How to Be a Movie Star

by William J. Mann

  [>] "Her name is Mrs. Fisher : AP report, as in the Hartford Courant, May 27, 1959.

  [>] "songs that meant something": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "There's not a decent stone here": Interview with John Valva by C. David Heymann, HCSBU.

  [>] "An unheard-of price": Wanger, My Life With Cleopatra.

  [>] Fox's 1960–61 production schedule was budgeted: NYT, September 13, 1959.

  [>] "a fight between the older generation and the younger": NYT, October 25, 1959.

  [>] "clammy coils": Time, January 11, 1960.

  [>] "possibly the most bizarre film": Variety, December 10, 1959.

  [>] "rightly roiled": NYT, December 23, 1959.

  [>]–73 Even Hepburn hated the film: See my Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn.

  [>] "Sam Spiegel expects": Hartford Courant, July 17, 1959.

  273 the movie poster that would dominate Hollywood: Interview with Tom Mankiewicz, as well as Kenneth L. Geist, Pictures Will Talk: The Life and Films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Da Capo Press, 1983).

  [>] "Finds men the source": Notes to shooting script of Butterfield 8, Daniel Mann Collection, AMPAS.

  [>] "normally be clear": Pandro Berman to John Michael Hayes, May 11, 1960, Daniel Mann Collection, AMPAS.

  [>] "A walking time bomb": Hank Moonjean, Bring in the Peacocks: Memoirs of a Hollywood Producer (AuthorHouse, 2004). Other Moonjean quotes are from my interview with him.

  [>] Screen Actors Guild called a strike: NYT, March 8, 1960.

  [>]–77 Actress Mary Murphy: Los Angeles Examiner, June 12, 1959.

  [>] "A lot of citizens": Hartford Courant, October 21, 1959.

  [>] how cold Elizabeth was in person: Motion Picture, March 1960.

  [>] WHAT I TELL MY CHILDREN: Photoplay, April 1962.

  [>] EXCLUSIVE! DEBBIE THREATENED!: Motion Picture, October 1960.

  [>] HOW MUCH CAN EDDIE: Screen Stars, August 1960.

  [>] She's showcased as a doting mother: Photoplay, October 1960.

  [>] "I've never been America's sweetheart": Photoplay, December 1959.

  [>] "My ambition is to win an Oscar": New York Post, October 26, 1959.

  [>] Reporter James Bacon: Hartford Courant, March 27, 1960.

  [>] yellow chiffon gown: Hartford Courant, April 4, 1960.

  [>] "The crowd ooh'd and aah'd": Hartford Courant, April 5, 1960.

  [>] "There are very few actresses": Wanger, My Life With Cleopatra.

  [>] Elizabeth was hiding out because she was too fat: Daily Mail, October 13, 1960. Elizabeth sued them for saying so and won.

  [>] "million dollars' worth": Wanger, My Life With Cleopatra.

  [>] the fussy hairdresser worked his magic: Guilaroff, Crowning Glory.

  [>] "She has been around too long": Wanger, My Life With Cleopatra.

  [>] "Malta fever": Various articles, including LAT, November 2, 1960; New York Post, November 2, 1960; Daily Mail, November 1, 1960.

  [>] "A tenacious bug": New York Post, November 2, 1960.

  [>] STRICKEN LIZ TAYLOR: New York Journal-American, November 14, 1960.

  [>] "still a sick girl": New York Post, November 15, 1960.

  [>] "more frequently encountered": LAT, November 16, 1960.

  [>] "She had become addicted": Eddie said a version of this quote in both his memoirs, but this comes from his interview with C. David Heymann, for Liz.

  [>] "I'm here to do whatever": Fisher, My Life, My Loves.

  [>] "Elizabeth Taylor is in a class": Motion Picture Herald, October 8, 1960. The trade paper offers a fascinating, detailed account of the studio's marketing and distribution plans for Butterfield 8.

  285 "working amid the ruins": Lana Turner, Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth (Dutton, 1982).

  [>] "long-range stock": Goodman, The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood.

  [>] "The true love that exists": This is from the fan magazine Movie Stars TV Closeups, quoted by Goodman.

  [>] "It seemed the thing to do": Quoted in Heymann, Liz. See also Earl Wilson, Hot Times: True Tales of Hollywood and Broadway (Contemporary Books, 1984).

  [>] "If I could be": Movie Mirror, [nd] 1961, Elizabeth Taylor file, NYPL.

  [>]–89 "This is the fourth nomination": Syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, March 8, 1961.

  [>] "She might have survived": Alexander Walker interviewed the first doctor on the scene, but did not identify him, for his book Elizabeth.

