1941-46 The Frustrating Years
By January 1946 Shirley, though still working for 'Wolf', was again feeling depressed about her job prospects.
Journal: 11th January 1946
I was sitting in the half-light in the office at M.G.M. reading 'Wickford Point'. I started reading that book and felt irritated by the Brill family - they all sit around and procrastinate - but after a while their apathy got into me. I feel the same way at the moment. Last week I felt I hadn't a minute to lose to ring up all the Studios I could think of for a job. Right now I feel that I don't give a damn whether I ring up this week or next - and I shouldn't feel that way. I seem to have lost the sense of urgency. Anyway, I can't get a job so it's just a case of going nowhere fast. The thought keeps coming to my mind that things will be all right - and this is dangerous. It's the most dangerous thought anybody could have. It is helped by people saying it. I wish I was as sure as they are that I am going to get somewhere because I feel that I'm going to be stuck in this blasted office at M.G.M. until I'm ready for an old age pension. And then I don't really believe that - I never seem to lose that glimmer of hope that something will happen.
My hopes are vaguely pinned on Emeric Pressburger and the UNO. The UNO will have to wait for a couple of weeks until things settle down - the first meeting is taking place London. Pressburger said he would do something for me and I haven't phoned him yet because I feel he is my last hope, and if he had nothing I don't quite know what to do.
Yesterday I took down various details from the Kine Year Book - about various units who are going abroad. Everybody seems to be moving, or intending to move overseas.
....I wonder if Sidney's [Sidney Shaw, a close friend] remark in his letter that I am due for a life full of disappointment because I want too much is true. I have an awful foreboding that it is.
A week later, 17th January, she wrote in a letter to Sidney Shaw:
....I at last contacted Emeric Pressburger whom I had felt to be my last hope as if he couldn't do anything I'd have had it. Well I have had it! He was very charming. I told him I had the possibility of a job at Welwyn (but I didn't say how remote) and said I would prefer to work for him. He replied that he was flattered - but I still didn't get a job!
Now that we have finished [the script of] 'Friday's Child' Wolf said he'd see what he could do. It would be very nice of him and I think he will try, but I am not pinning my hopes on it. I don't expect - or want - people to do things for me. I want to do it myself, and it annoys me that so far I haven't succeeded. When I handed over the last page of the story I said "Please God let me get out of M.G.M. before I have to type this bloody thing again!". He - Wolf I mean - was highly amused and waving his hands over my head as if conferring a blessing said he'd see what he could do.
In March 1946 Shirley wrote to the producer Harold Goodwin at Gaumont British Instructional (GBI):
Dear Mr. Goodwin,
I must apologise for the delay in writing to you. I am at the moment working for an American Representative of M.G.M. who is over here for a short while and who works with truly phenomenal speed and capacity. I am working a six sometimes seven day week and so, though I should like very much to come over and see you, I cannot manage anything until after the 28th March. But after that date I could come at any time convenient to you.
I came to M.G.M. to do Assistant Continuity on 'Lottie Dundas' which unfortunately was cancelled at the last moment. Previous to that I was with British National at Elstree and assisted on a number of films for over a year. Though not having fully covered a feature, I am perfectly capable of covering any continuity that is required on a Documentary. I have recently been working with a writer and have had experience of various jobs connected with film production.
As I mentioned to you on the telephone, I am most keen to do Documentaries, particularly educational. I feel this would give me the opportunity of doing various jobs instead of specialising in one only. I also feel that something educational is much more worth doing than a film merely for entertainment purposes.
Sincerely
It is not clear whether Wilhelm had a hand in it, but the 'American Representative of MGM' Shirley refers to was Carol Brandt, MGM's international story editor and executive. (Anat Feinberg, in her book on the writer George Tabori, writes about Brandt: "The war was barely over when Carol Brandt ('the beautiful vulture' to quote Tabori) a literary agent working for Metro Goldwyn Mayer, came to London to do 'cultural spying'. Hollywood's expanding film industry required talented scriptwriters".)
NEXT: THE FRUSTRATING YEARS continued....
Also...
1946 Holiday Camp