Notley itself they had purchased out - right with his film salary , her savings from Hollywood , and the additional pounds15,000 he was paid by Del Giudice not to act in , produce or direct any film for eighteen months after the release of Henry V , an agreement that protected publicity and exploitation of that picture .sx Visitors , of course , felt very tired after being merrily forced by their hostess to remain awake until dawn .sx Let Larry go to bed , she would say when her husband's head nodded at five o'clock in the morning and he begged to be excused .sx Charades or card games then began and no one was let off , although occasionally a mutineer like Rex Harrison would put his feet up , slouch in a chair and snore .sx " Larry simply looked in from time to time , wearing tweeds and a country cap , " John Gielgud recalled of several weekends that year .sx " He took only a sporadic part in the festivities before disappearing into the garden or secreting himself with models and plans in his private room , to which I was never asked to accompany him .sx But he had enormous personal charm , and he loved jokes and absurdities of all kinds .sx " The models and plans were for forthcoming productions , each aspect of which - from design to lighting cues - was always subject to his approval and modification ; never was the designation actor-manager more appropriate .sx Most of all , Olivier loved to tend the gardens at Notley , to discuss fertilisers with salesmen , seedlings with neighbours , compost with local farmers .sx Around eight in the morning , Vivien offered breakfast , by which time most of the guests had crawled to their rooms or were fortified to stupefaction with tankards of strong Turkish coffee ; she required only a nap in the afternoon before beginning the new day's activities .sx There were tennis matches and tours of the estate , with stops to visit the cows named for Vivien's characters ( Ophelia , Titania and Cleopatra , but no Scarlett ) and to admire the arcades of trees and the five hundred rose bushes Olivier loved to tend himself .sx He loved to play the local squire in this ancient and baronial home , pruning the hedges and preparing the ground for sowing , according to Harry Andrews .sx Olivier had little other rest that season .sx The American producer Richard Aldrich ( husband of Gertrude Lawrence ) had negotiated to bring the Old Vic Theatre Company to New York for six weeks in the spring of 1946 .sx After the last performance of the season , on 28 April , more than 2500 people thronged outside the New and along St Martin's Lane , shouting for Olivier and Richardson .sx Olivier's coat was ripped and buttons were torn off as adoring fans grabbed at him , and the police had to assist the actors into taxis .sx The public adoration was unprecedented - and it heralded the new postwar obsession with stardom .sx Next day , the entire company boarded a Pan Am Constellation Clipper for the seventeen-hour flight to New York .sx There , Garson Kanin and his wife Ruth Gordon met the Oliviers and escorted them to the St Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue .sx For those denied the pleasures of Notley , New York was almost unnatural in its opulence .sx Diana Boddington recalled their delight at having everyday items like bananas , chocolate and coffee , which had been rare pleasures indeed for the English during wartime .sx " I remember looking at Larry on the plane to New York and seeing the cuffs on his best shirt , frayed to threads .sx This was typical of us all - we had no clothing coupons .sx " .sx The two parts of Henry IV opened on 6 and 7 May , Uncle Vanya on 13 May and the Sophocles-Sheridan plays ( referred to by the company as " Oedipuff" ) on 20 May ; Olivier was onstage for every performance , most often in the exhausting double bill .sx At the Century Theatre box office , all 87,000 tickets for the engagement were quickly sold , half that number of eager theatregoers were turned away , and at a time when the top price of a Broadway seat was $3 .sx 90 , scalpers ( sellers on the black market ) were easily taking in fifty dollars .sx While Olivier had no time for theatregoing in New York that spring , Vivien often went with the Kanins , who noted the edginess caused by her professional inactivity .sx " A crazy quarrel last night with Vivien , " wrote Kanin after one evening in May , referring to her insistence on the pronunciation of a word .sx " It must be maddening for her , a young actress at the peak of her powers and popularity , to find herself in the position of a hanger-on who has come along for the ride .sx " They saw State of the Union , Dream Girl , Annie Get Your Gun and Kanin's own hit comedy Born Yesterday , which Vivien enjoyed so much that she urged Olivier to bring it to London the following season .sx He read the text , easily negotiated the rights with Kanin , cabled London to arrange for a lease at the Garrick Theatre , and suddenly found himself with an additional responsibility , for he would produce and direct Born Yesterday that winter .sx At the same time , Vivien - chafing to return to work - prevailed on Binkie Beaumont to re-open Olivier's production of The Skin of Our Teeth in London that September .sx The rationale for Olivier's decision to present Born Yesterday was clear .sx He wanted to prove that his new status as an eminent classical actor and a co-manager at the venerable Old Vic did not completely define his abilities .sx His grasp also included modern works ( and American plays , as Skin had demonstrated ) ; now Born Yesterday , with its deftly modern humour and language , would further establish his position as the most versatile Englishman in the performing arts - stage actor , director and manager as well as film actor , director and producer .sx Such ambition derived not from hubris but rather from a demonstrably reasonable belief in his own talents ; at the same time , this secure self-estimation was not inconsistent with ordinary explosions of fear and jealousy .sx Although he had little opportunity for New York socialising , Olivier was at a small gathering one night where he was reunited briefly with his old acquaintance Alexander