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For Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, there wasn’t sufficient cash in Hollywood to fulfill their lust for all times — and one another.
The couple, two of the largest stars of their day, traveled the world, and no expense was an excessive amount of for his or her lavish way of life.
“We will never have stars like them again,” Roger Lewis instructed Fox News Digital. “Their romance was so vulgar in so many ways, which makes it fascinating. It was a surreal fantasy.”
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s romance is one thing we are going to by no means witness in Hollywood once more, writer Roger Lewis says. (Bob PENN/Gamma-Rapho)
The writer has written a new book, “Erotic Vagrancy,” which explores the heated love affair that resulted in two marriages — and two divorces.
“They never settled down into domestic day-to-day harmony,” Lewis defined. “It was one huge combat after one other on a regular basis. I believe it’s as a result of they drank a lot in these days. We’re speaking in regards to the ‘60s and ‘70s. There were loads of vodka on the movie sets.
“And that surprised me — how undisciplined they could be. This was all facilitated by this huge entourage of lawyers, accountants, secretaries, makeup artists, wardrobe people, people to look after their children and people to look after their pets.
Elizabeth Taylor wears the Taylor-Burton diamond on a necklace at the 1970 Oscar Ball at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Frank Edwards)
“It was just an insane royal court that traveled around the world with mink coats and private airplanes,” Lewis shared. “This was all captured by paparazzi. It was a level of fame that I don’t assume exists at the moment. I view Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as French aristocrats who brought about the French Revolution. They have been that excessive.”
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had an affair whereas filming “Cleopatra.” (Getty Images)
Taylor and Burton famously started a tumultuous affair in Rome on the set of 1963’s “Cleopatra.” Taylor was married to husband No. 4, singer Eddie Fisher, who divorced her pal, Debbie Reynolds, following the demise of partner No. 3, Mike Todd. Burton was married to Welsh actress Sybil Williams, however his repute as a womanizer was well-known.
The romance between Taylor and Burton created a worldwide scandal. A member of Congress even launched a movement to ban them from the U.S., and the Vatican condemned the pair for “erotic vagrancy.”
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton “would sneak off for dirty weekends,” Roger Lewis alleged. (Getty Images)
“They would sneak off for dirty weekends,” Lewis defined. “They were in their reality of lust.
“And each time Burton thought, ‘I’ve received to get again to Sybil, that is getting ridiculous,’ Taylor would have an overdose,” Lewis alleged. “Meanwhile, Eddie Fisher was making an attempt to manage her, and she hated that. She didn’t need anybody telling her what she might or couldn’t do. … It was simply chaos.”
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Elizabeth Taylor sits in Eddie Fisher’s lap on the set of “Cleopatra” while Richard Burton looks on. Taylor would soon leave Fisher for Burton. (Getty Images)
Taylor and Burton left their spouses and said “I do” to each other in 1964.
No expense was too great for the pair to prove their devotion. Taylor gave Burton a Van Gogh, while he showered her with jewels. He gifted her the Krupp diamond, as well as a 25-carat, heart-shaped pendant of diamonds, rubies and emeralds originally made for the bride of the man who built the Taj Mahal, the Los Angeles Times reported.
According to the outlet, Burton also outbid shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis for a $1.1 million, 69-carat Cartier diamond ring.
Close-up view of a 69.2-carat Cartier diamond in a red case, which was sold at auction for $1,050,000 in 1969 and subsequently purchased by actor Richard Burton for his wife Elizabeth Taylor. (Hulton Archive)
“They had a complete community of bodyguards round them and limousines to switch them in every single place,” said Lewis. “Hotels would have the foyer cleared for them simply so they might go to their non-public suite. And they wouldn’t simply have a suite in a lodge.
“They would take over the entire floor of a hotel and have armed guards around them. As a consequence of their fame, real life vanished. Everything suddenly became a fantasy existence of money, private yachts, diamonds and spending sprees.”
