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Furious Love

Page 50

by Sam Kashner


  “overweight stars…”: Caute, 226.

  “ice-skating rink…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 36.

  “SHE OUTLIVED SIX…”: Boom! promotional booklet.

  “Elizabeth Taylor is seriously considering…and not with crutches”: Ibid.

  “a picture-postcard sea”: Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, eds., The Noël Coward Notebooks (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), 655.

  “please feel completely free…”: quoted in Boom! promotional booklet.

  “Our credo might have been…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 87.

  “tighten up those muscles…”: Ibid., 80.

  “Creating a life with him…”: Ibid., 87.

  “My working relationship…”: quoted in Caute, 226.

  “very old and slightly…” and following entries: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 244.

  “never lost his eye”: Cole Lesley, The Life of Noël Coward (New York: Knopf, 1976), 508.

  “before it’s too late”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 245.

  “I’m supposed to leap…”: quoted in Mark Shivas, “Was It Like This With Louis XIV?” New York Times, October 15, 1976.

  “a den of thieves” anecdote: Steverson, 168.

  “looking infinitely sexy” anecdote: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 245.

  “Not too bad…”: Ibid., 238.

  “canary, and not mustard” and description of yacht: Alpert, 186.

  who relieved themselves all over the rugs: Kelley, 269 and Cottrell, 315.

  “We are lunching with somebody…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 260.

  “Not bad for an old woman…”: Ibid., 261.

  “And possibly Ari Onassis…”: Ibid., 260.

  “how beautiful his eyes were”: Ibid., 261.

  “eyes in the back of her bum…a bit of a bore”: Ibid.

  “half a million pounds…get the money”: Ibid., 265.

  “How can he possibly…”: Ibid., 241.

  “How many nominations…” anecdote: Ibid., 242.

  “touching it and staring…”: Ibid., 263.

  “When I got there…”: Gielgud’s interview, Palmer’s In from the Cold.

  “A terrible day…” anecdote: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 243.

  “She is a nice fat girl…”: Ibid., 238.

  “The Burtons seem to revel…”: Cottrell, 319.

  “amazing how a couple…”: London Evening Standard, quoted in Cottrell, 319.

  “lost faith in faith”: Greene, The Comedians, DVD.

  “a character assassination…”: Graham Greene and Richard Greene, ed., A Life in Letters (Canada: Knopf, 2007), 293.

  “a country of voodoo…”: Ibid.

  “You must at some time…deserted film for the stage”: David Lewin interview with the Burtons, Palmer’s In from the Cold.

  “Doctor Faustus is…”: quoted in Cottrell, 319.

  “Doctor Faustus becomes…”: Pauline Kael, Going Steady, 41.

  “absolutely the right…”: Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1968.

  “Her vivid personal imagery…”: Ibid.

  “if Faustus says ‘gold’…”: Kael, 41.

  “No one sets out…”: Jenkins, 160.

  “I would lift up my arms…”: Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical Story of Doctor Faustus DVD.

  “anticlimactic and banal”: Bosley Crowther, New York Times, February 7, 1968.

  “got[ten] away with murder…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 306.

  “deep down in his desperate…”: Ibid.

  didn’t really understand: Authors’ interview with Gore Vidal.

  “Scene by scene”: John Huston, An Open Book (New York: Ballantine, 1981), 374.

  CHAPTER 10: THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN

  “I introduced Elizabeth to beer…”: quoted in Interview, February 2007, 228.

  “With Richard Burton, I was living…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 87.

  “It is a little melancholy…”: Time, March 28, 1969, quoted in Steverson, 171.

  “Yes, luv, we did spend…”: Burton clipping file, BFI Archive.

  “The Grand Duchess Vladimir…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 63.

  “I thought how perfect…”: Ibid., 49.

  “deep Asscher cuts…”: Ibid., 49.

  “I adore wearing gems…”: Ibid., 84.

  “Is that the famous diamond?” anecdote: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 84–85.

