Bio - 199 - Elizabeth Taylor: There Is Nothing Like a Dame

by Darwin Porter

  In divorce court, Reynolds claimed that her husband was interested in another woman, but did not name her. The judge granted her a divorce and the custody of her two children, Carrie and Todd Fisher. She also made off with two houses in Hollywood and a rumored million dollar settlement, plus an alimony of $40,000 a year, with the understanding that the alimony would cease if and when she remarried.

  Later, she became horrified when it was reported to her that Fisher was writing an autobiography which alleged that she had had a lesbian relationship with actress Agnes Moorehead. Reynolds publicly denied such a liaison and threatened her former husband with a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Forced to back down, Fisher asserted that he would write about her as “the perfect girl next door.”

  So that Fisher and Elizabeth would not have to wait a year for his divorce to become final, Reynolds agreed to recognize his brief residency in Nevada. Perhaps she opted to be cooperative because of the generous terms of her divorce settlement.

  On the night of April 2, 1959, Fisher opened his act at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, having just learned that his contract for Fisher’s Coke Time TV series had been canceled because of the public disapproval associated with his L’Affaire Liz.

  He had desperately needed the six-week engagement. The cost of his divorce, which had included lawyer fees and the million dollar settlement on Reynolds, had drained his savings.

  Elizabeth was driven to the Tropicana from her hideaway at the Hidden Well Ranch. As she walked into the club, she was greeted with scowling faces, picket lines, and signs saying “LIZ GO HOME!”

  When Fisher received news that his divorce had been finalized months ahead of schedule, he was still singing at the Tropicana. He then directed his lyrics specifically at Elizabeth, who was sitting at ringside: “Another bride, another June, another sunny honeymoon.”

  After his show, he thanked the owners of the Tropicana for “giving me a job. I needed it.”

  Like Todd, Fisher bestowed jewelry on Elizabeth, including an evening bag studded with twenty-seven diamonds, one for every year of her life.

  But despite his largesse (or perhaps because of it), Fisher had run out of money, supplying presents to Elizabeth he could ill afford—a $270,000 diamond bracelet, $150,000 for that evening bag, and a $500,000 emerald necklace from Bulgari. In the 1950s, these sums were staggering. “To keep Elizabeth happy,” he said, “you have to give her a diamond every morning before breakfast.”

  During Fisher’s remaining performances at the Tropicana, Elizabeth made her appearance in the audience at 11:48pm, a few minutes before the beginning of Fisher’s midnight show. As the spotlight focused on her in a different gown each evening, she would rise and blow him a kiss. Then he’d sing a love song to her.

  While living in Las Vegas, Elizabeth told reporters, “When I began to grow fond of Eddie as a man, I wondered whether it was because I was seeing him as Mike. But I knew you couldn’t create someone in someone else. It would be disastrous. I will always love Mike, but that’s something different and separate. Eddie does have a lot of Mike’s qualities, but finally, I was sure I was not trying to marry an image. I knew I was truly and deeply in love with Eddie.”

  Vernon Scott, from United Press International, had written many unflattering stories about her. When he approached her, she said, “Why don’t you go screw yourself, Vernon?”

  On May 12, 1959, during Fisher’s court appearance that had been scheduled in the wake of having satisfied Nevada’s residence requirement, Fisher spent only two minutes before District Judge David Zenoff before his divorce was approved.

  “The Widow Todd,” in a civil ceremony, married Eddie Fisher only a few hours after his divorce became final. In attendance were Sara and Francis Taylor, watching their twenty-eight-year-old daughter wed for the fourth time.

  Outside, angry ex-fans picketed the wedding. Mike Todd, Jr., Elizabeth’s most recent lover, was the Best Man, even though he had never been that close to Fisher.

  Mara Taylor, Elizabeth’s sister-in-law, functioned as her matron of honor. “I decided not to use Debbie Reynolds this time,” Elizabeth said jokingly.

  At the wedding, she made a stunning appearance in a magnificent Jean-Louis spring green chiffon dress. On hearing of her choice of color, Marlene Dietrich said, “Brides should never wear green. It brings them only bad luck. But surely no one deserves bad luck more that Liz Taylor, that London tramp.”

