The Richard Burton Diaries

by Richard Burton

  176 Robert Graves (1895–1985), author, poet. His memoir of wartime service on the Western Front, Good-bye to All That, first appeared in 1929.

  177 Sir Stephen Spender (1909–95), poet, critic. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94), playwright, novelist, short story writer, essayist. Voltaire, pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), novelist, poet, critic, philosopher. Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974), producer. ‘Pieces of eight!’ is from Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883).

  178 Comedians. Alec Guinness (1914–2000) was to co-star in The Comedians, based on the novel (published in 1965) by Graham Greene (1904–91).

  179 Bechuanaland, now part of Botswana and South Africa.

  180 Sandy MacPherson (1897–1975), theatre organist who broadcast regularly on the BBC during the Second World War.

  181 A reference to the Munich Agreement of September 1938 reached between Britain and France on the one hand, and Hitler's Germany on the other, regarding the fate of the Sudetenland.

  182 Burton presumably means not ‘hunger strikes’ but the hunger marches of the 1930s, some of which emanated from South Wales, but the most famous of which began in Jarrow in the north-east of England.

  183 D'Chez Eux, Avenue Lowendal, Paris.

  184 A reference to the music hall song ‘It's a long way to Tipperary’, written in 1912 and made popular during the First World War.

  185 Nat White was Louise's husband.

  186 Samuel Johnson (1709–84), essayist, journalist, author, made this remark of Sir John Hawkins (1719–89).

  187 The Players’ social club, Gramercy Park, New York, founded in 1888 by the Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth, whom Burton had portrayed in Prince of Players. The Band of Hope was a temperance organization for children, founded in 1847. The Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Welsh League of Youth) was founded in 1922. The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), also aimed at young people, was founded in 1844.

  188 Alberto Sordi (1920–2003), actor. Marcello Mastroianni (1924–96), actor, who was to co-star with Richard in Massacre in Rome (1974). Vittorio Gassman (1922–2000), actor and director. Virna Lisi (1937—), actor, who was to co-star with Richard in Bluebeard (1972). Monica Vitti (1931—), actor. Rossana Podesta (1934—), actor.

  189 Hassler Hotel, Piazza della Trinità dei Monti, Rome.

  190 Ion Swinley (1891–1937), Shakespearean stage actor. Henry Hinchliffe Ainley (1879–1945), Shakespearean stage and film actor.

  191 Frank Robinson (1935—), and Brooks Robinson (1937—), playing for the Baltimore Orioles. Donald Scott Drysdale (1936–93), pitcher for the LA Dodgers. Baltimore won this, the first game, on 5 October 1966.

  192 Baltimore won the second game, 6–0, on 6 October 1966. Willie Davis (1940–2010) of the LA Dodgers made three errors.

  193 Sanford ‘Sandy’ Koufax (1935—) of the LA Dodgers.

  194 Ann Sheran Cazalet (1934—), childhood friend of Elizabeth Taylor. P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), short story writer, novelist. Possibly the book was Plum Pie, an anthology published in September 1966.

  195 Nicholas Loukes (1944–76), who played Pride and Cardinal of Lorraine in Faustus.

  196 Richard Charles Uryan Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor (1935–2008), who had inherited the Llandeilo Estate in 1962. He was at this point attempting to establish an Arts Centre at Newton House, in Dinefwr Park.

  197 This refers to the (historically unsubstantiated) claim that the Welsh Prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd discovered America c.1170.

  198 Harvey Orkin, theatrical agent and a good friend of Burton.

  199 A reference to the researches of Richard Deacon, Madoc (1966).

  200 Ken Muggleston (1930—) was in charge of properties on both Taming of the Shrew and Faustus.

  201 Baltimore beat the LA Dodgers 1–0 in the third game on 8 October 1966.

  202 Josephine Tey, pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh, 1896–1952), A Shilling for Candles (1936).

  203 Stanley Ellin (1916–86) had published six novels by this time.

  204 Baltimore won the World Series with a 1–0 victory in the fourth game on 9 October 1966.

  205 Bobby Frosch, Aaron's wife.

  206 A reference to William Dunbar (1456–1513),’Lament for the Makaris, the last line of each verse of which being ‘Timor Mortis conturbat me’.

  207 Which Burton eventually would in 1974.

  208 Taylor, who had previously enjoyed dual citizenship, renounced American citizenship in order to become solely a British subject.

  209 Burton had played Prospero in a 1960 production for NBC television, having played Caliban in the Old Vic production in 1953–4.