  “Elizabeth Taylor and Richard…”: Maddox, 207–08.

  “a kind of arrogance…”: quoted in Maddox, 208.

  “Dick [Burton] was too old…”: Tennessee Williams, Memoirs (New York: Doubleday, 1975), 200.

  “we’ll all be proud of [Boom!]…”: Losey quoted in Caute, 226.

  “You’re just wrought up…”: Williams, Boom!, DVD.

  “beyond bad, the other side…”: John Waters quoted in Premiere, August 1992, 9.

  “Richard Burton would be leaving…unprofessional”: Cottrell, 323.

  “like an immature bride…”: Ibid.

  “One would think…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 384.

  “Elizabeth had her uterus…completely helpless”: Ibid., 255.

  “lurid hallucinations…hush, he’ll hear you”: Ibid.

  “a naughty girl”…“fuck off”: Ibid.

  “She is still asleep…”: Ibid., 256.

  “A child with Richard…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, original manuscript. 246 “truly terrible”: quoted in Maddox, 119, and Secret Ceremony clipping file, Academy Library.

  “Her disintegration is a…”: quoted in Maddox, 119.

  “quite beautifully made…”: Secret Ceremony clipping file, Academy Library.

  “famous for her mammalia,” Secret Ceremony, DVD.

  “The paparazzi were now…”: Authors’ interview with Bozzacchi.

  “I remember that he had…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 256.

  “He literally missed…”: quoted in Cottrell, 326.

  “After Cis, I loved Ifor…”: Jenkins, 179.

  “hero, brother, father…”: Cottrell, 327.

  “I tried it once”: Bragg, 258.

  “What could I say?…”: Authors’ interview with Liz Smith and Denis Ferrara.

  “entertaining an officer…”: Munn, 36.

  “I will if you will”: Bragg, 258.

  “They must be out of…”: Spoto, 326.

  “her young & attractive…working without me”: Bragg, 262.

  “I have worked out…”: Ibid., 262–63.

  “The beating they took…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 99.

  “All along I knew…”: Ibid., 102.

  “marred royalty…dervish”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 272.

  “I’d better be off…”: Ibid., 273.

  “I’d like to be alone…”: Ibid., 264.

  “She asked if I would stop…”: Ibid.

  “like a wild animal…”: Ibid., 277.

  “He had made my mother…”: Interview, 182.

  “by lampooning his own…witless adaptation”: quoted in Steverson, 172–73.

  “She is a wildly exciting love-mistress…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 277.

  CHAPTER 11: “RINGS AND FARTHINGALES”

  “It’s just a present for Liz”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.

  “Sometimes his joy was perverse…”: My Love Affair with Jewelry, 90.

  “So I’ll have my two favorite…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 278.

  “My chief worry…”: Ibid., 280.

  “stoned daze…a murderous world”: Ibid., 286–87.

  “like a talisman…” and description of La Peregrina: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 90.

  “Sometimes his joy was perverse…”: Ibid.

  “exquisitely matched…”: Ibid., 86.

  “The last six or eight…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 290.

  “I was never sued…”: Ibid., 262.

  “What are you doing, Lumpy?”: Ibid., 292.

  “Elizabeth is
now looking…returner of the ball”: Ibid., 303.

  “You will never, of course…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.

  “a lot of mediocre rubbish”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 262.

  “I must have a son…I will have Anne”: all dialogue from Anne of the Thousand Days.

  “no rubbish and cunning”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 306.

  “They have every shrug…longer than Hamlet”: Ibid.

  speculating that Burton and Bujold: Steverson, 179.

  “a demonic charmer…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 294.

  “how marvelous E. would be”: Ibid., 306.

  “I am very jealous of E….”: Ibid., 305.

  “all the godsons, goddaughters…”: Ibid., 313.

  “There is no question…odd jewel or two”: Ibid.

  “We’ll nip over to Paris…books with photos by E.”: Ibid., 313–14.

