Read The Most Beautiful Woman in the World Online
Authors: Ellis Amburn
Wilding, Laele (granddaughter), 280–81, 282–83, 302, 380, 414
Wilding, Michael: career of, 65, 66, 67, 68, 73, 74–75, 76, 77–78, 82, 94, 105, 111, 124, 131, 209; death of 331–32; health and alcohol problems, 95–96, 104, 108, 124; marriage to Kay Young, 25, 66, 67, 68–69, 72; romantic and sexual partners, 24–25, 62, 66–67, 105, 112, 118–19; suit against Hedda Hopper, 70–72; Taylor, Elizabeth, and, 24–25, 62, 66–82, 91, 95–96, 99, 104, 105, 111–12, 115, 118–19, 123–24, 126, 143, 294
Wilding, Michael Howard, Jr., (son), 76, 77, 79, 128, 136, 140, 141, 143, 145, 178, 204, 207, 210, 213, 222, 223–24, 239–40, 245, 261–62, 263, 277–79, 280–81, 294, 297–98, 302, 313, 322, 332, 337–38, 343, 357, 379–80, 389, 427
Wilding, Naomi (granddaughter), 380
William, Prince of England, 341
Williams, Alan, 294, 296–97
Williams, Brook, 246, 294, 296–97, 315, 321, 340, 357
Williams, Emlyn, 184, 197–98, 205, 246, 294, 359
Williams, Esther, 51, 53, 105, 465
Williams, Tennessee, 62, 138–39, 157, 161, 162, 165, 174, 207, 236–37, 238, 239
Williamson, Marianne, 392
Wills, Chill, 87, 94, 102
Wilson, Henry, 85, 89
Wilson, Bob, 233, 297
Winchell, Walter, 154
Windsor, Duke and Duchess of, 56, 234–36, 243, 253, 256–57, 279–80, 285, 286–87, 289–90, 376
Winfrey, Oprah, 283, 393, 396, 458
Winged Victory
, 52
Winters, Jason, 45–52
Winters, Jonathan, 229
Winters, Shelley, xxii, 21, 35–36, 40, 42, 60, 169, 347
Withers, Jane, 18, 94
Woman in the Window, The
, 64
Wonder, Stevie, 372
Wood, Natalie, 11, 43, 156, 177, 336
Woods, James, 21
Woodward, Joanne, 148
World Enough and Time
(play), 221
Wulff, Guillermo, 208–209
Wyler, William, 33, 222
Wyman, Jane, 84–85
Wynberg, Henry, 310, 312, 315, 316–17, 318, 322, 323, 375
X, Y, and Zee
, 273–75
Yardeni, Eitan, 417
Yearling, The
, 19
York, Susannah, 274, 294, 296
Young, Howard, 25
Young, Kay, 25, 66, 67, 68–69, 72
Young, Victor, 128
Young Toscanini
, 378–79
Zahedi, Ardeshir, 325, 326, 430
Zahedi, Firhooz, 430
Zanuck, Darryl F., 4, 192, 193– 94, 199, 200, 201, 202
Zanuck, Darrylin, 4
Zanuck, Richard, 4, 201
Zarak Khan
, 105
Zeffirelli, Franco, 249, 305, 335, 378–79
Zim, Harvey, 32
Zukor, Adolph, 21
Jack Larson, who is an old friend of Elizabeth Taylor’s and the late Montgomery Clift’s, and who is loved by millions of television aficionados as the original Jimmy Olsen to George Reeves’s Superman, was my key interviewee for this revised, updated edition of
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.
The memories he generously shared with me for the first edition a decade ago were instrumental in the book’s subsequent worldwide success and the continuing demand for it, which occasioned this update. My gratitude to Jack Larson is infinite.
Jack and his late partner, James Bridges, director of
Paper Chase
and
The China Syndrome
, took me under their wing as far back as the 1960s, entertaining me in London in their friend Leslie Caron’s elegant home in Montpelier Square; introducing me to Debra Winger at Paramount when Jim was directing her
Urban Cowboy
; dining me at Lucy’s and Senor Pico’s in Hollywood; and taking me to parties in Beverly Hills where I could connect with such studio chiefs as Barry Diller and talk with Marisa Berenson, whom I later published, Ellen Burstyn, Irving “Swifty” Lazar, and the then-new generation of actors, including Brad Davis and Joseph Bottoms.
Pat Loud, another TV legend and star of the original reality series
An American Family
in 1970, helped me find primary sources in Los Angeles, just as she had on my previous Los Angeles-based biographies. In the forthcoming HBO movie about
An American Family
, the role of Pat Loud will be played by Diane Lane. Thank you, Pat, for opening many doors and loving me for over forty years, even after that horrendous weekend when Bob Harris invited you, me, and Martha Mitchell out to his house in Fire Island Pines.
I am grateful to producer/writer George DiCaprio of Appian Way productions for his friendship and support in all my undertakings.
Interviews are the lifeblood of biography, and the ones in this book were among those cited recently when I was inducted into the Bob Schieffer School of Journalism Hall of Excellence “for demonstrating the highest standards of professionalism in the field of communication.” My thanks to Texas Christian University and the distinguished journalists and educators Tommy Thomason, Russ Hurst, and Phil Record.