  210 Positano, a port and resort south of Naples, on the south side of the Sorrentine peninsula.

  211 Possibly the make-up man on both Faustus and The Taming of the Shrew, Giannetto De Rossi (1942—).

  212 During the making of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

  213 Cornelius Ryan (1920–74), The Last Battle (1964).

  214 A Negroni is made of gin, vermouth and bitters.

  215 Either Burton missed the ‘m’ on the typewriter and hit the adjacent ‘n’, or he really meant to use the French for ‘comfortable’.

  216 A reference to the 1867 poem ‘Dover Beach’ by the poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The line is ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’.

  217 Iris Murdoch (1919–99). The ‘latest volume’ may have been The Red and the Green (1965). She had married John Bayley (1925—) in 1956.

  218 Gwyn Thomas (1913–81), Welsh playwright, novelist, satirist and broadcaster. Dylan Thomas (1914–53), poet and friend of Richard Burton. T. S. Eliot (1888–1965), poet and playwright. Louis MacNeice (1907–63), poet.

  219 Roderick Thorp (1936–99), The Detective (1966) made into a 1968 film starring Frank Sinatra (1915–98).

  220 Tony Britton (1924—), actor, who would appear with Taylor in Night Watch (1973). Robert Shaw (1927–78), actor. Peter Finch (1916–77), actor, who had initially been cast as Julius Caesar in Cleopatra.

  221 Sorrento, a resort town on the north side of the Sorrentine peninsula.

  222 Hotel La Minervetta, Sorrento.

  223 Presumably the Michelin Red Guide to hotels and restaurants.

  224 Presumably Burton means ‘muliebrity’, the condition of being a woman.

  225 This is a reference to Hamlet, Act III, scene ii: ‘trippingly on the tongue’. Hotel Covo dei Saraceni, Positano.

  226 Dorothy Jeakins, costume designer (1914–95). She had worked with Richard on My Cousin Rachel (1952) and on The Night of the Iguana (for each of which she had received an Academy Award).

  227 The serial killer of at least five women in the East End of London in 1888.

  228 Tiziani means Evan Richards (1924—), the founder of the fashion house Tiziani of Rome.

  229 Wine from the island of Ischia, in the Bay of Naples.

  230 Dopo la tempesta, Italian for ‘after the storm’.

  231 Eva Britton, Tony's second wife, is indeed Danish. Jasper Britton (1962—), actor.

  232 Aberfan, a mining community in the Taff valley, South Wales, where on 21 October a coal tip slid down the hillside engulfing a number of buildings, including a primary school. 116 children and 28 adults were killed.

  233 Ferdy Mayne (1916–98), actor, would appear with Burton in Where Eagles Dare. The ‘Something Griffiths’ was probably Kenneth Griffith (1921–2006), a Welsh actor who was appearing with Mayne in The Bobo (1967). Griffith had acted with Burton in Waterfront, the 1961 audio production of King Henry V, and would appear with him again in The Wild Geese.

  234 Julie Harris (1925—) played the part of Alison Langdon in Reflections in a Golden Eye.

  235 Brian Keith (1921–97) played the part of Morris Langdon in Reflections.

  236 Robert Forster (1941—).

  237 John Bryant (1911–69), producer and production designer.

  238 Hal B. Wallis (1898–1986) had produced Becket and would produce Anne of the Thousand Days.

>   239 Edmund Wilson (1895–1972), Europe without Baedeker (1947).

  240 George Santayana (1863–1952), philosopher, writer.

  241 Memoirs of Hecate County, Edmund Wilson (1946); banned in USA until 1959 on the grounds of obscenity.

  242 The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency.

  243 Ernest Hemingway (1898–1961), novelist.

  244 73, Caradoc Street, Taibach, where Richard had lived as a boy.

  245 Joanna: cockney rhyming slang for piano.

  246 In Florence the River Arno flooded. Thirty-three people were killed, approximately 5,000 rendered homeless and a large number of valuable books, manuscripts, maps and other artefacts were destroyed or damaged. In Venice it became known as the ‘Great Flood’, where there was no loss of life, although significant damage to property.

  247 Hotel Gritti Palace, Venice.

  248 Hotel Flavia, Via Flavia, Rome. Rome's zoological gardens, located in the Villa Borghese.

  249 Stanley Baker (1928–76), Welsh actor and a long-time friend of Richard Burton. Richard and Elizabeth were godparents to Stanley and Ellen Baker's daughter Sally.

