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audience came to see (and hear) Laye, they were not disappointed with her
co-star. Danilo became Carl s signature role, which he was still performing
thirty years later until he contracted liver cancer and died on 26 September
1958. A London base for Carl and Cleo meant a British school for Frederick,
who, at ten, spoke hardly any English. Thus Frederick was given a British
education that would not only make him fluent in English, but also afford
him opportunities he never would have had in Copenhagen. And once
Frederick acquired the necessary language skills, London would provide the
finishing touches.
Frederick was first sent to Emscote Lawn in Warwickshire; he com-
pleted his education at Rossall College, now the coeducational Rossall School,
in Lancashire, which he attended from 1928 to 1929 as Carl Ejner F. Brisson.
Rossall, which dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, has had its share of
distinguished alumni, including the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who
founded the London Philharmonic, and Leslie Charteris, one of the most
literate practitioners of detective fiction, whose series detective was Simon
Templar,  the Saint.
While Carl was appearing on the London stage, Frederick was learning
how to manage in an English public school. Nothing in Denmark had pre-
pared him for a class-conscious and regimented environment where privi-
lege reigned and bullies thrived, and where the right combination of guts
and brawn intelligence was a given was a prerequisite for survival. This
was the world of William Golding s Lord of the Flies without the pig-sticking
and blood-letting. Frederick survived and was all the better for it; Emscote
BECOMING ROSALIND RUSSELL BRISSON 121
and Rossall prepared him for the tough negotiating he would have to do as
an agent and producer.
Carl s success on the stage did not elude Alfred Hitchcock, a regular
theatergoer, who was working on a script for British International that
became his sixth film, The Ring (1927). Since the setting was the boxing
world, Hitchcock wanted an actor who looked like a boxer. Knowing that
Carl had been one, and a champion, to boot, Hitchcock cast him as  One
Round Jack Saunders. Taken with his performance, Hitchcock offered him
a more complex part in The Manxman (1929), the director s last silent film.
The Manxman was a richly atmospheric work, set on the Isle of Man (hence
the title, which refers to an inhabitant of Man), in which Carl played Peter
Christian, whose attempt to make Kate (Anny Ondra) his wife nearly leads
to tragedy. When Kate agrees to marry Peter, she is pregnant with the child
of his best friend, Philip (Malcolm Keen). Kate s unsuccessful suicide attempt
forces Philip to accept his responsibilities, even though it means both of them
must leave Man. Since Hitchcock s sympathies lay with Peter, he reserved
the final close-up for Carl, his face emblazoned with grief.
As soon as Frederick had completed his education, he landed a job as
publicist for Moss Empires, Ltd., a vast theater chain dating back to the end
of the nineteenth century and known for pampering the stars appearing in
its venues that were scattered throughout Britain. Frederick learned not
only how to publicize what were essentially variety acts but also how to
accede to the performers demands. One such performer was his father, who
often played the Moss circuit. Since there could not be two Carl Brissons,
Carl Einer F. Brisson became Frederick Brisson. During the early 1930s, Carl
would tour when not making movies or appearing at the London Palladium
and the Café de Paris. By occasionally accompanying Carl on his tours as a
combination manager-publicist, Frederick discovered how extensive his
father s reputation was. He then decided to become part of the entertain-
ment world himself, but in a nonperforming capacity. Frederick s preference
was the theater, although movies would do for the time being. And movies
it was at the beginning. Because of the tours, Carl started relying on
122 BECOMING ROSALIND RUSSELL BRISSON
Frederick in the same way actors rely on agents: to provide them with work.
Although Carl was essentially a stage performer, he was well aware of the
ascendancy of film, a medium on which he also hoped to leave his mark. It
was not coincidental that shortly after Frederick accepted a position at the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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