RARE \"The Girl from Maxim\'s\" Eric Portman Hand Written Letter For Sale

Up for sale a RARE! "The Girl from Maxim's" Eric Portman Hand Written Letter.

ES-9666

Eric Harold Portman (13

July 1901 – 7 December 1969) was an English stage and film actor. He is

probably best remembered for his roles in several films for Michael

Powell and Emeric Pressburger during the 1940s. He started work in 1922 as a

salesman in the menswear department at the Marshall & Snelgrove department store

in Leeds

and acted in the amateur Halifax Light Opera Society. He made his professional

stage debut in 1924 with Henry Baynton's company.[1] In 1924, Robert Courtneidge's

Shakespearian company arrived in Halifax. Portman joined the company as a

'passenger' and appeared in their production of Richard II at the

Victoria Hall, Sunderland which led to Courtneidge giving him a contract.

Portman made his West End debut at the Savoy Theatre in London, in September

1924, as Antipholous of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. He was engaged

by Lilian Baylis

for the Old Vic

Company. In 1928, Portman played Romeo at the rebuilt Old Vic. He became a

successful theatre actor. In 1933, Portman was in Diplomacy at the

Prince's Theatre with Gerald du Maurier and Basil

Rathbone. In the 1930s, he began appearing in films, starting with

an uncredited bit in The Girl from Maxim's (1933) directed

by Alexander Korda. In 1935, he appeared in four

films, including Maria Marten or Murder in the Red

Barn with Tod Slaughter. He also made Hyde Park Corner with Gordon Harker

and directed by Sinclair Hill; Old Roses

and Abdul the Damned. In 1936 Portman had a

stage hit playing Lord Byron in Bitter Harvest. After Hearts of Humanity

(1936), he played Giuliano de' Medici in Hill's The Cardinal (1936). Portman made

another film with Tod Slaughter, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936),

and was in Moonlight Sonata (1937). He went to

the US and played in Madame Bovary on Broadway for the Theatre Guild of

America. He also had a small role in The Prince and the Pauper

(1937), but disliked Hollywood and did not stay long. He was back on Broadway

in I Have Been Here Before by J. B.

Priestley. Portman's last London stage show was Jeannie. In

the semi-autobiographical play Dinner with Ribbentrop by screenwriter Norman Hudis,

a former personal assistant to Portman, Hudis relates a claim made often by

Portman that in 1937, before the start of the Second World

War, he had had dinner in London with Joachim von Ribbentrop (then the German

Ambassador to Britain).

Portman claimed that Ribbentrop had told him that "when Germany wins the

war, Portman would be installed as the greatest English star in the New

Europe" at a purpose-built film studio in Berlin. In 1941 he had his first important

film role playing a Nazi on the run Hirth in Powell and Pressburger's 49th Parallel, which was a big hit in

the US and Britain. Portman was established as a star and signed a long term

contract with Gainsborough Pictures. Portman was in Powell and

Pressburger's follow up, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

(1942), which reworked the story of The 49th Parallel to be about Allied

pilots in occupied Holland. He played a Belgian resistance leader in Uncensored

(1942) from director Anthony Asquith, and a German pilot in Squadron

Leader X (1943) with director Lance Comfort.

Portman was a sailor in Asquith's We Dive at

Dawn (1943) and a factory supervisor in Millions Like

Us (1943) from Launder and Gilliat. He was in another war story

in Comfort's Escape to Danger (1943), then was back with

Powell and Pressburger for A Canterbury Tale

(1944). Portman had the lead in Great Day (1945) with Flora Robson

and in the expensive colonial epic Men of Two

Worlds (1946). In 1945, exhibitors voted him the 10th most

popular star at the British box office.[7] He maintained that ranking the

following year.