  “not a bad record…”: Ibid., 311.

  “imitating a blue-gray…intolerant wife”: Ibid., 308.

  “They fought right from…”: Authors’ interview with Liz Smith.

  “running rows…smattering of scholarship”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 315.

  “the drinking fed the jealousy…”: Liz Smith.

  “If any man had done that…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 315.

  “We are fighting…separate ways pretty soon”: Ibid., 316.

  “cleaned up a little…”: quoted in Steverson, 175.

  “dared risky roles and…”: Ibid., 176.

  “rings and farthingales…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.

  “numbered, gleaming…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 317.

  “He’d have lived until…”: Ibid., 320.

  “long silences and deadly…red and masculine”: Ibid., 318.

  “[W]hat the hell’s the matter…”: Ibid.

  “It will make my ugly, big…”: Ibid.

  “there was much more to life…”: Ibid.

  “I was going to get that diamond…”: Ibid., 318–19.

  “I wanted that diamond…Dallas, Texas”: Ibid., 319.

  Cartier’s display ad in New York Times, Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 95.

  “too soon made glad/…”: Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess.”

  “Well, that’s not the sort…” anecdote, Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 173.

  “It was more of a millstone…”: Kelley, 267.

  “The peasants have been lining up…”: quoted in Maddox, 214.

  “How many women have been criticized…”: Ibid., 213.

  “The Cartier diamond…”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 12: FALLEN STARS

  “Nobody but nobody…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 324.

  “We’ve lived like gypsies”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor excerpt, Ladies’ Home Journal, 81.

  “How funny it will be…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 267.

  “None of the children…”: Taylor clipping file, Academy Library.

  “If you’re a bad actor…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 278.

  “Very well. I shall stop…”: Ibid., 325.

  “break the back of…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.

  “The sun is bright…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 326.

  “You look marvelous!” anecdote: Ibid.

  “I have to face the fact…”: Ibid., 327.

  “When he stopped drinking…”: Authors’ conversation with Taylor confidante.

  “was like a second mother…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 212.

  “We can’t make a picture…”: Walker, 307.

  “The world has changed…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 324.

  “the world’s costliest coat…”: Life, Taylor clipping file, Academy Library.

  “owed her performance…”: Bragg, 320.

  “The whole world makes fun…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 328.

  “My only chance is that…”: Ibid.

  “pink pills…They certainly eased the boredom…”: Ibid., 329.

  “Barbra Streisand who fancies herself…”: Ibid.

  “Who the hell voted for Wayne?”: Ibid.

  “In some ways, Anne of the Thousand Days…”: Interview with Liz Smith.

  “You son of a bitch…”: Bragg, 174.

  “I lost again…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 329.

  “If he had won the Oscar…”: Liz Smith.

  “The Million-Dollar Era…”: Taylor clipping file, Academy Library.

  “put a bandage around her…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 329.

  “‘Mia,’ saying that…”: Ibid., 332.

  “would see, in person…”: Ibid.

  “she held the audience…”: Ibid.

  “hippie”…“to have a look” anecdote: Ibid., 335.

  “a kind of super motel”: Ibid., 324.

  “sheep’s eyes”: Ibid.

  “I aged another ten years…I love you, too, baby”: Ibid., 338.

  “Dearest Scrupelshrumpilstilskin…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.

  “another attack of gout…”: Ibid.

  “Dearest Toothache…”: Ibid.

  “Dear Long-way-away-one…”: Ibid.

  “Forgot the momentous news…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 351.

  “Don’t forget you’re always…”: quoted in Alpert, 252.

  “I get a bad notice…”: Ibid.

  “Missed yesterday…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 352.

  “They’re remarkable…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor excerpt, Ladies’ Home Journal, 81.

  “Dearest Ivy League”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 397.

  “pleased that it means we are…”: Ibid., 333.

  “an unmistakable aura…”: Bernard Weintraub, “The Prime of Mr. Burton?” New York Times, December 6, 1970.

