The Richard Burton Diaries

by Richard Burton

  ‘I have no way of knowing,’ he said.

  ‘Because,’ I said, ‘you're depressed all the time.’

  ‘Right,’ he said.

  [...]

  Friday 2nd, Portofino Yesterday afternoon taking a little sun on the after deck (finally driven away by long-focus lens paparazzi who were shooting from the road above) I thought – about 2 o'clock – that I saw Rex Rachel and two other people go by in their boat. E wonders if they think we are snubbing them because of Rachel's behaviour on Tuesday. Perhaps. Must call them today sometime.

  [...] The two dogs have been making love now since last Sunday at least 3 times a day. Who would have thought that dogs in heat went on so long. They remain locked after each coition for about 10–12–15 minutes. They are very serious about it and O Fie's penis is beginning to look the worse for wear.

  Saturday 3rd Went on shore yesterday, as promised, to ring R and R. H[arrison]'s keeper told me they were in the harbour so I went to ‘La Gritta’ and there they were sure enough. They were already somewhat the worse for wear – it was about 2.00 pm. I went with them to a little rest[aurant] and drank some red wine while they ate. [...] We talked a lot about death and miraculous recoveries – stemming from Chichester and his cancer and his recovery and his round-the-world voyage.41 It was pleasant enough.

  It was the anniversary of the liberation of Italy by the Allies I gather, and Portofino was crawling with holiday makers.42

  I took R and R in my new boat and we went for 1/2 hour spin down the coast. There was so much traffic that we were, until we got clear, soaked with water. I brought the boat back in as one, said Rex, to the manner born.

  This coast is unquestionably more interesting than the Côte d'Azur, much more wild and forted. Rex was very anxious to prevent Rach drinking and we managed to keep her off it for an hour but once on board she was on to the Scotch like a homing pigeon. [...]

  Sunday 4th [...] I went on shore to search for Rex Rach and their friend – an Anglo-Portuguese called Arthur Barbosa (E insists on calling him Edward) who is to help E with redecorating the yacht.43 It is difficult to believe that Barbosa is completely Portuguese by blood – his father was the Portuguese consul in Liverpool which is where I understand Rex met him some centuries ago – because he looks talks walks like a caricature of a middle-class, middle-aged public schoolboy. Which he is. He went to St Edward's school near Oxford at the same time as L. Olivier and Douglas (Legless Pilot) Bader.44 R and R told me that he told them that he'd had a passion all his life to dress up in his wives’ nightdresses (He's 4 times married) and be tied to the bed posts. He has however, he languidly assured them, finally cured himself of this mild sexual aberration.

  Rach became pretty drunk again on Punt e Mes and Gin and started to strip off at one point.45 The people on the roadway above started to cheer thinking it was E no doubt. I stopped her.

  I can't see – we can't see how Rex can put up with her behaviour if she is continually like this. It has reached a point though, as they both told me, where Rex, after her behaviour last Tuesday (?) wrote her a letter. She's basically a good girl but she should not drink. I was surprised to find she's 40 years old. I thought she was about 37. Rex is fantastically tolerant of her drunken idiocies. She wouldn't last 48 hours with me and he's had it for 7 years.

  Monday 5th Kate arrives on the 12th and I am very excited. I haven't seen her for ten months. We shall keep her with us alone for the first five days or so and then take her to Switz to join the girls. I'm missing those little buggers too. It's 9.00 am and I'm sitting on deck waiting for my morning cup of tea while E has her second sleep – what she calls her nightmare sleep. It's a beautiful morning cool and blue. The harbour water barely ruffled by the off-shore breeze. Birds all over the place. Two or three people in dinghys. Buses pass with their klaxons going, on the road above the port. In the harbour, very crowded with craft of all kinds, there is a very august looking sailing yacht with a lot of washing on the line.

  Yesterday we stayed on board all day. I read a couple of books one of them called The Missile Crisis.46 It recounts in journalistic documentary form the 1962 confrontation of Kennedy and Khrushchev over the arming of Cuba.47 The USA handled it very cleverly and bravely it seems to me but Khrushchev comes out of it too with some dignity despite the usual political lying etc. What a monstrous childish arena the political arena is.

  [...] We heard, two days ago, that we have again been awarded the Donatello David for T of S.48 Both of us. That makes two each. [...]

