The Postcard
A Milton Artlette Series postcard that was published by the Woolstone Brothers of London E. C.
The card was posted in Clevedon, Somerset on Wednesday the 9th. August 1905 to:
Miss E. Cobbold,
Manor Farm,
Kirton,
Ipswich.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"So glad of your letter.
I am staying at Clevedon
this week, we all go home
on Friday.
Louis was here with us
from Friday to Monday.
I am expecting Edith Webb
for the day tomorrow.
Do you recognise this view
as the place you tried to
'snap' us last year?
Will write when I get home.
S. C. H."
Leo Genn
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 9th. August 1905 marked the birth of Leopold John "Leo" Genn. Leo was an English actor and barrister. He played Petronius in the 1951 film Quo Vadis, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Leo Genn - The Early Years
Genn was born at 144 Kyverdale Road, Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, the son of Woolfe (William) Genn, a jewellery salesman, and Rachel Genn (née Asserson).
Genn attended the City of London School, and then studied law at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, qualifying as a barrister in 1928.
On the 14th. May 1933 Genn married Marguerite van Praag, a casting director at Ealing Studios. They had no children.
Leo ceased practising as a lawyer soon after World War II.
Leo Genn's Theatre Career
Leo's theatrical debut was in 1930 in A Marriage has been Disarranged at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne and then at the Royalty Theatre in Dean Street, London.
Actor/manager Leon Lion had engaged him simultaneously as an actor and attorney.
In 1933 Leo appeared in Ballerina by Rodney Ackland. Between September 1934 and March 1936, Leo Genn was a member of the Old Vic Company where he appeared in many productions of Shakespeare. In 1934 he featured in R. J. Minney's Clive of India. In 1937 he was Horatio in Tyrone Guthrie's production of Hamlet, with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet, in Elsinore, Denmark.
In 1938 Genn appeared in the theatrical hit, The Flashing Stream by Charles Langbridge Morgan and went with the show to America and Broadway.
Leo's many other stage performances included Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, 12 Angry Men, The Devil's Advocate, and Somerset Maugham's The Sacred Flame.
In 1959 Genn gave a reading in Chichester Cathedral. In 1974, a recording of The Jungle Book was released with Genn as narrator and Miklós Rózsa conducting the Frankenland Symphony Orchestra with music from the film.
Leo Genn's Early Film Career
Genn's first film role was as Shylock in Immortal Gentleman (1935), a biography of Shakespeare. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. hired Genn as a technical adviser on the film Accused (1936). He was subsequently given a small part in the film on the strength of a "splendid voice and presence".
Genn received another small role in Alexander Korda's The Drum (1938) and was the young man who danced with Eliza Doolittle at the duchess's ball in Pygmalion, a film made in the same year, although he was uncredited.
Leo Genn's War Service
With war approaching, Genn joined the Officers' Emergency Reserve in 1938. He was commissioned in the Royal Artillery on the 6th. July 1940, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1943. In 1944 he was given official leave to appear as the Constable of France in Laurence Olivier's Henry V.
Genn was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1945. He was part of the British unit that investigated war crimes at Belsen concentration camp and later was an assistant prosecutor at the Belsen trial in Lüneburg, Germany.
Leo Genn's Post-War Career
Leo was in Green for Danger (1946) and The Snake Pit (1948). After his Oscar-nominated success as Petronius in Quo Vadis (1951) he appeared in John Huston's Moby Dick (1956).
Genn also appeared in some rather forgettable American films, such as The Girls of Pleasure Island, and Plymouth Adventure (1952), a fictionalised, but entertaining soap opera treatment of the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock.
He fared far better in the British film, Personal Affair (1953), starring opposite Gene Tierney.
Leo played Major Michael Pemberton in Roberto Rossellini's Era Notte a Roma (Escape by Night, 1960).
Leo Genn narrated the coronation programmes of both 1937 and 1953, the King George VI Memorial Programme in 1952, and the United Nations ceremonial opening (in the USA) in 1947.
Genn was a governor of the Mermaid Theatre and trustee of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. He was also council member of the Arts Educational Trust. He was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theatre Arts, Pennsylvania State University, 1968 and Visiting Professor of Drama, University of Utah, 1969.
The Death of Leo Genn
Leo died in London on the 26th. January 1978 following a heart attack which had been brought on by complications of pneumonia. He was 72 years of age when he died.