  The bride and groom stood underneath a chuppah, which had been decorated with white gardenias that gave off an intoxicating aroma, and a few hundred white and pink carnations.

  It was a traditional Jewish wedding with Fisher sporting a yarmulke and stomping on a wineglass. Dick Hanley was there, along with hairdresser Sidney Guilaroff; her agent Kurt Frings; Eddie Cantor (who had launched Fisher’s career); Dr. Rex Kennamer, and MGM’s Benny Thau. Also present was a hip and handsome young actor, Robert Evans, who would later become the president of Paramount.

  In time, Fisher and Evans would pursue the same Renata Boeck, whom both men hailed “as the most beautiful woman in the world.” Presumably, they placed Elizabeth as number two in that category.

  In the midst of all this turmoil, MGM decided to release Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, even though there were certain elements demanding a boycott of the film. In spite of dire predictions, it became a huge box office success for MGM.

  Far from being condemned, Elizabeth drew some rave reviews. The New York Herald Tribune claimed, “If there is any doubt about the ability of Miss Taylor to express complex and devious emotions and to deliver a flexible and deep performance, this film ought to remove them. The Los Angeles Examiner cited her beauty and passion which makes her “the most commanding young actress of the screen.” The Saturday Review raved, “Hers is unquestionably one of the finest performances of any year.”

  ***

  As Mrs. Eddie Fisher, Elizabeth left Las Vegas, flying with her new husband to New York, where she would change planes and head to Europe for her honeymoon, for a new film ( Suddenly, Last Summer ), and for a new life.

  “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” she told reporters in New York, repeating the line she’d used with her three previous husbands.

  “This time around, I’ve got it right in my choice of a man,” Elizabeth told reporters when she landed in London. “Eddie and I will grow old together.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  A Honeymoon with Liz and Eddie

  “I have never been happier in my life. Eddie and I will be on our honeymoon for thirty or forty years.”

  —Elizabeth Taylor, at her wedding to Eddie Fisher, May 12, 1959

  As Elizabeth embarked on her honeymoon with Eddie Fisher in Spain, she said, “From now on, I want to devote my time to being a good wife and a mother. After all, a career makes a poor bedfellow on a cold night.”

  The suggestion was that she planned to retire and be supported by Fisher. The trouble with that plan was that Fisher had no singing gigs. She was the breadwinner in the family, and was arguably the most sought-after actress in the world. Some offer of some sort came in every day. In fact, even on her honeymoon, she had work commitments, including shooting exterior scenes for Suddenly, Last Summer in Spain. She also had to make a cameo appearance in Michael Todd, Jr.’s ill-fated Smell-O-Vision film entitled Scent of Mystery, or Holiday in Spain (1960).

  Producer Sam Spiegel lent Elizabeth and Fisher his 120-foot yacht, the Orinoco, for a cruise of the Mediterranean. Orinoco was a converted two-hundred ton minesweeper staffed by six servants and a French maid. But it was the Belgian chef that caused Elizabeth to overeat.

  Their stateroom with its four-poster bed was a replica of Christopher Columbus’ cabin aboard the Santa Maria. Their bed was built into the bow of the ship, and consequently was tossed and agitated more than if it had been positioned in its center. “It was horrible,” Fisher recalled. “I hated that bed. We had a hard time making love in it.”

  At the still fledging resort of Torremolino
s, along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, Elizabeth was joined by her children. That Sunday, she and Fisher drove the kids to see their first bullfight at the ring in nearby Málaga.

  Once during the bullfight there was a call for volunteers to face off against a deadly bull. Fisher volunteered in spite of a warning from Elizabeth, “If you do, I’ll break your fucking head.”

  Drunk and drugged at the time, he claimed that, “The bull was more attracted to a skinny Jewish singer than he was to red capes. As he came toward me, I was totally paralyzed with fear. I think Elizabeth saw her entire sex life about to disappear as the ferocious bull went for the family jewels.” After making a successful pass, Fisher eluded the bull and ran for safety as skilled Spanish matadors re-directed the path of the charging animal.

  After Spain, the Orinoco sailed east toward the Côte d’Azur, with stopovers along the gilded ports of the French Riviera. At every port at which they anchored, especially St-Tropez, mobs turned out to gape at them. When she went on a shopping expedition, Provençal women from the hills journeyed down to the port to offer their freshly scrubbed babies for sale to Elizabeth.

