Frankie Howerd Archive Box 34

Five folders of professional correspondence.
1. Folder marked ‘Frankie Howerd – Theatre / Stage 1983-1992’ containing correspondence between Tessa Le Bars and interested parties, relating to Frankie Howerd’s stage work between those dates. Includes:
- Letter from Ted, Lord Willis to Tessa Le Bars, 12 February 1985, detailing a conversation with Frankie Howerd and the fact he is not right to star in Doctor in Paradise;
- Letter from Derek Nimmo to TLB, 12 March 1987, warming to the possibility of Howerd appearing in Moliere’s ‘La Malade Imaginaire’;
- Letter from Tessa Le Bars to Jon Conway of Nick Thomas Entertainments, 19 October 1987, negotiating Howerd’s withdrawal from the approaching pantomime at The Hexagon theatre, Reading;
- Letter from Peter Florence, Director of the Hay Literary Festival, to Tessa Le Bars, 10 January 1991, hopeful that Howerd would appear at that year’s event;
- Letter from comedy promoter Phil McIntyre to Tessa Le Bars, 25 March 1991, offering Howerd a one-week run at the Strand Theatre, London, for £10,000 pw plus 50% of the profits.
2. File of general correspondence between Tessa Le Bars, and interested parties, 1990-1992, mostly fielding fan mail and invitations to public events. The folder also contains a signed but uncashed cheque; Frankie Howerd’s invitation from the BBC to attend the 1991 Wimbledon Tennis Championships as their guest (with two tickets present); and Howerd’s Actors’ Equity Life Membership card.
3. File relating to charity work, containing correspondence between Tessa Le Bars and interested parties between January 1990 and August 1991. The correspondence is mainly fielding invitations and appeals from a wide range of charitable causes, including (among many others) an invitation to a fundraising art auction from Ian McKellen on behalf of The Stonewall Group, politely declined by Tessa Le Bars on 24 March 1991. (A request from London Lighthouse for an auction item for a similar fundraiser held in 1991 was more successful, as their thank-you letter shows.)
4. Folder marked ‘F.H. Dictated 1991-1992’ containing correspondence dictated by Frankie Howerd, mostly in reply to fan mail, but including a carbon of a fan letter from Howerd to Nigel Hawthorne, 26 February 1992, written after seeing a performance of ‘The Madness of George III’ at the National Theatre.
5. File relating to charity work, September 1991 to 1992, containing correspondence as above, including an invitation to an Age Concern event, 24 January 1992, signed by the actor Stephanie Cole.

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