The Richard Burton Diaries

by Richard Burton

  64 Cameron sold the villa in 1969 to Mr and Mrs Harding Lawrence. ‘Metteur-en-scene’ – scene setter.Stanley Donen (1924—), was producer-director of Staircase. He and Taylor had been romantically involved in 1951, from the time that he had directed her in Love is Better Than Ever.

  65 Cathleen Nesbitt (1888–1982) played the part of Harry's mother (Burton being Harry) in Staircase. She would also act in Villain.

  66 The Great White Hope began a run of 546 performances on Broadway on 3 October 1968.

  67 Howard Sackler (1929–82), screenwriter and playwright.

  68 Jones (born 1931) was in fact in his late thirties.

  69 Smith drew on this for a column that appeared in the New York Times on 26 January 1969.

  70 Joan Crosby (1934—), journalist and actor.

  71 A Flea in Her Ear (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1968), directed by Jacques Charon (1920–75), starring Rex Harrison and Rachel Roberts.

  72 Geneviève Bujold (1942—), was to play the part of Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days.

  73 Arne Lindroth (1910–85), a marine expert, was advising Burton on the seaworthiness of the Kalizma.

  74 The film was Krasnaya Palatka (1969: US title The Red Tent), which starred Sean Connery (1930—) as Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) the Norwegian explorer, and first man to reach the South Pole.

  75 Elizabeth Harris (1936—), daughter of David Rees-Williams, Baron Ogmore, and at this time married to the actor Richard Harris. She and Rex Harrison would marry in 1971 and divorce in 1976.

  76 Burton means the Vatican newspaper the Osservatore della Domenica, which in 1962 had condemned Taylor for ‘erotic vagrancy’.

  77 George Orwell, The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus (4 vols, 1968).

  78 Ingrid Bergman (1915–82), actor.

  79 Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight, had launched on 11 October and would splash down on 22 October. The three astronauts were Walter Schirra (1923–2007), Donn Eisele (1930–87) and Walter Cunningham (1932—).

  80 Robert Sargent Shriver (1915–2011), American Ambassador to France (1968–70), and husband of Eunice Kennedy (1921–2009), thus brother-in-law to both John F. and Robert F. Kennedy.

  81 ‘In the dead vast and middle of the night’ is a line from Hamlet, Act I, scene ii, although it is often rendered ‘dead waste and middle of the night’.

  82 Burton must mean Hubert Humphrey (1911–78), Vice-President of the USA and the Democratic Party candidate for the presidency in the 1968 election.

  83 Charles Braswell (1924–74) played the part of Thomas J. Lockwood in The Only Game in Town.

  84 Lucille Ball (1911–89), actor, television star. Angela Lansbury (1925—), actor. ETB: Elizabeth Taylor Burton.

  85 This was Braswell's first major film role.

  86 Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899–1977), novelist, poet, literary scholar.

  87 Rosemary Harris (1925—), who had appeared in A Flea in Her Ear, and who had played alongside Burton in the Old Vic production of Othello.

  88 Maurice Chevalier (1888–1972), actor and singer, lived at Marnes-la-Coquette in the western suburbs of Paris, close to the Forest of Fausses-Reposes and to the Parc de Saint-Cloud.

  89 Restaurant de la Tête Noire, Place Mairie, Marnes-la-Coquette.

  90 Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia (1936—), later to enjoy a brief engagement to Burton.

  91 Burton is referring here to the clenched fist salutes given on the podium by Black American sprinters Tommie Smith (1944—) and John Carlos (1945—), who had won gold and bronze medals respectively in the men's 200m at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

  92 Fouquet's on the Champs-Elysées.

  93 There were anti-war demonstrations outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London on 27 October. ‘Bobby’ is a British term for a police officer.

  94 Francis Warner, tutor in English Literature at St Peter's College, Oxford, and a friend of Burton.

  95 John Donne (1572–1631), Thomas Traherne (1637–94), Henry Vaughan (1621–95) and George Herbert (1593–1633), poets. The poem quoted (first two verses) is Herbert's ‘Virtue’. The third verse includes the line ‘A box where sweets compacted lie’.

  96 A reference to the poem ‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester’, by Rupert Brooke (1887–1915), which includes the line ‘Green as a dream and deep as death’.