Elizabeth Taylor exhibiting off one of many diamonds given to her by Richard Burton. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
Lewis stated the couple would journey with as much as 156 suitcases as a result of “Taylor never wore the same outfit twice.” They additionally had a workforce on the able to unpack their baggage. During a go to to the Hotel Lancaster in Paris, they booked 21 rooms for themselves.
Their pet canines would additionally journey with them to eating places and be fed from the menu. One of their luxurious yachts, the Kalizma, featured “an armory containing submachine guns.” Its furnishings and rugs have been changed each six months. Their canines even allegedly had their very own boat.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton have been recognized for his or her non-public yachts as they traveled with their entourage. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
On set, nobody was to greet the Burtons until they made the primary transfer, Lewis claimed. The directions have been printed and given to everybody. Taylor’s dressing room needed to be stuffed with “bushels of white roses and lily of the valley.” They wouldn’t work earlier than 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
“Richard’s old pals couldn’t reach him anymore because the phones were now monitored by assistants,” Lewis claimed. “Their mail was vetted by secretaries, and it was all just thrown away because there was so much of it. They didn’t even bother to open it. So many of his old mates were unable to reach him. And I think this made him very lonely. But these two people were cut off from the real world.”
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Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton traveled with their quite a few canines. None have been house-trained. (Bob Aylott/Keystone)
But one factor the couple surrounded themselves with have been canines, stated Lewis, evaluating it to Queen Elizabeth II’s love of corgis.
“Elizabeth Taylor loved animals because it gave her unconditional love,” stated Lewis. “They had all sorts of pets that would go with them to hotels and yachts. They even got this enormous yacht just for the dogs, which was like a floating kennel. None of them were house-trained. Elizabeth would simply say, ‘Just replace the carpets.’ If there was an awful mess, she would have the entire room redecorated with new carpet and things.”
The couple liked and fought onerous. Lewis stated Taylor gave Burton “the terrors,” which he documented in his diaries.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor liked and fought onerous. (Sunset Boulevard/Corbis by way of Getty Images)
“Their fights were physical,” Lewis stated. “They would bash each other. … I think they got bored and would poke at each other. There was also this competitiveness. But all the fighting would end up in the bedroom, which would get them energized all over again. This went on for years, all in front of their servants and paid retainers. It was a very extreme relationship.”
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton within the Sixties. (API/GAMMA/Gamma-Rapho)
“And Elizabeth stood her ground,” Lewis continued. “She never backed down. And I admire her for that. It’s very easy to be critical of these spoiled beasts, these movie stars. But there is something amazingly admirable about their energy and the way they deploy it.”
The relationship was doomed. Taylor’s dependancy to tablets and Burton’s alcoholism contributed to their divorce in 1974 after 10 years of marriage. Taylor quickly known as Burton and requested him, “Do you think we just made a terrible mistake?” They remarried the next 12 months and known as it quits for good lower than 12 months later.
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Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton tried to make the wedding work twice. (Angelo Deligio/Mondadori)
Lewis stated the pair remained the loves of one another’s lives. Taylor as soon as stated, “I was still madly in love with him until the day he died.”
Burton died immediately from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1984. He was 58.
“Elizabeth Taylor didn’t go to the funeral because she thought it would attract too much publicity and would be inappropriate,” stated Lewis. “But a few days later, at dawn, she went to the graveyard on her own to pray at his grave. She said, ‘That was the only time that Richard and I were ever alone.’ … It was only when he was in the grave, and she was with him at the graveyard, that they had privacy at long last.”
British-born Elizabeth Taylor sits on a couch kissing her fifth husband, Welsh actor Richard Burton, whereas he leans over her on their first wedding ceremony day. (Hulton Archive)
Taylor stored Burton’s final letter, which was written to her three days earlier than his demise, in her bedside drawer. It stayed there till she died in 2011 at age 79.
“Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor” by Roger Lewis is in bookstores. (Mobius)
“I truly believe there was absolute devotion there,” stated Lewis. “It was much more than a big love affair. Beyond question, they were the loves of each other’s lives. Even when you look at photos of them today … they devoured each other with their gazes. It was a pulverizing love that … became dangerous. But there’s no doubt that the love was there. It never left.”
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