The Richard Burton Diaries (271 page)

106
Taverna Flavia, Via Flavia 91, Rome.

107
Hôtel Président Wilson, Quai Wilson, Geneva.

108
Chambésy, a village on the northern outskirts of Geneva.

109
Leighton: really Layton. Son of Howard and Mara.

110
William David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech (1918–85), at this point leading the Harlech Television consortium which would win the franchise from Television Wales and the West.

111
Francis (1954—), the current Baron Harlech, Alice (1952–95) and Victoria (1945—).

112
Sylvia Thomas (1940–67).

113
Lord Derby, chairman of Television Wales and the West.

114
A reference to T. S. Eliot's poem
The Waste Land
(1922), which opens with the line ‘April is the cruellest month’. ‘tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’, a reference to Shakespeare's
Macbeth
, Act V, scence v.

115
Hotel Capo Caccia is on the Capo Caccia peninsula, near Alghero, a port on the north-west coast of Sardinia.

116
'Evan Roberts Tiziani’ is a slip – it was Evan Richards. Evan Roberts (1878–1951) was a Welsh evangelist who had led the 1904–05 religious revival in Wales. A Kabuki headdress is an elaborate Japanese wig.

117
A steward on the
Kalizma
.

118
W. John Morgan (1929–88), Welsh journalist and television producer, also involved with the establishment of HTV. The
New Statesman
is a British socialist weekly magazine.

119
Michael Dunn (1935–73) played Rudi in
Boom!

120
Graham Payn (1918–2005), actor and companion of Coward. ‘Coley’ was his secretary Cole Lesley (d. 1980).

121
David Niven (1909–83), actor.

122
Joanna Shimkus (1943—) played the role of Blackie, the secretary to Flora Goforth (played by Taylor).

123
Valerio DePaolis (1942—), who was to perform again as Unit Manager in
Divorce His, Divorce Hers
.

124
Peter Thorneycroft (1909–94), previously Conservative MP for Stafford (1938–45) and Monmouth (1945–66), formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer, had lost his seat at the 1966 general election and become Baron Thorneycroft. His second wife was Carla, Contessa Roberti (1914–2007), by whom he had had a son (Piero) and a daughter (Francesca).

125
Bonifacio, port on the southern tip of Corsica.

126
David Heyman (1961—), more famous today for being the producer of the Harry Potter films.

127
Paris was to be the venue for the European premiere of
Taming of the Shrew
.

128
Cavalcade
(1931).

129
The play
Blithe Spirit
(1941). Portmeirion, an Italianate holiday village and architectural flight of fancy in Merionethshire, North Wales.

130
Joyce Carey (1898–1993), who appeared in the film
Blithe Spirit
(1945).

131
Burton and Taylor would appear on stage together in 1983 in a production of
Private Lives
(1933).

132
Hay Fever
(1925).

133
Jacqueline de Ribes (1929—), designer, couturière and socialite. Her husband was Edouard, comte de Ribes.

134
It could have been either Elie (1917–2007) or his cousin Guy (1909–2007).

135
'La Scandale’: the affair between Burton and Taylor. It should be ‘Le Scandale’.

136
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970), President of France.

137
Curd (often Curt) Jurgens (1915–82), actor, who had played alongside Burton in
Bitter Victory
. His wife at this time was Simone Bicheron.

138
The Bear Hotel, Sunninghill, Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

139
David Lewin and James Mossman interviewed Burton and Taylor. Alexander Walker (1920–2003), film critic and writer who would publish a biography of Elizabeth Taylor. Lord David Cecil (1902–86), Professor of English Literature at Oxford, 1948–70. Professor Marvin Rosenberg of the University of California, Berkeley, Shakespearean expert (1912–2003).

140
Dylan being Dylan Thomas. David Jones (1895–1974), author of
In Parenthesis
(1937).

141
Louis MacNeice was a friend of Burton.

142
Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982), poet.

143
Mildred Eldridge (1909–91), artist and wife of R. S. Thomas.

144
Nuffield Hospital, Woodstock Road, Oxford.

145
Quintin Hogg (1907–2001), Conservative MP for St Marylebone, formerly (and again after 1970), Lord Hailsham, who had been a contender for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1963 but had lost out to Edward Heath (1916–2005). Robert Boothby (1900–86), Baron Boothby from 1958, another Conservative politician, who had married earlier that year Wanda Sanna, a Sardinian woman 33 years his junior.

