18th March 1933,
1109 Columbia Street, South Pasadena, California
Dearest Parents,
I’m afraid your letters to me this week will take some time to find me because the house party ended the day before yesterday, and then we all separated to the private houses of various kind people (in my case their name is Brooke) and we’ve got till Tuesday to do what we like. The other guests besides me are Godfather and Jean Morton. Mr and Mrs Brooke are a charming childless couple, but he has an incurable something or other the matter with his leg, so that he keeps to his room a good bit, and I haven’t seen much of him.
Again I’m afraid there isn’t much news because, although we’ve been very busy, there isn’t much to pick out and tell you. I got Daddy’s last week’s letter after I’d posted my other one, and it was all about the appalling snowstorms all over England which makes me glad in many ways that I’m not there, because it’s so divinely warm in California. Sadly enough we’re all going to Vancouver or Victoria next week which won’t be nearly so sultry. Eleanor Gairdner has written from Victoria where she and some others have gone on for a scouting trip, to say that it’s all too British and quite different from the American atmosphere in that the place is full of pictures of dukes and marquises, and the only inhabitants are retired Indian Army colonels, which will be funny after the free and easiness of this country, where the liveried chauffeur says, “where will you girls want your luggage put?”, and the chambermaid calls me “honey”. Some of them have no sense of humour though. We passed a petrol station in the car yesterday which was called “Ye Olde Gas Shoppe”. It really was too incongruous.
Yesterday we were all asked to tea with Victor McLaglen, the film actor. I’m sure you won’t remember but he was the wicked sergeant in “Beau Geste” and has an inexpressibly malign cast of countenance, but he was awfully nice and is a bird fancier. He has an enormous aviary full of budgerigars, and cages of golden and silver and various other kinds of pheasant, each one more beautiful than the last – to say nothing of two enormous Irish something hounds – great blue grey things standing nearly four feet off the ground, and some cocker spaniels.
The only guest of any interest that I saw was the woman who takes the part of the maid in Cavalcade, both on the stage and in the film. I don’t know if you remember her, a small thin faced woman, not very exciting but we were quite pleased to see another aspect of Cavalcade behind the scenes. There was another very charming young woman, also an actress, to whom Godfather said in his best sea dog manner, “I’m so sorry I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing you when we were in Hollywood”, to which she replied, “Oh, but you signed my book there”. To do Godfather justice, she had been encased in yellow grease paint at the time and looked quite different in her own skin.
Your luffing,
Maria
Bye the way, isn’t Cecilia Goodenough in Canada somewhere? Do send me her address.
I hear that the earthquake didn’t really last 1 minute and 10 seconds, but under a minute, which is sad, but it’s going on mildly. There was a small shock in the morning today.
English