Elizabeth
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Again, the Burtons’ agent, Robert Lantz, was very instrumental in shaping the chapters concerning Private Lives. I also referenced Burton’s diaries, as published in Richard Bur- ton: A Life, by Melvyn Braag. I also referred to Richard Burton, My Brother, by Graham Jenkins, for the sections on Private Lives, as well as on the death of Burton and Elizabeth’s indecision about attending the services. Again, Patrick McMahon was very helpful in this regard, as well.
I would like to thank Bryan O’Neal for his memories of working with Elizabeth’s son-in-law, Steve Carson. I am very grateful for his cooperation and also for providing me with the book Bur- ton, by Penny Junior.
Elizabeth has talked extensively about her time at the Betty Ford Center in 1983, and written about it as well, in Taking Off. I referred to seemingly countless published source materials regard-Sources and Other Notes 505
ing this time in her life. I also finally had a chance to use the few quotes she gave me during my brief audience with her in 1987. I thought long and hard about using information from sources who met Miss Taylor at Betty Ford, balancing the notion of privacy during such a time in a person’s life with the objective of this book, which is to further our understanding of the subject. In the end, I decided to use only the memories that showed Elizabeth in the best light and would help the reader to understand the issues with which she was dealing at that time—especially since, as stated, Elizabeth has herself written about and talked about her recovery at great length. I also referred to the eighty-seven-page probe of Taylor’s three personal physicians, prepared by the Medical Board of California. I interviewed California deputy attorney general Earl Plowman, in 1994, and I referred to an article about the investigation published in Time on August 22, 1994. It was my decision not to name in this book the doctors who were under investigation. Though all three received written reprimands from the Medical Board, no charges were filed against them.
I also read “Elizabeth the Extraordinary,” by Anne Edwards, Ladies’ Home Journal, March 1986; “What Liz Taylor Has Gone Through,” by Phyllis Battelle, Ladies’ Home Journal, May 1984; and “The Red Queen,” by Dominic Dunne, Vanity Fair, December 1985. Elizabeth also discussed her drinking and drug habits on an interview with Phil Donahue on February 15, 1988; during a week of segments on the television program Hour Magazine, August 21–25, 1987; and with Larry King on March 3, 1993. The groundskeeper who worked for Elizabeth Taylor from 1980 to 1985 at her chalet in Gstaad asked for anonymity, and, given the circumstances of his employment, I granted it. I would like to thank him and his wife, though, for the hours they spent with me, and for all of the scrapbooks and other mementos they allowed me to borrow while I was researching this book. One of the many wonderful things about writing a book such as this one is that I have the opportunity to meet so many memorable people along 506
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the way, people whose lives intersected with the rich and famous for just a brief time and who are today all the better (rather than the worse) for it. This couple is a good example: They have the greatest affection for Miss Taylor. I have also found during the course of researching and writing more than a dozen books that when a celebrity employer treats her staff with dignity and respect, those employees spend the rest of their lives singing that famous person’s praises. In this cynical day and age of celebrity journalism, that’s nothing if not refreshing. It’s a tribute, I think, to Elizabeth that I encountered so few former employees of hers with axes to grind—and the few disgruntled people seem to not blame Taylor herself for their dissatisfaction but rather whatever difficulty she was going through during that time in her life. I would also like to thank all of the people at the American Foundation for AIDS Research who assisted me on this book in regard to Elizabeth’s work as an AIDS activist. Elizabeth has talked in depth about her work in this respect, and I also culled many quotes from her press interviews, her speeches, and her television appearances. José Eber has been Elizabeth’s very good friend, as well as her hairdresser, for more than twenty years. Truly, he is the keeper of her secrets. I would like him to know how much I appreciate the interview he gave for this book, and his assistance in understanding the woman he knows so very well, especially in relation to her life during the Fortensky years. His assistance was absolutely vital. My researcher Cathy Griffin worked as a consultant on the ABC-TV broadcast of Happy Birthday Elizabeth: A Celebration of Life and provided her many notes and memories from that experience. I also referred to Barbara Walters’s interviews with Elizabeth on ABC in 1987 and September 27, 2003; Elizabeth’s appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Michael Jackson, ABC, February 10, 1993; Nancy Collins’s interview with Elizabeth on the Today show, NBC, June 18, 1986; Whoopi Goldberg’s interview with Elizabeth on Whoopi, September 14, 1992; and Larry King’s inter-Sources and Other Notes 507
views with Elizabeth on his program, March 3, 1993, January 15, 2001; and February 3, 2003.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has on file a very interesting interview with Elizabeth dated August 1, 1981. It can be found in the George Stevens Papers.
