The Richard Burton Diaries (213 page)

Saturday 20th
⁸⁸
[...] Curious note: I sent a ‘gram to Arthur Koestler (
Darkness at Noon
, a marvellous 3 volume autobiography and the latest
Case of the Midnight Toad
) expressing admiration for his work and asking him to come to the party with ulterior motive of possibility of film from
Midnight Toad
.
⁹⁰
His reply said something like ‘would love to come but climate there unhealthy for me. Happy 30th birthday to your wife.‘
⁹¹
I am most surprised that he is still persona non grata after all these years. I wonder if he's melodramatizing the whole situation. After all, he reneged from the Party something like 35 years ago.
⁹²
[...] The greatest monsters to the Jugoslavs were their former tyrannical Royalty and we heard from Tito himself that there was no objection to Elisheba coming back and at the Proust Ball I met Elisheba's (uncle)? cousin(?) who would be king were there a throne there to sit on and he told me that he'd been back as a tourist once and as a business man another time and everybody treated him with great bonhomie.
⁹³
That's of course Jugland which is far more liberal than a Russian-run Hungary. Still, since
Darkness at Noon
Koestler has been harmless to them.
⁹⁴
And even that, as I remember, didn't specify any particular country though it was obviously a Communist one. [...] Also, of course, I'm not sure how much pamphleteering Koestler has been up to through the years. It will be interesting to find out, for instance, if he's been read here at all since he changed colours. [...]

I did a longish scene with the girl yesterday and it seemed to go alright. This film might be amusant after all.

E came in to the room for a half hour or so and has gone back to bed to read a script that I might do. It's
Sir, you bastard
and I want to find out if she understands it as I think it might be confusing unless, like me, you have read the book first. [...]

Saturday 26th
A day of enormous excitement for all. Some 80 odd or so people arrived at various times of the day for the big weekend.
⁹⁵
Chief pleasures were of course the families – mine and Elizabeth's or should I say rather ours and ours. The next were Grace who again qualified for five stars and Nevill Coghill and Spender and Mrs Ladas and Simon and Sheran. What exquisite manners they all have in their very different ways. I taught all the girls to curtsey and all the lads how to do a proper hand-shake with Royalty and each by each and one by one they all performed admirably. We had a cocktail party in our suite – hastily rearranged for the purpose – which went with a swing – at least the last reluctant group left at about midnight with Howard Mara and kids staying until the end as it was the only chance we had of talking properly to them. I had several clec-clecs with my lot in one of their rooms.
⁹⁶
I took wee Maria along – not so wee, she is a very tall girl – and introduced her to her 1000s of heretofore unknown and un-met aunts and uncles and, completely forgetting, we went babbling on in Welsh until we suddenly all realized that Maria was completely bewildered. She had been told by me of course many times that certain percentages of Welshmen spoke a tongue entirely alien to English but I don't think, until she heard us all at it last night, that she realized quite how alien it actually was. I think that vaguely she thought it was the equivalent of an Irish brogue or a Highland Scottish. The family adored her of course because she looked so like Kate. In fact Will Cross-eyes and a couple of the others thought she was Kate.
⁹⁷
There is superficially a fleeting resemblance. Round face, cherubic cheeks, same colouring. The family were in tremendous form – Tom at 71 being the dynamo. The flight was as smooth as silk and was a particular thrill for Verdun who had,
to my astonishment
, never been in an aeroplane in his life and a jet at that. That alone has been sufficient excitement for him. They, with their still retained sense of wonder, were bowled over by everything. The very bathrooms, the fact that there was a bar in each room the view of the legendary Danube, the meetings with Elizabeth and of course Grace were high points. Both E and Grace behaved superbly. [...] Little Mickey Caine had flown from LA with one of his exquisite ‘birds’, a Marlon Brando Asiatic as usual, and How and Mar and my lovely Layton and the equally lovely Chris and Aileen had come almost exactly half way around the world and are going to be a trifle jet-lagged today and
tomorrow I would guess but the parties will keep them going.
⁹⁸
Victor Spinetti and boyfriend were, are here, and Ringo and wife and Susannah York and Mick and Liz and Brook and Grace's Lady-in-waiting a certain Mme Aurelli, Professor Warner and a lady –possibly his inamorata – called Anna Something, and Doris Brynner and Bettina and Marie Lou Tolo (one of the girls in the film), Yves Le Tourneur and wife, Vanhattan of Van Cleef – Cartiers NY I mean – Hebe Dorsey, Vicky Berkeley complete with Ron, Billy Williams and wife (Williams is the great cameraman who shot
XYZ
) and our very own Chris and Liza who gave me thunderous good night kisses several to each side of the face and Kurt Frings, John Springer and too many to recount them all.
⁹⁹
Frings went into business as usual and after extracting a promise from me that I would not throw him into the Danube said that the Lerner–Loewe–Donen consortium were still desperate for me to play
Little Prince
. [...] He also said that representing E and I was the greatest experience of his life and that we didn't realize what magic our names were and that after
XYZ
E is hotter or as hot as she's ever been. And that the respect and even awe at the mention of our names in meetings is quite extraordinary, that he has been in the business forty years and that [the] plural noun ‘Burtons’ is almost synonymous with Royalty. Another incidental exchange in the brouhaha of the party was then Francis Warner said he would like to see me alone for
¹
/
₂
an hour or so today and I said I would call him as soon as I arrived back from the Studio. I didn't ask him what specifically about but he was obviously bursting to tell me and said something very quickly and in tone of espionage. ‘Fellowship at Oxford’. I am intrigued. It could be a step towards a D.Litt., which is the only honour I really covet.
¹⁰⁰
[...]

