Highly Interesting Photos and Press Data on Ruby

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends/Fans.

In the last couple of days Gerald received an email from a man from the press world namely Andre Hughes. He informed Gerald that he had inherited photos and press data that belonged to Eric Braun Ruby's ex Publicist. Gerald suggested that I replied to the email and in doing so I found that the man was extremely knowledgeable about Eric Braun and in addition to the photos and press data he included an obituary of Eric Braun that was published in The Times. I feel sure that everyone will be interested in this new story so I will do my best to upload both the email and the obituary......... Here is the story....

Out of the blue a person from the world of newspapers and publicity contacted Gerald letting him know that he has inherited some photos and other publicity matter that belonged to Ruby's ex Publicist, a man called Eric Braun. These must surely be of great interest. Eric worked as Ruby's Pubilcist for many years and therefore must have accumulated quite a collection of photos and press data. Gerald suggested that I should reply to this email so I made contact with the sender and was delighted to find a very knowledgeable man who had displayed a wealth of information about Eric Braun.

Ruby and Eric had a very close working relationship and they became extremely close friends. He visited us at Rectory Cottage many times. He was an outrageously Gay individual who made no attempts to hide the fact. On the contrary he flaunted his effeminate style quite openly and unashameably. He was a fitness fanatic, a very muscular individual, who swam in the Serpentine every day, even if he had to break ice to do it. He cycled everywhere and once cycled the entire tour dates of 'Snow White' throughout the British Isles to arrange advance publicity for the show. This was an extraodinary feat of dedicated publicity work which he carried out without a second thought.He hated the idea of putting his bicycle on a train and consequently he avoided doing that at all costs.

There was an occasion when Eric fell foul of the law and was fined for doing so. He objected to being sentenced and refused to pay the fine. This would have led to him losing his liberty. Ruby got to know about the incident and offered to pay his fine. Eric strongly objected to having the fine paid for him and he stood his ground. Ruby didn't heed his objection and paid the fine to save him becoming a member in one of Her Majesty's Prisons.

Hopefully Andre (the man who contacted Gerald) will be kind enough to send whatever data he has inherited and I have offered to pay whatever costs might be involved. I will endeavour to upload the Obituary .....


The Obituary of Eric Braun,

From the Times newspaper:

Colourful writer and publicist whose generous reviews were much valued by older actors

The showbusiness writer and publicist Eric Braun wrote biographies of stars such as Deborah Kerr, Doris Day and Elvis Presley and represented many leading West End actors including Peter Sellers, Beryl Reid, Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray.

A larger-than-life, Rabelasian figure, who was gay and alcoholic, he was an arresting sight at showbusinesss functions, often arriving on a bicycle - complete with gin and tonic in hand - and dressed in green tweeds with bright red trouser clips.

He was much respected by older actors who valued his generous reviews but in his later career he became something of a liability, especially at first nights when, well refreshed, he often passed out cold in the stalls before the interval. On one occasion he had to be removed from the theatre on a stretcher.

Eric Douglas Hugo Braun was born in Marylebone, London, in 1921, the son of the Swiss-born millionaire Hugo Braun. Educated at the Oratory School, Reading, he took a degree in English literature at Christ's College, Cambridge.

He was a keen West End theatregoer as a teenager and as a young man often wore make-up and nail varnish “as a gesture of defiance, just as I had encouraged my hair to hang on my shoulders in a manner highly inadvisable during wartime”.

In 1941 he received his call-up papers to the 244 Light AA Battery of the Royal Artillery but his military career ended when he was forced to confess his homosexuality to his commanding officer. He was sent to a psychiatrist and then, briefly, to a mental hospital in Sunderland. Discharged at the age of 22, he took a job as a trainee manager at a cinema in Hornchurch.

In 1945 Braun became assistant director to the Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal at Denham Studios, where Pascal was producing Trevor Howard and Deborah Kerr in I See a Dark Stranger. Braun struck up a friendship with Kerr, who was to be the subject of his first biography.

The same year he went on to work on David Lean's classic Great Expectations, and later, at Pinewood Studios, the Sidney Gilliat thriller Green For Danger, starring Alastair Sim.

Moving into publicity he began representing leading London stage actors, as well as pop singers of the day, including Jill Day and Ruby Murray.

In July 1953 he was sent to prison for 12 months for “disseminating obscene literature to a minor”, after lending a copy of the anonymously written novel Fruits of Passion to a 16-year-old railway porter.

He interviewed numerous Hollywood stars during his career, including Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Mae West. In 1991 his biography of Doris Day alleged a relationship between the actress and Ronald Reagan, but before publication Day took exception to the passages and asked for the book to be pulped. Weidenfeld & Nicholson replaced the offending sections at a cost of £2,000 to Braun.

Braun was a longstanding contributor to Films and Filming and the British Film Institute's Monthly Film Bulletin for which, as well as writing about Hollywood, he was often asked to review British soft-porn films. “Other reviewers get Hitchcock or Ingmar Bergman,” he said. “I'm sent to see Confessions of a Window Cleaner.”

He wrote an unpublished memoir in which he claimed to have had affairs with both Noël Coward and John Gielgud.

As well as being a keen cyclist Braun took a morning swim in the Serpentine every day for more than 50 years.

He had been resident in Brinsworth House, the retirement home for actors in Middlesex, since 2003.

Eric Braun, journalist and publicist, was born on March 31, 1921. He died on November 21, 2007, aged 86

Sent from Windows Mail

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends/Fans

Andre Hughes was kind enough to send quite a few photos of Ruby from Eric Braun's files. Up to the present around 14 photos have arrived, most of which I personally have not seen before. Gerald is contemplating uploading the photos so be on the look-out for them.

Adios Amigos Bernie.

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends/Fans

I was so pleased when Andre Hughes sent an array of photos of Ruby, most of which I hadn't seen before. I sent him an email of thanks and was cheeky enough to ask for more, here is my email : -

Wow! Andre,

What a delightful surprise. There are shots that I have never seen before and I feel sure that will apply to many of Ruby's fans. I will hand them all over to the technical Whiz for Ruby's website - Gerald Lawrence. I feel sure he will be as excited as I was to receive some NEW photos of Ruby.. Thank you most sincerely, I feel quite sure that many of Ruby's ardent fans will be equally pleased with what you have sent. Dare I ask for more, I am so thrilled?

Adios Amigo. Bernie.

[MARTIN FOSTER]

Hi Bernie,

I read Eric's obituary with interest. What a character he sounds, very similar to Quentin Crisp "The naked civil servant". I remember reading in the biography about him riding the country on his bicycle doing his publicity. Can you imagine them doing that today? I can't. Dear Ruby, how lovely and typical of her to pay his fine. Thank God today we are living in a more tolerant age and homosexuals are no longer criminalised and sent for treatment.