(AIRPLANE WHIRRING)
(SHUTTER OPENING)
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
Your first trip to London?
Yes.
You want a word of advice?
Don't trust the cab drivers. They'll take you five miles to go three blocks.
And don't waste your time looking at a street map.
Nobody can find their way around London, not even Londoners.
Maybe I should go to Baltimore instead?
No, you'll enjoy it.
London's a great place.
What kind of trip is it, business or pleasure?
Unfinished business.
(INDISTINCT)
Taxi!
Where to, luv?
84 Charing Cross Road.
Come on in.
(MAN SPEAKING ON TV)
HELENE: "Gentlemen. Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature
"says that you specialize in out-of-print books."
They're all pretty uncommon.
Anyone would think I was asking for Isaiah's personal copy of the Old Testament.
These are famous books by famous writers for God's sake!
They're British books by British writers.
Nobody asks for them anymore.
Maybe you should try Scribner's.
I've been to Scribner's. Everything is so fancy over there.
Haven't you got any cheap editions?
Some, but not the ones you want. I'm sorry.
This is the fourth bookstore I've been to this morning.
Doesn't anybody read English literature in New York?
Saturday Review.
HELENE: "October 5, 1949.
"To Marks & Co., 84 Charing Cross Road.
"London WC2, England.
"Gentlemen. Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING) "says that you specialize in out-of-print books.
"The phrase 'antiquarian bookseller' scares me somewhat
"as I equate 'antique' with 'expensive.'
"I'm a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books,
"and all the things I want are impossible to get over here,
"except in very expensive, rare editions.
"I enclose a list of my most pressing problems.
"If you have any clean, second-hand copies of any of the books on the list,
"for no more than $5 each, will you consider this a purchase order
"and send them to me?
"Very truly yours, Helene Hanff."
"Dear madam.
"In reply to your letter
"of October the 5th,
"we have managed to clear up two-thirds of your problem.
"The three Hazlitt essays you want
"are contained in the Nonesuch Press edition of his Selected Essays,
"and the Stevenson is found in
"Virginibus Puerisque."
FRANK: "We're sending nice copies of both these by book post
"and trust they will arrive safely in due course
"and that you will be pleased with them.
"Our invoice is enclosed with the books.
"The Leigh Hunt essays are not going to be so easy,
"but we will see if we can find an attractive volume with them all in.
"We haven't the Latin Bible you describe, but we have a Latin New Testament,
"also a Greek New Testament. Ordinary modern editions in cloth binding.
"Would you like these? Yours faithfully, FPD, for Marks & Co."
(PHONE RINGING)
Helene Hanff. Hi, Maxine.
(WOMAN CHATTERING ON PHONE)
Oh, sweetheart, look, I can't talk now. I slept through my alarm this morning.
Okay, fine.
Call you later. Bye-bye.
(HUMMING)
HELENE: "14 East 95th Street, New York City. November 3, 1949.
"Gentlemen.
"The books arrived safely.
"The Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my orange-crate bookshelves.
"I'm always afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream-colored pages.
"Being used to the dead-white paper and stiff cardboardy covers of American books,
"I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch."
Brian!
In here!
Hi, Helene. Hi.
I thought I'd find you in here.
Come on, we're going to be late.
Won't be a minute.
HELENE: "A Britisher whose girl lives upstairs,
"translated the one pound 17 shillings, sixpence for me,
"and says I owe you $5.30 for the two books."
Are you sure that's right?
Hang on. Let me check.
Uh...
One pound, 17 and 6, that's 37 and a half shillings, divided by...
Yes, that's right. $5.30.
HELENE: "I enclose a $5 bill and a single.
"Please use the 70 cents towards the price of the New Testaments,
"both of which I want.
"Will you please translate prices hereafter?
"I don't add too well in plain American.
"I haven't a prayer of ever mastering bilingual arithmetic.
"Yours, Helene Hanff."
I hope "madam" doesn't mean over there what it means over here.
Huh.
Helene Hanff. She's sent us six dollars.
And 70 cents over.
I suppose that would be... Five, five and six.
Yes.
(SNIGGERING)
FRANK: "Dear Miss Hanff. Your six dollars arrived safely.
"But we should feel very much easier if you would send your remittances
"by postal money order in the future,
"as this would be a bit safer for you
"than entrusting dollar bills to the mails.
"We're very happy you liked the Stevenson so much.
"We have sent off the New Testaments
"with an invoice listing the amount due in both pounds and dollars.
"And we hope you will be pleased with them."
(WHISTLING)
HELENE: (ANGRILY) "What kind of a black
"Protestant Bible is this?
(SIGHING)
"Kindly inform the Church of England
"that they have loused up the most beautiful prose ever written.
"Who ever told them to tinker with the Vulgate Latin?
"They'll burn for it, mark my words.
"It's nothing to me. I'm Jewish myself.
"But I have a Catholic sister-in-law, a Methodist sister-in-law,
"a whole raft of Presbyterian cousins
"through my great uncle Abraham, who was converted,
"and an aunt who's a Christian Science healer.
"And I'd like to think none of them would countenance this Anglican Latin Bible
"if they knew it existed. As it happens, they don't know Latin existed.
"I enclose $4 to cover the $3.88 due you.
"Buy yourself a cup of coffee with the 12 cents.
"There's no post office near here, and I'm not running all the way down
"to Rockefeller Plaza to stand in line for a $3.88 money order.
"If I wait till I get down there for something else,
"I won't have the $3.88 anymore.
"I have implicit faith
"in the US Airmail and His Majesty's Postal Service.
"Have you got a copy of Landor's Imaginary Conversations?
"I think there are several volumes.
"The one I want is the one with the Greek conversations.
"If it contains a dialogue between Aesop and Rhodope,
"that'll be the volume I want."
That, I think, is the one we've got.
Cecily,
Landor, Imaginary Conversations. Dig it out, would you?
(BELLS RINGING) FRANK: "Dear Miss Hanff. Your $4 arrived safely
"and we have credited the 12 cents to your account.
"We happen to have in stock Volume 2 of The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor,
"which contains the Greek dialogues including the one mentioned in your letter,
"as well as the Roman dialogues.
"It is an old edition published in 1876,
"not very handsome, but well bound and a good clean copy.