I also consulted: “Richard Burton: The Troubled Road Back to Camelot,” by Barbara Gelb, New York Times, July 6, 1980; “In Remembrance of Richard Burton,” by Steve Dougherty, Los An- geles Herald Examiner, August 24, 1984; “All The World His Stage,” by Cecil Smith, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1984; “An Olympian of the Stage,” by Philip Dunne, Los Angeles Herald Ex- aminer, August 12, 1984; “Richard Burton, 58, is Dead,” by Maureen Dowd, New York Times, August 6, 1984; “Private Lives: Burton and Miss Taylor,” by Frank Rich, New York Times, May 9, 1983; “MGM Vet Lucille Ryman Carroll Recalls the Reel Adventures of Liz, Rock, Marilyn and Nancy,” People, November 2, 1987; “My adorable, difficult, fractious, intolerant wife—The Private Notebooks of Richard Burton,” by Melvyn Bragg, Life, December 1988; “Richard Burton Dies of a Cerebral Hemorrhage” by Ted Thackrey Jr., Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1984;
“Burton: A Talent Who Fizzled and Flared,” by Peter Rainer, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, August 6, 1984; “Girl Talk with Elizabeth the Great,” by Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan, September 1987; “Heartbreaker,” by Katie Kelly, Memories, Spring 1988; “Taylor Fights to end Pain, Addiction,” by Ann Trebbe, USA Today, December 9, 1988; “Elizabeth Taylor: Diet Tips on How to Become a Size 6,” by Dena Kleiman, New York Times, May 23, 1986; “Stage: The Misses Taylor and Stapelton in
‘Foxes,’ ” by Frank Rich, New York Times, May 8, 1981; “A Public ‘Private Lives’ for Taylor-Burton Fans,” by Dudley Clendinen, New York Times, April 18, 1983; “Liz ’N’ Dick Show Reprised,”
by Barbara Isenberg, Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1983; “A Broadway Party for Elizabeth Taylor,” by John Duka, New York Times, May 8, 1981; “Liz Taylor Lightens Up,” by Bob Sipchen, Los An- geles Times, January 25, 1988; “A Star is Reborn,” by Elizabeth 508
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Taylor, People, January 1988; “John Warner Describes the Cozy Caucus of Two . . . ,” People, October 20, 1980; “At Last—Elizabeth Taylor’s Broadway Debut,” London Sunday Times magazine, May 17, 1981; “Elizabeth Taylor’s Greatest Battle,” by David Wallace, Ladies’ Home Journal, September 1990; “The Elizabethan Age: 60 Years of Liz,” by Ty Burr, Entertainment Weekly, March 13, 1992; “Queen of the Nile,” by Simon Banner, You magazine, the Mail on Sunday (London), January 23, 1994; “Liz’s AIDS Odyssey,” by Nancy Collins, Vanity Fair, November 1992;
“Liz: Larry’s the Last,” by Liz Smith, New York Post, September 1, 1995; “Liz Kin Trashes Book,” by Stephen Schaefer, New York Post, April 17, 1995; “Farewell Fortensky,” by Tom Gliatto, Peo- ple, September 11, 1995; “Taylor Made Millions,” by Kevin O’Sullivan, New York Daily News, June 16, 1996; “Liz and Larry Split,” by Liz Smith, New York Post, August 31, 1995; “Life After Larry,” by Charles Leerhsen, People, March 4, 1996; “Elizabeth Taylor—The Advocate Interview” (no byline), Advocate, October 15, 1996; “Liz on Liz,” by Liz Sm
ith, TV Guide, June 4–10, 1994; “Liz: Ms. Taylor Will See You Now,” by Paul Theroux, Talk, October 1999; “Elizabeth Taylor’s First Fiancé Reminisces—Interview with William Pawley Jr.,” by J. Randy Taraborrelli, Clue, April 1997; “Pearls of Wisdom from Liz,” by Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1996; “Elizabeth Taylor,” by Brad Darrach, Life, March 1997; “Elizabeth—