  Reading back through this notebook I see that I wasn't writing when we heard that E had won the Oscar and I hadn't! Bloody cheek. But P. Scofield won so that's alright. I sent him a cable and he me. [...]

  Tuesday 6th [...] I stayed in La Gritta with Raj and drank Negronis for a couple of hours while I called R and R. Raj (the owner of the bar) talked a great deal. He said that Rex had altered fantastically – for the better – since he'd become a big film star after Cleopatra. He said that he'd told Rex that Rachel must work if she were not to become an alcoholic. He told me how he (Raj) was an alcoholic and how, voluntarily, he put himself into a clinic in Genoa to cure it. He has been waggonised since January 17. He told me how like the Italians the Welsh were and how his wife had said how Italian I looked!

  Later on R and R and Edward Arthur arrived and I talked desultorily with them and finally went back to the boat. E was angry.

  Later on, about dusk, R and R and EA approached hailed and were invited on board. They stayed a couple of hours. This time Rach was sober and Rex was drunk (nicely). [...]

  Raj said war had broken out between Israel and Egypt and other Arab idiots. Shall wait for confirmation. Italians tend to hysteria and it may only be a border incident.

  [There would appear to be a missing page or pages at this point. The next entry is ...]

  Monday 12th [...] Kate arrives tomorrow and the Israeli war is over. The Israelis completely destroyed the forces against them in 3 days with what seems a mopping-up action of two days.

  Now for the peace. It's going to be a bugger to settle. That clever idiot Nasser resigned and then ‘at the behest of his people’ returned to office 16 hours later.49

  [...]

  Tuesday 13th, Monte Carlo Kate arrived from NY with Aaron [...]. K was, as usual, enchanting and very pretty and excited and she immediately re-established warm ‘lovins’ with E.

  Wednesday 14th [...] Kate jumping all over the place and slept with us the night. I finally went to sleep downstairs in K's room. Aaron and Bob came on board and took up Residence.50 We leave for Portofino tomorrow weather permitting.

  Wednesday 21st, Portofino We have been in Portofino a week roughly and leave tomorrow for Monte Carlo. E and K have been shopping like lunatics. E has bought umpty-nine watches, sweaters, ‘puccis.’ K has bought hats and watches (two I think) and has been giggling steadily from dawn till dusk. Giggling with her has been Elizabeth. What a pair? They each think the other is the funniest comedian in the world. [...]

  Kate was sculpted by one Rocchi and so was I.51 Kate's sculpture is splendid – mine is too leonine I think but we shall see when he's finished it.

  Thursday 22nd, Monte Carlo We sailed from Portofino at approx 11.20 [...] within a short time it was realized (by E and me at least) that it was going to be a sluggish roll and pitch and glug and that our passengers might have some queasiness. Aaron did. Kate did. Bob also did but refused to admit it. Kate threw up twice but was a very good girl and didn't moan and conyn and carry-on as most people do. I was very proud of her. We kept her in our bed and first E then I joined her there and we all fell fast asleep. On both occasions that K vomited she did it onto a towel so there was no mess on the bed.

  Eventually to everyone's relief we were in calm waters at Monte Carlo. R. Hanley and Gaston were there to greet us. Later [...] we had dinner at Rampoldi's.52 By this time K was completely recovered and she and I ate sole meunière with chips, with grapefruit to start with. I still feel odd after so
many days in Portofino. It must be lack of exercise. The weather was sticky and warm and no breath of wind. I read and tried to sleep, failed, read again and finally slept about 3.30 am. How I hate that kind of night.

  Friday 23rd We all awoke about 9.30 and had tea on deck – K had orange juice.

  Finally when all forces had been gathered we repaired to La Ferme where we had an elaborate meal which was [...] absurdly delicious.53 [...] we took Kate to swim in the Olympic Pool. I sat with Eliz while K swam. Eventually a friend of E's, and a friend of his, joined us for a drink. E has always called him ‘Little Abner’ so it was rather difficult of myself and Kate to know what he was actually a West Indian called Smatt.54[...]

  Saturday 24th A brilliantly hot day with Kate anxious to swim so we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone and go to La Réserve where K could swim while we ate and drank.55 This we did going by the Riva speedboat. It was very pleasant K swimming in the sea and the pool. Orson Welles gargantuanly fat joined us for a minute or two.56 He said that every film he'd directed in his life had cost him money, that he'd never received any money from any of his films and that Chimes at Midnight had cost him $75,000 personally out of his own pocket.57 He left the table suddenly and dramatically with a sotto voce ‘darling’ to E and a conspiratorial squeeze of my shoulder. I wondered to E how he could possibly make love.