"And we are sending it off to you today with invoice enclosed.
"I'm sorry we made the mistake with the Latin Bible,
"and we'll try to find a Vulgate for you.
"Not forgetting Leigh Hunt.
"Yours faithfully, FPD, for Marks & Co."
Ah, thank you.
Very nice. Very tasty.
HELENE: "Sir.
"It feels witless to keep writing 'Gentlemen' when the same solitary soul
"is obviously taking care of everything for me.
"Savage Landor arrived safely and promptly fell open to a Roman dialogue
"where two cities had just been destroyed by war
"and everybody was being crucified and begging passing Roman soldiers
"to run them through and end the agony.
"It'll be a relief to turn to Aesop and Rhodope,
"where all you have to worry about is a famine.
(COUGHING)
"I do love second-hand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest.
"The day Hazlitt came, he opened to, 'I hate to read new books.'
"And I hollered, 'Comrade!' to whoever owned it before me.
"I enclose a dollar, which Brian, British boyfriend of Kay upstairs,
"says will cover the 8 shillings I owe you. You forgot to translate it."
(CHATTERING)
Thank you.
Only two this week per family, luv.
HELENE: "Now then. Brian told me you are all rationed to two ounces of meat
"per family per week and one egg per person per month!
"And I am simply appalled."
Somebody told Brian about this firm in Denmark.
They ship food packages to England.
I used them to send food to my mother.
Show her the catalog.
They're very reliable and cheap too.
Well, cheapish.
Oh, my God! Look at this!
(ALL LAUGHING)
They've got spiced lard, liver paste,
meatballs,
chocolate shortcake, margarine, eggs, cheese.
Well, they've got everything!
Brian's mother said she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the first package.
What did you send her?
Tin of ham. Some sausages.
KAY: Tinned fruit. Tinned fruit, plums, raspberries.
"Rahz-berries," don't you just love that?
Imagine, a whole country says "rahz-berries!"
(IMITATING COWBOY) BRIAN: They sure do, ma'am!
Rahz-berries, rahz-berries, rahz-berries.
HELENE: Look, this is terrific.
Let's make a list. Hold that.
Where shall we start?
How about a ham? We got to send a ham.
A ham. It's Christmas! We'll send a ham.
How about some soup? Mulligatawny soup. They'd like that.
What else should we send? Biscuits.
Vegetables! What about vegetables? Some vegetables? Vegetables.
What don't they have? Carrots, peas...
Haricots verts.
HELENE: (LAUGHING) Haricots verts? KAY: How can we not?
HELENE: How about string beans?
There's two types of haricots verts,
there's the choicest or there's choice!
BRIAN: How about some... Bananas? Oh, let's send a banana!
HELENE: "I'm sending it care of you, FPD, whoever you are.
"Noel, Helene Hanff." Sheila,
could you pass me one of those cards to hang over the mirror?
The church or Father Christmas?
Which do you like?
Father Christmas. Yes. It's pretty.
NORA: How are you getting on?
FRANK: All right, I think.
Grand.
What are you cooking?
Mince pies.
Oh. Good.
How are you getting on there?
Sheila, pass me the holly. Be careful. Don't prick yourself.
Thank you.
(GRUNTS)
(CHUCKLING)
Don't laugh. I'm bleeding. What are you laughing at?
HELENE: "FPD! Crisis!
"I sent that package off, the chief item in it was a six-pound ham!
"I figured you could take it to a butcher and get it sliced up
"so everybody would have some to take home.
"But I just noticed on your last invoice, it says,
"'B. Marks, M. Cohen, Proprietors'.
"Are they kosher? I could rush a tongue over!
"Advise, please!"
(EXHALING)
FRANK: "Dear Miss Hanff.
"Just a note to let you know that your gift parcel arrived safely today."
Pork sausages.
"Mr. Marks and Mr. Cohen insisted that we divide it up among ourselves
"and not include the bosses.
"I should just like to add that everything in the parcel
"was something that we either never see
"or can only be had through the black market."
"Copenhagen," it says on the label.
"It was extremely kind and generous of you to think of us in this way
"and we are extremely grateful."
How on earth did she order it from Copenhagen?
Heaven knows.
Wait.
"Best wishes for 1950. Yours faithfully, Frank Doel, for Marks & Co."
(KNOCKING)
Can I help you? Yes, please.
Do you have any color prints?
A man, I can't remember his name, he does pictures of people.
They're composed of objects, you know, fruit, flowers,
cauliflowers, cabbages. The faces.
18th or 19th century. French, I think.
Sort of grotesque.
Very highly colored, um...
Sort of fruit and vegetables?
Yes.
Ah, Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
Arcimboldo! Yes! Yes! That's right.
Do you have any of his work?
Ah!
Well...Hmm.
Hello, Willie. How are you?
Hello, hello.
Let's see. I know I want
four slices of pepper salami, four slices of Swiss cheese
and a quarter of a pound of bacon.
We're out of pepper salami.
You're out of pepper salami?
Nobody likes pepper salami.
I like pepper salami.
So I should buy it special for you?
Why not?
I'm your best customer.
(SCOFFS)
All right, I'm not your best customer.
HELENE: "Frank Doel, what are you doing over there?
"You are not doing anything.
"You're just sitting around! Where is Leigh Hunt? Where is the Oxford Verse?
"Where is the Vulgate and dear goofy John Henry Newman?
"I thought they'd be such nice uplifting reading for Lent,
"and nothing do you send me!
"You leave me sitting here writing long margin notes
"in library books that don't belong to me.
"Someday they'll find out I did it and take my library card away.
(SIRENS WAILING)
"I require a book of love poems, with spring coming on.
"No Keats or Shelley.
"Send me poets who can make love without slobbering.
"Wyatt or Jonson or somebody. Use your own judgment. Just a nice book.
"Preferably small enough to stick in a slacks pocket and take to Central Park.
"Well, don't just sit there! Go and find it!
"I swear I don't know how that shop keeps going."
(LAUGHING)
Beautiful set, is it not?
Yes, very nice, yeah.
Have you got the catalog of the Dürer?
Yes.
CECILY: "Dear Miss Hanff."
Here you are.
"Please don't let Frank know I'm writing this.