The world press is here in droves. From everywhere. Literally, it seems. Japanese, India, as well as every other place you can think of in the western hemisphere. I think I will have to talk to them today – perhaps en masse. Dread of dreads and hell's damnation.
¹⁰¹

The brothers (and their women too for that matter) are agog about the Welsh rugby team of the last three years and have bought 16mm copies of ‘highlights’ of the All Blacks and various other games. Shall try and watch it all this afternoon while everyone else is kipping.

Graham got very sloshed very quickly. I had to pull him up once after having heard him introduce Ringo Starr and wife four times to Howard and Mara with a ‘D'you know my brother-in-law Howard, these are friends of
mine called Starkie.’ The latter is Ringo's real name and the joke once is ok.
¹⁰²
Twice it's tedious. Three times it's rude. He is, poor boy very very star-struck. But lovely with it. S. Spender is anxious to talk to me too. I wonder what about. What is the Cause?

Monday 28th February 1972 Budapest
Merely to record that I missed yesterday's entry out of sheer inability to get down to the job. The apartment seemed eternally full of various people from time to time on Saturday and again yesterday.

[...] Grace came to dinner last night just with Howard and Mara and us. I had three slices of layer cake and ice-cream and was so tired that I was to all intents and purposes drunk. As a matter of fact I did not have one single drink through all the endless weekend though it did cross my mind at one moment when my fatigue was so great that I could not think of another way to go. However I didn't succumb and just as well. A drunken me as well as a tired me would have been too much and possibly disastrous. The news is just about on. I have turned it off. The usual stuff. Nixon home claiming to have made no secret deal with China.
¹⁰³
A protest march in Paris (including Simone de Beauvoir) re the shooting of a picketing striker at the Renault car factory.
¹⁰⁴
They carried pictures of the dead man.

Francis Warner intimated at more than a fellowship but a doctorate and KBE.
¹⁰⁵
We shall see. [...] I don't know what to do about
Little Prince
. I think I'd better listen to the tapes and decide for myself whether I can do it. [...]

The party was a huge success. That means four parties – the cocktail party when we arrived, the cellar party, the brunch party next day and the posh party at night. All apart from a nasty incident with Alan Williams at the cellar party went without a hitch.
¹⁰⁶
There was a press conference which went alright. I had to do it alone. [...] I saw a couple of hours of Welsh and Lions rugby on 16mm and by god they were really good.