  [...] We ran into Sam Spiegel and Harry Kurnitz and took them up on the hill for a drink and a cool-off.58

  Sunday 25th I am sitting on the after-deck at the moment while K writes her diary beside me. She writes well for a 9 year old and needs no help.

  [...] we went on board the Southern Breeze – a big 190 foot MY – to have lunch with a friend of E's mother and her husband. Mr and Mrs Gus Newman.59 The yacht is very posh and they are obviously stinking rich. Useful people to know and nice with it. Puts our little Oddyseia somewhat in the shabby class.

  Persuaded E to try and get Howard here instead of going there and to travel to Suisse by car if we can find a big limousine.60 Here's hoping.

  Went to the Port bar and played pin ball machine with Kate, home to supper, Sunday papers and this diary.

  Monday 26th – Tuesday 27th – Wednesday 28th, Monte Carlo – San Remy – Talloires [...] K suddenly complained of a pain in her back which the doctor-masseur took care of. We suspect the pain will suddenly disappear when swimming is available.

  As indeed proved on Tuesday evening at Baumanière.61 She was into the pool like a trout and jumping and diving without a care. We had a slightly checkered journey. Before we'd left Monte Carlo the power windows blew a fuse and we had to wait in the Negresco over a beer while the car went into the garage.62 We stopped near a town called Le Luc for lunch at a restaurant called Aux Grillades.63 [...] K slept with E and I slept on a camp bed. Like a log though E says sleeping with K was like trying to embrace an earthquake.

  Yesterday Wednesday we left about 10.30 when we were held up for the second day running. E had forgotten her wig box!! We stopped at the Nougat town of Montelimar for lunch at Relais de l'empereur.64 Very pleasant place with lovely food [...]. With it we had the local wine, which is of course Châteauneuf-du-Pape. And playing word games in the car we got to Talloires to stay at L'Abbaye.65 We dined at Auberge du Pere Bise and I could not eat.66 One of the truly great restaurants.

  [There are no further entries in the diary until late July. During this time Richard and Elizabeth were at the Chalet Ariel, Gstaad.]

  JULY

  Thursday, 20th, Gstaad Arrived here on the 29th June [...] en route we stopped at Domino's (Rolle) for lunch where Maria and Liza were waiting for us. Hugs and kisses all round and so on to Gstaad. K and Liza travelled ahead with Gaston. We followed with Simon and Maria (Simon is the Gstaad taxi-man.) Stopped at Bulle for a drink of vin blanc.67 Maria played ‘Liza's favourite song’ on the Juke-box – ‘Puppet on a String.‘68 [...]

  We have done most of the things we promised each other we'd do. We've eaten raclette, fondue bourgignonne, Steak Diane, Chateaubriands at the madly expensive Palace. We have had the local wines including a rather good one from Sion called Chante Merle Badoud. Sweet and light – not quite a Rosé.

  After much cogitation we decided not to go to the USA or Hawaii at all but to have Ive and Gwen take K to NY and to have Howard and Mara come over to Europe.69 That gives us extra time to relax and also gives K a few more days in Suisse. She and Liza have words now and again but obviously enjoy each other's company.

  Kate, surprisingly, though highly intelligent and very charming is I'm afraid a bit of a tale-bearer or tattle-tail as she would say and oddly ungenerous – not in thought but in deed. She finds it intensely difficult to lend something even when she herself doesn't want it. Where the devil does that come from? Syb was never like that and my family loaded with vices as we are don't number lack of generosity among them. Maybe it will pass.

  On the 5th July we picked the boys up at the school. A horrible day – Michael has definitely been sacked and Chris is everybody's darling winning two prizes, one for Art. I loathed the headmaster. A very big man, Swiss, with an emaciated wife and, as compensation, a lovely chubby baby daughter.70 Ava Gardner was there with Ricardo (Madrid) who tends to be a bit of a know-all.71 He had a son there of 19 who still had not (or just had maybe) graduated. How the hell could Mike be fired and this obvious oaf been allowed to stay on all these years? Mike is lethargic sluggish and graceless but he's very loving and intelligent enough to hold his own in a school as scholastically indifferent as le Rosey. We shall try and get him into Millfield. Fred (Heyman's wife) has talked to Meyer, the head, and we might get him in there.72 [...] He's probably a slow starter like his Uncle Howard.