"But every time I send you a bill, I've been dying to slip in a little note,
"and he might not think it quite proper of me.
"That sounds stuffy, and he's not.
"He's quite nice, really. Very nice, in fact.
"It's just that he does rather look on you as his private correspondent,
"as all your letters and parcels are addressed to him.
"But I just thought I'd write to you on my own."
(PIANO PLAYING)
HELENE: (READING) "But I just thought I'd write to you on my own if you don't mind.
"We all love your letters and try to imagine what you must be like.
"I've decided that you're young
"and very sophisticated and smart-looking."
(LAUGHING)
What's so funny?
"Old Mr. Martin thinks you must be quite studious-looking
"in spite of your wonderful sense of humor.
"Why don't you send us a snapshot?"
Why don't you?
For the first time in my life I'm a woman of mystery.
I'm going to keep it that way. "If you're curious about Frank..."
Which you are.
"...he's in his late 30s, quite nice-looking..." Ooh.
"...married to a very sweet Irish girl." Oh!
"I believe she's his second wife."
Be ready for Act 2, Miss Bellamy.
Thank you, Elliot.
Oh, God.
It stinks.
(BOTH LAUGHING)
I'll call you, take care. I'll call you on Friday.
See you, then. All right.
CECILY: "Everyone was so grateful for the parcel.
"My little ones, girl, five, boy, four, were in heaven.
"With the raisins and egg, I was actually able to make them a cake.
"I do hope you don't mind my writing.
"Please don't mention it when you write to Frank."
Cecily,
are you busy?
No.
We ought to do some letters.
Yes, coming.
"With best wishes, Cecily Farr."
HELENE: "Dear Cecily and a very bad cess to old Mr. Martin.
"Tell him I'm so unstudious, I never even went to college.
"I just happen to have a peculiar taste in books.
"And I'm about as smart-looking as a Broadway panhandler.
"I live in moth-eaten sweaters and wool slacks.
"They don't give us any heat here in the daytime.
"It's a five-storey brownstone and all the other tenants go out to work at 9:00 a.m.
"and don't come home till 6:00.
"Why should the landlord heat the building for one small
"script reader/writer working at home?"
Oh, I'm Ed. This is Ginny.
Hi. Hello. Helene.
Hi. Okay, Helene, lead the way.
Do you live around here?
No.
But actually, we're looking for somewhere. We're getting married soon.
Ooh! How nice!
What kind of a place are you looking for? Something fancy?
Well, I wouldn't say fancy.
Two or three bedrooms, you know. Somewhere big enough for a family.
Ginny would like a place overlooking the park.
Oh, that would be nice.
How many rooms have you got?
Oh, well I have a workroom and a sitting room and a bedroom
and a dining room and a kitchen.
And here it is.
(ALL LAUGHING)
Kettle's on.
HELENE: "Poor Frank, I give him such a hard time.
"I'm always bawling him out for something.
"I'm only teasing, but I know he'll take me seriously.
"I keep trying to puncture that proper British reserve.
"If he gets ulcers, I did it."
(LAUGHING)
(TOILET FLUSHING)
How's the tea coming along?
It's almost ready.
What would we do without our cups of tea?
Life would be insupportable, would it not?
MAN ON PA: The train from Ketchworth
is now arriving at Platform 3.
(SLOW MUSIC PLAYING IN FILM)
MAN: Forgive me.
WOMAN: Forgive you for what?
For everything. For meeting you in the first place.
(WHISTLE BLOWING) For taking a piece of grit out of your eye.
For loving you.
For bringing you so much misery.
(TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS)
I'll forgive you if you'll forgive me.
MAN: Thursday.
HELENE: "Please write and tell me about London.
"I live for the day when I step off the boat-train
"and feel its dirty sidewalks under my feet.
"I want to walk up Berkeley Square and down Wimpole Street
"and stand in St. Paul's where John Donne preached,
"and sit on the step Elizabeth sat on
"when she refused to enter the Tower, and places like that.
"A newspaper man I know,
"who was stationed in London during the war, says
"tourists go to England with preconceived notions,
"so they always find exactly what they go looking for.
"I told him I'd go looking for the England of English literature.
"And he said, 'Then, it's there.'"
FRANK: "Dear Miss Hanff.
"This is to let you know that we now have in stock
"The Oxford Book of English Verse."
It's quite a nice Jonson.
"Printed on India paper, original blue cloth binding, 1905.
"Inscription in ink on the flyleaf, but a good second-hand copy.
"Price, $2."
Swinburne.
"We thought we'd better quote before sending,
"in case you have already purchased a copy."
Hardy, limited edition.
Very nice.
(EXCLAIMS)
"Some time ago you asked us for Newman's Idea of a University."
Very nice indeed.
"Would you be interested in a copy of the first edition?"
We'll put that one aside for Miss Hanff.
He has a first edition of Newman's University for six bucks!
Do I want it, he asks innocently.
(SIGHING)
HELENE: "Dear Frank.
"Yes, I want it."
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
"I won't be fit to live with myself.
"I've never cared about first editions per se,
"but a first edition of that book!"
"Well!
"All I have to say to you, Frank Doel,
"is we live in depraved, destructive and degenerate times
"when a bookshop, a bookshop,
"starts tearing up beautiful old books to use as wrapping paper.
"What's worse is, you tore the book up in the middle of a major battle
"and I don't even know which war it was!"
Thank you.
HELENE: Take a look at this. Isn't that beautiful?
It's beautiful.
It's a first edition, my dear. 100 years old.
It's beautiful.
I feel kind of guilty about owning it.
All that gleaming leather and gold stamping.
It belongs in a pine panel library in some English country home.
You know what I mean?
It should be read by the fire, in a gentleman's leather easy chair,
not in some second-hand overstuffed seat in a broken-down brownstone front.
Oh, now, if I was this book, I'd want to live right here.
You're right.
Right.
FRANK: "Dear Miss Hanff. I'm sorry for the delay in answering your letter,
"I've been away out of town for a week or so.
"I'm now busy trying to catch up on my correspondence."
Let me see.
There, you look lovely.
(LAUGHS)
"First of all, please don't worry about us
"using old books such as Clarendon's Rebellion for wrapping."
Come on, Mary, you can wear it tomorrow.