Triumphant,” by Landon Y. Jones, People, December 10, 1990;
“Here Comes the Groom,” by Marjorie Rosen, People, October 7, 1991; “Way Off Broadway [Sybil Christopher],” by Bruce Weber, New York Times, August 2, 1994; “Elizabeth Taylor, the Movies,” by Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1993; “Why Liz Had to Ditch Larry,” by Cathy Griffin, Here, May 1995; “The Miz Liz Library,” by Liz Smith, New York News- day, September 12, 1995; “Liz in Hospital,” by Wendell Jamieson and Helen Kennedy, New York Daily News, September 16, 1995;
“Liz and Larry Separate,” by Arlene Vigoda, USA Today, September 1, 1995; “Love-Rift Larry Goes for Liz’s Loot,” by Allan Sources and Other Notes
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Hall, Daily Mirror (London), September 1, 1995; “Divorce Elizabeth Style, Part 1,” by Laura C. Smith, Entertainment Weekly, January 26, 1996; “If the knife slips tomorrow, I’ll die knowing I’ve had an extraordinary life,” by Elizabeth Taylor as told to Brad Darrach, Life, April 1997; “A First Class Affair,” by Sam Kashner, Vanity Fair, July 2003; “Reunited at Last?” by Glenys Roberts, Daily Mail (London), October 15, 2005; “Good Times and Bum Ties, but She’s Here,” by Alex Kuczinski, New York Times, September 29, 2002; “Leave Sally Alone,” by Marc Baker, Wales on Sunday, May 29, 2005; “Burton’s Widow Reveals She’s Unlikely to Marry,” by Paul Turner, South Wales Evening Post, July 28, 2004; “My Sentimental Return to the Swiss Valley . . .”
by Sally Burton, Mail on Sunday (London), July 28, 2002; “Living With a Legend Who Died 18 Years Ago,” by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail (Wales), January 26, 2002; “In The Court of Queen,” by Chrissy Iley, Australia Women’s Weekly, November 2003; “John Springer, 85, Hollywood Publicist, Dies,” by Mel Gussow, New York Times, November 1, 2001; “Dame Liz Misses Her ‘Sir,’ ” by Bill Hoffman, New York Post, May 17, 2000; “Hollywood Dames,” by Paul Harris, Daily Mail (London), May 17, 2000; “Elizabeth Taylor,” by Jon Clark, Mail on Sunday (London), May 28, 2000; “Dame Elizabeth,” by David Wigg, Daily Mail (London), April 29, 2000; “Elizabeth—The Legend and the Lens,” by Gabrielle Donnelly, You magazine, Mail on Sunday (London), May 14, 2000; “A Tale of Two Elizabeths,” by Bryan Forbes, Daily Mail (London), May 16, 2000; The Birth of the Scandal,” by Ryan Devlin, Premiere, May 2005; “Feud That’s Tearing Liz’s Family Apart,” by Peter Sheridan, Express (London), May 29, 2004. I also referred to “La Liz” by Christopher Bagley, W, December 2004, a very interesting interview with her that was also ominous in tone. It’s the interview in which Elizabeth graphically described her poor health (“I’ve become one of those poor little old women who’s bent sideways, a little old lady, bent all sideways”). Many of her fans were upset by her remarks and afraid for her. It was her 510
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friend Liz Smith who eventually put it all in perspective in her November 22, 2004, column: “This is ET’s way. She’s not ready to die right now, just not fearful of what comes to all—she has been near enough several times to not fear it. Just as she scribbled a dramatic note to the world when she and Richard Burton broke up, just as she risked her career to champion the AIDS fight, and just as she celebrated ‘the child in me’ at her Disneyland 60th birthday party, Elizabeth is the mistress of her own PR, still bold, honest and unafraid, living life on her own terms.”
