How to Be a Movie Star (60 page)

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"Elizabeth and Richard are": From an interview with Tom Mankiewicz.

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"To keep Elizabeth happy": Eddie Fisher with David Fisher,
Been There, Done That
(St. Martin's Press, 2000).

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Elizabeth's shopping expedition: Various newspaper accounts, including the
New York Daily News,
February 6, 1962, and the
Hartford Courant
(Associated Press wire report), February 5, 1962.

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an overdose of sleeping pills: I based my account on interviews with Tom Mankiewicz, Hank Moonjean, and Eddie Fisher. Also see Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss,
The Cleopatra Papers: A Private Correspondence
(Simon & Schuster, 1963); Walter Wanger and Joe Hyams,
My Life with Cleopatra
(Bantam Books, 1963); Fisher's two memoirs; as well as the
New York Daily News,
February 18 and 19, 1962; LAT, February 18, 1962;
The Times,
February 18 and 19, 1962; and the Associated Press and other wire reports.

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so the star could have a little rest: Interestingly, George Stevens also seemed disinclined to believe the suicide theory. Discussing Elizabeth and the
Cleopatra
brouhaha with journalist Ruth Waterbury, he discounted the idea of a female star wanting to escape the pressure of movie-making by taking "too many sleeping pills" because that meant "putting the whole cast out of work ... hurting the labor unions ... destroying the industry." Although he did not specifically name Elizabeth, Stevens's point seems clear: He did not feel she had made a conscious, deliberate attempt to kill herself. (Transcript of an unpublished interview with George Stevens by Ruth Waterbury, September 7, 1962, GSC, AMPAS.)

29 "
here I am"
: Interview on
Larry King Live,
January 15, 2001, CNN transcripts.

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"It was very, very embarrassing": Audio commentary to
Cleopatra
DVD.

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"behaved like a man": Fisher,
Been There, Done That.

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"upset about her life": Wanger,
My Life with Cleopatra.

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"scenes missing": Alexander Walker,
Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor
(Grove Press, 1997).

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"never [to] do anything":
New York Daily News,
February 20, 1962; various wire reports.

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"all the preliminary details":
New York Journal-American,
February 19, 1962.

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"the fall guy":
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner,
February 21, 1962.

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she screamed nonstop for hours: Interview with Hank Moonjean, as well as Melvyn Bragg,
Richard Burton: A Life
(Warner Books, 1990).

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offered Jack Brodsky 100,000 lire: Brodsky,
The Cleopatra Papers.

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Elizabeth's thirtieth birthday:
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner,
February 28, 1962; various UPI and AP reports.

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"Sheer horror":
Cosmopolitan,
September 1987.

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"bottle it up": Brodsky,
The Cleopatra Papers.

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"appreciate the invaluable publicity":
New York Journal-American,
February 21, 1962.

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"very much in love": LAT, March 12, 1962, and elsewhere.

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The Gouffe Case:
Memo from William Orr, September 11, 1961; memo to Jack L. Warner from P. D. Knecht, November 15, 1961; Jack L. Warner Collection, USC (hereafter, JWC, USC).

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"Eddie's friends think":
New York Journal-American,
March 11, 1962.

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"a neat stroke of public relations":
New York Journal-American,
March 28, 1962.

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Gracie Square Hospital: Fisher,
Been There, Done That.

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the bizarre press conference: Various newspaper accounts, including the
New York Journal-American,
March 30, 1962;
Daily News
(New York), March 30 and 31, 1962; LAT, March 31, 1962; as well as Fisher's two memoirs.

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the banner headline:
New York Daily News,
March 31, 1962.

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"The 'kissing picture'":
New York Journal-American,
April 1, 1962.

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"I was, I suppose, behaving wrongly": ET,
Elizabeth Taylor.

39 through the windows of the villa: Interviews with Tom Mankiewicz and Hank Moonjean.

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"I don't remember ever not being famous":
Vanity Fair,
March 2007.

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"half asleep from being stared at": David Thomson,
A Biographical Dictionary of Film
(Alfred A. Knopf, 1975).

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"They want pictures": Graham Jenkins,
Richard Burton, My Brother
(Michael Joseph Ltd., 1988).

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Striding down the Via Veneto on Burton's arm: Various newspaper accounts, including the
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner,
March 31 and April 1, 1962; the
New York Herald Tribune,
April 1, 1962; LAT, April 1, 1962.

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"baroque and jocular": Ennio Flaiano,
Opere. Scritti postumi
(Bompiani, 1988), quoted in Mormorio.

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"nuzzle over their vino": Dorothy Kilgallen's column,
New York Journal-American,
April 4, 1962.

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"Miss Taylor and Burton":
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner,
March 31, 1962; various wire reports.

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"How did I know": Brodsky,
The Cleopatra Papers.

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"Elizabeth Taylor and her three children":
New York Daily News,
April 2, 1962.

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they all went off to the beach: Various newspaper accounts, including LAT, April 2, 1962, and the
Daily Mirror,
April 2, 1962.

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"an official military":
New York Herald Tribune,
April 3, 1962.

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"Elizabeth Taylor is going to have":
New York Mirror,
April 1, 1962.

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–44 sexual intercourse was invented in 1963: This comes from the poem "Annus Mirabilis," in Larkin's collection
High Windows
(Faber and Faber, 1974).

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the latest trend for women: Throughout late February and most of March various newspapers ran syndicated fashion articles about Elizabeth and
Cleopatra.
See, for example,
Hartford Courant,
February 24, 26, 27, and 28, 1962.