  250 Burton made this opinion public, which did not go down well with Stanley Baker, but he and Taylor did participate in the television show (‘The Heart of Show Business’), which was broadcast on 26 March 1967.

  251 Robert Browning (1812–89), poet, and his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61), poet. Only Elizabeth was buried in the English Cemetery in Florence.

  252 Anita Loos (1891–1981), actor and author. Her autobiography, A Girl Like I, was published in 1966.

  253 Margalo Gillmore (1897–1986), actor.

  254 Alex Woolcott (1887–1943), critic and writer. The story (A Girl Like I, p. 151) is that Woolcott revealed to Loos that ‘he had always wanted to be a girl’ and ‘all my life I've wanted to be a mother!’

  255 Tuesday was 15 November. Burton remains one day out for the rest of the diary.

  256 Sheran Cazalet married Simon Hornby (1934–2010) in 1968.

  257 Christian Marquand (1927–2000), actor and director, who was to direct Candy (1968).

  258 Meade Roberts (1930–92), screenwriter.

  259 A reference to the screenplay (part-written by Philip Burton), of Dylan Thomas's The Beach of Falesa (1964), based on the 1892 short story by Robert Louis Stevenson.

  260 Eddie Fisher (1928–2010), Elizabeth Taylor's husband prior to her marrying Richard Burton.

  261 This is a reference to the exploits of John Ridgway (1938—) and Chay Blyth (1940—), who rowed across the Atlantic in English Rose III in 92 days.

  262 Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–90), Tread Softly for You Tread on my Jokes (1966).

  263 John Cleland (?1709–89), Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748–9), often known as Fanny Hill after the main character; D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930), Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928); Henry Miller (1891–1980), Tropic of Capricorn (1938) and Tropic of Cancer (1934); Terry Southern (1924–95) (writing as Maxwell Kenton) and Mason Hoffenberg (1922–86), Candy (1958).

  264 A Nissen hut was a prefabricated steel building characteristic of military bases and airfields.

  265 Hugh Kingsmill (1889–1949), biographer, novelist, literary critic.

  266 Zeffirelli's documentary on Florence (Per Firenze – For Florence, which appeared in 1966), with narration by Burton, is reputed to have raised more than $20m. This appeared on the BBC in English on 11 December 1966 with the title ‘Florence: Days of Destruction’.

  267 William Ralph Inge (1860–1954), cleric and journalist. The quotation is: ‘The nations which have put mankind and posterity most in their debt have been small states – Israel, Athens, Florence, Elizabethan England.’

  268 Robert Blake, Disraeli (1966).

  269 PT: Physical training.

  270 Ponte Vecchio is a medieval bridge over the Arno in Florence.

  271 The Uffizi Gallery, Florence's historic art museum.

  1967

  1 Cotonou, largest city of the Republic of Dahomey (now Republic of Benin), where the filming of The Comedians was taking place.

  2 Peter Glenville, director of The Comedians.

  3 Alec Guinness, co-starring in The Comedians.

  4 President (formerly Colonel and Chief of Staff to the Armed Forces) Christophe Soglo (1909–83), President of the Republic of Dahomey from October 1963 to January 1964 and from November 1965 to December 1967. Soglo, who had fought with distinction for France in the Second World War, had been France's military adviser to the Dahomean government before resigning and acquiring Dahomean citizenship in 1960.

  5 President Soglo had met his wife in French Indochina.

  6 None. Soglo's rule would be brought to an end by an army coup in December 1967. There were to be a total of six coups in Dahomey/Benin during the decade from 1963 to 1972.

  7 Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975), President of the Republic of China. Soglo had visited Taiwan some time in 1964/65.

  8 Claudye Ettori was Elizabeth Taylor's hairdresser on The Comedians and would become part of the Burton–Taylor entourage in Europe. She also played the small part of the manicurist in the film. Raymond St Jacques (1930–90) played the part of Captain Concasseur in The Comedians.

  9 Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, port and resort, on the Cap Ferrat peninsula to the east of Nice.

  10 VW: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.

  11 George Stanford Brown (1943—) played the part of Henri Philipot in The Comedians.

  12 Guinness dressed as a black woman (impersonating Burton's character's cook) for the scene in which his character, Major Jones, finds sanctuary in the embassy.

  13 Peter Ustinov played the part of Ambassador Pineda in The Comedians.

  14 Villa La Fiorentina, situated on the Saint Hospice point, Cap Ferrat peninsula. Taylor had previously rented the same property when married to Mike Todd.