"In this particular case,
"they were just two odd volumes with the covers detached.
"Nobody in their right senses would have given us a shilling for them."
NORA: Thank you.
Now, jump in.
I'll see to that.
Thanks. Night-night.
"We are glad you liked the Q Anthology.
"We have no copy of the Oxford Book of English Prose in stock at the moment,
"but will try to find one for you.
"There are five of us in the shop,
"not including Mr. Marks and Mr. Cohen."
Bye. See you later.
Yes.
Have a nice time.
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
Are you enjoying yourself, Frank?
Yeah. When did we last do this?
I don't remember.
Neither do I.
That's lovely.
(MUSIC STOPS)
Let's go and look at the river.
(ALL CHATTERING)
Lovely. Lovely.
(MAN CHATTERING ON PA) Look at the lights.
We should dance more often. We don't go enough, do we?
(SIGHS) I can't.
That's nonsense.
Look at that, isn't that the Savoy?
No, that's the Shell.
Isn't that the Shell building? Shell?
(MUSIC STARTS AGAIN)
Oh no. Oh, look. Oh, come on.
It's a long time since we've done that.
I can't. I can't dance. All right, once more.
(PEOPLE WHOOPING)
(ALL CHEERING)
You look good.
You look so beautiful! Thank you.
Have lots of babies! I'll come babysit okay? Have a dog, too!
We will.
Bye!
(BRIAN SINGING)
(PEOPLE LAUGHING)
Bravo. Bravo.
Helene, you are amazing!
Yes. Yes, I am.
I drink to... I can't believe it.
I drink to you and the best looking Yorkshire pudding, this side of the Atlantic.
To Helene and the Yorkshire pudding.
Cheers!
Happy birthday, Brian. Bon voyage, Maxine.
Now, why you're going to England and I'm not, God only knows!
(LAUGHING)
HELENE: "Dear Cecily. Yorkshire pudding, out of this world.
"We have nothing like it.
"I had to describe it to somebody
(PHONE RINGING) "as a high, curved, smooth, empty waffle."
Helene Hanff.
What?
Who is this?
"A producer who likes my plays, but not enough to produce them, just phoned.
"He's producing a TV series. Do I want to write for television?
"'Two bills,' he said carelessly."
"Two bills." What do you mean, "Two bills"?
"It turns out he meant $200 a script!
"And me, a $40-a-week script reader!
"I go down to see him tomorrow."
10:30? Sure, yes, I'll be there.
See you then. Thanks.
(SIGHS)
"Keep your fingers crossed.
"Best, Helene."
Oh.
Boy, oh boy.
Boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy...
There we are. Pork sausages, and raisins.
Now, Megan.
Peaches. And... Got some ham.
MEGAN: "Dear Miss Hanff.
"This is just to let you know that your Easter parcels to Marks & Co. arrived safely
"a few days ago.
"We were all quite dazzled to see the meat.
"And the eggs and tins were so very welcome.
"I did feel I must write and tell you how exceedingly grateful we all are
"for your kindness and generosity."
(CAT MEOWS)
My word, this looks good.
CECILY: Michael, Ann!
CECILY: "My dear, the meat!
"I really don't think you should spend your money like that.
"It must have cost a packet!"
It's sausages!
"Bless you for your kind heart."
Do you know who sent them? You remember the lady...
BILL: "Dear Miss Hanff. For nearly two years
"I've been working as a cataloguer at Marks & Co.
"and would like to thank you very much
"for my share-out in the parcels you've been sending.
"I live with my great aunt, who is 75."
BILL: Do please look, Auntie.
"And I think that
"if you had seen the look of delight on her face when I brought home the meat
"and the tin of tongue, you would have realized just how grateful we are."
I don't like the idea of that tin coming all the way from America.
It's only come from Denmark, Auntie.
"It's certainly good to know that someone so many miles away
"can be so kind and generous to people they haven't even seen.
"And I think that everyone in the firm feels the same.
"If at any time you know of anything that you would like sent over from London,
"I will be most happy to see to it for you.
"Sincerely, Bill Humphries."
(SNIFFING)
(LAUGHING EXCITEDLY)
What a treat! What a treat!
(SQUEALING EXCITEDLY)
FRANK: "Dear Miss Hanff. I expect you are getting a bit worried
"that we have not written to thank you for your parcels
"and are probably thinking that we are an ungrateful lot.
"The truth is that I have been chasing around the country,
"in and out of various stately homes of England,
"trying to buy a few books to fill up our sadly depleted stock.
"My wife was starting to call me 'The Lodger,'
"just went home for bed and breakfast.
"But of course when I arrived home with a nice piece of meat,
"to say nothing of dried eggs and ham,
"then she thought I was a fine fellow, and all was forgiven.
"It is a long time since we saw so much meat all in one piece."
Lots 40 through to 49 are on the next landing, sir. Thank you.
Good morning, John.
Good morning.
Oh, yes.
"We should like to express our appreciation in some way or other
"so we are sending by book post today
"a little book which I hope you will like.
"I remember you asked me for a volume of Elizabethan love poems some time ago.
"Well, this is the nearest I can get to it."
FRANK: "To Helene Hanff, with best wishes and grateful thanks for many kindnesses
"from all at 84 Charing Cross Road. London, April, 1951."
God.
HELENE: "To all at 84 Charing Cross Road.
"Thank you for this beautiful book.
"I've never owned a book before with pages edged all round in gold.
"Would you believe it arrived on my birthday?
"I wish you hadn't been so over-courteous about putting the inscription on a card
"instead of on the flyleaf.
"It's the bookseller coming out in you all.
"You were afraid you'd decrease its value.
"You would have increased it for the present owner
"and possibly for future owners.
"I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins.
"I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned
"and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to.
"And why didn't you sign your names?
"I expect Frank wouldn't let you.
"He probably doesn't want me writing love letters to anyone but him."
MAXINE: "Dear Heart. It's the loveliest old shop, straight out of Dickens.
"You would go absolutely out of your mind over it.
"There are stalls outside
"and I stopped and leafed through a few things
"just to establish myself as a browser before wandering in.
"It's dim inside.
"You can smell the shop before you see it. It's a lovely smell.
"I can't articulate it easily but it combines must and dust and age
"and walls of wood and floors of wood.
