“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Elizabeth said when told the news. Richard sat in a chair, looking amused.
“He said he wanted more,” said Stewart Wilson.
“Well, he’s not getting more,” Elizabeth said angrily. “And, in fact, now he’s not getting the million, either.”
“Unbelievable,” Richard said. “Taking money from a woman.”
“That’s what I said, yesterday,” Elizabeth remarked. “Tell him to get a job. How about that? Try working. Like the rest of us.”
By the time the final decree was handed down (not until March 1964), Eddie would end up with roughly just half a million dollars—a significant amount of money in 1964, if not now. It’s Her Destiny
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difficult to understand why Elizabeth still, to this day, holds such hostility toward Eddie or exactly when her animosity started. When she wrote her first book in 1965, she still seemed to have some warm feelings for him. “I was not a very healthy girl,” she wrote at that time. “Poor Eddie. What hell that must have been for him.” In years to come, though, Eddie would write a couple of autobiographies of his own and would be very critical of Elizabeth in them, especially in the second, the truly sensational Been There, Done That (1999). Those books, combined with the fact that he demanded money from her way back when, must be why she is still so angry at him. She’s even made excuses for Nicky Hilton’s abusiveness (“He was drunk”), but for Eddie, no excuses. It’s become accepted wisdom over the years that Eddie Fisher’s career ended as a result of all of the adverse publicity concerning Elizabeth, Richard, and Debbie, but that’s not really true. When he got back to the States after leaving Rome in 1962, he was more determined than ever to immerse himself in his work. To that end, he put together a dynamic and carefully considered new act, which opened to rave reviews in Los Angeles at the Cocoanut Grove on May 24, 1962. The tour took him to Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Chicago, and Philadelphia before he made his successful opening at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway on October 2, 1962 (where he recorded a double live album that is still worth listening to). Though he made no direct mention of Elizabeth, the new act was nothing if not autobiographical, with songs such as the American classics “You Made Me Love You,” “This Nearly Was Mine,” and “What Kind of Fool Am I?” Perhaps Howard Taubman, in his New York Times review, best summarized the entertainer’s performance at the Winter Garden: “Eddie Fisher pours it on. Showmanship, rhythm, fervor. A thorough professional. Belts tunes like a home-run slugger.”
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The Taylor-Burton
Sexual Revolution
T hough there was no way for them to recognize it at the time, looking back today, it’s clear that the extramarital affair of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was a sign of the times. Society was seeing a change occurring in sexual mores, and the Cleopatra stars were nothing if not a reflection of those changes. They were, in effect, spearheading a sexual revolution.
Dr. George O’Neill, the anthropologist who, with his wife Nena, wrote the book Open Marriage: A New Lifestyle for Couples, noted, “Of course, the basic changes were already underway. The old morality was slipping away though many were unaware that the revolution had arrived. Had they [Burton and Taylor] done what they did a decade before, their popularity would almost surely have been severely damaged. The Cleopatra scandal came along when our institutions were altering; we were questioning old values and trying on new ones for size. Because they were so much in the public eye, and because it is still true that all the world loves a lover, they were not only able to ride over the turmoil but to help speed up the revolution in moral standards.”
“Men and women have long engaged in society-frowned-upon activities like extramarital affairs, but were fearful of the consequences if they were discovered; loss of prestige and loss of job were certain to follow,” observed Dr. Joyce Wike, professor of sociology and anthropology at Nebraska Wesleyan University. “Then along came Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who were not only found out but readily admitted it. They didn’t change sexual standards overnight. However, they helped supply the needed impetus. Celebrity leaders—even those who don’t profess to influence—are very necessary. We reason, ‘if they can do it, why can’t I?’ ”
“According to the code of ethics today, I was, I suppose, behaving wrongly because I broke the conventions,” Elizabeth wrote Her Destiny
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in her 1965 memoir, Elizabeth Taylor. “But I didn’t feel immoral then, though I knew what I was doing, loving Richard, was wrong. I never felt dirty, because it never was dirty. I felt terrible heartache because so many innocent people were involved. But I couldn’t help loving Richard.”