  [>] "primitive corners": Wanger, My Life With Cleopatra.

  [>] House of Lords: Lord Mancroft "wondered whether the freedom of the press would have been seriously endangered if [the public] had not been shown photographs of Miss Elizabeth Taylor lying unconscious on a stretcher and being carried to an ambulance." The Times, March 14, 1961.

  [>] "Her condition remains grave": Various reports, including LAT, March 5, 1961.

  [>] "The condition of": The Times, March 6, 1961.

  [>]–91 "At last everything is going": Wanger, My Life With Cleopatra.

  [>] "once-lithe body": New York Daily News, March 7, 1961. For the press coverage of Elizabeth's hospitalization, I read dozens of newspaper articles in her files at both AMPAS and NYPL.

  [>] "out of danger": The Times, March 10, 1961.

  [>] "going along very nicely": LAT, March 13, 1961.

  [>] "black maria," "Go on home": Unsourced article, possibly the Daily Mail, March 13, 1961, ET file, NYPL.

  [>] "dreadful illness": LAT, March 13, 1961.

  [>] "There, in her hospital bed": The Times, January 22, 2008.

  [>] champagne with Truman Capote: Wanger.

  [>] "the white light": Interview on Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts. The stories did tend to become more grandiose as time went by. In a later interview with King, aired on May 30, 2006, she'd say that she'd been pronounced dead four times and that doctors had tried everything to save her, including giving dog distemper shots to her.

  295 MISS TAYLOR COMES HOME: LAT, March 29, 1961.

  [>] "a little better": New York Post, March 28, 1961.

  [>] "numerous shots of antibiotics": LAT, March 29, 1961.

  [>] "It is love that is killing": Motion Picture, March 1960.

  [>] "a beautiful woman of twenty-eight," "that a good spanking wouldn't cure": Motion Picture, February 1961.

  [>] "This was the ultimate climax": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>] "Elizabeth Taylor looks tough": Hartford Courant, April 16, 1961.

  [>] "cool and confident": AP report, as in the Hartford Courant, April 18, 1961.

  [>] When the nominees for Best Actress: My description of the night and the ceremony comes from the AP reports, April 16, 17, 18, 1961.

  [>] "prolong the drama": Fisher, Been There, Done That.

  [>]–99 With Max Lerner: See McCall's, September 1974, as well as Walker, Elizabeth, and Kelley, Elizabeth Taylor.

  [>] an act at the legendary Cocoanut Grove: Various, including New York Post, July 26, 1961; Hollywood Citizen-News, July 26 and 27, 1961; Los Angeles Examiner, July 27, 1961; Sidney Skolsky's column, July 28, 1961.

  8. No Deodorant Like Success

  [>] Hedda Hopper had announced the possibility: Syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, September 19, 1960. Louella Parsons confirmed the casting in the Los Angeles Examiner on December 16, 1960.

  [>] since Elizabeth was now a Jew: Mrs. Velda Fulcher to George Stevens, December 27, 1960, GSC.

  [>] "Surely you can find": Mrs. Florence S. Chipman to George Stevens, January 3, 1961, GSC.

  [>] "A woman like Liz Taylor": Mrs. Sidney Myers to George Stevens, December 28, 1960, GSC.

  [>] Kurt Frings was not impressed: Stevens's handwritten notes, as well as typewritten summaries and annotations possibly made by George Stevens Jr., an associate producer on the film, The Greatest Story Ever Told file, GSC.

  [>] sashaying down the Via Veneto: Various articles, including the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, April 4, 1962; Daily Mail, April
4, 1962; New York Daily News, April 5 and 7, 1962; UPI reports, as in the Middletown Press, April 7, 1962; Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, April 8, 1962; New York Post, April 8, 1962.

  [>] "Probably no news event": Los Angeles Herald-Tribune, April 14, 1962.

  303 five hundred torch-bearing university students: New York Daily News, April 16, 1962.

  [>] Elizabeth broke down in tears: New York Journal-American, April 19, 1962.

  [>] "a game which they start": NYT, April 5, 1962.

  [>] "erotic vagrancy": New York Daily News, April 13, 1962.

  [>] "He's never been": Graham Jenkins, Richard Burton: My Brother.

  [>] But the Italian papers: UPI report, as in the Middletown Press, April 4, 1962.

  [>] "the nauseating headlines": The Connecticut Catholic Transcript, April 12, 1962.

  [>]–5 "self-destruction": AP report, as in the Hartford Courant, April 28, 1962.

  [>] seaside bungalow at Porto Santo Stefano: Hollywood Citizen-News, April 25, 1962; Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, April 25, 26, 1962; LAT, April 25, 26, 1962; New York Daily News, April 22, 23, 25, 26, 1962; New York Mirror, April 25, 1962.