"Toward the back of the shop at the left, there's a desk with a work lamp on it.
"A man was sitting there with a Hogarth nose.
"He looked up and said..."
So sorry. Good afternoon.
Would you like some help?
May I look around?
Oh, yes. Of course. Please do.
"The shelves go on forever.
"They go up to the ceiling and they're very old and kind of grey,
"like old oak that absorbed so much dust over the years,
"they no longer are their true color.
"There's a print selection,
"or rather a long print table, with Cruikshank and Rackham and Spy
"and all those old wonderful English caricaturists and illustrators
"that I'm not smart enough to know a lot about.
"And there are some lovely old, old illustrated magazines.
"I stayed for about half an hour hoping your Frank
"or one of the girls would turn up, but it was 1:00 when I went in.
"I gathered they were all out to lunch, and I couldn't stay any longer."
What kind of a Pepys' Diary
do you call this?
This is not
Pepys' Diary.
This is some busybody
editor's collection
of excerpts
from Pepys' Diary.
May he rot.
I could just spit.
I enclose
two limp singles.
I will make do
with this until you get me
a real Pepys.
Then
I will rip up
this ersatz book
page by page
and wrap things in it!
Fresh eggs or powdered for Christmas?
I know the powdered lasts longer,
but fresh farm eggs flown in from Denmark have got to taste better.
Want to take a vote on it?
Vote Pestell and keep the Tories out.
Vote Reg Pestell, your Labor Party candidate.
Vote Pestell and keep the Tories out.
(MAN CONTINUES SPEAKING ON PA)
FRANK: "Dear Miss Hanff.
"First of all, let me apologize for the Pepys.
"I was honestly under the impression it was the complete Braybrooke edition.
"And I can understand how you must have felt
"when you found your favorite passages missing.
"I promise to look at the next reasonably priced copy that comes along
"and if it contains the passage you mentioned in your letter,
"I will send it along."
Thank you.
"About the eggs. I've talked to the rest of the inmates here
"and we all seem to think that the fresh ones would be nicer."
There we are.
(DOORBELL BUZZING)
(DOG BARKING)
Hi.
New York during the rush hour. Ginny, I'm so sorry.
Don't worry. Now, would you like something to drink?
She can help herself. She knows where everything is. Boontash, hey!
Give me a kiss. Give me a kiss.
If you get hungry, there's cold chicken, salad in the icebox, and chocolate cake.
You want to miss the whole of Act 1?
Go, go, go! And there's coffee...
All right, yes. GINNY: We'll see you sometime after 11:00.
HELENE: All right. See you then.
Don't worry about a thing. I'll take care of everything.
ED: Bye. Baby, dogs, everything.
(SIGHING) Oh, my God.
Well, Boontash! Come on, let's have a drink, shall we?
Yes. Look, look, look.
HELENE: "Dear Speed.
"You dizzy me, rushing Leigh Hunt and the Vulgate over here whiz-bang like that.
"You probably don't realize it,
"but it's hardly more than two years since I ordered them.
"You keep going at this rate, you're going to give yourself a heart attack.
"That's mean.
"You go to so much trouble for me and I never even thank you.
"I just needle you. It's mean.
"I really am grateful for all the pains you take for me."
(BABY CRIES OUT)
(BABY CRYING)
I'm coming, I'm coming.
(BABBLING)
Oh, you're wide awake, aren't you?
You're supposed to be asleep, you know that?
Yes, you're supposed to be asleep.
"Do you carry hardcover vocal scores by any chance?
"Like Bach's Saint Matthew Passion or Handel's Messiah?
"I probably could get them here at Schirmer's,
"but they're 50 cold blocks from where I live,
"so I thought I'd ask you first."
How's that? How's that?
"Congratulations on Churchill & Co.
"Hope he loosens up your rations a little.
"By the way, is your name Welsh?"
I'm going to read to you. Yes, I'm going to read to you.
(CRIES OUT)
Listen, you're gonna love this.
This is by a guy called John Henry Newman.
You're gonna love it. Okay?
(CRYING)
"It is a prevalent notion just now
"that religious opinion does not enter
"as a matter of necessity in any considerable measure
"into the treatment of scientific or literary subjects."
GINNY: Helene, we're back!
Helene!
(SIGHING)
(ORGAN PLAYING)
(CHOIR SINGING)
FRANK: "We are sending you a little gift for Christmas.
"It is linen.
"And we do hope you will not have to pay any duty on it.
"We'll mark it 'Christmas gift' and keep our fingers crossed.
"Anyway, we hope you will like it
"and accept it with our sincere best wishes for Christmas
"and the coming year.
"Since my name is pronounced to rhyme with the French word 'Noël,'
"I think there may be a possibility that it originated in France."
Isn't it wonderful?
This is beautiful!
Look at this.
"Christmas greetings and all good wishes for the New Year from..."
MARTIN: "George Martin."
CECILY: "Cecily Farr."
BILL: "Bill Humphries."
MEGAN: "Megan Wells."
FRANK: "Frank Doel."
Really beautiful.
Let me give you a hand with that.
No, it's much too heavy. Come along. Give it to me.
NORA: "Dear Miss Hanff.
"For a long time, I've wanted to write to you
"to thank you for my family's share in the wonderful food parcels
"you've been sending to Marks & Co."
Five minutes later we'd have been soaked.
"Now I have an excuse, as Frank tells me
"you want to know the name and address of the old lady
"who embroidered your cloth.
"Her name is Mrs. Boulton and she lives upstairs at No. 24 Oakfield Court.
"She was thrilled to know her cloth had crossed the Atlantic.
"And I know, she'd be delighted to hear how much you admired it.
"I thought you might like to see these snaps of my happy family.
"Our eldest girl was 12 last August, by name Sheila,
"who, by the way, is my ready-made daughter,
"as Frank lost his first wife during the war.
"Our youngest, Mary, was 4 last week.
"Last May, Sheila announced at school
"she was sending Mummy and Daddy an anniversary card
"and told the nuns, it's a convent,
"that we had been married four years!
(NORA LAUGHS)
"It took a bit of explaining, as you can imagine.
"I will close this with all good wishes for the new year
"and a special wish that we may see you in England one of these days.
