by Sam Kashner
“overweight stars…”: Caute, 226.
“ice-skating rink…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 36.
“SHE OUTLIVED SIX…”: Boom! promotional booklet.
“Elizabeth Taylor is seriously considering…and not with crutches”: Ibid.
“a picture-postcard sea”: Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, eds., The Noël Coward Notebooks (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), 655.
“please feel completely free…”: quoted in Boom! promotional booklet.
“Our credo might have been…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 87.
“tighten up those muscles…”: Ibid., 80.
“Creating a life with him…”: Ibid., 87.
“My working relationship…”: quoted in Caute, 226.
“very old and slightly…” and following entries: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 244.
“never lost his eye”: Cole Lesley, The Life of Noël Coward (New York: Knopf, 1976), 508.
“before it’s too late”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 245.
“I’m supposed to leap…”: quoted in Mark Shivas, “Was It Like This With Louis XIV?” New York Times, October 15, 1976.
“a den of thieves” anecdote: Steverson, 168.
“looking infinitely sexy” anecdote: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 245.
“Not too bad…”: Ibid., 238.
“canary, and not mustard” and description of yacht: Alpert, 186.
who relieved themselves all over the rugs: Kelley, 269 and Cottrell, 315.
“We are lunching with somebody…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 260.
“Not bad for an old woman…”: Ibid., 261.
“And possibly Ari Onassis…”: Ibid., 260.
“how beautiful his eyes were”: Ibid., 261.
“eyes in the back of her bum…a bit of a bore”: Ibid.
“half a million pounds…get the money”: Ibid., 265.
“How can he possibly…”: Ibid., 241.
“How many nominations…” anecdote: Ibid., 242.
“touching it and staring…”: Ibid., 263.
“When I got there…”: Gielgud’s interview, Palmer’s In from the Cold.
“A terrible day…” anecdote: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 243.
“She is a nice fat girl…”: Ibid., 238.
“The Burtons seem to revel…”: Cottrell, 319.
“amazing how a couple…”: London Evening Standard, quoted in Cottrell, 319.
“lost faith in faith”: Greene, The Comedians, DVD.
“a character assassination…”: Graham Greene and Richard Greene, ed., A Life in Letters (Canada: Knopf, 2007), 293.
“a country of voodoo…”: Ibid.
“You must at some time…deserted film for the stage”: David Lewin interview with the Burtons, Palmer’s In from the Cold.
“Doctor Faustus is…”: quoted in Cottrell, 319.
“Doctor Faustus becomes…”: Pauline Kael, Going Steady, 41.
“absolutely the right…”: Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1968.
“Her vivid personal imagery…”: Ibid.
“if Faustus says ‘gold’…”: Kael, 41.
“No one sets out…”: Jenkins, 160.
“I would lift up my arms…”: Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical Story of Doctor Faustus DVD.
“anticlimactic and banal”: Bosley Crowther, New York Times, February 7, 1968.
“got[ten] away with murder…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 306.
“deep down in his desperate…”: Ibid.
didn’t really understand: Authors’ interview with Gore Vidal.
“Scene by scene”: John Huston, An Open Book (New York: Ballantine, 1981), 374.
CHAPTER 10: THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN
“I introduced Elizabeth to beer…”: quoted in Interview, February 2007, 228.
“With Richard Burton, I was living…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 87.
“It is a little melancholy…”: Time, March 28, 1969, quoted in Steverson, 171.
“Yes, luv, we did spend…”: Burton clipping file, BFI Archive.
“The Grand Duchess Vladimir…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 63.
“I thought how perfect…”: Ibid., 49.
“deep Asscher cuts…”: Ibid., 49.
“I adore wearing gems…”: Ibid., 84.
“Is that the famous diamond?” anecdote: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 84–85.
“Elizabeth Taylor and Richard…”: Maddox, 207–08.
“a kind of arrogance…”: quoted in Maddox, 208.
“Dick [Burton] was too old…”: Tennessee Williams, Memoirs (New York: Doubleday, 1975), 200.
“we’ll all be proud of [Boom!]…”: Losey quoted in Caute, 226.
“You’re just wrought up…”: Williams, Boom!, DVD.
“beyond bad, the other side…”: John Waters quoted in Premiere, August 1992, 9.
“Richard Burton would be leaving…unprofessional”: Cottrell, 323.
“like an immature bride…”: Ibid.
“One would think…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 384.
“Elizabeth had her uterus…completely helpless”: Ibid., 255.
“lurid hallucinations…hush, he’ll hear you”: Ibid.
“a naughty girl”…“fuck off”: Ibid.
“She is still asleep…”: Ibid., 256.
“A child with Richard…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, original manuscript. 246 “truly terrible”: quoted in Maddox, 119, and Secret Ceremony clipping file, Academy Library.
“Her disintegration is a…”: quoted in Maddox, 119.
“quite beautifully made…”: Secret Ceremony clipping file, Academy Library.
“famous for her mammalia,” Secret Ceremony, DVD.
“The paparazzi were now…”: Authors’ interview with Bozzacchi.
