped interviews and voluminous personal conversations and e-mail correspondence between the summer of 2000 and the summer of 2005; Jessica provided extensive additional information throughout the book while the manuscript C l a u D e R a i n S  was taking shape. All specific tax information is taken from copies of Rains’s tax returns at the Gotlieb Center. Reviews, scrapbook clippings, and ephemera are cited below; full citations for books and major articles are included in the Bibliography. introduction 1 he was PerfecT: Roddy McDowall, videotaped interview by Jessica Rains and Aljean Harmetz, 1999. 2 Primary and mosT insPirinG: John Gielgud, videotaped interview by Jessica Rains, 1996. 3 i was losT for many years: Unsourced, undated clipping, Rains scrapbook . 3 i can imaGine an american filmGoer: Priestley, Particular Pleasures, p. 136. 4 mixTUre of decorUm and wildness: Thomson, A Biographical Dictionary of Film, p. 611. . Bloody idiots Who Couldn’t learn Their lines 6 1945 obiTUary: “Fred Rains,” New York Times, December 4, 1945. 15 The son of a london Grain merchanT: Useful general background information on Tree’s life was found in Pearson, Beerbohm Tree, and Cran, Herbert Beerbohm Tree. 22 winKles: Clyde Fitch, typescript of The Last of the Dandies (1901); Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. 24 Tree manaGed The firsT line or Two: Walter Havers, “Call-Boy to Star: The Career of a Great Actor,” London Magazine, undated clipping, Rains scrapbook. . Marriages and Mustard Gas 27 aT varioUs Times: Claude Rains, carbon copy of unpaginated affidavit, circa 1935, filed in connection with divorce proceedings. Jessica Rains collection. notes and Sources  28 a larGe “severance PaymenT”: Personal communication from Nelson family. 31 false Pride and his aPPallinG sensiTiveness: Walter Havers, “Call-Boy to Star: The Career of a Great Actor,” London Magazine, undated clipping, Rains scrapbook. 32 his bearinG when he enTers: Shaw, You Never Can Tell, in Plays Pleasant, p. 297. 33 boUnced a Good deal: Unsigned review of Iphigenia in Taurus, New York Times, May 16, 1915, unpaginated clipping, Jessica Rains collection. 34 a soldier is a man hUnTer: “History of the Regiment,” http.//www. londonscottishregt.org/history.cfm. 37 i once asKed her how she GoT on wiTh claUde: John Gielgud, videotaped interview with Jessica Rains, 1996. 37 afTer The divorce: Isabel Jeans would later work extensively in film, including three pictures for Alfred Hitchcock: Downhill (1926), Easy Virtue (1927), and Suspicion (1941). She specialized in courtly, grand...