"Sincerely, Nora Doel."
So, how are you feeling?
Not too bad.
Comfortable?
Yes, yes.
Good.
(CHUCKLES)
How's the food?
Not too bad.
Uh, we had another letter from Miss Hanff.
Would you like to hear it?
Yes, please.
Right.
"Sloth.
"I could rot over here before you'd send me anything to read.
"I ought to run straight down to Brentano's, which I would,
"if anything I wanted was in print.
"You may add Walton's Lives to the list of books you aren't sending me.
"It's against my principles to buy a book I haven't read.
"It's like buying a dress you haven't tried on.
"But you can't even get Walton's Lives in a library over here.
"You can look at it. They have it down at the 42nd Street branch,
"but not to take home.
"The lady said to me, shocked, 'Eat it here.
"'Just sit down in room 315 and read the whole book
"'without a cup of coffee, a cigarette or air.'
"It doesn't matter.
"Q quoted enough of it so I know I'll like it.
"Anything he liked, I'll like, except if it's fiction.
"I never can get interested in things
"that didn't happen, to people who never lived.
"What do you do with yourself all day?
"Sit in the back of the store and read?
"Why don't you try selling a book to somebody?
"Miss Hanff to you."
And then in brackets she's got, "I'm Helene only to my friends."
Dear Miss Hanff.
And there's a P.S.
"Tell the girls and Nora, if all goes well, they're getting nylons for Lent."
You must be feeling tired.
Yeah.
Not feeling too bad, eh?
(WHEEZING)
Mustn't grumble.
Good lad.
Yes, they could, they could.
It's sad because her show is not going to run.
It really isn't working. She's going to be home again shortly.
Uh-huh.
So I'm going to look on Eighth Avenue
and 51st Street in the theatrical district to see if I can find a flat.
Oh, she'd love that one. Yeah.
HELENE: "Now listen, Maxine. I just saw your mother.
"She says you don't think the show will run another month
"and she says you took two dozen pairs of nylons over there.
"So, do me a favor.
"As soon as the closing notice goes up, take three pairs of nylons
"around to the bookshop for me and give them to Frank Doel.
"Tell him they're for the two girls and Nora, his wife.
"Your mother says I am not to enclose any money for them.
"She got them last summer at a close-out sale at Saks. They were very cheap.
"She'll donate them to the shop. She's feeling pro-British.
"Ellery raised me to $250 a script.
"If it keeps up till June, I'll be able to go to England
"and browse around my bookshop myself.
"If I have the nerve.
"I write them the most outrageous letters from a safe 3,000 miles away.
"I'll probably walk in there one day
"and walk right out again without telling them who I am."
(WHISTLING)
Good dog! What a good girl you are!
Yes. You're a good girl. Come on. Let's go home!
FRANK: "Dear Helene.
"We are quite at a loss to know how you managed the nylons
"which appeared as if by magic.
"All I can tell you is that when I got back from lunch
"they were on my desk with a note reading,
"'From Helene Hanff.'"
What?
"No one seems to know how or when they arrived.
"The girls are very thrilled. I believe they're planning to write to you themselves.
"I am sorry to say that our friend, Mr. George Martin,
"who has been so ill for some time,
"passed away in the hospital last week.
"He was with the firm a great number of years.
"So with that loss and the king dying so suddenly as well,
"we are a rather mournful crowd at the moment."
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)
FRANK: "Dear Helene. Your Ellery Queen scripts sound rather fun.
"I wish we could have the chance of seeing some of them on our TV over here.
"It wants livening up a bit. Our TV I mean, not your script.
"We're all thrilled that you'll be coming to London.
"Do let us know when so we can make the necessary arrangements."
NORA: "Dear Helene. I am enclosing a few snaps.
"Frank says none of them do him justice.
"He is much better looking. But we just let him dream.
"Sheila was home for a month's break
"and we've been gadding about a bit to the seaside for day trips and sightseeing,
"but must now pull in our horns a bit,
"as the cost of transport here is terrific.
(BAND PLAYING)
"Sheila is going to say 'a jolly good prayer' for you
"so you may get your wish to come to England.
"So if 'jolly good prayers' are answered,
"you will have a windfall and be able to come and see us soon."
Why does it always rain at the seaside, Daddy?
What? Why does it always rain at the seaside?
Why does it rain at the seaside?
To bring the rents down in the hotels.
(LAUGHING)
Well,
you've got trouble with three down on that side,
and one over there.
We need to do very extensive root canal work.
Then the teeth will have to be capped.
How much is this going to cost?
A lot. About $2,500.
God!
Well, that's for everything.
Oh, God!
(WHIRRING)
HELENE: "Dear Frankie. Trust you and Nora had a fine holiday.
"Mine was spent in Central Park.
"I had a month's vacation from Joey, my dear little dentist.
"He went on his honeymoon. I financed it.
"Did I tell you, he told me last spring
"I had to have all my teeth capped or all my teeth out?
"I decided to have them capped as I have got used to having teeth.
"But the cost is simply astronomical.
"So Elizabeth will have to ascend the throne without me.
"Teeth are all I'm going to see crowned for the next couple of years."
She's not coming.
Not coming?
Helene, she's not coming to London.
Not for a bit anyway.
MAN ON RADIO: Today as a new chapter in history begins in Britain,
Pepperell presents its world famous lady Pepperell sheets,
in classic white and in six beautiful coronation colors.
Like Princess Pink, Duchess Yellow, Windsor Rose...
MAN ON TV: And behind them once again in procession,
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
Sir Winston Churchill.
Thank you. Sorry.
And now the signal is given for a fanfare...
FRANK: "Dear Helene.
"Just a note to let you know that your parcel arrived safely on June 1,
"just in time for our Coronation Day celebrations.
"We had a number of friends at home to watch TV on the day.
"So the ham was most welcome to provide them with something to eat.
"It was delicious.
"We all drank your health as well as the Queen's."
Thank you, Frank.
They're real ham, you know.
(GOD SAVE THE QUEEN PLAYING)
(ANNOUNCER CHATTERING ON TV)
HELENE: "Dear Frank. I'll be obliged
"if you'll send Nora and the girls to church the next month
"to pray for the continued health and strength
"of Messrs. Gilliam, Reese, Snider, Campanella, Robinson,
"Hodges, Furillo, Podres,
"Newcombe and Labine, collectively known as the Brooklyn Dodgers."
