March 14 – April 8, 2017

As featured in Eastern Daily Press Norfolk Magazine

Stars and Supernovas

Young Archie Leach from Bristol found work on the stage in Norwich and then became one of the world’s greatest film stars when he travelled to Hollywood and was given a new name, Cary Grant. Studios and directors such as Hitchcock loved him for his debonair charm, his astonishing good looks and his acting ability especially with light comedy. Other actors, like Grace Kelly, David Niven and Frank Sinatra simply adored him. Films such as North By Northwest (1959) and Charade (1963), with Audrey Hepburn, are rightly acclaimed classics.

Today we seem obsessed with the glamorous lives of present day stars, whose fame is sometimes transitory, but Cary Grant is one of a tiny handful who truly were film stars, supernovas even, whose fame will endure forever. Cary Grant wore his looks and his fame lightly, when a journalist sent a telegram saying…”How old Cary Grant? ”  he replied… “Old Cary Grant fine, how you?” Apocryphal or not this exchange sums up his easy charm and his special brand of humour. Nina Mae Fowler’s wonderful drawings capture so brilliantly Cary Grant’s stylish and charismatic persona. Almost a time machine to teleport him into our lives today or to take us back to a different and golden age of the cinema.

Nick Barton, Producer

SWALLOWS & AMAZONS, KINKY BOOTS, CALENDAR GIRLS

Heydon, Norfolk , January 2017