Trevor Howard

[PhilG]

Does anyone know if Trevor Howard spent any of his youth in Ontario, Canada?



I know he spent most of his childhood in Ceylon, and was back in England by the beginning of the war. So it's the early '30s I'm looking at.



Thanks,



Phil

[Freddy]

Hello PhilG, welcome to Britmovie. The information below is taken from the book



INTERNATIONAL STARS AT WAR by James E Wise jnr., and Scott Baron.



The bibliography at the back does not mention any book though in BFI screenonline they mention two;



Books: Trevor Howard: A Gentleman and a Player by Vivienne Knight (1986); Trevor Howard: The Man and His Films by Trevor Munn (1990).Anyhow here is the relevant page from ISAW



<span style="color:blue">Born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith on 29 September 1916 in Cliftonville, Kent, a suburb of the seaside resort of Margate, the son of Arthur Howard-Smith and Canadian-born Mabel Wallace, Trevor Howard spent his early childhood in Ceylon, where his father worked as an insurance underwriter with Lloyd's of London. Little is known about his father except that he came from a large family and was a dedicated stamp collector. During his tour in Ceylon he returned to England on leave every three years, and his absence made him seem more like a distant relative than a father to Howard and his younger sister, Merla Lagiere. Mabel Wallace, on the other hand, was a remarkable person. When just a young woman she left Canada to study nursing in the United States. Upon graduation she became a private nurse and was employed as such by wealthy families. When her patients went abroad, Mabel and her two children traveled with them, and she quickly acquired a thirst for travel.

When Howard was five years old, Mabel scheduled a trip back to England with stops along the way. At the end of their extended journey, Howard was to be enrolled in a proper school in England to begin his education. Mabel and the children boarded an ocean liner at Colombo and waved farewell to Arthur standing on the dock. It would be two years before they saw their father again. The ship made port calls at Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, and San Francisco before docking at Los Angeles, where they enjoyed a long stay with family friends. The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 occurred while they were in Los Angeles, and Mabel left the city for San Francisco to offer her nursing services. Years later, when she told of her experiences in the devastated city, Howard would listen politely but not really believe the tales she told. It was only after her death that he found out that her remembrances were well documented.

Howard attended school briefly in Los Angeles before Mabel took the children by train to Canada to visit her relatives. After a year of staying with Wallace-clan members in Ottawa, Toronto, and Brandt-ford, Ontario, Mabel's wanderlust took them to New York City to see the new wonder of the world, the Empire State Building. The family finally ended their long journey by crossing the Atlantic to England. Howard was just eight years of age when his mother enrolled him in the junior school at Clifton College in Bristol. His mother and sister then headed back to Ceylon.</span>



Hope this is of some use



regards

Freddy

[PhilG]

Freddie -



Thank you so much. This is exactly the information I was looking for. There has long been a rumour (here in Brantford, Ontario) that Howard once lived on Maple Avenue in this town.



It would appear that the rumour is true.



Thanks again for your help.



Phil

[DAVID RAYNER]

Unless I've read it wrong, there's something amiss in the detail of that short biography. If Howard wasn't born until 1916, then how did he come to be with his mother in Los Angeles when the San Francisco earthquake happened in 1906, as that would have been ten years before he was born.

[Freddy]

Your right , have checked the book and I didn't leave any parts out while providing the info. Also IMDb puts TH's d.o.b. at 1913. The biography also says that they stopped off at New York to see the Empire State but that didn't commence being built until 1930 which by that time he would have been in school.

Something amiss somewhere.



Thanks for that though David, as Bernstein and Woodward would say . . always get a second source.



best wishes

Freddy

[steve lyden brown]

Can anyone help with this query ? Any confirmation or rebuttal of any part of it would be helpful to me, since I would loike to know if it is myth, legend or bull**** !.



My family folklore has it that my Dad and Trevor Howard were drinking buddies and used a pub called "The Gate" in Arkley, Barnet, Herts. as their local watering hole. Apparently, Mr. Howard was very partial to an English bottled beer called Worthington "White Shield" which, being organic, did not travel well and needed a great deal of care to keep it drinkable. As I understand it he always stipulated in every film contract that he have 12 cases of 12 bottles available to him at all times and because the beer needed especial care ( and Mr. Howard and my Dad got on famously ) my Dad was nominated as "keeper of the beer" for Howard. This meant that my Dad got to go on location with this splendid actor. As I understand it, in the early 1960's Howard was making a movie set in Liverpool and called "The Key", which might have been directed by Carl Foreman. Other members of the cast were William Holden and a very well known Italian actress whose name I cannot state here for fear of being sued. Legend has it that all the men ( especially Bill Holden) had the hots for this actress and that this was causing production problems. Apparently, the producer told my Dad that since he was being paid to be Howard's "baby sitter", he could also earn his pay by chaperoning the actress, but my Dad, being no less susceptible to the all too evident charms she had, and also being a strikingly handsome man, merely contrived to take over where the others left off, but with a lot more success !

Although I was away at boarding school at the time, I do remember the actresse's name being shouted by my Mother in all of the very many rows my parents had at the time, and, sure enough, divorce proceedings were initiated by my Mother allegedly citing that actress as co-respondent. All of this seems like a dream/nightmare to me now and I would like to establish the accuracy of it all.

