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| Vivien Hartley a.k.a. Vivien Leigh Bangalore Race Track 1918 |
The following is excerpted from Wikipedia - Vivien Leigh
Excerpts culled from para Life and Career
1913-1934 Early Life and Acting Debut
I had no inkling about Vivien Leigh having been born and brought up in India .
Subhash
Many of us may not know...........
She was Scarlett O Hara to Clark Gable's ' Rhett Butler in 'Gone with the Wind' and Blanche DuBois to Marlon Brando's Stanley in ' A StreetCar named Desire' both classic cult movies, who achieved motion picture immortality by playing two of American literature's most celebrated Southern belles, and walked away with a Oscar for Best Actress in both. She is here seen as a young girl sitting on a fence at the Bangalore Race Course, in 1918.
Yes, this beautiful legendary actress has a Bangalore connection. She is Vivien Leigh (1913 - '67), born in India, at the campus of St Paul's School, Darjeeling, as Vivien Mary Hartley, on 5 Nov 1913 to Ernest Hartley, a Yorkshire stockbroker, who fascinated with India after reading Rudyard Kipling came to Calcutta in 1905, and Darjeeling born to Anglo Indian Catholic mother Gertrude Yackjee. When Vivien was three years, her father joined the Indian Cavalry and moved to Bangalore. Her father loved horse racing. She attributes her interest in acting from her younger days when she loved dressing up. In 1920, just before she turned seven Vivian was sent to a Catholic boarding school in England, to return back to India only once in 1964, three years before her untimely death at the age of 53, in 1967, due to TB.
Her family remained in Bangalore, Ernest was racing horses, moving back to England only in the late 1920s.
Vivien rose to International stardom with Gone with the Wind, the movie and the book which all of us are familiar with. In fact, trivia from it was popular in old pre-internet Bangalore Quiz days. She was determined to play the role of Scarlett after reading the book and went to LA to audition for it. She caught the eye of the movie Producer David Selznik and got the role over several leading actresses of that time vying for the role.
Thus began her successful acting career both on stage and films with memorable and classic movies to her credit, including marriage to Sir Lawrence Oliver her Fellow Actor / Director on many of the stage productions and the movie 'That Hamilton Woman' which was Winston Churchill's favorite film. Her beauty, charm, passion for acting and steely ambition made her an International Star.
Fifty years after her death Vivien's personal estate came up for auction at Sotheby's in 2017 which included two albums, one containing silver gelatin photographs of her early years which Included India and Bangalore from which the childhood photos are taken and the other album was all containing photos of her father Ernest Hartleys racehorses, which is now in the Victoria & Albert museum in London, as part of her archives.
The other item was a GERTRUDE HARTLEY'S RACING TROPHY TRAY engraved with 'GH' monogram in a shield and inscriptions: 'Bangalore Races / 1926 / Yuvaraja of Mysore's Cup', 'won by Hillstar' stamped 'Sterling silver.
Excerpts culled from para Life and Career
1913-1934 Early Life and Acting Debut
I had no inkling about Vivien Leigh having been born and brought up in India .
Subhash
A Very Great Actress
Many of us may not know...........
She was Scarlett O Hara to Clark Gable's ' Rhett Butler in 'Gone with the Wind' and Blanche DuBois to Marlon Brando's Stanley in ' A StreetCar named Desire' both classic cult movies, who achieved motion picture immortality by playing two of American literature's most celebrated Southern belles, and walked away with a Oscar for Best Actress in both. She is here seen as a young girl sitting on a fence at the Bangalore Race Course, in 1918.
Yes, this beautiful legendary actress has a Bangalore connection. She is Vivien Leigh (1913 - '67), born in India, at the campus of St Paul's School, Darjeeling, as Vivien Mary Hartley, on 5 Nov 1913 to Ernest Hartley, a Yorkshire stockbroker, who fascinated with India after reading Rudyard Kipling came to Calcutta in 1905, and Darjeeling born to Anglo Indian Catholic mother Gertrude Yackjee. When Vivien was three years, her father joined the Indian Cavalry and moved to Bangalore. Her father loved horse racing. She attributes her interest in acting from her younger days when she loved dressing up. In 1920, just before she turned seven Vivian was sent to a Catholic boarding school in England, to return back to India only once in 1964, three years before her untimely death at the age of 53, in 1967, due to TB.
Her family remained in Bangalore, Ernest was racing horses, moving back to England only in the late 1920s.
Vivien rose to International stardom with Gone with the Wind, the movie and the book which all of us are familiar with. In fact, trivia from it was popular in old pre-internet Bangalore Quiz days. She was determined to play the role of Scarlett after reading the book and went to LA to audition for it. She caught the eye of the movie Producer David Selznik and got the role over several leading actresses of that time vying for the role.
Thus began her successful acting career both on stage and films with memorable and classic movies to her credit, including marriage to Sir Lawrence Oliver her Fellow Actor / Director on many of the stage productions and the movie 'That Hamilton Woman' which was Winston Churchill's favorite film. Her beauty, charm, passion for acting and steely ambition made her an International Star.
Fifty years after her death Vivien's personal estate came up for auction at Sotheby's in 2017 which included two albums, one containing silver gelatin photographs of her early years which Included India and Bangalore from which the childhood photos are taken and the other album was all containing photos of her father Ernest Hartleys racehorses, which is now in the Victoria & Albert museum in London, as part of her archives.
The other item was a GERTRUDE HARTLEY'S RACING TROPHY TRAY engraved with 'GH' monogram in a shield and inscriptions: 'Bangalore Races / 1926 / Yuvaraja of Mysore's Cup', 'won by Hillstar' stamped 'Sterling silver.
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