“I remember that he had…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 256.
“He literally missed…”: quoted in Cottrell, 326.
“After Cis, I loved Ifor…”: Jenkins, 179.
“hero, brother, father…”: Cottrell, 327.
“I tried it once”: Bragg, 258.
“What could I say?…”: Authors’ interview with Liz Smith and Denis Ferrara.
“entertaining an officer…”: Munn, 36.
“I will if you will”: Bragg, 258.
“They must be out of…”: Spoto, 326.
“her young & attractive…working without me”: Bragg, 262.
“I have worked out…”: Ibid., 262–63.
“The beating they took…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 99.
“All along I knew…”: Ibid., 102.
“marred royalty…dervish”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 272.
“I’d better be off…”: Ibid., 273.
“I’d like to be alone…”: Ibid., 264.
“She asked if I would stop…”: Ibid.
“like a wild animal…”: Ibid., 277.
“He had made my mother…”: Interview, 182.
“by lampooning his own…witless adaptation”: quoted in Steverson, 172–73.
“She is a wildly exciting love-mistress…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 277.
CHAPTER 11: “RINGS AND FARTHINGALES”
“It’s just a present for Liz”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.
“Sometimes his joy was perverse…”: My Love Affair with Jewelry, 90.
“So I’ll have my two favorite…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 278.
“My chief worry…”: Ibid., 280.
“stoned daze…a murderous world”: Ibid., 286–87.
“like a talisman…” and description of La Peregrina: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 90.
“Sometimes his joy was perverse…”: Ibid.
“exquisitely matched…”: Ibid., 86.
“The last six or eight…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 290.
“I was never sued…”: Ibid., 262.
“What are you doing, Lumpy?”: Ibid., 292.
“Elizabeth is
now looking…returner of the ball”: Ibid., 303.
“You will never, of course…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.
“a lot of mediocre rubbish”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 262.
“I must have a son…I will have Anne”: all dialogue from Anne of the Thousand Days.
“no rubbish and cunning”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 306.
“They have every shrug…longer than Hamlet”: Ibid.
speculating that Burton and Bujold: Steverson, 179.
“a demonic charmer…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 294.
“how marvelous E. would be”: Ibid., 306.
“I am very jealous of E….”: Ibid., 305.
“all the godsons, goddaughters…”: Ibid., 313.
“There is no question…odd jewel or two”: Ibid.
“We’ll nip over to Paris…books with photos by E.”: Ibid., 313–14.
“not a bad record…”: Ibid., 311.
“imitating a blue-gray…intolerant wife”: Ibid., 308.
“They fought right from…”: Authors’ interview with Liz Smith.
“running rows…smattering of scholarship”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 315.
“the drinking fed the jealousy…”: Liz Smith.
“If any man had done that…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 315.
“We are fighting…separate ways pretty soon”: Ibid., 316.
“cleaned up a little…”: quoted in Steverson, 175.
“dared risky roles and…”: Ibid., 176.
“rings and farthingales…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.
“numbered, gleaming…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 317.
“He’d have lived until…”: Ibid., 320.
“long silences and deadly…red and masculine”: Ibid., 318.
“[W]hat the hell’s the matter…”: Ibid.
“It will make my ugly, big…”: Ibid.
“there was much more to life…”: Ibid.
“I was going to get that diamond…”: Ibid., 318–19.
“I wanted that diamond…Dallas, Texas”: Ibid., 319.
Cartier’s display ad in New York Times, Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 95.
“too soon made glad/…”: Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess.”
“Well, that’s not the sort…” anecdote, Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 173.
“It was more of a millstone…”: Kelley, 267.
“The peasants have been lining up…”: quoted in Maddox, 214.
“How many women have been criticized…”: Ibid., 213.
“The Cartier diamond…”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 12: FALLEN STARS
“Nobody but nobody…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 324.
“We’ve lived like gypsies”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor excerpt, Ladies’ Home Journal, 81.
“How funny it will be…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 267.
“None of the children…”: Taylor clipping file, Academy Library.
“If you’re a bad actor…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 278.
“Very well. I shall stop…”: Ibid., 325.
“break the back of…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.
“The sun is bright…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 326.
“You look marvelous!” anecdote: Ibid.
“I have to face the fact…”: Ibid., 327.
“When he stopped drinking…”: Authors’ conversation with Taylor confidante.
“was like a second mother…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 212.
“We can’t make a picture…”: Walker, 307.
“The world has changed…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 324.
“the world’s costliest coat…”: Life, Taylor clipping file, Academy Library.
“owed her performance…”: Bragg, 320.
“The whole world makes fun…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 328.
“My only chance is that…”: Ibid.
“pink pills…They certainly eased the boredom…”: Ibid., 329.
“Barbra Streisand who fancies herself…”: Ibid.
“Who the hell voted for Wayne?”: Ibid.
“In some ways, Anne of the Thousand Days…”: Interview with Liz Smith.
“You son of a bitch…”: Bragg, 174.
“I lost again…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 329.
“If he had won the Oscar…”: Liz Smith.