  97 Peter Finch played the part of General Umberto Nobile (1885–1978), Arctic explorer.

  98 Roderick Mann, The Headliner (1968). ‘Burton Broadside’, Evening Standard, 23 October 1968. Burton's mixed metaphor is quoted thus: ‘Yet these particular rats, like the worms that Noah forgot to put on the Ark, are necessary. When, as it were, the chips are down, the rats can turn into Rajahs.’

  99 A reference to the starvation crisis and civil war in Biafra, Nigeria that was taking place at the time.

  100 Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), poet, dramatist, novelist, wit.

  101 All Saints’ Day (1 November) is a national holiday in France.

  102 Secret Ceremony, the film starring Taylor, Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum (1917–97) which had appeared earlier in the year.

  103 The Train Bleu ran between Paris and Vintimille in Italy.

  104 Cannes, city and port on the French Riviera, to the west of Monaco and Saint Jean Cap Ferrat.

  105 Ramón Novarro (1899–1968), actor, had been murdered at his home in Laurel Canyon, Hollywood. Nice-Matin: the Nice daily paper.

  106 Gordon Waller (1945–2009), formerly combined with Peter Asher in the pop duo ‘Peter and Gordon’.

  107 La Colombe d'Or, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, inland from Cagnes-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast.

  108 Fernet Branca is an Italian brand of the spirit Fernet, often used for hangovers.

  109 E. W. (Jim) Swanton (1907–2000), cricket writer and commentator. His Cricket from All Angles appeared in 1968.

  110 Neville Cardus (1888–1975) and John Arlott (1914–91), both writers on cricket.

  111 A reference to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in which an attempt was made by a number of conspirators including Guy Fawkes (1570–1606) to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London.

  112 The Republican candidate Richard Nixon won 43.4% of the popular vote, 32 states, and 301 votes in the electoral college, as against 42.7% of the vote, 13 states (plus the District of Columbia) and 191 votes for the Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey. George Wallace, running as an Independent, won 13.5% of the vote, 5 states and 46 votes.

  113 Robinson Jeffers's (1887–1962) adaptation of the Greek tragedy of Medea for the stage (1947) and the 1797 opera Médée by Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842).

  114 Robert Browning (1812–89), Pippa Passes (1841), includes the lines ‘The lark's on the wing; / The snail's on the thorn; / God's in his Heaven – / All's right with the world!’

  115 John Bunyan (1628–88), Pilgrim's Progress (1678–84).

  116 Geoffrey Warner (1937—), Pierre Laval and the Eclipse of France (1968). Alexander Werth (1901–69), De Gaulle: A Political Biography (1966).

  117 Sir Oswald Mosley (1896–1980) My Life (1968).

  118 A reference to Michael Foot (1913–2010), Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament for the South Wales constituency of Ebbw Vale at this time.

  119 Shirley MacLaine (1934—), actor, sister of Warren Beatty.

  120 Molière, pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622–73), playwright.

  121 A conflict in the air between the German Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force in the summer of 1940 over the UK.

  122 A reference to the Zanuck suit against Burton and Taylor in the wake of Cleopatra.

  123 Café Le Coq Hardy, Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, Paris.

  124 Daniel C. Blum, A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen (1953).

  125 James D. Watson, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (1968).

  126 Charles Percy (C. P.) Snow, Baron Snow of
Leicester (1905–80), novelist.

  127 Otto Christian Archibald von Bismarck (1897–1975), Prince of Bismarck from 1904 to his death. His wife Anne-Marie (1907–99).

  128 A reference to Germany's ‘Iron Chancellor’, Otto Christian's grandfather, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1815–98). Burton may also be referring to the 1940 novel from Iron in the Soul by Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80).

  129 ‘Toto and Nanette’ were chalkware figurines popular in the 1930s.

  130 Hamlet, Act IV, scene v, when the King speaks the line: ‘There's such divinity doth hedge a king’.

  131 Suzy Nickerbocker, the pen name of columnist Aileen Mehle (1921—).

  132 A reference to the first line of the poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ (1888) by William Butler Yeats (1865–1939): ‘I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.’

  133 Cathleen Nesbitt and Rupert Brooke (1887–1915) had been engaged to be married prior to his death. Brooke had written sonnets to Nesbitt. John Lennon (1940–80) of The Beatles had published In His Own Write in 1964.