Once word got out that I was writing this book, many people contacted me and my researchers to tell me of their experiences with Elizabeth. It was impossible to work all of their stories into this book because of space considerations. I feel badly that they so graciously gave of their time, only to then not appear in the text. Therefore, I would like to acknowledge just a few of them here, and—who knows—maybe the paperback edition? Thank you for sharing with us your memories of Elizabeth: Lieutenant Douglas Coughlan (ret.), NYPD (whose father was a New York City police officer and driver for the Burtons’ attorney, Aaron Frosch); Robert Forster (who costarred with Elizabeth in Reflections of a Golden Eye); Marvin Gillespie (who lived next door to Robert Burton in New York); Betty Warner (who was a close friend of Sybil Burton’s); Jacqueline Burr (widow of Richard Burr, who was Burton’s understudy in Hamlet); Martha Tyler (a friend of the Burtons’ in Gstaad); and Christina Oxenberg (daughter of Her Royal Highness Elisabeth Princess of Yugoslavia, whose mother dated Burton).
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RECOMMENDED READING
First of all, I don’t think anyone could write about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton without first studying Melvyn Braag’s exceptional book Richard Burton: A Life. It really is de-Sources and Other Notes 511
finitive. I should also add that Brenda Maddox’s and Donald Spoto’s biographies of Elizabeth ( Who’s Afraid of Elizabeth Tay- lor? and A Passion for Life, respectively) are, in my opinion, the best two books about her. I would first turn to those for a good and sensible read about Elizabeth—after this one, of course! At any rate, here are other books about this and related subjects that I used in my research that I would recommend to the interested reader: Elizabeth Taylor: The Most Beautiful Woman in the World, by Ellis Amburn (HarperCollins); Hollywood Is a Four Letter Town, by James Bacon (Avon); Made in Hollywood, by James Bacon (Warner Books); Celebrity Register, ed. Earl Blackwell (Simon and Schuster); Miss Rona, by Rona Barrett (Bantam); Walter Wanger: Hollywood Independent, by Matthew Bernstein (University of California Press); Child Star, by Shirley Temple Black (Warner Books); Center Door Fancy, by Joan Blondell (Delacorte); Howard Hughes, by Peter Harry Brown and Patte Barham (Dutton); Clift, by Patricia Bosworth (Bantam); The Cleopatra Papers, by Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss (Simon and Schuster); A Christmas Story, by Richard Burton (Morrow); Meeting Mrs. Jenk- ins, by Richard Burton (Morrow); Richard and Philip: The Burtons, by Philip Burton (Peter Owen); Richard Burton: Very Close Up, by Fergus Cashin (W. H Allen); Elizabeth Taylor: The Illustrated Bi- ography, by James Christopher (André Deutsch); The Nine Lives of Mike Todd, by Art Cohn (Random House); Mike Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days, ed. Art Cohn (Random House); Holy Ter- ror: Andy Warhol Close Up, by Bob Colacello (HarperCollins); Past Imperfect, by Joan Collins (Coronet); Dalton Trumbo, by Bruce Cook (Scribner’s); Richard and Elizabeth, by Lester David and Jhan Robbins (Funk and Wagnalls); The Real and the Unreal, by Bill Davidson (Harper and Brothers); It’s a Hell of a Life, but Not a Bad Living, by Edward Dmytryk (Times Books); The MGM Story: The Complete History of Fifty Roaring Years (Crown); Richard Burton, by Paul Ferris (Berkeley); My Life, My Loves, by Eddie Fisher (W. H. Allen); Been There, Done That, by Eddie 512