Both Grace and E turned out first class jobs, both looking pretty with E – at the last party particularly – looking absolutely dazzling. Raquel Welch arrived. She is very pretty though a trifle hard faced. I recounted our conversations to E who said ‘She was making a pass at you.’ I protested but E was adamant. [...] Stephen Spender gave me – or rather – us a volume of his latest verse and I gave him a cheque for £1000 and a promise to write an article for the magazine which will keep the world informed as to where the behind-the-iron-curtain
writers are imprisoned so that they will at least know that the rest of the world knows that we know where they are and in some way we must let the incarcerated know that their names live on the lips and in the pen and ink of caring people outside their lands.
¹⁰⁷

[...] The weekend was an undoubted success. I am sure that were it not for the fantastic exuberance of my family that it would not have been half so good. They seemed to relax everybody and nobody has ever seen Grace let her hair down – literally and figuratively – as much as Grace. Her lady-in-waiting too a Mme Aurelia was a ball of fire. Grace confesses that she never knew she had it in her. She danced wild Hungarian dances and at one time as I was sitting in a booth with Frankie Howerd Susannah York and husband and Ladas and Spender the rest of the party swept past us doing the conga.
¹⁰⁸
I was goggleeyed. Led by the family the whole thing passed before our eyes with Grace in the middle of it all. Unbelievable.

MARCH

Wednesday 1st, Budapest
[...] St David's Day and they're all going to school in Wales bearing daffodils and leeks and there will be singing in the Assembly Hall and competitions and a great many will get drunk tonight except me of course.
¹⁰⁹
[...]

It was nightmarish yesterday going into work and finding, as I walked on the set that the scene was yet another party, dinner jackets and ladies in evening dresses. For a second I thought that I was doomed to parties for the rest of my life. [...] I talked to Aaron and at last we have decided to return to England and pay our taxes. I also – they have come back to me with a bang – finally and irrevocably turned down
Petit Prince
. So my next definite stint is
Volcano
.

We have asked Simon and Sheran to look for a place near theirs and not too far from Oxford with plenty of ground to keep a horse or two and a large dog or two, so that I can nip in to Oxford when I feel like it.

I have to send telegrams etc. this morning setting the wheels turning for the return to England. We shall do our damnedest not to winter there though we shall pay the taxes.

Wednesday 15th
It is our eighth wedding anniversary. By some standards that is nothing. By others it's a monumental achievement. During that time too we have the rare distinction – in our business – of having been faithful to each other and for three years approx before that. So it's unofficially 11 years.
¹¹⁰
And
where do we think we shall celebrate tonight – in a small cafe, tete-a-tete, eyes misting over with memories, our favourite tunes playing on a gypsy violin, dancing cheek to cheek, alone together in a crowd. Ah no. We have something far better than that. We are going to be at the British Bloody embassy with their excellent bores the ambassador and dress.
¹¹¹
A silly mistake on our parts and not to be repeated.

[...] E had bought me a score or more of books, many crazy pens and pencils, a mug for tea drinking – reputedly 150 years old – the perfect size. And an Art Nouveau picture frame, a small one for a desk. I have nothing for E except my presence.

E adores occasions. Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, Xmas, Thanksgiving etc. I loathe them except for personal things like the anniversaries. But commercialized things like Xmas and Mother's day and Father's day (yet) and so on give me a royal pain in the ass.

[...] Wish we didn't have to go out to the Embassy, especially as they think of actors and actresses as just so many clowns. Envying them just the same. Some ambassadors are very good company but they are few and far between. Some are even intelligent. I can't remember what this feller was like. Nothing stunning or I would have remembered him from the birthday party. A little gentle sending up is called for I think. After all, it's not their fault that they happened to ask us on our anniversary and it is my fault that I had forgotten that it was until too late. [...]

Thursday 23rd, Dorchester Hotel
Back again to the somewhat dilapidated Dorchester in one of those horrible non-suites.
¹¹²
We flew from Budapest around 6pm and arrived about 8. [...]

We went straight to 2 Squires Mount where there were a great many people including Tom and Hyral, Will and son, Graham and son, Menna and husband, Wendy and Derek but no Cassie, Dai, Hilda, our Dai and Betty or Cis and Elfed.
¹¹³
They'll be alright and all there today. I am looking forward to being on the plane tomorrow morning though but not looking forward to Pest.