Clark .sx Frances Tannehill , Clark's wife , was one of several that season who had an impression that Olivier was happy only when he was acting , or talking about acting .sx Socially he seemed rather shy and introverted , and he often drifted off into his own silence , but it was clear there were wheels turning in that silence .sx By early June , Olivier was also exhausted to the point of nervous collapse , and several actors backstage at the Century were not at all certain he could endure the punishing schedule he had set for himself .sx Anxious , haggard and short-tempered , he was sometimes summoned from a brief nap backstage , startled out of frightening dreams he described to colleagues :sx that he was falling from a great height or that he was in an aeroplane about to crash .sx He had also agreed to interrupt his rare free days by reading play excerpts on Sunday afternoon radio broadcasts - a taxing addendum necessitated by the Oliviers' need for cash .sx His weekly Old Vic salary was one hundred pounds , which did not cover the St Regis bill or Vivien's new mink coat .sx Neither audiences nor critics suspected his fatigue .sx A goodwill visit from those representing America's closest wartime ally - as well as a major New York cultural event - the Old Vic tour was an artistic and commercial triumph , and although the company played as a repertory without star billings , there was no doubt that Laurence Olivier won the greatest attention .sx His last performance in New York had been in the unfortunate 1940 Romeo and Juliet , but that was now forgotten in a swirl of critical and public adulation .sx " The Old Vic is repertory showing what it can do , " read a typical press commentary , " and it is also Laurence Olivier showing himself as an exceptionally fine actor .sx " Richardson and others received praise for their performances , but always fewer column inches than Olivier , and the six or seven curtain calls the ensemble took each night revealed the heart of the matter :sx the theatre rang with cries of " Bravo , Larry !sx " and " We want Larry !sx " Autograph - seekers besieged the stage door and reporters were despatched to obtain interviews and anecdotes .sx " The spring seems to be given over to Laurence Olivier , " proclaimed the New York Times .sx The most importunate fans he sometimes resented ; the adoration he relished .sx Academics joined the critics and the public in honouring him .sx First among English or American colleges was Tufts University in Medford , Massachusetts , on Sunday , 16 June ( the day after the last New York performance) .sx He and Vivien arrived late , and Olivier made the trip hobbling on a cane and with a taped ankle , for on Saturday evening at his curtain call after his final Puff , he turned a double somersault , landed awkwardly and heard a popping sound :sx his Achilles tendon had been torn .sx Despite doctors' injunctions , he insisted on proceeding to Tufts , where he received a Master of Arts honoris causa for being " the real interpreter of Shakespeare for our age " .sx But his pain and the hot , humid weather increased his general exhaustion .sx When he and Vivien missed their return flight to New York and were forced to wait two hours , Olivier collapsed onto the tarmac , watching the departing plane and sobbing like a lost child .sx The following day , he slept fourteen hours and did not attend Henry V ( screened since April only in Boston ) , which opened with a traffic - stopping gala at New York's City Center Theatre - a vast auditorium usually given over to dance and opera .sx There , with almost no advertising , it was screened three times a day for eleven months and earned revenues of more than a million dollars .sx Because of the highly creative tradition of film accountancy , the worldwide success of Henry V , which cost about two million dollars and eventually returned something in excess of five million dollars before 1948 , never returned a profit to Del Giudice or Olivier .sx The hectic activity resumed on Tuesday , 18 June , when the Oliviers and forty-two other passengers boarded a plane for London ; their Old Vic colleagues had already departed .sx But an hour later , as if his night - mares had been prophetic , the outer starboard engine burst into flames and fell from the wing , and the plane began to swoop .sx The hydraulic system was burned out , the landing gear could not be lowered , and the pilot circled skilfully for fifteen minutes , finally bringing the craft down in a forced landing at Windham Field , near Willimantic , Connecticut .sx " It is very awkward flying around with a motor missing , " Olivier told newsmen an hour later with feigned composure .sx " We were in an arm's length of hell , but then we reached the ground safely .sx We cheered for two minutes .sx " Next day , the Oliviers departed again from New York and arrived without incident in London on 20 June .sx During July and August of 1946 , friends were as usual invited to Notley for tennis weekends and summer dinner parties .sx " Notley was like Sandringham or Windsor Castle , for it was considered a great coup to be invited in those postwar years , " recalled Laurence Evans , who had left the Old Vic and was now a respected London theatrical agent .sx " I thought he played a variety of roles there at Notley , " said John Gielgud of Olivier .sx " One day he was the landowner , another the squire , one day the gardener , another the great host , and often the actor - manager in working seclusion .sx He played roles on and off the stage .sx " .sx That summer , Olivier annotated Born Yesterday and plans for the upcoming Old Vic season were finalised .sx While in New York , he had fancied he might like to revive Cyrano de Bergerac at the Old Vic and eventually co-star with Vivien in a Hollywood film of it .sx But this hope was altered when John Burrell called a board meeting and the old rivalries resumed .sx Richardson ( who had first choice of leading roles ) at once selected Cyrano for himself .sx Olivier , aware that Richardson had set his heart on King Lear for a future season and confident that he would immediately agree to exchange roles , countered by choosing Lear .sx