Violet Eyes and her Welsh Pony
Elizabeth Taylor has never impressed. She's a crappy actress and just average looking, atleast for a so-called great beauty. To me Elizabeth has always been an over rated boozy tart and her marriage to Richard Burton a sad bore.
My mom says Burton was a great talent who sold his soul when he hitched a ride on that shallow showboat. What do my mother and I know. The rest of the world was fascinated by this union. Burton, however, tormented by his choices, liked to call Liz the c word in public and once claimed to a close pal her whole life could be summed up with the line,"Baby, have you seen the dog leash?"
But my Vanity Fair arrived the other day (a dreamy pic of torpedo tits on the cover) and in it a moving article that included a number of Richard's adoring, self-depecrating letters to Liz.
It seems Richard was already a full blown alcoholic when they met but his spunky wife wasn't. Ofcourse, Liz liked her Jack and Coke, she enjoyed a buzz, but for it was all for fun. It wasn't long before she caught the bug bigtime and by the time they made Virginia Wolfe they were BOTH dedicated drunks.
At the hieght of their success they were driving the industry and supporting up to 43 friends and family. After 15 years their alcohol fueled rollercoaster ride, their very public movable feast, had taken it's toll. In the end I guess she had to get away. Elizabeth claimed before a judge that life had... become unbearable. They divorced. Remarried. Divorced again 9months later. They remained close through subsequant romances, breakups, marriages and divorces. They were on the phone sometimes daily.
Richard really loved that woman. I mean really loved her. Infact while living in Switzerland married to another he wrote his last love letter to Elizabeth, asking to "come home", mailed it, then went to bed with a headache and died of a stroke. Elizabeth was attending the funeral in Switzerland when the letter made it to cali.
She has kept it in her nightstand ever since.
I've never cared much for either one of them but for some reason all this stuff made me very weepy and blue.
My mom says Burton was a great talent who sold his soul when he hitched a ride on that shallow showboat. What do my mother and I know. The rest of the world was fascinated by this union. Burton, however, tormented by his choices, liked to call Liz the c word in public and once claimed to a close pal her whole life could be summed up with the line,"Baby, have you seen the dog leash?"
But my Vanity Fair arrived the other day (a dreamy pic of torpedo tits on the cover) and in it a moving article that included a number of Richard's adoring, self-depecrating letters to Liz.
It seems Richard was already a full blown alcoholic when they met but his spunky wife wasn't. Ofcourse, Liz liked her Jack and Coke, she enjoyed a buzz, but for it was all for fun. It wasn't long before she caught the bug bigtime and by the time they made Virginia Wolfe they were BOTH dedicated drunks.
At the hieght of their success they were driving the industry and supporting up to 43 friends and family. After 15 years their alcohol fueled rollercoaster ride, their very public movable feast, had taken it's toll. In the end I guess she had to get away. Elizabeth claimed before a judge that life had... become unbearable. They divorced. Remarried. Divorced again 9months later. They remained close through subsequant romances, breakups, marriages and divorces. They were on the phone sometimes daily.
Richard really loved that woman. I mean really loved her. Infact while living in Switzerland married to another he wrote his last love letter to Elizabeth, asking to "come home", mailed it, then went to bed with a headache and died of a stroke. Elizabeth was attending the funeral in Switzerland when the letter made it to cali.
She has kept it in her nightstand ever since.
I've never cared much for either one of them but for some reason all this stuff made me very weepy and blue.