  Coming into port at Cannes, Elizabeth spent five nights at the villa of Prince Aly Khan. At dinners he staged for them, she was also seen with Gianni Agnelli and Aristotle Onassis, each of whom invited her for day trips aboard their own lavish yachts.

  On her first night in Cannes, Elizabeth became furious when a newspaper in Paris broke the story that she and Fisher had been intimate even before and during her marriage to Todd. She wanted to sue, but Fisher advised against it. “Since their information is true,” he told her, “we might be exposed as liars and even more embarrassed.”

  With Onassis at her side, a champagne-fueled Elizabeth appeared at the casino at Cannes and won $5,000 for her trouble.

  Elizabeth was vastly intrigued with Prince Aly Khan, whom she’d met twice before. She told her secretary-companion, Dick Hanley, “I wonder if it’s true that he’s the greatest lover of our times. I should have asked Rita Hay-worth. After all, she was married to him. Rita and I have shared other lovers— take Victor Mature, for instance.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” he said. “You’re on your honeymoon with Eddie.”

  “Hell with honeymoons,” she said. “On the first night of my honeymoon with Nicky Hilton, he balled two prostitutes—and not me.”

  The Prince was the son of Aga Khan III, who claimed direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed’s daughter, Fátima. The Aga Khan III, who had functioned as President of the League of Nations in 1937-38 and who had been instrumental in the formation of the modern nation of Pakistan, was the Imam (supreme spiritual leader, a sort of pope) to some fifteen million followers in Asia and Africa. They were known as Ismaili Muslims.

  At the time Elizabeth was the Aly Khan’s guest, he was a media event, worshipped by millions as “the son of God.” An international playboy, he was not only a religious leader, but a multi-millionaire, bon vivant, sybarite, Casanova, gentleman jockey, horse breeder, hunter, pilot, auto racer, daredevil, solider, United Nations diplomat, and globe trotter.

  In spite of that, he was snubbed by certain elements of international society. But he had a comeback: “They called me a bloody nigger, and I paid them back by taking their women.”

  The number of women in Khan’s life can never be known, but it can be assumed he reached the legendary Don Juan figure of “a thousand and three.”

  Over a drink with Onassis, the Greek billionaire told Elizabeth that “a woman is really déclassée if she hasn’t been to bed with Aly at least once. When he first meets you, he’ll give you a gold cigarette case with a large emerald embedded in it. After he fucks you, he’ll give you a diamond bracelet.”

  Throughout his contacts in the film industry as Louis B. Mayer’s secretary, Dick had learned many of the secrets of Khan’s success with women. Among a bevy of beauties from all walks of life, he had seduced such actresses as Kim Novak, who claimed, “Aly just loved women too much.” Rita Hayworth, who married and divorced him in 1949 and 1953, respectively, had said, “He went to bed with Gilda and woke up the next morning with me.”

  FAMILIES WHO FEUD

  left figure, above: The Aga Khan III, imam to the Ismaili Muslims, with his Europeanized son (right), Prince Aly Khan, in Milan in 1936

  Aly’s other seductions included Merle Oberon, Irene Pappas, Gene Tierney, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Yvonne De Carlo, Joan Fontaine, and the French chanteuse, Juliette Greco.

  When Elizabeth arrived in Cannes to be Khan’s house guest, he was in residence with the international model known as “Bettina,” whose real name was Simone Bodin.

  Dick told Elizabeth, “Aly is known for his ‘staying power.’ He can have intercourse for hours and hours. In Cairo, he was trained in an ancient Arabic sexual technique. They call it Imsák. He keeps a bucket of ice by the side of his bed. When is about to climax, he plunges his arms into the bucket of ice and starts all over again.”

  “Oleg Cassini learned one of Aly’s secrets from Gene Tierney,” Elizabeth said. “I hear that Aly is one of the world’s leading cunnilinguists. Supposedly, he performs his specialty on any woman he’s involved with at least three times a day.”

  After her first dinner with the Prince, Elizabeth later said she found “Aly’s company very seductive. As for Eddie, he seemed to have eyes only for Bettina. At dinner, he didn’t look at me once.”