I'm a Dodger fan! I'm a Yankee fan!
HELENE: "If they lose this World Series, I shall do myself in.
"And then where will you be?"
ANNOUNCER: And the Yankees still lead.
MAN: Here we go, right down. Hey.
FRANK: "Dear Helene, I shall be only too pleased
"to root for the Brooklyn Dodgers
"if you will reciprocate by a few cheers for the Spurs,
"the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club to the uninitiated,
"who are at present languishing next to the bottom of the League.
"However, the season does not finish until next April,
"so they have plenty of time to get themselves out of the mess."
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
WOMAN: Excuse me.
BILL: Yes.
Do you have a collection of essays by George Orwell?
George Orwell?
The one I really wanted to find is called Inside the Whale.
Inside the Whale? Yeah.
I'm not sure. Just a moment, I'll have a look.
I'm so sorry. I haven't got a copy of Orwell's essays,
but I do have a very nice first edition of Animal Farm.
I particularly wanted the essays.
Perhaps, we could try and find them for you.
Oh, I live in the States.
Well, that's no problem. I mean, if you'd like to leave me your address.
Sure, I live in Wilmington, Delaware.
WOMAN: Would you have any idea how long it might take?
BILL: It depends if we can find one through our usual contacts,
maybe a couple of weeks.
WOMAN: Oh, that would be fine.
FRANK: "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths
"Enwrought with golden and silver light
"The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
"Of night and light and the half light
"I would spread the cloths under your feet
"But I, being poor, have only my dreams
"I have spread my dreams under your feet
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
(CRASHING)
Hey, what the hell are you doing?
I'm minding my own business.
What are you doing?
You can't do that! Put that light back!
Who says?
I say and I live here!
Not for much longer, lady.
HELENE: "Dear Frank. The sky fell on us in this cozy brownstone.
"We got eviction notices last month.
"They're renovating the building.
"They decided the time had come for me to get a real apartment with real furniture.
"And in my right mind and shaking all over
"I went around to the construction site
"of the new building going up over on Second Avenue
"and signed a lease on a two and a half bed-sitter apartment.
"That isn't even there yet."
(BELLS RINGING)
FRANK: "Dear Helene. Prepare yourself for a shock.
"All three of the books that you requested in your last letter
"are on their way to you and should arrive in a week or so.
"Don't ask how we managed it.
"It's just part of the Marks' service."
MAN ON TV: Times Square is jammed with jubilant New Yorkers and visitors.
But they are celebrating the New Year.
The bright lights of Broadway shining on nearly a million festive folks.
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING) The sign of the times. Happy New Year!
HELENE: "Sunday night and a hell of a way to start 1960.
"I don't know, Frank.
"Somebody gave me this book for Christmas.
"It's a great Modern Library book.
"Did you ever see one of those?
"It's less attractively bound than the proceedings of the New York State Assembly
"and it weighs more.
"It was given to me by a gentleman who knows I'm fond of John Donne.
"The title of this book is
"The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne..."
And the Complete Poetry of William Blake?
"The question mark is mine."
Will you please tell me what those two boys have in common,
except they were both English and they both wrote.
"When, as a little boy, William Blake saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree
"amid a summer field, he was soundly trounced by his mother."
I'm with his mother. I mean,
the back of the Lord God, the face of the Virgin Mary, all right.
Why the hell would anybody want to see the prophet Ezekiel?
"But the crucial word in all that is 'selected.'
"The selected prose of John Donne?
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO)
"Here I was curled up in my armchair, so at peace with the world,
"with something old and serene on the radio,
"Corelli or somebody, and this thing on the table.
"This giant Modern Library thing.
"So I thought, I will read one of the sermons aloud.
"You have to read Donne aloud.
"It's like a Bach fugue."
"All mankind is one volume.
"When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book,
"but translated into a better language.
"And every chapter must be so translated.
"God employs several translators.
"Some pieces are translated by age,
"some by sickness,
"some by war,
"some by justice.
"But God's hand shall bind up
"all our scattered leaves again for that library
"where every book shall lie open to one another."
"Dizzy with Donne, I craved for more but the closet was bare.
"Selected prose, remember?
"So break it to me gently.
"How hard is it going to be to find the great man's complete sermons
"and how much is it going to cost?"
You know, Frankie, you're the only soul alive who understands me.
FRANK: "Dear Helene.
"Some time ago, you asked me for a modern version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
"I came across a little volume the other day
"which I thought you would like.
"It is not complete by any means.
"But as it is quite a cheap book
"and seems to be a fairly scholarly job,
"I am sending it along by book post today.
"Price: $1.35."
Looks very nice.
Good.
"We are all well and jogging along as usual.
"My eldest daughter, Sheila, 24,
"suddenly decided she wanted to be a teacher.
"So threw up her secretarial job two years ago to go to college."
Hot gravy.
"She has another year to go, so it looks as though it will be a long time
"before our children will be able to keep us in luxury.
"Love from all here. Frank."
Very nice. Very tasty.
It's been 12 years since I was in London with that play.
I don't believe it.
It's more than 12 years. It was...
HELENE: "All right, that's enough Chaucer-made-easy.
"It has the schoolroom smell of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.
"I'm glad I read it.
"I liked reading about the nun who ate so dainty with her fingers,
"she never dripped any grease on herself.
"I could never make that claim.
"Wasn't anything else that intrigued me much. It's just stories.
"Now, if Chaucer had kept a diary
"and told me what it was like to be a little clerk in the palace of Richard III,
"that, I'd learn Old English for.
"'The reader will not credit that such things could be,'
"Walton says somewhere or other,
"'but I was there and I saw it.'
"That's for me.
"I'm a great lover of 'I was there' books."
It was a rotten play.
I thought you liked it.
I hated it.
Listen, you should be grateful.
That play took you to London.
Remember how jealous I was?
You were.
I was.
FRANK: "Dear Helene. It was good to hear from you again.
"We're still here, getting older and busier, but no richer.
"We had a pleasant summer with more than the usual number of tourists
"including hordes of young people
"making the pilgrimage to Carnaby Street.
