How to Be a Movie Star (66 page)

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Cukor's idea had been:
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
file in Cukor Collection, AMPAS; see also Patrick McGilligan,
George Cukor: A Double Life
(HarperPerennial, 1991).

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the film's premiere at the Strand Theatre:
Hartford Courant,
July 1–31, 1957.

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a Renoir, a Pissarro, and a Monet: LAT, September 28, 1957.

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"Private Little Party": See various articles, invitations, program books, menus, and other memorabilia in the Mike Todd Collection, NYPL. Some specific newspaper accounts were:
Hartford Courant,
October 13, 17, 21, 1957 (Associated Press reports); NYT, October 13, 18, 1957;
Variety,
October 23, 1957. Also see Frumkes interview with Mike Todd Jr.

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invite 1,000 wonderful people: George Stevens received an invitation and (luckily for us) never sent back his reply, keeping the whole package in his files. GSC, AMPAS.

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"Dad [became] the unexpected": Frumkes interview.

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–7 she'd told Hubert Humphrey: Todd,
A Valuable Property.

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"make him president":
New York Post,
August 29, 1968.

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"Off! Off!": Todd,
A Valuable Property.

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"openly and boldly hijacked":
Variety,
October 23, 1957.

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"My God, the sight": ET,
Elizabeth Taylor.

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"All hell's breaking loose": Todd,
A Valuable Property.

208 "[Mike Todd] gave the public bread crumbs":
New York Daily News,
October 18, 1957.

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"New York fiddling":
New York Herald Tribune,
October 18, 1957.

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"It looked on the whole like a bad circus parade":
Hartford Courant,
October 21, 1957.

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"It was just to poke a little fun": Frumkes interview.

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In Moscow Elizabeth was: Various newspaper accounts, Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd files, NYPL, including NYT, January 26, 1958;
Hartford Courant,
January 16, 1958;
Daily Mirror,
January 28, 1958;
Daily Mail,
January 18, 1958.

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"the only place in the world":
Daily Mirror,
January 28, 1958.

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"People were staring at me": Todd,
A Valuable Property.

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"For some persons, the film star": NYT, January 26, 1958.

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"I would be a phony": Associated Press report; for example,
Hartford Courant,
November 11, 1957.

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"canceling the rest of their world tour": NYT, November 19, 1957.

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"Come on, Liz, get out.": LAT, November 27, 1957.

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"This will be her last time": Associated Press report; for example,
Hartford Courant,
December 23, 1957.

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"purely a vacation": LAT, November 27, 1957.

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"bring the people": Todd,
A Valuable Property.

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"association by Michael Todd": Memo from J. Edgar Hoover, Mike Todd FBI file, dated April 13, 1956.

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"no subversive info": Mike Todd FBI file, memo dated April 6, 1956.

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"expressed great admiration": Mike Todd FBI file, memo dated April 20, 1956.

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outside "artistic control": Department of State memorandum of conversation, April 3, 1956, Mike Todd FBI file.

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likening Khrushchev to a Hollywood movie magnate: NYT, February 3, 1958.

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–14 "best secret weapon": This is quoted in Dick Sheppard,
Elizabeth: The Life and Career of Elizabeth Taylor
(Warner Books, 1975), although no specific attribution is given.

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a summit meeting between East and West: NYT, January 28, 1958.

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"only had to utter":
Photoplay,
October 1958.

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,
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rehearsals for
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Richard Brooks papers, AMPAS.

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"dogged it": HCSBU.

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"Once the camera begins to roll": Heymann,
Liz.

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"Liz is blissfully happy":
Photoplay,
March 1958.

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–18 seeing a plane go down over the mountains: I have assembled this account by using various newspaper articles from the New Mexico area where the crash occurred, which offered considerably more details than the national press. The Associated Press compiled many of these reports for an article that was syndicated in some papers, such as the Abilene, Texas,
Reporter-News,
on March 23, 1958. I also used the detailed report of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, dated April 17, 1959, after it had concluded the investigation of the crash.

218 George Hight: This comes from the interview with Glenda Jensen,
www.in70mm.com
.

6. Protecting Interests

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"old harpy": Interview with Robert Shaw.

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"she would be hiding," "squeezing producers dry": Hopper,
The Whole Truth and Nothing But.

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"Good News":
Modern Screen,
[nd] 1958, Constance McCormick Collection of scrapbooks, USC.

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"a small figure":
Photoplay,
June 1958.

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"The goddess Todd had built":
Motion Picture,
March 1960.

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extravagantly crossed out: Richard Brooks Collection, AMPAS.

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"a lost lamb":
Photoplay,
June 1958.

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"beauty, talent and youth": LAT, September 1, 1958.

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"Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher":
New York Post,
August 29, 1958.

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The limited Los Angeles opening: Philip K. Scheuer described her performance: "Elizabeth Taylor, proud in her humility as Maggie, cat of the title, and surpassing all her previous portrayals." LAT, August 30, 1958.