  Ivor and Gwen arrived on the 13th and we met them at the Airport. K and Liza came with us and we drove to Morges to have lunch with the Yul Brynners.73 I became a trifle stoned largely as a result of drinking ‘Williams’ a pear liqueur which is potent. Mrs Brynner is pretty silly sometimes. Her cynicism sometimes verges on the envious.

  Ivor and Gwen were delighted with Gstaad and the weather was superb the whole time. We took them to the Olden and the Palace and one night July 14 (Bastille Day) we went, at Gaston's invitation, to the Belle Vue hotel where the barmaid did lots of conjuring tricks.74 The kids were bewitched and can now do a few of them themselves.

  Ivor and Gwen left on the 18th with K for NY. We spent the night before in the Beau Rivage hotel and had dinner with Paul and Janine Fillistorf and their son Roger and his wife.75 [...]

  I had woken up in Geneva with a painful left wrist and today as I write it is virtually immovable. I am to see the doctor in an hour's time and for me to see a doctor! The arm from the elbow down seems to be on fire. I hope it's just a sprain and not arthritis again. [...] I can't and nobody else can remember my hitting something or falling etc. [...]

  Maria is being a hell of a nuisance since Gus (the Irish nurse) left. The other kids are too old to play with her [...]. Poor little thing. She cries a lot at night and continually wakes up Nella and Claudye in snivelling hysterics.76 She is a mass of fears. We must get her special treatment.

  I went to the doctor in the village – a fellow about my age I think with receding hair and a very clinical look, much washed. I guessed it was arthritis and it was and is. [...] Scherz of the Palace Hotel called and asked if we would consent to be televised for Swiss TV.77 I said we had guests. [...]

  Victoria Brynner is visiting today – 4 years old approximately and adorable.78 She is playing with Maria.

  Michael is ‘dating’ a girl called Robin Marlowe. He appears to be much struck by her. She seemed dull and mannerless at first but has improved on acquaintance. Her father Stephen Marlowe writes books and I'm trying to read one of them called The Shining.79 It is set in Classical Greece and is torture to read. I'd rather a second hand book of sermons or thoughts for the day. E is lucky – his book, sent to her, is a thriller-suspense story. [...]

  Vivien Leigh died of TB about a fortnight ago
.80 Jayne Mansfield (big blonde semi-star) was beheaded in a car crash.81

  Gianni, Claudye's boyfriend, was here when we arrived and is due again tomorrow. I – we – promised him the Mini-Cooper when he marries Claudye and if he stops motor racing. He is a nice Italian boy who has bright red hair – quite startling anywhere but certainly in Italy. They are obviously dotty about each other.82

  The tennis championship of Suisse is on here at Gstaad and all the big names are here. Emerson, Santana, Osuna etc.83 I shall watch Saturday and Sunday perhaps.

  It seems that the yacht has passed inspection and is now ours and is officially the KALIZMA. Kate Liza Maria (Elizabeth included in Liza). It's going to be fun when it's all fitted out. [...]

  Friday 21st Yesterday was a medicine and diet day. I had 1/2 grapefruit (no sugar) two boiled eggs (substitute salt) a piece of bread (no butter) three times, and nothing else at all except water. Result this morning: Lost 3lbs – I am now 1801/2lbs. It is a sobering thought that the woman who suggested this diet to me – Paula Strasberg, Lee's wife, – is dead.84

  The effect of these pills on the arthritic arm is fantastic – for about an hour you think somebody is carefully and sadistically slitting open all the veins and that your arm is about to fall off. To counteract this I took 1/2 tablets of E's empirin and codeine. It helped a little.

  Last night, loaded with drugs I fell asleep about 1.00 and didn't wake until 10.30 this morning. E had left to sleep in the other room because my snoring was so heavy. Everything so far re the arm is much better.

  Sunday 23rd Yesterday we saw in great trepidation our film of Dr Faustus. It is not 1/2 bad I think and has some moments of genuine quality. There are one or two unalterable vulgarities but generally speaking it is a pretty good achievement to make what appears to be a very expensive film for just over $1 million. Got mildly drunk afterwards in the Olden still sticking vaguely to our diet – hamburger and tomato salad for lunch and a T-bone steak for dinner. My weight (and E's) had dropped 2lbs making me 1781/2 and E 1341/2.