Sources and Other Notes
Fisher with David Fisher (St. Martin’s); Pictures Will Talk, by Kenneth Geist (Charles Scribner’s Sons); The Film Director as Su- perstar, by Joe Gelmis (Doubleday); The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood, by Ezra Goodman (Simon and Schuster); The Rest of the Story, by Sheila Graham (Bantam); The Eddie Fisher Story, by Myrna Greene (Paul S. Erikson); Merv, by Merv Griffin with Peter Barsocchini (Simon and Schuster); Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking: A Biography of Darryl F. Zanuck, by Mel Gussow (Doubleday); The Dress Doctor, by Edith Head (Little, Brown); The Whole Truth and Nothing But, by Hedda Hopper with James Brough (Doubleday); Rock Hudson, by Rock Hudson and Sara Davidson (Weidenfeld); Liz, by C. David Heymann (Carol); Olivia de Havilland, by Judith M. Kass (Pyramid); Richard Burton, My Brother, by Graham Jenkins (Michael Joseph); Burton: The Man Behind the Myth, by Penny Junior (Sidgwick and Jackson); Reeling, by Pauline Kael (Little, Brown); Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star, by Kitty Kelley (Simon and Schuster); Mervyn Le Roy: Take One, by Mervyn Le Roy and Dick Kleinser (Hawthorne); Montgomery Clift, by Robert LaGuardia (W. H. Allen); Who’s Afraid of Elizabeth T
aylor? by Brenda Maddox (Evans); John Hus- ton, by Axel Madsen (Doubleday); Elizabeth Taylor, by Sheridan Morely (Pavilion); Lana: The Public and Private Lives of Miss Turner, by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein (Citadel); Elizabeth Taylor, by Christopher Nickens (Dolphin); The Hollywood Beau- ties, by James Robert Parish with Gregory W. Mank and Don E. Stanke (Arlington House); Letters from an Actor, by William Redfield (Cassell); Debbie: My Life, by Debbie Reynolds and David Patrick Columbia (Morrow); Bittersweet, by Susan Strasberg (Putnam); Heyday: An Autobiography, by Dore Schary (Little, Brown); The Genius of the System, by Thomas Schatz (Pantheon); Elizabeth by Dick Sheppard (Doubleday); A Passion for Life: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor, by Donald Spoto (HarperCollins); John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet, by Richard Sterne (Heinemann); Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, by J. Randy Taraborrelli (Sidgwick and Jackson); Sina- Sources and Other Notes
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tra: A Complete Life, by J. Randy Taraborrelli (Carol / HarperCollins); Nibbles and Me, by Elizabeth Taylor (Duell, Sloan and Pearce); Elizabeth Taylor, by Elizabeth Taylor (Harper and Row); Elizabeth Takes Off, by Elizabeth Taylor (Putnam); Elizabeth Tay- lor: My Love Affair with Jewelry (Simon and Schuster); The Films of Elizabeth Taylor, by Jerry Vermilye and Mark Ricci (Citadel); Elizabeth, by Andrew Walker (Grove); Hollywood, England: The British Film Industry in the Sixties, by Alexander Walker (Michael Joseph); The Andy Warhol Diaries, ed. Pat Hackett (Warner Books); Confessions of an Ex-Fan Magazine Writer, by Jane Wilskie (Doubleday); Elizabeth Taylor: Her Life, Her Loves, Her Future, by Ruth Waterbury with Gene Arceri (Bantam); The Wilding Way: The Story of My Life, by Michael Wilding (St. Martin’s); Liz: An Intimate Collection, by Bob Willoughby (Merrell); Shelly: Also Known as Shirley, by Shelley Winters (William Morrow); Shelley II: The Middle of My Century, by Shelley Winters (Simon and Schuster); Accidentally on Purpose: An Autobiography, by Michael York (Dove Entertainment); Portraits of Love (no author) (Filipacchi).