Meanwhile, in Rome, the Italians joined in a chorus of condemnation about the illicit relationship between the two married stars. Rome’s afternoon paper, Il Giornale d’Italia, summed up public opinion when it stated, “Nobody can forget the fatuity of her heart, which left behind four husbands in the short span of a thirty-year life, and is perhaps about to destroy, to her exclusive personal benefit, the marriage of Richard Burton.”
Even Pope John XXIII entered the fray: “We like to call Rome a Holy City. God forbid it becomes a city of perversion.” The Vatican radio station lashed out at those who consider marriage “a game which they start and interrupt with the capricious makebelieve of children.”
However, the most damning blast of all came from L’Osserva- tore della Domenica, which was published weekly in Vatican City. It said, in part, “The trouble is, my dear lady, you are killing too many [marriages]. When will you finish? In erotic vagrancy? And your poor children, those who are your true children and the one who was taken from an honest situation. Don’t these institutions think before handing children to somebody? Don’t they request moral references? Was it not better to entrust this girl to an honest bricklayer and a modest housewife rather than you, my dear lady, and to your fourth husband? The housewife and the bricklayer would have worked harder and would have seriously made sacrifices for their child. You, instead, have other things to do.”
Elizabeth finished reading that article and sat frozen. The paper slipped to the floor, but she didn’t shift her gaze from her now empty hand. At this rare moment in her life, she was actually speechless. She couldn’t believe that the Vatican had questioned her right to adopt Maria. One thing she could always say about MGM: As much as she hated the studio, it had protected her from 202
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this kind of publicity. Mayer would never have allowed the media, the world’s press, to have such a poor perception of her. Even at its worst, her publicity always seemed to somehow enhance her image. Somehow—and even when at cross-purposes with her—
Mayer would have found a way to protect her. Now, alone at 20th Century-Fox, she had even managed to tick off the Pope!
Elizabeth and Richard had plans that evening and, she decided, they were not going to cancel them just to please the Pontiff. They went to dinner at the Grand Hotel. At her arrival, she was the subject of whispers and much staring. She looked stunning in an elegant black gown that was formfitting at the bodice and erupted into a flare of silk at the hips. The couple dined on cheese soufflés and steak. Then they went to meet Mike Nichols in a Via Veneto club. On the way, Elizabeth was stunned to hear people on the street actually heckling her in Italian. “What are they saying?” she asked the driver.
“Don’t tell her,” snapped Richard.
Elizabeth swatted him lightly. “Quiet.” She leaned close to the chauffeur. “Favore. Tell me what they’re saying.”
The driver looked toward the backseat through his rearview mirror. “Homewrecker. Whore. Unfit mother.”
Elizabeth sat back, and gazed out at the citizens of Rome. Richard leaned in to her for a gentle kiss on the cheek.
“Let’s never come back here,” she whispered.
Cleopatra Arrives
T he day after the Vatican’s vicious attack on her, El
izabeth Taylor had to film one of the most memorable scenes in Cleopatra. In it, the Queen, holding her son, Caesarion, makes her triumphant Her Destiny
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entrance into ancient Rome. If she is accepted by the Romans and they acknowledge Caesarion as Julius Caesar’s only child and heir, the Roman and Egyptian empires will merge and she will then be the most powerful woman in the world. Otherwise, she will be banished and, humiliated, her life will lie in ruins. A throng of Romans would be portrayed by thousands of Italian Catholic extras. Grand in scope, this scene would become one of the most expensive ever filmed.
It was ironic that Elizabeth found herself in much the same situation as her royal character, due to all the negative press of late. Would the army of Italian extras accept her and go about the business of creating the scene at hand? Or would they, antagonized by the Vatican’s position, jeer at her, rather than cheer for Cleopatra? So far, it had not been a good day. On the way to Cinecitta, Elizabeth was subjected to taunts from passersby. Then, when she got to the studio, she was informed that there’d been a bomb threat placed against the production. The presence of security guards on the set, disguised in togas, only served to heighten the suspense. Elizabeth feared the possibility that one of the thousands of extras in that scene might have a gun and shoot her. “I don’t think I can do it,” she told Richard. “I am truly afraid.”