“The Million-Dollar Era…”: Taylor clipping file, Academy Library.
“put a bandage around her…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 329.
“‘Mia,’ saying that…”: Ibid., 332.
“would see, in person…”: Ibid.
“she held the audience…”: Ibid.
“hippie”…“to have a look” anecdote: Ibid., 335.
“a kind of super motel”: Ibid., 324.
“sheep’s eyes”: Ibid.
“I aged another ten years…I love you, too, baby”: Ibid., 338.
“Dearest Scrupelshrumpilstilskin…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.
“another attack of gout…”: Ibid.
“Dearest Toothache…”: Ibid.
“Dear Long-way-away-one…”: Ibid.
“Forgot the momentous news…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 351.
“Don’t forget you’re always…”: quoted in Alpert, 252.
“I get a bad notice…”: Ibid.
“Missed yesterday…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 352.
“They’re remarkable…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor excerpt, Ladies’ Home Journal, 81.
“Dearest Ivy League”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 397.
“pleased that it means we are…”: Ibid., 333.
“an unmistakable aura…”: Bernard Weintraub, “The Prime of Mr. Burton?” New York Times, December 6, 1970.
“It seems fairly ridiculous…Never”: Ibid.
“She wants me to…approaching my prime”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 13: BLUEBEARD
“All my life, I think I have…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 367.
“No Bluebeard broads”: Taylor quoted in Bragg, 407.
“The Burtons are protected…”: Cottrell, 338.
“I will love you always…”: Kelley, 298 fn.
“a ruthless survivor…”: Walker, 309.
“We both let off steam…”: Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1971, 88.
“The people around her…”: quoted in Spoto, 344.
“She’s left the hotel…”: Michael Caine, What’s It All About? (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 2002), 313.
“the only actor I ever…”: Ibid., 319.
“a living legend…real-life Alfie”: Ibid., 312.
“Dear Twit Twaddle etc….”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.
“I love you and…”: Ibid.
“She didn’t exactly encourage…”: Munn, 195.
“squelching [her] real feelings…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 100.
“bugger all” and “the most glamorous hooker…”: quoted in reviews of “Under Milk Wood [DVD],” FilmThreat.com, April 12, 2008.
“To begin at the beginning…”: Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood, DVD.
“After he’d had a few…” anecdote: Cottrell, 385.
“never heard Richard talk…an entire life”: Gianni Bozzacchi interview.
“[T]he winning film of the moment…”: quoted in Munn, 191.
“just sitting back and listening…”: Ibid.
“The man Redford…a star”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 351.
“two heavyweight champions…”: Bragg, 357.
“The quivering awareness…”: Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1971, 118.
“his latest and least…hope for”: Vincent Canby, “Whatever Became of Richard Burton?” New York Times, June 13, 1971.
“My lack of interest…untrue”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 367.
“The old Etonians…”: Ibid., 370.
“You know, it’s really not…”: paraphrased quote, Bragg, 367.
“This is the baby Richard and I…”: Kelley, 281.
“I made it up…”: Ibid., 282.
“My left hand and wrist…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 359–60.
“Were it not, actually, for E.’s…”: Ibid., 364.
“If I should go away…”: Ibid., 371–72.
“Suddenly, something came…” anecdote: Taylor, Elizabeth Takes Off, 75.
“only Elizabeth drinks…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 377.
“But he’s your dog” anecdote: Ibid., 368–69.
“The virtual cessation…”: Ibid., 381.
“E. is trying to press me…”: Ibid., 385.
“slightly gaga”: Ibid., 390.
“in a somewhat false…”: Ibid., 387–88.
“the Duchess of Windsor and…”: Ibid., 389.
“an hour or more of…”: Ibid.
“cadaverous…Where’s my Elizabeth?”: Ibid., 389–90.
“making out”: Ibid., 390.
“so that you can feel…”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, 173.
“with half a dozen…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 393.
“[F]irm as they are…”: Ibid., 404.
“like cats after cream…”: Cottrell, 359.
“a genius…” Tammy Grimes quoted in Cottrell, 361.
“to be done with immense…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 405.
“plays the organ…”: Ibid., 406.
“If he sold himself…”: Alpert, 204.
“both mercurial, jealous…will ever happen”: Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, 135–36.
“fell in love with her…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 50.
“He didn’t make me look…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 405–06.
“We would love you to come…”: Ibid., 407.
“It cld be a step toward…”: Ibid., 410.
“Love Is Everlasting”: Walker, 314.
“by God, they’re really good…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 410.
“One day somebody else…”: Taylor, My Love Affair with Jewelry, 73.
“Ifor is very near the end…”: Burton notebooks, Bragg, 363.
“he was the nearest to a father…”: Jenkins, 179.
CHAPTER 14: DIVORCE HIS DIVORCE HERS
“I shall miss you with passion…”: Burton letter to Taylor, B-T Archive.
“Maybe we loved each other…”: Taylor letter to Burton, July 4, 1973, Ibid.
“Richard needed their protection…”: Alpert, 207.