LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Vivien Leigh: Marriage
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Vivien stayed briefly at a sister convent of the Sacred Heart in San Remo, the capital of the Italian Riviera, during 1928-29. At the age of 15, she went to Paris to spend a term at a finishing school in Auteuil. She was the youngest student in the school... she was already moving from the awkward youth phase into a charming, dark haired beauty that would later bring much fame. The purpose of the finishing school in France was 'to teach French - language and literature - and to send the girls out into the world with a good marriage set firmly in their sights.'1 At Christmas of that year, 1929, Vivien was chosen to be the heroine of the school play. Encouraged by her schoolmistress, she was inspired to work on her diction and acting abilities. This early help pushed her further towards an interest in a career on stage.
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In late 1931, she met Herbert Leigh Holman, known as Leigh, a barrister thirteen years her senior. Despite his disapproval of "theatrical people", they were married on December 20, 1932, and upon their marriage she terminated her studies at RADA. On October 12, 1933, she gave birth to a daughter, Suzanne, but felt stifled by her domestic life. Her friends suggested her for a small part in the film Things Are Looking Up, which marked her film debut. She engaged an agent, John Gliddon, who believed that the name "Vivian Holman" was not suitable for an actress, and after rejecting his suggestion, "April Morn", she took "Vivian Leigh" as her professional name. Gliddon recommended her to Alexander Korda as a possible film actress, but Korda rejected her as lacking potential.[7]
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Set in 1967, the year Leigh died of tuberculosis at the age of 53, Foster's story zigzags via the paths of memory across a lifetime. It touches lightly on her first marriage, at 19, and motherhood a year later.
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Leigh married Olivier in California in 1940, after her marriage to Holman and Olivier's marriage to actress Jill Esmond had been dissolved. When Olivier wanted her for the Princess in his film of Henry V (1944), David Selznick restrained her from appearing.
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"The marriage to Vivien had to be justified in every possible way. They had to have total success so that the world could say 'it's so wonderful.' I believe Larry wanted to justify it as far as he could to appease his own conscience and took whatever Vivien threw at him in her extremis with the most fantastic forbearance. It was only when she had really gone that he turned to the total contrast - from champagne to Guinness, from mink to mackintosh and to youth of course. Also, very much, to have another family." - actor Michael Denison
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