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"The ready-made market":
Boxoffice,
August 18, 1958.

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"couldn't get enough": My description of Elizabeth's affair with Eddie Fisher comes from an interview with Fisher, as well as his memoir,
Been There, Done That.

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"Eddie Fisher says Debbie's home":
Hartford Courant,
September 9, 1958.

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EDDIE FISHER IS DATING:
Los Angeles Herald Express,
September 8, 1958.

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When the phone rang: She didn't mention it in her memoir, but in Hedda's column, dated September 13, 1958—two days
after
her explosive front-page interview with Elizabeth—she reported, rather innocuously, that she "couldn't have been more surprised when Liz Taylor phoned to say, 'I'm home.'" When Hedda replied she thought the star was heading for Europe, Elizabeth said she'd caught a cold in New York and was "homesick, so here I am." Columns were written a few days ahead of publication, so perhaps after this phone call, Hedda tried ringing Elizabeth back at Frings's house, and it was then that the heated conversation about Fisher took place. Or maybe both conversations were part of the same phone call, but Hedda intended to reveal the juicier parts of it in her next day's column—only to have the
Times
editors decide to turn it into a front-page story. But the most likely possibility is that the September 13 quote was
made up
—perhaps with Elizabeth's publicists' approval—once word was sent out that the star was returning to Los Angeles. If so, it wouldn't have been the first time one of Hedda's columns was written ahead of time using publicist-supplied anecdotes that hadn't yet occurred (or might never occur). Her remark on September 10 that
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
was doing better business in New York than even
Gone With the Wind
had one major problem:
Cat
had not yet opened in New York on September 10.

225 "Level with me": Hopper,
The Whole Truth.

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"Elizabeth lived by her own rule": Fisher,
Been There, Done That.

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"I don't go about breaking up": I have based my account of Elizabeth's conflict with Hopper on interviews with Eddie Fisher, Robert Shaw, and others, as well as Hopper's personal papers, held at AMPAS, and her memoir,
The Whole Truth and Nothing But.
The quotes from the published story come from LAT, September 11, 1958. This was also edited into various syndicated versions that appeared over the next few days in papers around the country.

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photographers rushed her plane:
Photoplay,
December 1958; LAT, September 10, 1958; various articles, Elizabeth Taylor microfiche, AMPAS, and file, NYPL.

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Mike's estate ... had been worth just $1 million: Will and probate file, Michael Todd, 1958, Surrogate Court, New York.

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Busman's Holiday:
NYT, June 19, 1958.

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"All I can say":
Cosmopolitan,
July 1973.

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"I guess it's in my genes":
Cosmopolitan,
September 1987.

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"the face of an angel": Fisher,
Been There, Done That.

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–32 "My father consoled Elizabeth": Interview with Craig Ferguson,
The Late Late Show,
CBS, April 11, 2006.

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"I sang to the ladies":
Wall Street Journal,
October 8, 1999.

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Born in South Philadelphia: I have based my description on an interview with Fisher, as well as his two memoirs, and the U.S. Census for Philadelphia. The family evidently moved around so much they were missed by census takers in 1930, but in 1920 the just-married Joseph Fisher was living with his wife's family, headed by parents Zelig and Ida Winokur, on Marshall Street. The neighborhood was almost entirely Jewish.

233 "Somewhere deep inside": Reynolds,
Debbie: My Life.

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–34 "Believe me": Fisher,
Been There, Done That.

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"You betrayed me!": The phone conversation between Elizabeth and Hedda comes from Hopper,
The Whole Truth.

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"Whoever invented Capri pants": Hopper,
The Whole Truth.

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"This will hurt you": LAT, September 11, 1958.

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"I must say": Hopper,
The Whole Truth.

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lima bean soup: Fisher,
Been There, Done That.

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"It doesn't look good": Sidney Skolsky's column,
New York Post,
September 9, 1958.

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"a great guy":
Motion Picture,
March 1960. It was reported that Debbie's call came on September 11—obviously
before
she had seen Hedda's piece.

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"Eddie left Debbie": Secondary quote, no primary attribution, used in Amburn,
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

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MGM "flacks" going in and out: LAT, September 10, 1958.

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visit a marriage counselor: Fisher,
Been There, Done That.
The LAT reported the "over the wall" anecdote on September 10, but gave the reason as Debbie being so distraught she needed to see a doctor.

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"We have never been happier": LAT, September 12, 1958.

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DEBBIE: I LOVE EDDIE:
New York Herald Tribune,
September 12, 1958.

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"untenable positions":
New York Morning Telegraph,
September 19, 1958.

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"He isn't coming home":
Los Angeles Examiner,
September 12, 1958.

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"wasn't quite the 'little darling'": HCSBU.

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"forget them": Reynolds,
My Story.