One thing that makes me feel that it is true, is that some few months after this was all taking place, Trevor Howard and my Father drove down to Sussex one Sunday to take my Brother and I out from school for lunch. I distinctly remember Mr. Howard being very moody despite, apparently, having bought a new car ( an Alvis or a Bristol, I believe ) the previous day. Wishing to cheer Howard up I recall seeing my Dad put his arm around him and say " Come, cheer up, Trevor, what have you got to be unhappy about ? You have a great film career, a beautiful house, a lovely wife, and a brand new car ". "Yes", replied Howard, "but I didn't get to screw ****** ***** !"

[Steve Crook]

I think that story is a family legend in many families. Not always with the actress cited in a divorce and the actor and the actress both vary to fit the timescale. It's usually applied to the black sheep of the family - that charming rogue, cousin Steve



Steve

[batman]

Bats.

[stevie boy]

Rumour has it that Sinatra was mightily impressed with Mr. Howards capacity for alchohol on Von Ryans Express. Great actor who certainly loved a drink as did Bernard Lee, bet these two had a whale of a time on the Third Man.

[Moor Larkin]

Can anyone help with this query ?

Which query?



That your dad did the deed? Wasn't that sorted out in the divorce court, as you say the actress was cited in the court papers? Presumably you would have right of access to those papers?



Or the query that Mr. Howard drank that brand of beer by the crate?

[Harleybloke]

I can vouch for the Gate at Arkley.....................

[steve lyden brown]

Which query?



That your dad did the deed? Wasn't that sorted out in the divorce court, as you say the actress was cited in the court papers? Presumably you would have right of access to those papers?



Or the query that Mr. Howard drank that brand of beer by the crate?

I don't mind if ANY part of the whole story is either confirmed or rebutted . After all, even one brick either added to or taken away from a wall can either strengthen the edifice or cause it to collapse. As it happens, I know that the part about the beer is correct, because many years ago the landlord of "The Gate"( Trevor Howard's watering hole ) told me that he often got stuck with crates of the beer ordered but not drunk by Mr. Howard, who was often absent on location. He was exceedingly grateful to me when I then told him that because the beer is hard to get and is also almost as valuable when "stale" (it is much in demand by home brewers for it's yeast and other organic additives, which make a great "strengthener" to put in the home brew ). As for the divorce papers, well, my Mother is now an aged harpy living in Torquay (despite the International Movie Data Base website stating that she died in California in the late 1940's - I have tried many times to get them to correct this, but to no avail ! ), and any mention fo the divorce reduces her to a state of near apoplexy.



As it happens, I am quite happy to believe ALL of the story, since so much of it has been corroborated elsewhere, but really would like more substantiation before passing it on to further generations of my family.

[steve lyden brown]

I can vouch for the Gate at Arkley.....................

That's a start, amigo, that's a start. When I was last there some few years ago there were many pictures of Trevor Howard hung up on the wall of the saloon bar. My dad was in many of them, generally either propping up Howard or vice versa. I was also told by people in the pub that the ex goalkeeper, David Seaman, nows own's Howard old house in Arkley.

[steve lyden brown]

Rumour has it that Sinatra was mightily impressed with Mr. Howards capacity for alchohol on Von Ryans Express. Great actor who certainly loved a drink as did Bernard Lee, bet these two had a whale of a time on the Third Man.

I don't know if my Dad accompanied Howard on the first film ( I don't think so, since my Dad was fighting a bankrupcty order against his business at that time ), but certainly was with him on location for the second of the above two movies.

Incidentally, because of family connections ( my God father was a well known author and Hollywood screenplay writer ) I once got to meet Mr. Sinatra in the USA. His career was going downhill rapidly at that time ( it later recovered) and he was holidaying secretly with Ava Gardner at my God father's ranch in Wyoming. I would often go there,too, in the school Summer holidays and that is how I met him. I didn't get to see much of Ms. Gardner since she stayed in the guest house and generally only got up when I was being sent to bed ) but Mr. Sinatra

(who never seemed drunk but had a bottle of Jack Daniels with him at all times ! )

taught me how to fish and ride and smoke (not all at the same time ! ). I later found out that he was terrified of horses and tended to avoid any movie where he might have been required to ride one, and this makes me feel that he was learning to ride whilst teaching me !

[steve lyden brown]

I think that story is a family legend in many families. Not always with the actress cited in a divorce and the actor and the actress both vary to fit the timescale. It's usually applied to the black sheep of the family - that charming rogue, cousin Steve



Steve

Do you mean that MY story is widely told as applying to other families ? Surely not !

If so then I would have had someone else tell it to me...............that would have been unreal !

[Moor Larkin]

would like more substantiation before passing it on to further generations of my family.

As opposed to the Internet you mean......



I don't see what poor old Trevor Howard has got to do with this, at least not to the extent of having his name plastered on the thread. Should it not be retitled 'My dad shrugged a movie-star and my mum is a Harpy' whilst Trevor's supporting role is merely mentioned as corroborative background, within the text........

[batman]

Is this discussion an annual event?



Mr Lyden Brown first posted this story on 11.10.06.



Bats.

[orpheum]

And on that occasion he mentionedd Sophia Loren as the object of desire.All a bit strange!

[Harleybloke]

And on that occasion he mentionedd Sophia Loren as the object of desire.All a bit strange!

Nowt strange with desire and Sophia, Orphs......................

[orpheum]

No that he didnt mention her in the first post above.