146
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (1935—) and Katharine, Duchess of Kent (1933—).

147
Rolf Hochhuth's play
Soldiers, Necrology on Geneva
(1967). Burton was considering playing the role of Churchill.

148
Bettina Krahmer, Guy Rothschild's stepdaughter by his first marriage.

149
Costa Smeralda, on the north-eastern coast of Sardinia.

150
Alberto and Raphael were crew members on the
Kalizma
.

151
Liscia di Vacca, a bay between Porto Cervo and Pevero, on the Costa Smeralda. It means ‘beach of the cows’.

152
Curtis Bill Pepper (1917—), war correspondent and head of the Rome bureau for
Newsweek
magazine.

153
Port city some 60 km south of Rome.

1968

1
Fitzroy Nuffield Hospital, Bryanston Square, London.

2
Michael Holroyd (1935—),
Lytton Strachey: The New Biography
(1968).

3
Muriel Spark, (1918–2006)
The Public Image
(1968). Raymond Vignale, also secretary to Taylor.

4
‘God save the mark!’ is a line spoken by Hotspur in
Henry IV
(Part 1), Act III, scene ii.

5
Johann Sebastian Bach was Burton and Taylor's housekeeper at Chalet Ariel, Gstaad.

6
The Wells, Well Walk, Hampstead.

7
At this point Taylor was planning to make
The Only Game in Town
with Frank Sinatra, singer, actor. The subsequent delay led Sinatra to withdraw from the project, and he was replaced by Warren Beatty (1937—).

8
Burton means autobiography. A. L. Rowse,
A Cornishman in Oxford
(1965), p. 145: ‘He [Cecil] asked me along to lunch: it would have been kinder to ask me to tea, for I foresaw that some fearful social obstacle would rear its ugly head. It did – in the form of asparagus – and I was inwardly vexed. How did one eat it? It was the same conundrum that was raised in an aristocratic Officers’ Club under the Nazis: how did the Führer eat his asparagus? I could not bring myself to plunge my fingers into the mess, as my host did without ado; so I proudly left it on the side of my plate.’ Burton and Rowse (1903–97) would become friends in the last months of Burton's life, after appearing on American television together.

9
Terence Young (1915–94) was to direct Burton in
The Klansman
and was also director for the ill-fated film
Jackpot
.

10
Brook Williams (1938–2005), actor, son of Emlyn and Molly Williams, was a great friend of Burton's and acted alongside him in more than a dozen films starting with
Cleopatra
and ending with
Wagner
.

11
Sally, daughter of Stanley and Ellen Baker.

12
Ethel Kennedy (1928—), widow of Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68), US Senator, candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for President, who had been assassinated in June 1968.

13
Aristotle Onassis (1904–75), shipping magnate, who was to marry Jackie Kennedy (1929–94), widow of President John F. Kennedy, in October 1968.

14
The documentary film (which won an Oscar for Best Short Subject Documentary) was directed by Charles Guggenheim (1924–2002) and entitled
Robert Kennedy Remembered
.

15
Hôtellerie du Bas Breau, Grande Rue, Barbizon, Fontainebleau.

16
Dr Barrington Cooper (1923–2007), who had been introduced to Burton and Taylor by Joseph Losey.

17
Hyral was Tom's second wife.

18
This story is not true: the name comes from the German words
pumpern
(to break wind) and
Nickel
(goblin).

19
Mary (1542–87), Queen of Scots (1542–67).

20
Nicholas Ray (1911–79), the director.

21
Cambridge University has no record of Barry Cooper winning a Blue for rowing.

22
This refers to the Crichton-Stuarts, Marquesses of Bute, whose family seat is Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute.

23
The term ‘non-U’ means not upper class. The distinction between ‘U’ and ‘non-U’ terminology and linguistic usage was popularised in the 1950s by the author Nancy Mitford (1904–73).