  [>] anonymous letter threatening her: LAT, May 21, 1962; New York Daily News, May 21, 1963.

  [>] "What has happened to our concept": Catholic Transcript, April 26, 1962.

  [>] Iris Faircloth Blitch: See the Congressional Record, Volume 108. Also LAT, May 23, 1962; Variety, May 23, 1962; AP report, as in the Hartford Courant, May 23, 1962. Eight years earlier, on November 7, 1954, Rep. Blitch had made an appearance on the television show What's My Line? Available online, the program reveals her charm and Southern accent.

  [>] "Her beauty masks": Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, April 10, 1962.

  [>] "sick—very sick": Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, May 11, 1962.

  [>] "Whoever would have thought the Italians": Hartford Courant, April 10, 1962.

  [>] another scandal erupting around Kurt Frings: See transcript of conversation between Hedda Hopper and Ketti Frings, dated February 19, 1963, HHC; Hopper's syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, February 6 and 16, 1963; LAT, April 22, 1963; Hartford Courant, April 20, 1963.

  [>] This time it was the agent's estranged wife: LAT, April 5, 1962.

  [>] "Liz Taylor will never play": Hollywood Reporter, July 30, 1962. According to Stevens's files, Connolly's column that day was ghostwritten by John Bradford, but the director was convinced the item had come from Connolly himself, since the columnist had just recently paid him a visit.

  [>] "My affection": George Stevens to ET, August 2, 1962, GSC.

  [>] "I will never go back to America": Bragg, Richard Burton.

  307 "being real vicious": Waterbury transcript, GSC.

  [>] "The Sixties was to pride itself": Bragg, Richard Burton.

  [>] "He looked very much like me": Hollis Alpert, Burton (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1986).

  [>] "I would rather have played": Bragg, Richard Burton.

  [>] he admitted that one time he actually gave in: Bragg, Richard Burton.

  [>] an unrequited object of desire: This was the perception of the director John Schlesinger, who was a fellow Oxford man and also close with Nevill Coghill. The producer Frank Taylor described Philip's attraction to Richard as "unrequited," but said the older man "didn't have sex of any kind." Amburn, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

  [>] "chaps with posh accents": Playboy, September 1963.

  [>] "Out came the most perfect rendering": Bragg, Richard Burton.

  [>] "I'm the least Method actor": Richard Burton to Roy Newquist, tape-recorded interview used as basis for article in McCall's, June 1966, and aired on WCBS radio, May 1966 (hereafter Newquist interview).

  [>] "His playing of Prince Hal": Kenneth Tynan was the critic for the Evening Standard. Quoted in Bragg, Richard Burton.

  [>] "[Acting] doesn't especially appeal": Playboy, September 1963.

  [>] "Huh! I'm not going to be": Interview on Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

  [>] "Sybil was the good loving bride": Alexander Walker, ed., No Bells on Sunday: The Journals of Rachel Roberts (McGraw-Hill, 1985).

  [>] "Oh, my lovely girl": Richard Burton to Claire Bloom, October 7, 1954, Claire Bloom Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.

  [>] "my lovely girl [would] be forced to sleep": Richard Burton to Claire Bloom, November 5, 1954, Claire Bloom Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.

  [>] "Not a chance!": Hartford Courant, October 15, 1962.

  [>] "I have been inordinately lucky": Richard Burton diary, November 19, 1968, quoted in Bragg.

  [>] "scared witless to approach me": Richard Burton diary, November 20, 1970, quoted in Bragg.

  [>] "To scream 'fuck' in the lobby": Richard Burton diary, August 11, 1967, quoted in Bragg.

  [>] columnist Herb Caen: Lawrence Grobel, The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty (Cooper Square Press, 2000).

  [>]–14 Elizabeth "redrew the maps of his ambition": Bragg, Richard Burton.

  [>] "Richard is a very sexy man": Life, December 18, 1964.

  [>] "There's no way": Newquist interview.

  314 "It was so intense": Interview on Larry King Live, January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

  [>] "Elizabeth is a pretty girl": Playboy, September 1963.

  [>] "Richard has enormous taste": Look, May 7, 1963.

  [>] "I generally shut Jess": Richard Burton diary, quoted in Bragg.

  [>] "He is a snakepit": Look, May 7, 1963.

  [>] "all great art": Ernest Lehman, unpublished memoir, "Fun and Games With George and Martha: The Virginia Woolf Papers," Ernest Lehman Collection, USC.

  [>] "I sometimes wake up": Playboy, September 1963.