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"Will her new Cleopatra look":
Look,
February 27, 1962.

2. Educating a Movie Star

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At the studio gates: This description is taken from a careful consideration of various recollections of both Elizabeth and her mother, as well as a transcript of an interview between Clarence Brown and C. David Heymann, HCSBU. See also C. David Heymann,
Liz: An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor
(Birch Lane Press, 1995).

47 "Two diminutive": HCSBU.

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"I was terrifically impressed": ET,
Elizabeth Taylor.

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"It was a complete city," "I think people don't": Jeanine Basinger,
The Star Machine
(Vintage Books, 2009).

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"What impressed me": HCSBU.

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"spiritual affinity":
Photoplay,
December 1945.

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"clamoring for bits": Channing Pollock,
Harvest of My Years: An Autobiography
(Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1943).

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born Sarah Warmbrodt: U.S. Census, 1900, 1910, 1920.

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"She was afraid": LAT, May 29, 1921.

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from ingénues to vamps: LAT, May 29, 1921; October 26, 1922; LAT on-line database; Internet Broadway Database. Sara was in Los Angeles at the Majestic at least by December 7, 1920 (not July 1922 as has been written), when an article in the LAT mentions her appearance in
Clarence.
Far from being in only a handful of productions, as has usually been presumed, Sara enjoyed quite a varied stage career that lasted more than a decade. Herewith is an incomplete list of her stage credits:
Fair and Warmer,
1917, probably in a touring company;
Upstairs and Down,
1920, Los Angeles;
The Naughty Wife,
1920, Los Angeles;
Clarence,
1920, Los Angeles;
The Remnant,
1920 or 1921, Los Angeles;
Parlor, Bedroom and Bath,
1921, Los Angeles;
Turn to the Right,
1921, Los Angeles;
The Ruined Lady,
1922, Los Angeles;
My Lady Friends,
1922, Los Angeles;
The Sign on the Door,
1922, Los Angeles;
The Fool,
1922, Los Angeles, Broadway, London;
The Dagger,
1925, Broadway;
Arabesque,
1925, Broadway;
Fool's Bells,
1925, Broadway;
Mama Loves Papa,
1926, Broadway;
The Little Spitfire,
1926, Broadway.

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Franklin Pangborn was known: LAT, May 29, 1921; various articles, NYPL.

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"hectic" (read: sexy) bathing suit: LAT, June 8, 1922.

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"brilliant first-night audience": LAT, July 14, 1922.

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Alla Nazimova: Pollock,
Harvest of My Years.

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"their fair Sara": LAT, August 22, 1922.

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"creditable but not startling":
Theatre,
November 1922.

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"A complete triumph": This was quoted in the LAT, October 22, 1924, under the headline
CALIFORNIA GIRL MAKES HIT ABROAD.
Sara's parents had by now moved to Lawndale, south of Los Angeles near Manhattan Beach.

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"the size of a belt buckle": Pollock,
Harvest of My Years.

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Her return to the United States: U.S. Ship Passenger Lists, RMS
Mauretania,
departing Southampton March 21, 1925, arriving New York March 27, 1925, National Archives.

53 the waiting room: Elinor Donahue recalled this place for me, where the mothers would "sit and knit and gossip with each other."

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on Hedda's nerves: Interview with Robert Shaw.

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From the windows of her office: I have taken this from an interview with Robert Shaw, as well as a detailed description by the columnist's copy editor that was published in the LAT, March 13, 1940 (it might have been written by Hedda herself). A profile of Hopper in
Time,
July 28, 1947, was also an important source, including Hedda's greeting of "Hello, slaves."

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that Hedda found her true calling: U.S. Census, 1900, 1910. See also Hedda Hopper,
From Under My Hat
(MacFadden Books, 1964) and George Eells,
Hedda and Louella: A Dual Biography of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons
(Putnam, 1972).

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,
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"A few words from Hedda," "Wake up," "On that day":
Time,
July 28, 1947.

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"a Quaker," said Dema Harshbarger:
Time
(July 28, 1947) quoted "a friend" of Hedda's as saying she was "a Quaker from the mouth down." Anthony Slide, who knew many of Hedda's legmen, identified the friend as Dema Harshbarger and used the wording I have included here. Personal interview with Slide; see also Slide, "Hedda Hopper,"
Stallion,
June 1986.

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Gone With the Wind:
In
Elizabeth Taylor,
Taylor writes: "I guess the first serious thought about my acting came when they were casting
Gone With the Wind,
" and she then recounted the tales of people stopping them on the street. Sara had first told this story in print in a three-part article for
Ladies' Home Journal,
February-April 1954. She wrote, disingenuously, that Elizabeth "wasn't the least scrap interested. Neither was I." Robert Shaw confirmed stories that Sara had been eager for Elizabeth's casting and that Hedda had pushed for Elizabeth behind the scenes.

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child star Deanna Durbin: In her December 2, 1940, column, three months before Elizabeth signed a contract with Universal, Hedda wrote: "Deanna Durbin's teacher, de Segurola, has a new find—8-year-old Elizabeth Taylor." Andrés de Segurola, at one time basso of the Metropolitan Opera Company, was working at Universal as a vocal coach for Durbin. Whether or not Elizabeth ever actually trained with de Segurola is unknown (and unlikely), but Hedda's comparison of the two girls at this juncture could only have helped Sara's negotiations with the studio, where Durbin was the reigning child star.