24
Roscoe Lee Browne (1925–2007) had appeared alongside Burton and Taylor in
The Comedians
.

25
P. G. Wodehouse,
Do Butlers Burgle Banks?
(1968).

26
Winston Churchill,
The World Crisis, 1911–1918
(1923).

27
Burton was to co-star with Rex Harrison in
Staircase
.

28
Richard Zanuck (1934–2012), son of Darryl F. Zanuck and President of Twentieth Century-Fox.

29
John C. Shepridge had been executive producer of
What's New Pussycat?

30
Rue du Vertbois.

31
Mia Fonssagrives (1942—), clothes designer on
What's New Pussycat?
and
The Only Game in Town
, partner of Vicky Tiel in the Paris boutique
Mia and Vicky
. George Davis: one of Taylor's secretaries.

32
Rocky Brynner (1946—), son of Yul Brynner.

33
George Stevens (1904–75), director of
The Only Game in Town
, who had also directed Taylor in
A Place in the Sun
and
Giant
.

34
European Cup Holders Celtic beat St Etienne 4–0 at Celtic Park, Glasgow, in the second leg of their first round tie, winning 4–2 on aggregate.

35
‘W.B.’ is Warren Beatty. Elizabeth is teasing her sometimes jealous husband.

36
Elliott Kastner (1930—) had produced
Where Eagles Dare
and would also produce
Villain, Absolution
, and the Taylor film
X, Y and Zee
.

37
Jim Benton, Burton's secretary, and partner of George Davis.

38
Pat Newcomb (1930—), press agent.

39
Justine
(Twentieth Century-Fox, 1969), directed by George Cukor (1899–1983).

40
The Man From Nowhere
was a screenplay that Joseph Losey was discussing with Burton at this time, but which fell through when Burton decided to act in
Where Eagles Dare
instead.

41
Jay Kanter, agent of Marlon Brando, who would produce the Burton film
Villain
and the Taylor film
X, Y and Zee
(1971).

42
Lew Wasserman (1913–2002), head of Universal Pictures. Ed Henry, senior executive at Universal Pictures.

43
Liz Smith (1923—).

44
Alexis Rosenberg, 2nd Baron de Redé (1922–2004), collector, socialite.

45
Marie-Hélène de Rothschild (1927–96), socialite and wife of Guy de Rothschild.

46
Maria Callas (1923–77), opera singer.

47
Paul-Emile Victor (1907–95), explorer, ethnologist.

48
Burton means Bora-Bora, in the Leeward Islands.

49
Florinda Bolkan (1937—), actor, had played alongside Burton in
Candy. Oggi
(Today) is an Italian magazine.

50
Burton is here referring to his published volumes
A Christmas Story
(1965) and
Meeting Mrs Jenkins
(1966).

51
Terry O'Neill (1938—), famed photographer of the 1960s.

52
Lester Piggott (1935—).

53
Bobby Charlton (1937—), of Manchester United and England. Billy Bremner (1942–97), of Leeds United and Scotland.

54
A reference to paintings owned by Burton and Taylor by Vincent Van Gogh (1853–90), Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Claude Monet (1840–1926), Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955), and Augustus John (1878–1961). The Monet was
Le Val de Falaise
. The Picasso was
La Famille de saltimbanques
.

55
A reference to the Wall Street stock market ‘crash’ of 1929.

56
Sheran Cazalet had married Simon Hornby on 15 June 1968.

57
Sir Jacob Epstein (1880–1959) had cast a bust of Churchill in 1946. Maurice de Vlaminck (1876–1958), painter.

58
Kevin McCarthy (1914–2010), actor. Hôtel La Voile d'Or, Avenue Jean Mermoz, Saint Jean Cap Ferrat.

59
Roderick Cameron, owner of Villa Fiorentina.

60
Lana Turner (1921–95), actor, at this time married to Robert P. Eaton. She had played alongside Burton in
The Rains of Ranchipur
.

61
George Hamilton (1939—), actor. Hamilton and Taylor would become companions in the 1980s.

62
Hal W. Polaire (1918–99), who had been assistant to the producer on
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Grant Tinker (1925—), producer and television executive, then married to Mary Tyler Moore (1936—).

63
Moore had played the part of Laura Petrie, wife of Rob Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke (1925—) in
The Dick Van Dyke Show
(1961–6) and the part of Miss Dorothy Brown in
Thoroughly Modern Millie
(1967).

64
Cameron sold the villa in 1969 to Mr and Mrs Harding Lawrence. ‘
Metteur-en-scene
’ –
scene setter
.Stanley Donen (1924—), was producer-director of
Staircase
. He and Taylor had been romantically involved in 1951, from the time that he had directed her in
Love is Better Than Ever
.