In costume as Mark Antony, Burton said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m here, luv. The police are here. It will be fine.” He had a knife in his pocket, which probably made him feel he had some control over the situation. Realistically, though, what was he going to do with it? There was no way to actually protect Elizabeth if someone wanted to take a shot at her.
The wardrobe Elizabeth had to wear for the scene was impossibly heavy; the fifteen-pound headdress, made of twenty-four-carat gold thread, was two and a half feet high and practically impossible for her to balance on her head. Years later, she would recall, “I thought, well, in front of the children and my mother and father, I mustn’t look afraid. So I got into my costume, which seemed to weigh hundreds of pounds. I got the whole drag on and crawled up on the [three-story-high] Sphinx, feeling totally trembly.”
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According to the script, as she made her way beneath the Arch of Titus, Cleopatra was to be greeted by the chants of her constituency. The extras were told to wave and shout at her, and scream, “Cleopatra! Cleopatra! Cleopatra!”
“She was terrified,” said Chris Mankiewicz. “Not just because of threats, but the whole thing was supposed to tilt at one point, and she was deathly afraid of falling off of it.”
“Richard was out of the shot,” Elizabeth recalled, “but I was supposed to look at him. Mother and Dad and the kids were standing right next to him. Richard had his hand on his dagger—he’d had it sharpened. I don’t know what he thought he could do, but he looked ready to sell his life dearly.”
At the precise moment that Joseph Mankiewicz yelled, “Action!” the fifty-foot-high Sphinx, with Elizabeth and the youngster atop it and carried by three hundred Nubian slaves, began to slowly lurch forward. It was preceded by a company of dancing girls, charioteers with black horses, and trumpeters on white ones. As instructed, as she sat atop the monstrosity, she did not move a muscle. A frozen and regal glare played on her face and she stared ahead at Caesar, her arms folded and holding the emblems of Isis. As Elizabeth made her way through the crowd, the extras did as they were told: “Cleopatra! Cleopatra! Cleopatra!”
However, as the scene continued, Elizabeth noticed that the chanting slowly began to change: “Leez! Leez! Leez!” Caught up in the thrill of the moment, the thousands of extras seemed to forget they were in a movie. Now, in their eyes, atop that Sphinx sat not Cleopatra but Elizabeth Taylor. The sound echoed throughout the cavernous set as the extras screamed and shouted and applauded and blew kisses at her. “Baci! Baci! Baci!” they shouted, which means “kisses” in Italian. For Elizabeth, this was not only a moment on the set of a movie unlike any other in her long career, it was a moment in her life like no other as well. Obviously these Italians did not agree with the Vatican’s position on Elizabeth—their sympathies were with her. “The tears were pouring down my face,” she recalled. Joseph Her Destiny
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Mankiewicz had to stop the scene as Richard and everyone else present—her parents, her children—came forward to surround Elizabeth, all crying. Mankiewicz handed her a bullhorn. “Grazie! Grazie!” she said to the crowds.
Sara couldn’t believe what she’d just seen take place. She and Francis had come to be with Elizabeth during this difficult time, and she was glad that they had decided to do it. She would tell the story for years; it would become one of her best tales. She didn’t even have to exaggerate this one, since it was already pretty fantastic. To say that she was proud of her daughter would be an understatement. Of course, Francis felt the same way. He sent a letter to his friend Stefan Verkaufen from Rome that said in part,
“When I think about my beloved Elizabeth and what her life is like these days, it makes me cry . . . tears of both joy and sadness. This is her greatest role, Cleopatra, there is no doubt about it. But I am afraid she is paying a steep price for such glory. Of course, as well expected, she doesn’t listen to me about any of it. God love her, though, she is her own woman, exactly like her mother.”