  [>] "This was so that Richard": Walker, No Bells on Sunday.

  [>] "I want to direct in motion pictures": AP interview, syndicated, as in the Hartford Courant, September 20, 1964.

  [>] "nervous and tense": Wanger, My Life With Cleopatra.

  [>]–20 "Congressional investigation": Letter from Rep. Iris F. Blitch to constituents, May 29, 1962, Iris Faircloth Blitch Collection.

  [>] When one member, Rep. Michael Feighan: NYT, February 4 and 14, 1964.

  [>] "new heights of ridiculosity": Hartford Courant, February 6, 1964.

  [>] photographs of a topless Jayne Mansfield: Playboy, June 1963.

  [>]–21 "Is she modern": Photoplay, April 1963.

  [>] THE FINAL ACT THAT SHOOK: Modern Screen, [nd] 1962, Constance McCormick Collection, USC.

  [>] "America's 2 Queens": Photoplay, June 1962.

  [>] WHY WOMEN CAN'T RESIST: Modern Screen, August 1962.

  [>] "no good," "interesting newspaper copy": New York Daily News, April 3, 1962.

  [>] "If part of the world": Look, May 7, 1963.

  [>] "The press has seemed determined": Anne Ritchie to Iris Blitch, May 25, 1962, Iris Faircloth Blitch Collection.

  [>] "To tell you the truth," "So what do the papers say": Look,, May 7, 1963.

  [>] "quiet study": NYT, June 1, 1962.

  [>] "to garner extra dollars": NYT, June 2, 1962.

  [>] "a self-contained media event": Bragg, Richard Burton.

  [>] "The public wonders": Hopper syndicated column; see Hartford Courant, March 21, 1962.

  [>] "a wave of public opinion," "forgot about it": Civil Case No. 66–73, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation vs. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, January 20, 1966, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, National Archives and Records Administration, Pacific Region.

  [>] "I told you": New York Daily News, July 15, 1962.

  325 "I have paid": Life, December 18, 1964.

  [>] "just a little stinking bit": Hedda Hopper to Mildred Cram, February 3, 1964, HHC.

  [>] the usually astute Kenneth McCormick ... editor, Margaret Cousins: Details of Hedda's relationship with her publisher come from a l
etter Hopper wrote to attorney Howard Ellis, March 29, 1965, HHC.

  [>] "a reckless and wanton disregard": Variety, April 5, 1963.

  [>] "I'm going to fight this battle": Wilding, The Wilding Way. Here again, it is clear that either Wilding did not write his memoir himself or he was very, very confused, for the description of the libel suit is set circa 1952, ten years earlier than it actually occurred. So any statements from this account must be considered very carefully.

  [>] "All very chatty": Memo, January 10, 1964, HHC.

  [>] "I wish we could be friends": Hopper syndicated column, as in the Hartford Courant, January 27, 1964.

  [>] a dispirited Hedda finally agreed to settle with Wilding: Los Angeles Herald-Express, March 25, 1965; Hollywood Citizen-News, March 26, 1965; LAT, March 26, 1965; Variety, March 31, 1965.

  [>] "The suit is settled": Hedda's feelings about the settlement of the Wilding lawsuit, as well as her comments about Mike Connolly, come from a letter she wrote to Howard Ellis, March 29, 1965, HHC.

  [>] "good revenge": Look,, May 7, 1963.

  [>] "Do you think it will": Look, May 7, 1963.

  [>] "butchery": Variety, October 31, 1962.

  [>] "Mr. Mankiewicz took Cleopatra over": NYT, October 24, 1962.

  [>] "To look at": Time, June 21, 1963.

  [>] "a woman of force and dignity": NYT, June 13, 1963.

  [>] "Italian Hercules spectacular": Quoted in Jerry Vermilye and Mark Ricci, The Films of Elizabeth Taylor (Carol Publishing Corporation, 1989).

  [>] Fox was banking on an extraordinarily long run: See Dorothy Kilgallen's column, New York Journal-American, February 29, 1962.

  [>]–33 One opinion poll: LAT, June 26, 1963.

  [>] "Here on the lazy west coast": LAT, October 13, 1963.

  [>] "I can live here": Richard Burton to Alexander Walker, quoted in Walker, Elizabeth.

  [>] "paralyzingly potent": William F. Nolan, John Huston: King Rebel (Sherbourne Press, 1965).

  [>] "She's fearless": Grobel, The Hustons.

  [>] "more reporters on the site": John Huston, An Open Book (Da Capo Press, 1994).

  [>] "a lot of rows": Grobel, The Hustons.

  336 "But ... there was nothing": Grobel, The Hustons.