  134 Ipepacuana: a liquid used to induce vomiting.

  135 James Wishart, a chartered accountant with the London firm of W. H. Jack & Co, an authority on tax issues, who had been advising Burton since the 1950s. James Bacon (1914—), journalist and actor, who wrote for the Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

  136 Stephen Lewis (1936—) played the part of Jack in Staircase. He had been a merchant seaman.

  137 Julie Christie (1941—), most famous at this point for her roles in Billy Liar (1963) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). She had turned down the role of Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days. Her relationship with Warren Beatty would last until 1974.

  138 Princess Elizabeth would marry Neil Balfour (1944—), merchant banker and Conservative Party candidate in 1969.

  139 Bonnie and Clyde (Warner Brothers, 1967), had starred Beatty and Faye Dunaway (1941—).

  140 Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727), scientist, mathematician, astronomer, who is credited with saying that: ‘I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.’

  141 David René de Rothschild (1942—), Guy de Rothschild's son by his first marriage.

  142 Philippe Sereys de Rothschild (1963—).

  143 Lili Krahmer (1930–96), Guy de Rothschild's stepdaughter by his first marriage.

  144 Lili's husband was Maurice Rheims (1910—2003), photographer.

  145 Alberto de Rossi (d. 1975), make-up artist, who worked on Cleopatra, The Taming of the Shrew and Staircase and who would work on Divorce His, Divorce Hers, and on the Taylor film Ash Wednesday.

  146 Raymond Marcellin (1914–2004) was Minister of the Interior from May 1968 to February 1974.

  147 Claude Pompidou (1912–2007), wife of Georges Pompidou (1911–74), who had been Prime Minister of France from 1962 to July 1968 and would become President in June 1969. De Gaulle resigned the presidency in April 1969 and died in November 1970.

  148 A very popular Welsh song, roughly translating as ‘Beside the sea red roses growing’.

  149 Stanley Flink, journalist.

  150 Lyndon Johnson (1908–73), President of the United States (1963–8), and his wife Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007).

  151 Ferndale, a mining village in the Rhondda Fach in South Wales, adjacent to Tylorstown, birthplace of Richard's first wife Sybil.

  152 Dulcis Imperatrix: charming consort of the emperor. According to the traditional rhyme, ‘Sunday's child is full of grace’.

  153 Poor Richard's Almanack (1733–58), published by Benjamin Franklin (1706–90).

  154 Hebe Dorsey (1925–87), fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune. ‘Dwyer’ may refer to Paul O'Dwyer (1907–98), unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the Senate for New York, 1968 and 1970. His brother, William (1890–1964), had been Mayor of New York from 1946 to 1950.

  155 Samuel Pisar (1929—).

  156 Vice versa: the other way around.

  157 Beverly Hills Hotel, Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California.

  158 Director Tony Richardson had sacked Burton from the production of Laughter in the Dark for being in breach of contract.

  159 A reference to the poem ‘Ring Out, Wild Bells’, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92).

  160 A reference to the role of Professor Henry Higgins which Rex Harrison had played in My Fair Lady.

  161 Edie Goetz (1905–87), daughter of Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957), and wife of William Goetz (1903–69), film producer. Frank Sinatra had divorced Mia Farrow earlier in 1968.

  162 A reference to the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz (1922–2000).

  163 Howard Young (1878–1972), art dealer and partner in business with Francis Taylor. In his will he bequeathed a sum in the region of $20m for the establishment of the Howard Young Medical Center, Wisconsin.

  164 Burton means Oswald Mosley. Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969) was a poet and novelist.

  165 J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964), geneticist, biologist, and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (1942–50). Ronald Clark's JBS: The Life and Work of J. B. S. Haldane appeared in 1968.

  166 Burton means ‘cwtched’ – the Welsh term for cuddling.

  167 This refers to the trial of the character Charlie Dyer (played by Rex Harrison) in Staircase.

  168 Marc Bohan (1926—), fashion designer.

  169 Burton repeats with only one inaccuracy the lines spoken by Henry V in Shakespeare's The Life of Henry the Fifth, Act IV, scene i: ‘Upon the King! Let us our lives, our souls, / Our debts, our careful wives, / Our children and our sins lay on the king! / We must bear all.’

