| Douglas
Anstruther collaborated on two writing
projects in 1943 - 1944, during the Second World
War. The first was with John
Gwynne Brooks, then of "Cedars" in
Woodfield Road, Hadleigh in Essex. Together, they
wrote a book titled "Mrs. Britain's
Guests". The
second was with William J. Foster, then of 60,
Cowper Road, Harpenden in Hertfordshire. This
work was a play with the title "Something
In The City". Both works were assigned
via the Agents, Messrs. A.P.Watt & Son at
Hastings House, Norfolk Street (No. 10) Strand,
London W.C. 2. Each was the subject of
a contractual royalty sharing agreement between
the respective authors, by division of which, it
is made clear as to which partner in the two
collaborations contributed more significantly to
the idea and/or to the form of the work.
For Mrs.
Britain's Guests (A.P.Watt 425.10 dated
27 April 1944) the division (after expenses,
commissions and fees) was to be 66% to 33% in
favour of Douglas Anstruther. For the play, Something In The City (A.P.Watt 425.18 dated 2
June 1944) the division (after expenses,
commissions and fees) was to be 75% to 25% in
favour of William J. Foster.
A programme of interest
...
|
 La plume de ...
- Douglas Anstruther
- writer ...
-
- Parker Duofold Pen
engraved with signature of Douglas
Anstruther.
- Click
on pen to see details of his earliest
work. "The
Farewell Performance"
8th May 1914
- "The Farewell
Performance".
- A play by Yvonne
FitzRoy and Douglas
Anstruther.
- Adapted from
- "The
Sense of Climax"
- by Perceval Gibbon.
This play was
produced at The Royal Court Theatre in 1914 and
was staged for two performances (3pm and 8.30pm
on Friday 8th May) in aid of The FitzRoy
Club for Working Lads.
|
Something
In The City
- This was the title of a
series
- screened in Britain by ITV
in 1959.
- (Associated-Rediffusion)
- (Jack Hylton
Productions)
|
- It ran for one series only
- 6th July to 3rd August
1959.
Mondays
8.30pm
- Episode 1 (06/7/59)
- Episode 2 (13/7/59)
- Episode 3 (20/7/59)
- Episode 4 (27/7/59)
- Episode 5 (03/8/59)
|
- Directed by
Kenneth Carter
- Characters played
as follows:
- George Keys - by - Eric
Baker
- Betty Keyes - by - Joan
Benham
- Freddie Chidock - by -
Derek Guyler
- Phyl Chiddock - by - Pearl
Hackney
- Joe Miller - by - Peter
Hammond
- Maisie Miller - by - Diane
Hart
|
| The programme has
been summarised as follows: "George Keyes
travels to work every morning by train and
returns the same way each evening. Among his
fellow commuters are Freddie Chiddock and Joe
Miller." and as "Exploits of three
businessmen in the city who travel to work
together on the same train." |
There are and were no Writer credits
attaching to this programme and it is listed as "A
British adaptation of "The Commuters"
which formed part of Sid Caesar's US series
"Caesar's Hour" which was screened between 1954
and 1957. This latter has been described as "an excrutiatingly funny sketch
(called "The Commuters,") all about a
family fight that breaks up a New Year's Eve
celebration."
Hmmm....
Douglas Anstruther was born in 1893. He
died in 1956.
- Grateful thanks are extended to
the holders of above Anstruther information in
the A.P.Watt Collection
- The Manuscripts Department - CB#
3926, Wilson Library - The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill - Chapel Hill, North
Carolina U.S.A. - Ms Donna Baker
A. P. Watt and Company, Limited, was
the world's first literary agency and was, for its first
thirty years of existence, the largest as well. Alexander
Pollock Watt (1834-1914) began working as a literary
agent in 1875 when a friend called upon him to negotiate
a contract with a London publishing company.
By 1881, A. P. Watt had incorporated
his business and begun to define the role of the literary
agent.  Watt's son,
A. S. Watt, took over the literary agency after the elder
Watt's death in 1914. A. S. Watt continued to attract
important authors to the agency, among them Pearl Buck,
G. K. Chesterton, Robert Graves, W. Somerset Maugham,
Rafael Sabatini, Nevil Shute, Mark Twain, P. G.
Wodehouse, William Butler Yeats, and Herbert George
Wells, for whom A. S. Watt was not only personal literary
agent, but close friend as well.
5th October 1942 - Watt
family (W. P. Watt) signature from the Anstruther Guest
Book.. Visited a second time 25th November 1943.
- Current Listing under Association
of Authors' Agents -
- A. P. Watt Ltd.
20 John Street, London WC1N 2DR - Tel: 020 7405
6774 - Fax: 020 7831 2154
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