The filming of that pivotal scene in Cleopatra impacted everyone who witnessed it, including Richard Burton. Never before had he ever witnessed such reverence toward a person. Never before had he known of a woman who could command such adoration. He simply couldn’t get past it and would talk about it to others for weeks to come, as if he’d borne witness to some kind of divine event. Indeed, his presence at such a jaw-dropping display of adulation would be the catalyst for Richard Burton’s new commitment to a life with Elizabeth Taylor. When he stood at her side for the next few scenes, he was consumed by one desire: Now she had to be his . . . and he would do whatever necessary to have her. 206
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Elizabeth as a Mother
I t was still—unbelievably enough, considering all that had transpired—April of 1962, Easter weekend. With their spouses now gone from them, Elizabeth and Richard were finally free to be together. Of course, Elizabeth was happy about that, but had another matter on her mind. She was stung by the position the Vatican had taken against her, and concerned that the natural mother of Maria might hear about the controversy and have second thoughts about having given over her daughter to Elizabeth. Though it was of course too late for this woman to reconsider her choice in giving up Maria, Elizabeth couldn’t bear the thought that she might now regret it. She sent her a telegram. “She cabled her assurances that her love for Petra was as strong as ever,” recalled the woman, “and that she would do her utmost to continue to provide the best for the child. She was so worried about my reaction to recent news about her, she later wrote me a letter to say that if I wanted, she would fly immediately to Mering to talk with me personally and reassure me of her devotion to Petra. It was not necessary. Her heart spoke for her.”
Maria’s natural mother might have been satisfied, but the press couldn’t help but criticize Elizabeth’s mothering skills. She was an easy target and, of course, she’d now given the media a big bull’seye at which to aim. Speaking of Elizabeth’s experience as a mother, Mike Todd had given an interview the afternoon before he died. “I’ve been around longer than Liz and I’ve learned a few things,” he said. “Like when she makes mistakes that are not that important, I can tell her right off. But if they matter a lot, a guy has to have patience. Being a mother is a woman’s most important job, and you can’t tell her she’s being a poor mother because then she gets hurt, real hurt. I can’t say, ‘Don’t compete with the nurse, you’re the mother.’ I’ve got to keep quiet because Liz has to learn these things for herself.” Todd recalled that near the beginning of Elizabeth’s career, when her earning capacity was staggering
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took a studio suspension to have her firstborn (from second husband Mike Wilding). “Do you realize that this baby is costing you
$150,000?” a friend asked her. “I wouldn’t care if it cost a million,”
she said, “and I’m going to have another baby and another baby and another.”
To be fair, Elizabeth faced challenges as a mother that most women of her time could never relate to, largely as a consequence of her career. However, she continued to dedicate as much of herself as possible to her children, and it wasn’t easy for her to have the children she did bear.
“When I was pregnant with Liza, it was only a few months after my back operation,” she has recalled, “and the doctors thought the pressure from the embryo would push the newly formed bone
[in her back] right out and cripple me. They had a meeting and decided the baby should be aborted. I said, ‘Not on your nelly.’
And they explained why it must happen. And I explained why it was not going to happen. So they fixed my back brace with elastic gussets over my stomach to make room for Liza. I almost lost her three times.” The back brace pushed the baby up into Elizabeth’s ribs and even moved her heart a couple of inches, causing her to lose consciousness from time to time. Therefore, she was put on digitalis. In time, though, the medicine began affecting the baby’s heartbeat. But, ironically, the baby now needed it to live; if they took the mother off the medication the child would die. It was decided to take Elizabeth off the medicine for twenty-four hours, risk her going into a coma, and then deliver the baby, if possible. The baby was born by cesarian section, and, they thought, stillborn. She didn’t breathe for fourteen long minutes. They told Todd that the baby was gone, though Elizabeth would be fine. This was when the doctors suggested that Elizabeth not have any more children and asked if they could perform a tubal ligation, and Todd agreed to it. While all of this was going on, the baby began to breathe. She would live—and thank goodness for it, Elizabeth would say, because Liza was a part of Mike that continued in his stead. 208
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