  170 Montreux, Swiss resort town at the eastern end of Lake Geneva.

  171 Headmistress of the school attended by Liza and Maria.

  172 Romain Gary (1914–80). Married to Jean Seberg (1938–79), actor, from 1962 to 1970. Seberg had been romantically involved with Clint Eastwood (1930—), actor, who had played alongside Burton in Where Eagles Dare.

  173 La Baronne Thierry de Zuylen, sister-in-law of Marie-Hélène de Rothschild.

  174 James Joyce (1882–1941), novelist. His Finnegans Wake was published in 1939.

  175 A Welsh hymn popular with male voice choirs, translating as: ‘I need you every hour’.

  176 Another Welsh hymn – ‘Bryn Calfaria’ or ‘The Hill of Calvary’. This line translates as ‘Revive me with a breeze from Calvary’.

  177 A line used frequently in The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, scene i.

  178 Act III, scene iv.

  179 The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London.

  180 H.S. Hawker Siddeley.

  181 ‘Saes’, abbreviated ‘Saeson’, Welsh for the English.

  182 Windsor, Berkshire.

  183 Horsley Towers, East Horsley, Surrey.

  184 Craig Berkeley had a brief career in the 1980s and 1990s as a make-up artist, starting with the Burton mini-series Wagner.

  185 Eton and Harrow are considered to be the top public schools in England.

  186 By ‘Buck House’ Burton means Buckingham Palace.

  187 Tony Pellissier (1912–88), actor, screenwriter, producer, director.

  188 Le Bourget airport, Paris.

  189 Ringo Starr (1940—), former Beatle and actor and his wife Maureen (1946–94). Starr had appeared with Burton in Candy.

  190 Possibly Richard Marden (d. 2008), the film editor, who would work on Anne of the Thousand Days.

  191 This is a reference to Hamlet, Act I, scene v, where the ghost tells Hamlet ‘I could a tale unfold whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood’.

  192 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843).

  193 Werner Keller, The Bible as History (1955).

  194 Arthur Schlesinger (1917–2007), A Thousand Day
s: John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965).

  195 Cadonau, Promenade, Gstaad.

  196 The Apollo 8 mission launched on 21 December and returned on 27 December, having orbited the moon. The astronauts were Frank Borman (1928—), James Lovell (1928—) and William Anders (1933—).

  197 Princess Elizabeth's first husband was Howard Oxenberg (1919–2010).

  198 Burton had been involved in a scuffle outside The Load of Hay public house, Praed Street, Paddington, London. Most accounts suggest this took place in January 1963.

  199 Carter Brown, pseudonym of Alan Geoffrey Yates (1923–85), author of crime fiction.

  1969

  1 John Arthur Chapman (1900–72), drama critic of the Daily News, 1943–71. Tell It To Sweeney: The Informal History of the New York Daily News (1961).

  2 C. S. Forester, pseudonym of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (1899–1966). Lord Hornblower (1946). Herbert Ernest Bates (1905–74), Fair Stood the Wind for France (1944).

  3 Avare: Miser.

  4 Mary McCarthy (1912–89). Kevin McCarthy (1914–2010), divorced from his first wife in 1961, was not to remarry until 1979. His girlfriend in 1969 was Swedish.

  5 Henry Longhurst (1909–78), had published Only on Sundays (1964), a collection of his pieces from the Sunday Times, and Talking about Golf (1966), a collection from Golf Illustrated.

  6 Harold Nicolson (1886–1968), The Age of Reason (1960).

  7 Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great (1712–86), King of Prussia (1740–86). Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great (1729–96), Empress of Russia (1762–96). Peter I, known as Peter the Great (1672–1725), Emperor of Russia (1682–1725). Louis XIV, also known as the ‘Roi Soleil’, the Sun King (1638–1715), King of France (1643–1715).

  8 'The Crazy Gang’: British entertainers including Bud Flanagan (1896–1968), and Chesney Allen (1893–1982) active from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s.

  9 Dorado, also known as Mahi-Mahi, commonly known as the dolphin fish.

  10 Mismaloya: a beach 40 miles south of Puerto Vallarta, where much of The Night of the Iguana was shot.

  11 Jack Keyward (possibly Hayward) – also a friend and neighbour in Puerto Vallarta.