  “It seems fairly ridiculous…Never”: Ibid.

  “She wants me to…approaching my prime”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 13: BLUEBEARD

  “All my life, I think I have…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 367.

  “No Bluebeard broads”: Taylor quoted in Bragg, 407.

  “The Burtons are protected…”: Cottrell, 338.

  “I will love you always…”: Kelley, 298 fn.

  “a ruthless survivor…”: Walker, 309.

  “We both let off steam…”: Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1971, 88.

  “The people around her…”: quoted in Spoto, 344.

  “She’s left the hotel…”: Michael Caine, What’s It All About? (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 2002), 313.

  “the only actor I ever…”: Ibid., 319.

  “a living legend…real-life Alfie”: Ibid., 312.

  “Dear Twit Twaddle etc….”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.

  “I love you and…”: Ibid.

  “She didn’t exactly encourage…”: Munn, 195.

  “squelching [her] real feelings…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 100.

  “bugger all” and “the most glamorous hooker…”: quoted in reviews of “Under Milk Wood [DVD],” FilmThreat.com, April 12, 2008.

  “To begin at the beginning…”: Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood, DVD.

  “After he’d had a few…” anecdote: Cottrell, 385.

  “never heard Richard talk…an entire life”: Gianni Bozzacchi interview.

  “[T]he winning film of the moment…”: quoted in Munn, 191.

  “just sitting back and listening…”: Ibid.

  “The man Redford…a star”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 351.

  “two heavyweight champions…”: Bragg, 357.

  “The quivering awareness…”: Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1971, 118.

  “his latest and least…hope for”: Vincent Canby, “Whatever Became of Richard Burton?” New York Times, June 13, 1971.

  “My lack of interest…untrue”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 367.

  “The old Etonians…”: Ibid., 370.

  “You know, it’s really not…”: paraphrased quote, Bragg, 367. />
  “This is the baby Richard and I…”: Kelley, 281.

  “I made it up…”: Ibid., 282.

  “My left hand and wrist…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 359–60.

  “Were it not, actually, for E.’s…”: Ibid., 364.

  “If I should go away…”: Ibid., 371–72.

  “Suddenly, something came…” anecdote: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 75.

  “only Elizabeth drinks…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 377.

  “But he’s your dog” anecdote: Ibid., 368–69.

  “The virtual cessation…”: Ibid., 381.

  “E. is trying to press me…”: Ibid., 385.

  “slightly gaga”: Ibid., 390.

  “in a somewhat false…”: Ibid., 387–88.

  “the Duchess of Windsor and…”: Ibid., 389.

  “an hour or more of…”: Ibid.

  “cadaverous…Where’s my Elizabeth?”: Ibid., 389–90.

  “making out”: Ibid., 390.

  “so that you can feel…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, 173.

  “with half a dozen…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 393.

  “[F]irm as they are…”: Ibid., 404.

  “like cats after cream…”: Cottrell, 359.

  “a genius…” Tammy Grimes quoted in Cottrell, 361.

  “to be done with immense…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 405.

  “plays the organ…”: Ibid., 406.

  “If he sold himself…”: Alpert, 204.

  “both mercurial, jealous…will ever happen”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, 135–36.

  “fell in love with her…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 50.

  “He didn’t make me look…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 405–06.

  “We would love you to come…”: Ibid., 407.

  “It cld be a step toward…”: Ibid., 410.

  “Love Is Everlasting”: Walker, 314.

  “by God, they’re really good…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 410.

  “One day somebody else…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 73.

  “Ifor is very near the end…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 363.

  “he was the nearest to a father…”: Jenkins, 179.

  CHAPTER 14: DIVORCE HIS DIVORCE HERS

  “I shall miss you with passion…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.

  “Maybe we loved each other…”: Taylor letter to Burton, July 4, 1973, Ibid.

  “Richard needed their protection…”: Alpert, 207.

 

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