Sally Anne Howes was only 19 years old when she married American H. Maxwell Coker who was appearing ion the stage version of Oaklahoma at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Sally was working at the time on the film ‘Honeymoon Deferred’
Here they are preparing their Flat in Upper Brooke Street in Mayfair London – just off Grosvenor Street. BELOW :
In the picture Below: Sally tries on her first wedding present – an evening dress designed by her friend Nina Margo who is seen here inspecting it.
The list of wedding guests reads like a Who s-Who of Theatre with Claude and Jack Hulbert, Cicily Courtneidge, Isabel Jeans, John Mills, Michael Wilding, Sir Michael and Lady Balcon, Terence Rattigan, Hermione Baddeley, Walter Pinkie Beaumont, Jesse Royce Landis and so on.
I am sure the wedding was a wonderful occasion. Sad to report though the marriage did not last long at all. The couple divorced the following year 1951 – although another biography puts the divorce in 1953 so maybe they lasted a bit longer – I hope so.
Above: Sally Ann Howes – but nothing to suggest that this photograph was of this wedding – it maybe was not.
It appears that Sally Ann Howes was in her late thirties when she appeared in the 1968 film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Alan. Thanks for your comment and previous ones – they are much appreciated. Yes – she must have been 37 or so when she made her most famous film. I liked her in The History of Mr Polly even though her part was quite small but she looked lovely in that – and she would have been 19 or so at that time. She seems to have reached her peak when she replaced Julie Andrews on Broadway in My Fair Lady. She said that she was quite unknown but after her first performance in the role she said that ‘ the audience seemed to fall in love with me – and me with them’ and added ‘I am still in love with American audiences to this day’ She does live in New York.
The article I have written about her marriage here – I had just come across these details in a very old periodical magazine – the marriage did not last long at all sadly.
Neil