  15 A garlic and vegetable soup with basil.

  16 The Prince's Palace of Monaco, the official residence of the Prince of Monaco. Hôtel de Paris, Place du Casino, Monaco.

  17 It would appear that Burton is referring here to Prince Rainier of Monaco (1923–2005) and his wife Princess Grace (1928–82), actor.

  18 James Earl Jones (1931—) played the part of Dr Magiot in The Comedians.

  19 Hôtel Plaza Athenée, Avenue Montaigne, Paris.

  20 Oscars were won by Elizabeth Taylor (Best Actress); Sandy Dennis (Best Supporting Actress) (1937–92); Haskell Wexler (Best Cinematography) (1922—); Richard Sylbert (Best Art Direction – Black-and-White) (1928–2002); George James Hopkins (Best Set Decoration – Black-and-White) (1896–1985); and Irene Sharaff (Best Costume Design). Nominations were also received for the film as Best Picture; for Ernest Lehman (Best Producer) (1915–2005); Mike Nichols (Best Director); Richard Burton (Best Actor); George Segal (Best Supporting Actor) (1934—); Ernest Lehman (Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium); Alex North (Best Music) (1910–91); George R. Groves (Best Sound) (1901–76); and Sam Steen (Best Film Editing) (1923–2000).

  21 The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII (1894–1972), and his wife, the Duchess of Windsor, formerly Wallis Simpson (1896–1986).

  22 Frank Flanagan, husband of Agnes.

  23 Sally Wilson, wife of Bob.

  24 Millfield School, Street, Somerset.

  25 Sybil and Jordan's daughter was named Amy.

  26 The Oddyseia motor yacht was built in 1906. Richard and Elizabeth had chartered it. Portofino, a resort and port to the east of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera.

  27 Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica on its western coast. L'Ile Rousse and Calvi, both on the north-western coast of Corsica.

  28 Santa Margherita and Rapallo, both close to Portofino.

  29 Emilio Pucci, fashion house, with a Portofino boutique.

  30 Ristorante Il Pitosforo, Molo Umberto I, Portofino.

  31 Cary Grant (1904–86), actor. Presumably this was a fil
m script based on Elaine Dundy's 1964 novel The Old Man and Me. There is no record of the film having been made.

  32 Robert Daley (1930—), The Whole Truth (1967). Daley had worked for the New York Times.

  33 Alexander McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory (1964).

  34 Both Burton and Taylor would star in Boom!

  35 The Shoes of the Fisherman was the title both of a novel by Australian writer Morris West (1916–99), and of a 1968 film based on the novel, starring Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud.

  36 Rex Harrison and the Welsh actor Rachel Roberts (1927–80) had married in 1962. Rachel Roberts had played alongside Burton in A Subject of Scandal and Concern. The Harrisons had a house – Villa San Genesio – in Portofino.

  37 The United Arab Republic: the official name for Egypt at the time. The Six Day War between Israel on the one hand and Egypt, Syria and Jordan on the other would start on 5 June and end on 10 June 1967, with Israel clearly victorious.

  38 La Gritta American Bar, Calata Marconi, Portofino.

  39 Bill is William Glavin, Tennessee Williams's paid companion from 1965 to 1970. Joseph Losey (1909–84), director. Losey would direct Boom!, Secret Ceremony, and The Assassination of Trotsky. John Heyman (1933—), agent and producer of Boom! Tennessee Williams (1911–83), playwright. Burton and Taylor had played in film adaptations of Williams's The Night of the Iguana, Suddenly, Last Summer and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Boom! was his own adaptation of his 1962 play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore.

  40 Carole Landis (1919–48), actor and former lover of Rex Harrison. Kay Kendall (1926–59), actor and Harrison's third wife (1957–9). Lilli Palmer (1914–86), actor and Harrison's second wife (1943–57).

  41 Sir Francis Chichester (1901–72), aviator and sailor, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1958. He had won the first single-handed transatlantic yacht race in 1960 and had gone on to circumnavigate the globe from August 1966 to May 1967.

  42 Hostilities between the Germans and the Allies in Italy ceased on 2 May 1945. However, Liberation Day in Italy is celebrated on 25 April, the anniversary of the end of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic.

  43 Arthur Barbosa (1908–95), artist, theatre designer and interior decorator.

  44 St Edward's School is on Woodstock Road, Oxford. Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader (1910–82), RAF fighter pilot and war hero.