  On the following night, Fisher was invited to go with Onassis to the casino at Monte Carlo. Elizabeth falsely claimed she had a headache, and Khan said he had a vital business meeting at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes. Bettina agreed to go with Fisher to the casino, followed by a visit to a night club in the same complex.

  Within an hour of Fisher’s departure for Monaco, Khan, as she’d later confess to Dick, “appeared at my bedroom door. He was completely nude and what a sight it was. I had some music playing and I was wearing a sheer black négligée. He took my hand and guided me to the floor, where he danced with me until this foot-long protrusion separated us.”

  “He was a thrilling lover,” she claimed. “He told me, ‘I only think of the woman’s pleasure when I am in love, and I am in love with you from the day we first met. I want to marry you.”

  Fortunately, at a party in Paris, Elsa Maxwell had warned Elizabeth, “When Aly falls for a woman, it is madly and deeply. The only problem is that it might last for only one night.”

  Two views of Prince Aly Khan: top photo: with Bettina lower photo: with Rita Hayworth

  “All the rumors about Aly’s sexual success are true,” Elizabeth told Dick the next day. “If I hadn’t married Eddie, I would have accepted his proposal of marriage, even if it weren’t all that sincere. I adore this man. No man ever took me to the plateau he did. Imagine being seduced by a man skilled in the sexual secrets of the ancient Egyptians. If Cleopatra were still around, she would surely have dumped Marc Antony for Aly.”

  “You look so very sad, and you seemed so happy,” Dick said. “I noticed Aly didn’t leave your room until four o’clock in the morning. Bettina and Eddie got back at six o’clock from Monaco. So I hope two hours was time enough to recover.”

  “If I’m looking sad, it’s because I know that I have experienced the greatest love-making of my life. It will all be downhill from here.”

  She and Khan didn’t connect again, and he kissed her goodbye before her return to Spiegel’s yacht. In front of Dick, she whispered in Khan’s ear, “Any time, any place, just give me a call. Let me put it this way: You are the world’s greatest host.”

  “And you are the century’s love goddess,” he told her.

  “Don’t let Rita hear you say that.”

  ***

  After her not-always idyllic honeymoon with Fisher on the Continent, Elizabeth and Fisher flew into her familiar London, where Sam Spiegel turned over to them a fifteen-room estate next door to Windsor Castle. The property was surrounded with a high wall which had been topped with barbed wire. An ominou
s sign read: WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT, STAY OUT!

  Tout London ignored her, and she felt isolated at Windsor. Consequently, she demanded (and prevailed) that Spiegel rent the two best suites at the Dorchester for Fisher and herself.

  One night at the bar of the very elegant Dorchester, Elizabeth joined Dick and her agent, Kurt Frings, who was actually running her career. She told very unflattering stories about Eddie. “He struggled and struggled last night, but he couldn’t give me an orgasm,” she admitted to them. “He claims I’m castrating him.” Then, when she saw him walking across the bar to join them, she said in a whisper, “Who needs Eddie Fisher?”

  Ostensibly, Elizabeth was in London for the exterior shots of Suddenly, Last Summer being filmed at the Shepperton Studios in the London suburbs.

  Director Joseph Mankiewicz had encountered Elizabeth’s divorced husband, Michael Wilding, at a party in Mayfair. “I plan to both direct and fuck your ex-wife,” he told Wilding.

  “Good luck, ol’ boy,” Wilding responded.

  Although he was one of the most acclaimed singing stars in America, Fisher was unhappily settling into the role of Mr. Elizabeth Taylor. “My real job was keeping her happy,” he wrote. “My own career was disappearing. My singing, which had once been the thing I lived for, was becoming more of a well-paid hobby.”

  Both Fisher and Elizabeth seemed hellbent on spending their every last cent, often on presents for one another. While in London, he flew her to Paris to shop at the House of Dior, where he purchased for her a dozen designer gowns and dresses by Yves Saint-Laurent.

  She returned the favor by buying him a Jaguar. He bought a thirteen-room brick mansion for her in Purchase, New York, set on five acres, and also a $350,000 chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland. In addition to the Jaguar, on another occasion, she gave him an emerald-green Rolls-Royce convertible.