I have the late
Hollywood Reporter
columnist Radie Harris to thank for taking me to dinner with Elizabeth Taylor. Also present at that dinner were Elizabeth’s chums Calvin Klein, Andy Warhol, and Halston. Radie has since died, and I remember her with tremendous affection and respect—as well as gratitude for such other high-wattage evenings as the ones she arranged for me with Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Henry Fonda.
Mutual friends of Dame Elizabeth and myself, lawyer L. Arnold Weissberger and agent Milton Goldman, introduced me to John Gielgud, Gloria Swanson, Bill Travers, Carol Channing, and Lillian Gish. Joshua and Nedda Logan introduced me to Mary Martin, Estee Lauder, Gloria Vanderbilt, Anthony Perkins, Lois Chiles, Celeste Holm, Eugenia Sheppard, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Phyllis Newman. At Florence and Harold Rome’s Park Avenue home I met Ethel Merman, Al and Dolly Hirschfeld, Arlene Francis and Martin Gabel, and Walter and Jean Kerr. Joyce Haber gave me introductions to Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Marlo Thomas, Wolfgang Puck, and Dani Janssen.
The well-connected society writer David Patrick Columbia met with me at Swifty’s restaurant on Madison Avenue, which led to some exclusive revelations.
In Los Angeles, Shelley Winters, Robert Wagner, and I enjoyed a productive gabfest at Chasen’s. Novelist Norman Bogner opened important channels, arranging interviews with two of Elizabeth Taylor’s directors—Edward Dmytryk and Brian Hutton. Dale Olson, Jean Porter, Curtis Harrington, Frank Taylor, Ed Ditterline, Robert and Jacqueline Burr, Gary Graver, Colin Donnarumma, and hundreds of others whose paths crossed Dame Elizabeth’s graciously consented to be interviewed.
Befriending me during many trips to California over the years were ICM agent and lifelong friend Ron Bernstein, Dorris Halsey, Priscilla Presley, Kim Novak, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Spero Pastos, Ms. Aldous Huxley, Peggy Lee, James Stewart, Dr. Mani Bhaumik, Patricia (Ms. Joseph Cotten) Medina, Tony Bill, Hector Arce, Yvonne De Carlo, George Cukor, Edie Goetz, Evarts Zigler, Ella Raines, Mike Hamilburg, Hermes Pan, Jack Haley Jr., Kathryn Grayson, and Julia Phillips.
New York friends who’ve thrown out lifelines over the years include Ross Claiborne, who introduced me to Joan Blondell (ex-wife of Mike Todd) and Peter Viertel. I lunched with Ginger Rogers at La Grenouille; Kitty Carlisle Hart, Budd Schulberg, and Ms. Richard Rodgers, on different occasions, at Le Madrigal; and with June Allyson (Elizabeth’s costar in
Little Women
) and Van Johnson (Elizabeth’s costar in
The Last Time I Saw Paris
) at Le Cote Basque. While Rex Reed’s editor, first at Delacorte and later at Morrow, I became involved with his—and Elizabeth Taylor’s—friend Lillian Hellman. I’m grateful to them all for insights on Hollywood, Broadway, Mike Todd, MGM, and the jet set—key stops in the fabulous journey of Elizabeth Taylor.
At the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on La Cienaga Boulevard in Los Angeles, expert librarians laid out the personal papers of George Stevens, who directed Elizabeth in
Giant
, for me to inspect. For her professional expertise and longtime friendship, I am grateful to Alachua County librarian Joanne Tremblay. Kudos, also, to librarian Jessica Jaeger. At the cozy High Springs, Florida, library, Martha Roberts, Alice Brown (now at the Gainesville library), Mary Gay, Ann Rich, Morgan Shooter, Pat Carr, Margaret Schmelz, and Renee Patterson were unfailingly helpful.
The Betty Ford Center courteously provided general information but of course respected anonymity to the letter.
Thanks again to author/collaborator/editor Diane Reverand, who, when she was Cliff Street Books publisher in 1998, commissioned and edited the original edition of
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World
. Katherine Nintzel of HarperCollins shepherded the revised edition.
Ellis Amburn’s magnificent biography of the Academy Award®-winning actress and legendary beauty captures the unparalleled Elizabeth in all her tragedy and splendor—her tumultuous loves, her doomed affections, her shocking excesses, her courage, and her inimitable style. Filled with stunning revelations about the men in her life—Burton, Clift, Hilton, Dean, Fisher—it is a glorious celebration of the turbulent life of a brilliant star that none in Hollywood or heaven could ever outshine.
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The first thing you noticed about her when she was still in her twenties was that, despite the beauty she displayed on film, no camera had ever done her justice. Her skin was unbelievable. She had on a simple sundress, and I remember her shoulders being velvety and iridescent. Her coloring made me think of a rose at dusk. Her manner was appealingly demure–typical 1950s ladylike poise. Being in her presence, at the height of her beauty, was an almost religious experience. She was an example of nature perfecting itself, a once-in-a-generation phenomenon.
“A quick, dishy read.”
Booklist
“Amburn’s book is filled with anecdotes involving Taylor with studio executives, film stars, roughnecks, and intellectuals. She loved many of them and broke many of their hearts. . . . Ellis Amburn, who spent years researching Taylor’s life, clearly admires the former movie queen.”
United Press International
“We have to salute author Ellis Amburn for bringing us things old, new, borrowed, and very blue.”
New York Post
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Copyright © 2000, 2011 by Ellis Amburn
ISBN 9780061014086
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062096920
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