"We watch it all from a safe distance.
"Though I must say, I rather like The Beatles.
(MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO)
"If the fans just wouldn't scream so.
"We have not heard from Cecily Farr in some years now.
"Megan Wells had enough of South Africa in a very short time,
"and did stop in to give us a chance to say, 'I told you so,'
"before trying her luck in Australia."
Frank, will you lock up?
Yes, I will. Good night, Bill.
"We had a Christmas card from her a few years ago but nothing recently.
"Nora and the girls join me in sending love.
"Frank."
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)
Frank.
You still there?
Still alive, are we?
I swore I wouldn't write until I found work.
Sold a story to Harper's Magazine.
Slaved over it for three weeks.
They paid me $200 for it.
Now they've got me writing the story of my life in a book.
How about you, Frank?
Yes.
We're all very much alive and kicking,
though rather exhausted after a hectic summer.
Now, listen.
I introduced a young friend of mine
to Pride and Prejudice one rainy Sunday.
And she's gone out of her mind for Jane Austen.
She has a birthday around about Halloween.
Can you find me some Austen for her?
I know you can.
There's no hope of finding any Jane Austen in time for your friend's birthday.
We've had hordes of tourists from the USA,
France, Scandinavia, etcetera,
all buying our nice, leather-bound books.
So our stock is a sorry sight at the moment.
But perhaps we can find them for her for Christmas.
Are you a grandfather yet?
Tell Sheila and Mary their children are entitled to presentation copies of
my Collected Juvenile Works.
That should make them rush out and reproduce.
Best to Nora and anybody else around.
Helene.
Nora and the girls are fine. Sheila is teaching.
Mary is engaged to a very nice boy.
But there is little hope of them getting married for the time being.
As neither has any money.
So Nora's hopes of being a glamorous grandmother are receding fast.
Love, Frank.
(SIRENS WAILING)
MAN ON PA: We have hundreds of plainclothesmen in our midst.
Many of these guys have orders to beat up the leaders.
Now, this is clearly a political activity,
a political action on the part of the Administration.
Well, they are not going to get amnesty.
And I think that there's going to be a solution,
so I don't think it's going to go on.
(SHOUTING)
(PROTESTERS CLAMORING)
What's going on?
Oh, please! Back on the other side of the cordon, lady.
I asked you a civil question. What's going on?
No demonstrations allowed on this campus.
Who says?
Lady, aren't you a little old to be doing this?
Why don't you go home and bake an apple pie or something?
All right, lady. Make yourself happy.
You get to ride in here with the rest of your friends.
HELENE: I want to say something. Don't go away!
Wait a minute. I want to say something.
Wait a minute! I want to talk to...
Let's get them the hell out of here!
REPORTER: It seems there'll be no easy solution
to the student sit-in on campus at Columbia.
MAN: We want to point out that,
one, that black students occupy this building here.
And we are going into the community of Harlem
and bolster support down there.
So if Columbia doesn't want to deal with the brothers in here,
they'll deal with them on the street.
(ALL CHEERING)
STUDENTS: (CHANTING) Strike! Strike!
(PROTESTERS CHANTING)
HELENE: Meet me at the police station!
I want to give something to you.
Don't worry, I'm not finished with you...
OFFICER: Sit down!
(CHUCKLING)
REPORTER: Why are you here today?
MAN: Well, we're not concerned with the sit-ins themselves or the arrests.
We don't think there's any civil liberties issues
involved in arresting people,
after they've been occupying the buildings on an illegal basis.
WOMAN: "January 8, 1969.
"Dear Miss.
"I have just come across the letter you wrote to Mr. Doel last September 30.
"It is with great regret that I have to tell you,
"that he passed away on Sunday, December 22.
"The funeral took place last week on Wednesday, January 1.
"He was rushed to hospital December 15,
"and operated on for a ruptured appendix.
"Unfortunately, peritonitis set in
"and he died seven days later.
"He had been with the firm over 40 years.
"Naturally, it has come as a great shock to Mr. Cohen,
"particularly coming so soon after the death of Mr. Marks.
"Do you still wish us to obtain the books you asked for?
(SOBBING)
"Yours faithfully, P.P. Marks & Co.
"Joan Todd, Mrs., Secretary."
NORA: "Dear Helene.
"Thank you for your very kind letter.
"Nothing about it at all offends me.
"I only wish that you had met Frank and known him personally.
"He was the most well-adjusted person
"with a marvelous sense of humor.
"And now, I realize, such a modest person,
"as I've had letters from all over to pay him tribute.
"And so many people in the book trade say he was so knowledgeable
"and imparted his knowledge with kindness to all and sundry.
"If you wish, I could send them to you.
"At times, I don't mind telling you, I was very jealous of you,
"as Frank so enjoyed your letters.
"And they, or some, were so like his sense of humor.
"Also, I envied your writing ability.
"Frank and I were so very much opposites.
"He so kind and gentle,
"and me, with my Irish background,
"always fighting for my rights.
"I miss him so.
"Life was so interesting.
"He, always explaining
"and trying to teach me something of books.
"My girls are wonderful, and in this I am lucky.
"I suppose so many like me are all alone.
"Please excuse my scrawl.
"With love, Nora."
HELENE: "Dear Kay and Brian.
"I take time out from cleaning my bookshelves and sitting on the rug
"surrounded by books in every direction.
"I wish you a bon voyage.
"I hope you and Brian have a ball in London.
"Maybe it's just as well I never got there.
"I dreamed about it for so many years.
"I used to go to English movies just to look at the streets.
"Years ago, a guy I knew told me that people going to England
"find exactly what they go looking for.
"I said I'd go looking for the England of English literature.
"He nodded and said, 'It's there.'
"Maybe it is and maybe it isn't.
"Looking around the rug, one thing's for sure.
"It's here.
"The blessed man who sold me all my books died a few months ago.
"And Mr. Marks, who owned the shop, is dead.
"But Marks & Co. is still there,
"though there's some talk that it might be demolished.
"God forbid!
"If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road,
"kiss it for me!
"I owe it so much."
Hello.
I have a brochure from a long time ago for trips to London.
I know they don't cost $359 anymore,
but could you let me know what it would cost?
Now?
Here I am, Frankie.
I finally made it.