Odd this day
Well, we could commemorate the 2,068th anniversary of the doing in of Julius Caesar… or we could note that it’s 68 years since My Fair Lady opened on Broadway, and use that as an excuse to trot out one of the finest of all theatrical anecdotes.
It’s taken many forms, and the punchline has been attributed to both Wilfrid Hyde-White and Stanley Holloway (Rex Harrison’s male co-stars), but either way it’s predicated on the fact that Harrison was a legendarily unpleasant man.
Some versions feature a female fan outside the stage door with a rolled up programme, some a furled umbrella, but one of the most enjoyable tellings comes in Roger Moore’s My Word is My Bond:
Which reminds me of a story that Stanley Holloway told me. He and Rex Harrison were out having dinner at a restaurant one night, when a chap approached them.
‘Oh, Mr Harrison! Forgive me, but I’m a huge fan…’
‘Fuck off then,’ snapped Rex.
Later, as they were leaving, the same chap was standing outside. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Harrison, I realize I shouldn’t have interrupted your meal so I’ve waited for you to finish.’ He proffered a piece of paper hoping for an autograph.
‘Fuck off!’ Rex snapped again.
Without blinking, the chap thumped Rex in the face and sent him flying backwards.
Stanley nearly wet himself with laughter. ‘That’s the first case of the fan hitting the shit I’ve ever witnessed,’ he chuckled.
Still, Rex Harrison may have been hateful, but he did leave behind this, which is, as the OP suggests, unimpeachable.
